Ionic is tracking steps after midnight

[jay791]

I just experienced a bug in Ionic's software. I am a dev so here goes a bug report:

I was sitting at my desk watching a movie on a computer screen. Suddenly I get a haptic notification from Ionic, it congratulates me that I made 10k steps today. I look at it, get rid of the notification and it shows that time is 0:00, and my step count is 331667.

I was sitting on a chair, leaning to the left, elbow placed on the desk, hand laying on desk or propping my head, can't tell. Not really moving my arm, maybe to prop the head.

During the day I was not that active (rest day), I only visited the mall, so there was some walking. Dashboard shows that yesterday I made 5925 steps. Data seems to be okay - it reflects what I did as the day went on. Just before the midnight I went down to the kitchen and it's also well reflected on the dashboard. So it rules out that steps were accumulated as a result of vibration.

Wow, as I am finishing writing this post steps on dashboard show 0, and on the device itself it's back to 0.

You guys might want to check the code for what happens at midnight.

Cheers!

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[MarreFitbit]

Hey there @jay791, thanks for stopping by and for bringing this to my attention! Did you experience the same today? If so, I'd recommend restarting your Fitbit Ionic by following these directions. 

I'd like to add that Fitbit devices have a finely tuned algorithm for step counting. The algorithm is designed to look for intensity and motion patterns that are most indicative of people walking and running.  When working at a desk, cooking, or doing other arm movements, a device on your wrist can pick up some extra steps if it thinks you're walking. Many of these situations—such as working or cooking—do include a few steps in-between stationary periods so the device tries to give you credit for those steps. For the vast majority of customers, the amount of stray steps accumulated is negligible when compared to the entire day. For a more technical explanation, see How does my Fitbit device count steps?

Your device has been tested against driving, buses, trains, and other public transportation and should not give you extra steps when you’re traveling under normal conditions. On bumpy roads or in a car with a stiff transmission you may get extra steps. Though a few extra steps won't affect your trends, it's possible to log a driving activity and remove the steps from your account totals.

For wrist-based devices, it's important to specify whether you wear the device on your dominant or non-dominant wrist:

• The dominant wrist setting decreases the sensitivity of step counting and should reduce any over counting of steps when your body is not moving.
• The non-dominant wrist setting increases the sensitivity of step counting and should reduce any under counting of steps. Non-dominant is the default.

To change your settings, in the Fitbit app go to Account tab and choose your device at the top of the screen.

If you feel that your step count and distance are inaccurate, first make sure the wrist placement settings are correct. Next, double check that you entered your height correctly. Since we use height to estimate your walking and running stride lengths, you may want to measure and manually adjust these values if your legs are longer or shorter than average.

Sometimes, when you start walking you may notice that your steps may not update on your device right away. After about 10-15 continuous steps, you'll notice the steps catch up and start updating in real-time with each step you take.

Hope this helps, I'll be around so keep me posted! 

[jay791]

Hi Marre,

No, it's not an everyday issue. It happened two or three times, this time I was able to get some useful data (ie what I was doing at the time).

I really do not fancy your generic copy-paste answer, it makes me feel you did not fully read my message. I am not complaining about some additional steps counted. I'm letting you know that somehow I made 300k+ steps precisely at midnight. Seems like a software bug.

Anyway, I am aware that you need some algos to interpret raw tracker data. But it seems that the problem is not with interpretation of the data, but with the state change around midnight.

Do you want me to provide any specific information/data when this issue resurfaces?