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?

[Sweetrini]

My tracker, under counts. Ive tried resetting, restarting,  unsyncing and resyncing, plus other suggestions received and it didn't work. Right now my fitbit 2 has over 2500+ steps registered,  and my ionic has 1700. It's very discouraging  

[natemaher]

I've checked the article that you linked and my Ionic certainly isn't over-counting or grabbing extra steps.  As I've mentioned for the last several months it is significantly UNDER COUNTING steps.  I've tried all the recommended resets, resyncs, remove/add nonsense and none of it makes a difference.  My Charge 2 was more accurate and half the price and that is what is most frustrating of all.  

[Sweetrini]

I agree 100% 

janelle hackett
have a blessed day

[SantiR]

@TeacherSarah @Sweetrini @natemaher I hope you're doing well! Thanks for trying all of the steps provided in order to sort this out. Thanks for sharing all of those details and results after doing this.

I went ahead and contacted customer support in your behalf to get further assistance. Please keep an eye on your email inbox for next steps.

Hope this helps. Keep me posted!

[Christina1102]

I’m definitely going to be looking Garmin. I buy a new Fitbit everyday year. And I will not be purchasing another. A year and it still does not work. And everything they tell you to do does not help. Ugh so frustrating 

I tried the steps and nothing is helping.

Moderator Edit: Merged User's Posts

[Sweetrini]

Thank you. 

janelle hackett
have a blessed day

[SantiR]

@Christina1102 Welcome to the Fitbit forums! Thanks for reporting this situation and for trying the steps provided in order to sort this out. 

I went ahead and contacted customer support in your behalf. Please keep an eye on your email inbox for next steps.

@Sweetrini Thanks for your reply. You are very welcome! I hope you get the help needed to get back on track.

Keep me posted! 

[Craigenator]

Same issue here my wife has an Ionic that significantly under counts steps. Have tested wearing my Charge 2 and her ionic. The ionic consistently get about half the steps as the Charge 2. Have tried all the recendations to fix and nothing works. I wish Fitbit took this feedback serious, have seen a serious decline in their customer service since the start. Have been a Fitbit user for nearly 10 years and will be looking at other options now. Disappointed to say the least.

[natemaher]

I was contacted by Fitbit support, which unfortunately in the end just wasted a bunch of time and caused more frustration.  I performed all the recommended checks, resets, adjustments, etc, and then documented via measured 100 step walks (as requested by the team) that my Ionic under counts by 10-15%, on average,  Not once on any of the seven measured walks that I performed was the Ionic within 10% of the actual number of steps.  After providing all of the information requested the Support Team's recommendation was to suggest that I read an article on how to position my tracker properly on my wrist, which was one of the first things we'd verified when we started the conversation.  That's some stellar customer service right there.  So in the end the only thing that they confirmed is that this will be my last fitbit and as soon as it's financially viable, it'll go in the bin and be replaced with something that works.

[TeacherSarah]

Thank you so much for sending a replacement.  Merry Christmas!  Hopefully, the replacement will solve all my issues. 

[JimOverturf]

My Ionic Fitbit is as much as 45% lower than my old Charge Fitbit and a pedometer I wear. In reading the threads, I see mention of arm swing, predominant arm, etc. My question would also involve whether arm swing is the major method of determining steps. I walk with a walker, and I don't swing my arms, My old Charge fitbit measured the steps pretty nearly the same as the pedometer I clip to my pants pocket. Is arm swing a major issue in this?

[ActiveAndry]

I upgraded a month ago to an Adidas Ionic from a Charge 2 and my step count is now almost non-existent. I’m on my feet literally all day (12+ hours) actively moving and, as others have reported, the device registers ‘exercise’ walking well but thinks I’m a couch potato otherwise. I can literally walk kilometres inside or outside the house doing heavy labour or when at work, and I now get a step count around 3,000 compared to being well over 10,000 and even 20,000 before while doing the same work. I actually walk around and now count my steps, sometimes even stomping to test the device, and yet the number count doesn’t move. I had noticed the Charge 2 would add steps if I really moved my arms a lot, but this decreased sensitivity is now way too much of a swing in the opposite direction.  I really love having my new smartwatch and was a Fitbit fan, but it seems to have so many problems that I’m starting to become very disappointed.  

[SantiR]

Hello everyone! Thanks for your participation on this thread regarding Ionic not counting steps correctly. 

The first thing you should try if you are experiencing this is performing a restart on your watch. This should refresh the inner components of your watch and should help you out.

You should also measure and adjust your stride length and check the dominant hand settings: 

• 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.

As a last step to try, you could factory reset your watch. Please try this if you have done all of the above with no positive results.

If non of this help; please let me know so I can contact customer support in your behalf for you to get further assistance. 

Keep me posted! 

[MichaelEW]

I bought an Ionic on Friday.  Returned it on Saturday.  I have an Alta HR that I have had for over a year and have to wear on my right arm (I am right-handed) and set to my dominant hand for it to be accurate, but it is very accurate.  The Ionic was extremely inaccurate.  Wearing on my left wrist set to non-dominant, it registered 756 steps out of 1,000 steps I counted.  On my right arm it counted 958 steps.  My purpose for getting the Ionic was to be able to wear it on my left arm because I do not like anything on my right arm.  It took me a while and a lot of trial and error to get the Alta HR to be accurate, but I don't think a $250 tracker should have to be manipulated in so many ways just to get it to be somewhat accurate.  The Ionic also only tracked half of my floors.  I did a lot of testing with it over the short period I had it, but nothing worked, and then I got on here to find out the issues others were having too. 

Interestingly, I bought my wife a new Versa for Christmas.  She had been using a Blaze for a long time. Whenever we went on a walk together, approximately 5,000 steps, she would always be about 800 fewer steps than me for the exact same walk.  She is 5 inches shorter than me, so she should have registered more.  I have played with every option/fix/test etc. too.  She always wore the Blaze on her left arm. She started wearing her Versa on her left arm.  I had her test it by counting her steps and then moving it to her right arm and testing again. She was short by 40% using her left arm and almost right on with her right. The higher priced Fitbits, at least to me, just aren't accurate out of the box. 

Again, for the price of these Fitbits, they should just work without so much work.  I have had many Fitbits since we started wearing them in 2014, but if I am going to spend money for GPS etc., I think it will be on something else unless the issues can be resolved. Just my 2 cents. 

[Jason_Patel]

Hi Santi,

I'm getting the situation you mentioned earlier. Has been fine for 9 months, but since this morning has been continuously counting steps while stationary!

I've tried countless restarts, a factory reset and logging time as driving all to no avail.

Jason

[xdptoddx]

I’ve tried the steps listed and it hasn’t worked. I’ve only had this for a week, and it was an upgrade over the charge hr. I’m pretty bummed as I opted for the ionic over a suunto or Garmin. 

Do i I need to return this?

[SunsetRunner]

@xdptoddx just my 2 cents on Suunto ( I never used Garmin ). From my experience, these are great devices but when it comes to step counting then very slight motion of arm adds steps easily. My Spartan Sport is way too sensitive and there is no way to change it. For me, steps counting isn't important at all and Suunto has plenty of more important features to offer ( like pairing with additional sensors, custom sports, lot more stats, durability, route and POI navigation and more ) but if someone sees steps as important criteria then I would think twice before buy as these toys are not cheap :). If I was into steps I think Ionic does that slightly better as it's less likely to recognize noise as steps ( but then maybe it is more likely to miss steps ). Maybe Garmin devices do it better.

[natemaher]

My 2c, if counting steps is what matters to you then yes, if you can't get accurate results absolutely return it.  My experience with the device has only gotten more frustrating.  The charging cable failed about a month ago and just this last week the strap fell apart.  Fitbit did honor the warranty in both cases and I truly appreciate that, but this device is only ~8mo old and this doesn't point to a long, trouble-free life once the warranty does expire.  

[Sweetrini]

Unfortunately that may be the best idea. My Ionic still isn't working properly. I've tried everything suggested but it still doesn't work well. 😞
janelle hackett
have a blessed day

[SunsetRunner]

I've tried all of these things, and the Ionic consistently undercounts. I've even compared it with a Fitbit One, only to watch the One lose or get it's steps recalculated when compared with the Ionic. Is there simply something fundamentally broken about the Ionic? It seems like all of the other Fitbit watches or bands do not seem to be having these difficulties. Is there any way to disable the step counting (but keep the heart rate monitoring) on the Ionic so I could pair it with the vastly more accurate One?