Ionic not counting steps correctly

[ChaydaBlack]

I have the ionic, and i'm having issues with it not accurately counting my steps. I can count my steps myself and look at my watch and its not even moving. then next thing i know I go from 100 steps to 109 steps and i know I have walked more than that. I had the blaze and the steps are accurate. I have rebooted the Ionic as of today to see if there is a difference. Has anyone else had this issue?

[flgranny4]

No, I've learned to live with the wrong step count because I love the features of the IONIC. I sure wish the step count was correct!

[atlantis4569]

Wow! Mine is way off too!! WHY hasn't Fitbit fixed this issue yet?!!!????? Sometimes my counter just freezes and totally forgets about the 50 to 100 steps I took! So irritating!!! Why even have an Ionic if it doesn't do what I bought it for, and if Fitbit hasn't even fixed the issue when it was brought up over 3 months ago???

[Ltlohanb]

Not yet ☹

[TeacherSarah]

 I'm having the same issues. As a teacher, I on my feet all day, and with the old Fitbit and then the Fitbit HR, teaching was 4000 for a sedentary day or 6000+ if I made an effort.  Now, with the Ionic, allegedly I only get 1800 steps all day when I'm on my feet???!!!!  And Costco used to be 2000 steps by the time I parked far away and wandered around the store in every aisle.  Now the Ionic says 400 steps...which seriously should be parking lot steps.  It counts the same when I go for an "exercise walk" but otherwise counts not even half of my activity.  Fitbit support says it's the new algorithm.   $400 for an algorithm that is obviously not correct based on other responses.

[flgranny4]

My ionic died after an upgrade and was replaced - the new ionic is a little better but the steps are still off. I am going to run another test using my new ionic and my Garmin on the same wrist for a couple of days. When I ran this test with my old ionic the steps were almost half of the Garmin. Fitbit must fix this issue or they are going to lose sales.

[Princhessa]

Last night, shortly after midnight... I set up my old Charge 2 with my work email, and put it on the same arm, just above my Ionic.  To start, the Ionic had about 40ish steps already on it, the Charge 2 was at zero.

Right now, the Charge 2 is showing 4,451, the Ionic only 3,680.  I watched the progress all day, as I had a more active day than usual at work and was not tied to my desk 99% of the time as usual.

I mentioned this to co-workers when it was already a few hundred steps short on the Ionic.  At that point, I wasn't sure if the Charge 2 was recording some extra steps from arm movement or if it was the Ionic short-changing me.  After reading this thread, I think I know the answer.

Yup, a shame for sure!

[TeacherSarah]

A moderator did reply on Twitter and wanted specific dates and times to look at my particular Fitbit so I will try to find a good example day.  I'm on spring break right now, so I'm not a set schedule, but Saturday I plan on cleaning house and I want to see if that counts very many steps.  Obviously, the problem is widespread. 

[JTodd406]

I tested my Ionic today against my older Alta. The test consisted of me wearing both on the same wrist all day (put them both on before bed last night). When the Alta hit 10,000 steps, the Ionic was only at 9,259 (a difference of 741). When I hit 10,006 on the Ionic, the Alta was at 10,763 (a difference of 757). These are not insignificant results. Any idea how to force Fitbit to correct this or refund, at least a part of, the money spent on a device that is over 750 steps off over the course of a day?

[brandyelf]

My mother and I both have Ionics. After doing the same circuit at the same time, the owner says we should have about 2,000 steps. My mother had 1500, I had 600. Pretty sucky for a $300+ device. Still no fix for this, I see.

[flgranny4]

I sure hope fitbit support is listening to these complaints and how we ran the tests to prove the step counts are inaccurate! When you spend $300 for tracking steps then you should get accurate numbers.

I get motivated by seeing the numbers - when I walk for hours and only get less than half the steps counted, then I wonder if I paid $300 for a fancy looking watch.

[byankster]

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@flgranny4wrote:

I sure hope fitbit support is listening to these complaints and how we ran the tests to prove the step counts are inaccurate! When you spend $300 for tracking steps then you should get accurate numbers.

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I'm sure Fitbit support is aware of the issue . . . are they listening or not is the question.  The technology is there since other Fitbit trackers are working correctly (when it comes to step counting).  

[brandyelf]

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@byanksterwrote:

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@flgranny4wrote:

I sure hope fitbit support is listening to these complaints and how we ran the tests to prove the step counts are inaccurate! When you spend $300 for tracking steps then you should get accurate numbers.

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I'm sure Fitbit support is aware of the issue . . . are they listening or not is the question.  The technology is there since other Fitbit trackers are working correctly (when it comes to step counting).  

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I'm not so sure about that. I ditched a Charge 2 because it wasn't counting correctly either. I thought if I upgraded I'd get better results, but now all I have are two expensive watches!

[natemaher]

Chalk me up as another user with an Ionic that is under counting steps significantly.  I've done some rough experimenting and at least for my device it seems that the problem is with short bursts of steps.  On long walks/runs/workouts the results are decent (not perfect, but acceptable) but getting up and taking 10-20 steps to grab something rarely registers.  Two examples that where I've consistently seen this:

1. Getting up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.  It's only about 20 steps to the bathroom and generally speaking I get up to use it once during the night, after midnight, and therefor should start the day with these steps accounted for.  I've seen everything from zero steps recorded to single digits.

2. Cooking in the kitchen.  Moving around the kitchen while cooking rarely registers steps.  This morning I was putting kids' lunches together and checked my step count before and after several minutes of movement.  The Ionic caught 10 of approximately 100 steps.

Both of these conditions are in direct contrast to the results that I used to get with my Charge 2 HR and like others, I'm pretty frustrated by it.  I have done a few measured walks of 1,000 steps or so and the Ionic does ok at tracking those but it really seems that it's missing a lot of the small stuff.

[kentc]

My Ionic isn't counting steps smoothly like my Blaze did. I notice it when I walk to get my +250 steps per hour. The count goes up in increments of 40 to 70 (not step by step). For example I'll start walking at 40 steps and and after walking for 30 seconds the Ionic will still be at 40 steps. Then after more walking it will make a big jump to say 85. Basically there is big lag between steps taken and when they are recorded.

With the Blaze, it would count every step in real time.  

I realize the Ionic has a different OS than the Blaze. I hope Fitbit can recreate its accurate and timely step counting functionality on the Ionic which was the core value proposition of their older products. 

[MissMMM]

I just got the ionic for Mother's Day and am having the same problem.  Not accurately counting my steps.  I have a surge and a charge hr.  I think I'm going to try wearing both tomorrow and see how they compare.

[Jess_B]

I've had this issue with my Ionic since I got it for Christmas. On the weekends when I'm at home, I rarely hit my step goal anymore, and I used to all the time with my Charge 2. I can be on my feet all day cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, running errands and walking around the house and I'll end up with about 1/3 to 1/2 of the steps I would normally get with my Charge 2. I regularly "restart" my Ionic and it doesn't seem to fix anything. I've worn both my Charge 2 and my Ionic on several occasions and have had discrepancies in the number of steps at the end of the day (1000+ steps) every time. 

[spelbound]

I'm having the opposite problem to most on here. Mine is counting steps wayyyy too high. I just sat on my bed and tied my shoe laces and it managed to count 38 steps lol. I've come from having a Charge 2 and I didn't have this problem. 

Tweeted support and if they don't provide a solution I'll have to go with a different brand.

[Christina1102]

I agree completely I just got the Ionic and as property manager it is not counting steps correctly. I loved my Blaze it worked great. This an expensive watch. I'm Surprised so many complaints and they have done nothing to fix the problem. 

[Atinaj]

I had same issue. I went to settings on the ionic. Scroll down and click About. Scroll down and click Shutdown. Press button on left to turn back on. It worked!!!

[TeacherSarah]

I will try that!