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?

[Davem10]

I’ve been having a few issues with my step counts as well. I managed to add 50 sitting down just by stroking the cat the other day! I changed my hand setting to dominant, even though I’m not wearing the tracker on my dominant arm, just to lessen the sensitivity. It seems to be working more accurately now, but is still hit and miss inside the house. Testing outside, walking normally it’s accurate to within 2-3. Still adds 0-5 whilst asleep, and around the house misses a few but I’d say it’s as accurate as a wrist tracker can’t be.

[crockdaddy]

This happens somewhat often. It will count literally thousands of steps sitting still in an environment with no vibration. I am on my second Ionic with a similar issue. An extra 2 to 20K steps counted. Counts a large number of steps during my bike rides as well. I have another support ticket open and have paid attention to mitigation strategies (keep it away from vibrating surface (fan) etc. So far it's a bit frustrating. I prefer the fitbit ecosystem but if the device cannot or will not perform one of its core functions competently then what is the point. My concern is I will have my device replaced again and will experience the same issue. 

[Nancyleona]

I did 30 minutes on the treadmill today and got credit for 10 steps!  Also I have noticed my steps have dropped significantly for the day.  Never had a problem with my Charge 2.  Tried changing my stride length but it didn't help.  I don't swing my arms much on the treadmill but I am super clumsy and have to hang on.  Very disappointed in something that cost this much.

[PastorCraig]

My Ionic is under reporting steps by at least 10% all the time.

[PatiencePie]

This is really frustrating.  I just walked 80 steps ... and my new Ionic watch didn't budge for about 60 seconds... and THEN  it counted a grand total of 22 steps!   That's 58 STEPS MISSED.

So basically I have to walk over 30,000 steps a day to get credit for 10,000 steps. The funny thing is that yesterday I was walking down the center of a local town, and the watch was counting every single step, right on time -- boom, boom, boom.  For about 30 minutes, it worked perfectly.  I just re-started the watch so will see if that helps.

[Laptopluxury]

Yes I have had this issue since I bought this watch. It does not track accurately and customer service is very poor. They do not assist nor do the back their products. I won't be buying another fit bit, not from a company that won't replace a defective product.

[Laptopluxury]

They won't replace a product they have replaced. They say there us no warranty on the replacement item. Time to look at other trackers as fit bit sells defective products they won't provide support or warranties for

[Ericws]

My Ionic is incredible- love it.  I think it seems so dead-on accurate it is amazing.

[MD2017]

Nope, I got the run around. I had to do this, that, this, try this, try that, on and on for a few weeks. Plus, my battery drained when GPS was on so had to do so much with that for them. Wouldn't replace it. Then, it started burning my wrist where the heart rate was. They refunded my money immediately, not another question asked. I'm finally rid of it and so happy with my Garmin!



Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

[Laptopluxury]

I'm looking at a Garmin too as fit bit customer service won't do anything for me regarding the ionic. I've spent over $1000 on their products and I'm very very disappointed in their service and the quality and accuracy of their products

[crockdaddy]

I've had two broken Ionics. My third seems to work correctly. The prior two
would count thousands of steps while sitting on the table. So far so good
for the third device.

[imeson79]

Carefull LaptopLuxury, if you post something that's true, and fitbit feel it's going to damage their reputation and prevent people from buying their products when clearly there is so many issues, they will deem you post inflammatory and delete it..  Case in point..

Unfortunately, I have had to remove your post quoted below as it violated our Community Guidelines as inflammatory.

I love my Fitbit Ionic.This new update is exactly what i needed. 

To have over a 1000 Steps allocated via Driving-  Check

Inaccurate GPS Measurements - Check

Heart Rate issues that don't match up with Chest Strap - Check

Sync issues that dont sync to my phone - Check.... Saves Battery

Not being distracted by text messages and notificatins- Check. 

Steps allocated for drying myself off with a towel...-Double Check.

more allocateion of steps for Keyboard typing..- Check i only wish my Gear S3 Frontier, would be able to do all that and more.. sadly it doesnt allocate steps for driving, or allocate steps for Keyboard typing.

I'm glad all this is happening, i am getting fitter every minute with all the mad stepping i'm apparently doing...

Generally speaking, when a post is inflammatory, it isn't adding much to the thread outside of hostility 

Please keep this in mind to prevent further violations in the future.

Thank you for your time and cooperation.

[robiml]

My experience is that it only tracks when the arm wearing the watch is moving.  I hit 10000 steps SITTING at a concert because I was applauding and waving my arms around!

[Ericws]

Other watches do that exact thing too, from what I have read and been told.  I have read about some Garmins not picking up steps when you are walking without moving your arms (holding the handle on a shopping cart, for example).  You picked an unusual instance, where you are waving your arms around and clapping.  Of course the watch would not know your exact movement. No watch would- it is a machine, not a person, and can not really discern what you are doing.  It may have also picked up a raised heart rate, as the dancing might raise one's heart rate, too.  

[Rich.K]

I'm pretty sure that someone has already pointed out that the watch works with a built in accelerometer, hence it uses arm movement as a way of measuring how many steps you take. I would imagine that you would need to have a foot pod if you were that desperate to accurately measure steps. I can walk to the kids school pushing the buggy and not get any steps as I'm not swinging my arm with the watch on.

To be honest I like my Ionic. Prefer it to my now dead Garmin Vivoactive HR, even though it doesn't seem to support as many sports and can't pair to external bike sensors (not the ones I have anyway!

At the end of the day it is what it is for the price. If I wanted better features and overall performance and had twice the money in my back pocket, id have got a Garmin Fenix 5!

[Jackie2x2]

Actually, I love my Ionic watch too. It’s been working fine since my
original post. Thanks for your reply.

[mammabear-thiry]

So you are saying that "Stride length is rarely, if ever correct" so then my question is, why is that what Fitbit support is focusing on it since I have contacted them about my Ionic not calculating my miles walked correctly.  I walked nearly 5000 steps the other day and my Ionic calculated that I walked half a mile.  I know from using my flex and counting my steps  while walking (seeing tenth of a mile markers - steps between and taking times 10 to get steps per mile) that I walk approximately 2,236 steps/mile.  Needless to say the Ionic calculating that I walked only half a mile is totally wrong but the person I have been in contact with is totally focusing on my stride length.  She has also looked at my Ionics records the other day and told me that "After checking our system, we were able to validate that your Ionic is working as expected and that today, you did a short walk that was not recorded for the SmartTrack feature due it was less than 15 minutes and this walk didn't use the GPS from your Ionic."  I did have 2 walks on the treadmill and each of them were 15 minutes with a 5 minute cooldown totaling 20 minutes so I don't understand how the Ionic would have calculated the one at less than 15 minutes.  I am about ready to return my Ionic and get my money back as I am not happy with the way it tracks my miles walked and I'm getting very frustrated with the support.  They keep coming up with excuses and more things for me to do and check out to "find the root cause of the issue".  I am very disappointed with the Ionic and right now if someone were to ask me about the Ionic I would tell them to avoid buying one at all costs.

[Rich.K]

Bare in mind I'm new to the Fitbit and have used garmin 's previously. I haven't bothered looking into stride length at all, but assuming that the stride length and steps are counted accurately then in theory distance = steps x stride length. Personally I don't think it's possible to expect a wrist based step counter to be overly accurate for a load of reasons. For starters, if you're pushing a buggy/ trolley then you don't move your hand to count steps, possibly also you don't move your arm as much on a treadmill as walking in real life. Would be interesting to see how a run/ walk compared for distance based on a gps track verses steps and stride calculation. Also might be worth thinking about what terrain and slope you walk on. For example, walking uphill would use more steps as you take smaller strides, which in turn would increase the distance the watch records (non gps). Hope that makes sense! Personally I don't worry too much about the steps/ stride issue as as long as it's doing the same thing each time it's measuring my own performance. Ok if you're competing against other people it may be a pain but for me it's fine. If I need accuracy I use gps, which seems pretty accurate! Again if it doesn't work for you then maybe try a different tracker!

[Ericws]

Ionic GPS has been flawless for me.

[msibayan]

I'm going to test this with mine. Thanks.