Steps while charging

[Cdarnell]

I set up my fitbit ionic last night. I left it on the charger all night and when i woke up this morning it shows 40,000 steps. It does not show specific hours so when i logged driving it did not delete the steps. How can i fix this. I also restarted the fitbit.

Moderator edit: edited title for clarity

[MarreFitbit]

I'm glad to hear that Verizon was able to replace your old Ionic. It's great to know you're back on track @Andrea_Davis!  Thanks for sharing the update!

In case you have some spare time, I would like to invite you to visit our Discussions board where you will find great tips and encouragement from other members and if there's anything else I can do for you, please keep me posted! 

[LovelyK]

I restarted my watch and it is still giving me crazy amounts of steps.   This is so annoying, because I am in weekly challenges and have to delete myself cause it is unfair.   I knew I should have waited longer before purchasing this watch.  

How do I make this stop?  

May I suggest, allowing a manual override, through the app.   The driving does not work, because I tried to reset my using that before.  

[MarreFitbit]

Hey there @LovelyK, thanks for stopping by! Sorry to hear this is happening to you. Have you checked what I suggested in this post?

Once you've done that, please try this step accuracy test:

1. Put your wrist-based tracker on your wrist or put your clip-on tracker on your hip or torso.
2. Walk 100 steps, making sure to count a step each time one of your feet hits the ground.
3. Pause, then check your tracker to see your step count.

In order to avoid your tracker to record so many extra steps while driving (in case you're), I can suggest you a few things: 

1. Manually log Driving activity for certain time period to negate all steps in that time, still leaving heart rate data and calories.

2. Attach anywhere else on torso or in pocket to avoid it tracks steps while driving. You'll always see calories burned. 

3. Try with DriveBit app which is super easy to use and you can set it to custom activity name. Just hit start when sitting, and then stop when your up and moving. It does everything else for you and subtracts the accumulated steps from your count after it's logged.

Also, another thing I do while I drive with my tracker is to plug it into the USB charger while I'm in the car. It pauses counting while charging and I never get a flat battery. I don't bother for short drives. But don't forget to put it back on after your car ride! 

Most of the users are requesting for an option/way to avoid erroneous steps during activities that don't include steps. To what I recommend up-voting and commenting on Add "Driving Mode" feature to avoid erroneous steps/floors feature suggestion since it is very similar of what you're looking and asking for.

Give this a go and let me know the outcome! 

[Clh0510]

I have restarted my ionic several times and still continue to have upwards of 15,000 steps each morning when I wake up. How else can this be resolved? 

[Harry222]

Call customer service.  Postings only confuse you more because they don't have solution.  This is a known problem (just check all the postings from the beginning).  And it's not solved, as suggested by this forum.  I had mine replaced twice and still have the same problem with phantom steps.

[PeteG-1]

I was having this issue too, and CS pointed me to an article, about how HR variability is important to be aware of???

I was consistently getting blocks (while wearing the watch, sleeping), of 225, 245, 415, and other lengths, of 15min/ea, from about 12-6 or 6:30, in the AM.

The odd thing was, it ALSO logged my sleep, during the same time I was doing all that walking (and apparently I was doing it without getting my HR over about 48 or so, hmm...).

With my other problems that I was having with the watch (HR was WAY off in the weeds, when I was riding).

I gave up, didn't even respond to the CS pointer to the article (I still don't get that one...), and got a cheap Garmin.

Solved all my issues pretty much, my HR is 2-3 beats-average off my ECG strap, when I'm wearing it to test, and my sleep has no more "sleepwalking".
Two weeks on, and I still miss the FB UI, and the easy sync via PC app/Bluetooth, but having things, almost ALL things, be actually accurate, far outweighs the part I miss, ultimately.

[GraceGFitbit]

Hi @Clh0510, @PeteG-1 and @Harry222 it's great to see you here. I hope you're doing great today!

Thanks a lot for all your efforts trying to fix this situation and for contacting support. To better help you I would like to ask you if you already take into account the remarks done in this post?  

If this situation persist I will gladly send your information to the customer support team for further assistance with this. 

I hope this can be helpful, please feel free to reply.

[Cfamily]

I ended up just contacting support and they replaced the ionic. All fixed and working fine at this point.

[PeteG-1]

@Cfamily Yep, I bet if they'd done that, it would've fixed both my problems, but FB support specifically said that "There was no reason to replace the unit, it was functioning fine", in several of their replies, both in tracking down the terrible HR accuracy, exercising, AND in response to the steps-while-sleeping issue.

I think they pasted in the boilerplate, about not replacing it, and probably do it in most replies now, which isn't very helpful, when they basically just "throw up their hands, and tell you they have no way to investigate/fix things", but yet have have no real explanation as to why things are SO FAR OFF, with the unit in-hand.

How in the world my unit was "functioning fine" is beyond me, but whatever, clearly they were just going to send me more emails, about how I might have "slight inaccuracies" with my watch, rather than actually solving anything.  

You're lucky, BTW, I wonder why they decided to fix your issue, appropriately, and bail on mine?  IMO, FB "escalated support" has really degraded.  When my Charge2 died, completely, after 7 months, they were all over it, but not so much, with the Ionic...

I'm VERY curious about @GraceGFitbit's response here, since it was prompted.

[GraceGFitbit]

Thank you very much for your response @Cfamily and @PeteG-1. Great news @Cfamily!

@PeteG-1, I just checked with our Customer Support team and confirmed that you have a case open with them. I advise you to reply them and continue the assistance. If you don't find the email you can check in your Spam emails.

Please let me know if you have any other questions. Have a nice weekend!   

[Malissa87]

I just bought the charge 3 and it did the same thing. I thought if I put it on the charger while I was driving then it wouldn't count steps. Called fitbit since when I put the edit in the log it still didnt take the 13k steps off my log. Starting to get very annoyed that they dont have a driving mode or charging mode so it won't count steps during this time

[GraceGFitbit]

Nice to see that you're digging into the Forums @Malissa87, let me give you a warm Welcome to our Community.

I confirmed that you have already an open case with support. The best in this case is to continue the assistance with them so I recommend to answer to their emails. 

Thanks for posting and I hope to see you chatting around enjoying the Forums!

[PonchoPete]

My Charge 4 just recorded 32,000 steps while charging, all at one time (6 a.m.) and over 30 kilometres logged, all while I was sleeping! Now when I do my usual 15,000-25,000 steps today, I will get record (false) numbers and all kinds of unwanted digital accolades I can’t erase. Also weird: only one unearned zone minute.

I have two issues: 1) why did it do this? 2) Why is this the best answer in this thread if it does not solve the problem? “Best answer” is not helpful, as the only suggestion is a restart. This looks like a rote answer from a moderator. Perhaps I have answered my own question. 🙂

This problem has obviously been happening for years. Nothing has been solved. I am still looking for a decent response.

One possible response here is that something near the charger is vibrating. That’s a good theory and something we should be aware of. However, my Fitbit charges in a drawer. Nothing vibrates anywhere near it.

[PonchoPete]

Update: I found a manual fix! I went to the exercise section in the app (where you log the type of exercise you’re doing. I clocked “driving for the time I got my excessive steps. It removed the steps! Excelente!

I found this answer in a how do I change # of steps thread. Perhaps a moderator should suggest that here and it could be listed as best answer.

[FirLadyBug]

No it does not