Auto Pause during pool fitness classes

[FitGirl96B]

I just recently received an Ionic for Christmas. I really love doing pool fitness classes at my gym, but find that the Ionic is auto pausing during the session and I'm losing 20+ minutes of activity. I've tried tightening the band an extra notch to make sure it stays in place, but that hasn't made a difference. I've been using the general "Workout" setting to record the activity since none of the other settings I had on my watch made sense (I mean, I'm not swimming laps). I just noticed there is a "Circuit Training" setting that I've now added, but haven't tried yet. At times I will notice the watch buzz and when I look at it it's asking if I want to end the activity. Other times (depending upon the exercise we're doing) I don't notice right away that it's been on that screen and I've lost a chunk of my workout because it was paused. Any info as to what I need to do to accurately track the entire 60 minute session?

[PeteG-1]

I think you're accidentally "touching" the screen, and triggering the pause function, and from there it's a couple of more accidental "touches" to stop it entirely (seems likely for that kind of activity).

I've done this a couple of times myself, pushing back a jacket while out riding, and a glove or finger brushes the "pause button", on the screen.

There's a feature request for locking the screen, I've voted for it:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Lock-tracker-while-exercising/idi-p/2167497

[FitGirl96B]

It wasn't a matter of me touching the screen.  While doing a class I paid careful attention and my opposite hand never came in contact with the watch during any of the movements.  Believe it or not, I think it was how the water was hitting the screen.  Came to this conclusion due to the following:

-I set the "Screen Wake" setting to manual.

-I went into exercises, selected the "Circuit Training" setting and started the exercise at the beginning of the class.

-Approximately 30 minutes into the 60 minute class I clicked the left button, checked the activity stats and noticed it had been tracking that entire session up to that point.  I tried hitting the back button again to get it back to the black normal "locked" screen, but it wouldn't do it.  I realized I just had to wait for the watch to"time out" or "re-lock" itself.  

-Before it "re-locked" itself/went back to the black screen (meaning the display was off and I would have to hit a button to wake it up) I moved my arm through the water (I never touched the screen with my other hand) and noticed that the screen then asked if I wanted to end the exercise.  I proceeded to hit cancel and continue the class.

-In subsequent classes I've learned I have to switch "screen wake" to manual, start the activity and then just leave the watch the hell alone throughout the entire class.  As long as I do that, it will track my activity through the entire 60 minute class without timing out.  This is frustrating because then I can't see where my heart rate is without risking it pausing itself because of the way the water hits the screen.

How people can use this watch to track swimming without this happening I don't know unless the computer coding for the sensors is different and the screen becomes less sensitive to the water hitting it.  It was frustrating and seems counter-intuitive that the consumer should have to find a work around for problems like this. 

P.S. I did vote for the lock feature.

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@PeteG-1 wrote:

I think you're accidentally "touching" the screen, and triggering the pause function, and from there it's a couple of more accidental "touches" to stop it entirely (seems likely for that kind of activity).

I've done this a couple of times myself, pushing back a jacket while out riding, and a glove or finger brushes the "pause button", on the screen.

There's a feature request for locking the screen, I've voted for it:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Lock-tracker-while-exercising/idi-p/2167497

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[Gondwana]

I get this problem often too, when swimming laps. I wonder whether the water is sufficient to trigger the touchscreen sometimes. It's not as though I swim quickly!

I wonder whether the touchscreen should be disabled when the activity is set to swimming.