Ionic not tracking swim correctly

[rdykiel]

I swim in a 25yd pool. My routine is 6 series of 300 yds (1800yds total). Each serie is 100yds backstroke, 100yds breast, 100yds crawl. By my count it's 12 pool lengths per series, total 72 lengths. At the end of each length I do a flip turn.

I swam a couple times with the ionic; I started the "swim" exercise (didn't rely on auto-detect) and I have the pool length correctly set up. I notice that the ionic undercounts the lengths as well as the total distance. Did anyone else experience the same and is there a workaround.

For instance this morning, I paused after each 2 series (24 lengths) to check the length and resumed. The final totals reported by the ionic were only 1350yds (expected 1800) and I don't recall the number of lengths but it was also under the expected 72.

[mlindgren]

I only went swimming with the Ionic once, but it actually overcounted lengths for me. I'm a pretty bad swimmer, though, so my flopping around probably confused it.

[SunsetRunner]

I have to agree with some of the comments. The miss calculation is close enough, that I happy not to count anymore.

However, the valuable swim data afterward (which is great) goes no where and vanishes once you hit done. I would love to track that daily, monthly ect.

[rdykiel]

I opened a support case and did more precise investigations; my conclusions are that the ionic has 2 bugs tracking swimming:

#1: when the exercise covers a change of strokes, the transitions to and from the breaststroke are ignored and the breaststroke length + distance are not counted

#2: each time you pause the exercise you lose the last 25 yds (but not the last length count). That's for a 25yd pool. I'm assuming for other pool lengths you'd lose the pool length

For instance: for a swim exercise of 300yds: 100yds backstroke, 100yds breaststroke, 100yds freestyle (crawl): Once you pause the exercise, ionic shows only 175yds for 8 lengths, instead of 300yds and 12 lengths.

For a swim exercise of 600yds: 100yds backstroke, 100yds breaststroke, 100yds freestyle (crawl), 100yds backstroke, 100yds breaststroke, 100yds freestyle (crawl): Once you pause the exercise, ionic shows only 375yds for 16 lengths, instead of 600yds and 24 lengths.

If you used the swim exercise mode (instead of auto-detect), the fitbit app on the phone clearly shows it missed the breaststroke transitions, number of pool lengths and distance.

I have given this diagnosis to the first-level support and I am supposed to be recontacted by an advanced support person. I hope they can fix those bugs otherwise I may return the product.

[Gman68]

It's absolutely useless as a swim watch I've tried every way tumble turns no tumble turns and it's the same grossly incorrect,  I got this watch to replace my surge and my garmin swim but it's not up to the job I did 2 kilometer and hours ago 80 length and it only content 49, my Garmin swim misses the odd length normaly when I've had to change stroke suddenly but not to this extent 21 lengths out is a waist of my time that's not a bug fix that's a complete failure 

[rdykiel]

it now tracks somewhat better now. I'm tightening the band one notch when swimming. This morning it accurately tracked 1,800 yds / 72 lengths but the accuracy is variable.

[Gman68]

Don't you think that they need to come out and say something about this
like assure us this will be sorted, I'm losing serious confidence in
fitbit, and tweeting around with the wrist strap is not good enough when
you pay so much money for a smart watch

[rdykiel]

Yes I opened a support case, had a couple on online chats providing
detailed results and was told someone from "advanced support" would contact
me directly. Never happened.

Meanwhile the swim tracking feature improved for me once I took the habit
of tightening the band when swimming, and also perhaps pushing harder on
the wall in turning: it "only" loses a couple lengths (except after
firmware upgrade where it was appalling) and once recently tracked
correctly. It may be some kind of "learning" your exercise in which it will
improve over time.

I like many of the other features of the watch so I decided to keep it. But
this lack of reliable swim tracking was a letdown nonetheless.

Moderator edit: personal info removed

[PremekK]

First swim with Ionic today. I just made 40 lengths at the 25m pool and it counted only 17 of them. Just the breaststroke with no flip turn and all in one go. Next time I will try to hit the wall harder, but the difference is huge.

[rdykiel]

I'm wondering if there is a "learning process" somewhere in the software
because the watch is now more accurate tracking my swims, although not
consistently so. This morning I swam 1,200yds and the watch counted 1,225,
mayube because I did a flip turn on my last pool length.

Moderator edit: personal info removed

[SunsetRunner]

I now have more accurate swiming counts, by lowering the alert to 100yd (I swim in yd pool not meter). since then, my total count has been accurate.

Funning thing about the missing 25yds you had, my is just a delay. so dont be quick to pause or finish. the 25 yds catches up about 10 yards later or about 10 seconds later.

[Gman68]

I'm afraid there is absolutely no consistency at all with the ionic for swimming, I did try tightening the strap and I did get an accurate reading so I thought it solved the problem, but since then I've been 20 times and wore my garmin swim watch which is incredibly accurate on my other hand and the difference is embarrassing, on one occasion I did a 5 kilometer swim which my garmin read spot on and my ionic only counted 2.1 kilometer,the closest it been is 600 

[CktheDj]

I see to be always a lap behind after 20. I think its, when I push off the wall, I dolphin kick about 20 feet and my hands don't move so it doesn't count that distance. 

[New_Jen]

An earlier post mentioned changing to yards on the watch itself, not the PC app. I have tried changing the setting to yards from meters on my PC app and it keeps reverting to meters. Where do you set this on the watch itself? I don't see any exercise settings on the watch. Thanks!

[rdykiel]

Go to your swim exercise
tap the gear icon appearing on the upper left corner to access the exercise
setup
the first line is to setup up the pool length, tap on it
the distance show up e.g. "25m" in your case the "m" is highlighted but you
should see '"yd" in light gray below
tap on the "yd" it highlights yellow and the "m" becomes light gray
Go back to the setup screen and pool length should now be "25yd"

[Gman68]

No its nothing like that it's missing by nearly 2 kilometer when I do 5k

[New_Jen]

Thank you, rdykiel. I had tried tapping on the gear previously but it didn't appear to do anything; however, when I left my finger on it for a second I was able to change to yards.

Do you know, if the watch is now set to yards, will the data be in yards for my swims as well, going forward? (The two swims I did previously are now showing meters converted to yards....meaning the total is 50 lengths in meters and then converted to yards. I am hoping that is just because my watch was set to meters for those swims.)

I am still not able to get the Fitbit settings on the app on my computer to change from meters to yards. I'm hoping it will post totals in the correct yards going forward and not be confused by the app showing  "meters" and the watch set to"yards."

Thank you again for your help! 

[rdykiel]

I believe once set to yds it will track in yds. I don't know about
reporting past exercises.
Good luck.

[Gman68]

I don't want the lengths set in yards I have them set correctly at 25
meters but it does not track accurately, today it wasn't too bad but still
was a 100 meter short of what I did which was a mile 1600m I normaly do 3
mile so do the math even on a good day it's 300 m short that's a lot

[Sammons68]

I’m having the same issue. I swam 50 lengths and it only counted 46. This happened twice in the last two weeks.

[Superlegend1000]

For me it is the total opposite my iconic is counting more number of lapses than I physically swim