ionic tracking grossly inaccurate

[Laptopluxury]

Watched my ionic and realized it doesn't count more than half of my steps, so to test it I also wired my trusty surge. Not sure if my ionic is simply dysfunctional but it counts approximately 40% of the steps that I take. As a fitness tracker that was heavily promoted one would think it tracks fitness accurately but mine does not. I do 4500 steps minimum on the treadmill in 45 mins, however the ionic claims I did less than 1800. Walking my dogs 1500 steps, the ionic says 625. I have tracked these for 2 years through my surge and expected some variation but this is unexplainable. For a device I paid almost $500 for I am very disappointed. Perhaps mine is simply faulty. Has anyone else had this problem or should I say lesson learned and look at other android trackers as the workmanship is simply not up to par on this device?

[Snowcrash]

I used my Blaze on a treadmill, and calibrated my stride accordingly.

I finally got my Ionic onto the treadmill today, with no new calibration it was dead on accurate using just the stride length I’d set from my Blaze.

[Laptopluxury]

Perhaps mine is faulty in some way as it doesn't accurately count even steps I take in my home.

[WavyDavey]

Hi @Laptopluxury,

I find the Ionic to be pretty accurate step-wise.

Did you do the sensor calibration when setting up the Ionic?

Try taking exactly 100 steps, and see what you get for that. If the count is still off, I would contact  Fitbit Support.

[Laptopluxury]

Yes I did and sadly it seems either my fit it isnot functioning correctly or its inherent to the product. My surge is a dream, I'm very unhappy and disappointed with this product.

[WavyDavey]

It's your choice, but I would get a replacement. There are so few reports of step issues with the Ionic, that it seems there may be issues with your particular one instead of the model itself.

[Laptopluxury]

Fitbit's customer service is somewhat lacking. I was just on Facebook and there are hundreds of complaints of fault products and people unable to get a resolution from fitbits customer service, so although I have reached out to them I am not sure that they will be willing to assist.

It's a shame because my 2+ yr old surge is an incredible product.

[shipo]

@Laptopluxury, tracking steps when walking or running on a treadmill is notoriously inaccurate, and has been for generations of wrist based trackers, including the Surge.

[Laptopluxury]

I considered that also so I went for a walk and counted steps and it's still way off. It misses every week there step

[shipo]

@Laptopluxury, do you walk with your hands in your pockets or do you push a baby carriage?

[Laptopluxury]

When I walk and not run its at a pace of about 3.5 miles and hour and my arms are I'm the same position as if I am jogging.

[Malpeg]

I have a regular walk I take every morning. The step count for my Ionic is the same as it was for my Flex 2.

[EnglishKev]

Yea mine is the same, 

I did my normal walk and this time took my charge 2 as well as the iconic, the walk is about 11 kilometers

The charge 2 recorded 13,916 steps and 10.8 kilometers

The Iconic recorded 11,938 steps and 8.8 kilometers

So there is a significant difference between them.

I spoke to support and they asked to do the same thing walk for 100 steps and see what it records and sometimes its spot on then I would do it again and it would only record 80 steps so for now i'm going back to my charge 2.

[EnglishKev]

Do you have your stride set to auto? as that's what I had mine set to and others on this community are saying that the auto run and bike don't work on the iconic so I turned the auto stride off and entered my stride in manually and it's now working properly so may be try that? 

[shipo]

@EnglishKev, I believe the issue here is step count not stride length.

[EnglishKev]

how is the algorithm going to calculate your steps if it doesn't have the right stride data going to it, I think when set to auto it doesn't get the right data but when entered manually it seems to work like mine now does. 

[shipo]

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@EnglishKev wrote:

how is the algorithm going to calculate your steps if it doesn't have the right stride data going to it, I think when set to auto it doesn't get the right data but when entered manually it seems to work like mine now does. 

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Two points:

• Steps are counted based upon an accelerometer in the tracker, it has nothing to do with stride length, that said, If the step count is incorrect, nothing else will be even close
• Stride length is rarely, if ever correct; fact of life, it varies based upon many variables including, but not limited to, the temperature, the surface, the terrain, the wind, how much sleep you've had, and how much energy you have.

[bbarrera]

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@EnglishKev wrote:
how is the algorithm going to calculate your steps

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Steps are counted. Not calculated. 

Miles (non-gps) are calculated using the simple formula "steps x stride"

To be more precise, steps are estimated based on motion. On wrist based trackers you can move your arm and it will count some steps. Because the tracker is moving. Has nothing to do with stride.

[Paul201065]

Not sure if mine is counting steps correctly.mine seems way lower than i was getting on my surge or garmin 235.but did the 100 step test and it seemed fine.so not sure what the problem is.

[MisterPopo]

Same problem here. I walked for well over 3 hours today, and my Ionic only registered around 5000 steps. With that same duration and pace, my old Surge would've easily recorded over 10000 steps. A few weeks ago, I walked for over 6 hours, and my Ionic registered a bit over 10000 steps. There's definitely something wrong. I'm going to try to get a replacement, and I'll report back if the problem persists (or is resolved).