Floor counting

[CaptainZed]

Yesterday my One happily tracked 274 floors. Today on a much longer hike it only counted 109. Per my gpx track I had a height gain on 5700 feet (3100 yesterday ) so why so few floors?

[WendyB]

You must go up at least 10 ft in elevation with out stopping to register a floor.

Was it a harder hike and you stopped some?

[CaptainZed]

Hi Wendy
I'm sure I stopped a few times, but generally I completed each climb in one go (there were numerous ups and downs). I could have missed the odd floor, but still would have expected to record over 500 for 5700 feet of climbing.

[CaptainZed]

To update the next day the figure recorded looked reasonable but today it was about 150 less than I expected. Lost total faith in this part of the tracker.

[NaomiE]

The floor counting is really temperamental. It is affected by things like wind and uneven gait, so during a hike there may have been a number of factors that threw off the altimeter, assuming there was air movement on the trail and that it was a an uneven hiking/cross country trail, not a flat, paved path. When I had a stress fracture to my calcaneus (heel bone) and was limping, my tracker refused to count any floors at all. (You can imagine the delight of folks with permanent mobility impairments- sometimes even normal steps don't get counted because of uneven gait, but this is not information made clear by Fitbit's marketing department.) Sorry- I know it's frustrating to be anticipating the visual confirmation of your tough activities and then seeing an inaccurate total!

[SneakyPearse]

Just wanted to say you make an excellent point; I noticed this problem when I had achilles tendonitis recently. It counted zero floors climbed while I was recovering, and I was thinking "This would really suck for someone with permanent mobility problems."

[CaptainZed]

When I am hiking my climbing could range from a slightly uphill path to a hands on scramble. Also the gait from a steep path will be different from my normal walk (although perhaps more like walking up a staircase ). May explain the missing floors although still disappointing.

[SolangeE]

Hey guys! @NaomiE, @SneakyPearse, @CaptainZed! Thanks so much for sharing your experiences, it is true that factors such as wind, altitude and uneven gait might interfere with the floor counting. Our engineers tried to design the tracker as accurate as possible, but there are always some areas of opportunity, so this is why we try to improve the products based on your feedback. 

If the inaccuracy is too much, you can try to restart your tracker and give it another try!

Let me know! :}

[DeirdreL]

I find that it doesn't track well when I am scrambling (especially hands on) but does better when the elevation gain is from more typical walking. It doesn't like when your arms aren't moving the way it expects and it misses regular stairs if I am carrying something. I think scrambling confuses it because of how arm/leg movement isn't what it expects. I agree, very frustrating when my floor count is well below what I have earned.

[SolangeE]

Hey you, @DeirdreL! It is nice to see you around. The tracker is design to record your information based on the natural arms swing that you do as you walk or run, when you do another strong movement like scrambling, it may start to recognize some as steps. If you are holding on to something while walking it may miss some steps too. 

Thank you so much for sharing your experience, I  hope to see you around here more often, make sure to check out our cool Discussion boards and share some more with us!