Ionic not counting steps accurately

[azmtobey27]

I received the New Ionic for Christmas. I wanted it because it is waterproof because I love to paddle board. I am not happy with the product. It is not accurately counting my steps. Before I got ionic I had the Charge 2 and I often exceeded the 10,000 step goal. Now with Ionic I do not reach it most days. Also it doesn’t count my bike rides as steps the way my charge and charge 2 did. Also the apps won’t sync most of the time. I would like to be able to track my water intake and that will not work. I have tried multiple apps and restarted my Fitbit. I am upset that I spend so much money for a down grade in product. 

[NellyG]

I cant answer all your questions, but if the charge and charge 2 gave you steps when you rode a bike (as do my Alta HR and flex 2 by the way) it is those trackers that are not doing their job. A bike ride is a non step activity. The 'steps' you get are the result of bumps in the road - it is not the tracker converting you ride to a step count. The Ionic is a higher performing tracker and it is advanced enough to NOT add those thousands of extra steps.

I would suggest you do a step test on your Ionic, and on your charges if you still have them. Do 100 steps (you count them) and see what each of the trackers say. My Ionic does count slightly under the 100 (98 or 99) but is my most accurate tracker. 

[Karajade92]

I have just emailed Fitbit with the same complaint! My charge hr was fantastic! Now I’ve paid a stupid amount for the ionic it NEVER exceeds 10000 steps and NEVER counts the amount of time I’ve been up the stairs. And as a mother of 3 children.. I use the stairs a lot! 

I used to exceed the 10000 steps everyday I haven’t done this since January. And apparently I go up 1 set of stairs a day. I’m waiting for my reply but it could take 2 days. I’ve also changed the wrist of my watch but it hasn’t changed anything. 

[Amanda52877]

I'm curious on your reply from them as I wrote with the same. Just doing basic housework would get me around 2,000 steps a day, and then at night I would walk 2 hours which would give me my 10,000 extra. Now per my ionic I walk TOTAL 500 steps or less a day. 3 trips to my car and back or the condo mailboxes etc are 500 feet total. Mine hasn't worked since I got it

[SantiR]

@azmtobey27 Welcome to the Fitbit Community! Thanks for sharing your experience with Ionic so far. 

There are a couple of things you can do to make it more accurate:

• Measure and Adjust your Stride Length
• Check Dominant Hand Setting

You can also perform a restart on Ionic. That could help you out too. 

Bike rides shouldn't be tracking steps. How are you tracking that activity? 

Also, how are you logging your water intake? Please check this helpful article for details on how to log your water.

If you have difficulties while syncing Ionic, I'd recommend following these syncing troubleshooting steps to sort it out.

@NellyG Thanks for your awesome help! 

@Amanda52877 @Karajade92 It's great to see you in the Fitbit forums! Thanks for contacting customer support. Did you got any response? Please share your experience with support on this thread. 

Keep me posted! 

[Beamish]

This is a first for me. Today while my Ionic was charging it somehow gave me a total of over 15,000 steps. I really have about 5,000 -- tops. The additional steps don't show on the dashboard or activity page where or when. How do I get the right number of steps and how do I keep from having this happen again?

[SantiR]

@Beamish I hope you're doing well! Thanks for reporting this strange situation while charging Ionic.

By any chance, was there a fan or anything that may have been buzzing or vibrating on the same surface that Ionic was placed on while charging? If there was, please try placing Ionic on a different surface without any vibrations. Let me know if this persists.

Also, please try the restart steps shown on the accepted solution of this thread, which is about the same topic. This has helped other users in the past.

Keep me posted! 

[Beamish]

No fan, it just happened

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

[SantiR]

@Beamish Thanks for your reply and for providing that information. 

Are you still experiencing the same? 

If you are, please try the tips I left above. I think that could help out!

Keep me posted! 

[mrmarbury]

Wrist tracking of steps or pulse is never accurate. You often move your hand in a way that is registered as a step, even though it is not a step. There are ways to calibrate a device or change some settings so that the detection is less error prone but in the end it will never be as accurate as a hip tracker or your smartphone in a pocket.

And for the heart rate it is the same. Dark arm hair, tattoos, air gap between your watch and your skin, position on your arm, maybe even skin color to some extent and your reading might be off by a little or waaay to much.

If the Charge counted your bike rides as steps then it just lied to you and you never exceeded 10k steps with your Charge. If my watch would track a bike ride as steps I would get suspicious. Because that would mean that I could reach a couple 100 steps from typing this text on my keyboard alone. Like when I wake up I often have around 70 steps on my watch already even though I didn't even walk during the night (yes, I am quite sure here 😉 ) but did turn around alot.

Lets say there are around 2k steps in a mile (approx 1.6km). That means that you'd have to walk 5 miles (approx 8km) to reach 10k steps...just to get a feeling here.

You can set an Android phone to record all your walks automatically (maybe an iPhone, too?). In the evening you can see how many miles/km you have been walking. Just multiply this by the avg steps in a mile/1.6km (2000) and you get a feel for how many steps you have taken. For example on Sunday I took a 11km walk (approx 6.8 miles). This makes 13.6k steps on avg. Ionic showed 16k steps for the day. And I think this is still pretty accurate because of some walking around the house and such that I did before the walk. So I would say the Ionic is pretty accurate for a wrist tracker. 

[CWEck]

Just got the Ionic yesterday. Seeing the same results as the postings I’m reading. Phone shows over 2,000 steps on Stepz app and only 208 on the Ionic. Going to reboot to see if it helps. If no resolve I’ll be returning it. I certainly wanted it to work ok. I gave my daughter my Apple watch and purchased this.

[CWEck]

Just got the Ionic yesterday. Seeing the same results as the postings I’m reading. Phone shows over 2,000 steps on Stepz app and only 208 on the Ionic. Going to reboot to see if it helps. If no resolve I’ll be returning it. I certainly wanted it to work ok. I gave my daughter my Apple watch and purchased this.