My Fitbit One gets more steps than my Charge 4

[HaroldCharns]

My Fitbit One gets more steps than my Charge 4, why? How do I get them to agree other than synching?  My stride is the same for both.

[JohnnyRow]

1. Is the Charge One on a clip?  On hip?  Or both on wrists?
2. Are you wearing both at same time?  If so, same, or different arms?  Connected to different accounts?
3. You don't give any idea how much different the steps count is.  Is it 1 or 2 steps per day, or thousands?
4. Stride length has no bearing on step count; only for converting steps to distance.
5. Are all your steps actually recorded, or do you manually log any?

[Williger]

@JohnnyRow thanks for writing what I was muddling in my mind (internally was frustrated I'd have to ask this member around a half a dozen questions to try and interpret theirs). Hopefully, they'll share more details with you. 

[HaroldCharns]

My Charge 4 is on my left arm.  My One is in my pocket.  I have both at the same time.

Right now, my One says 1,646 steps and my Charge 4 says 1,655 steps, which is highly unsual since my One is almost always higher.

The step count on my One is generally correct, I don't log anything.

Does that answer your questions?

[JohnnyRow]

Although they are both attempting to count steps, among other things, neither can actually measure steps directly.  Any tracker on your wrist infers steps from detecting swinging of your arms, as in normal walking.  But there are plenty of arm motions that do not involve taking steps.  Fitbit tries to filter these out, but obviously cannot always tell the difference.  On the other hand, there are plenty of steps that do not involve arm movement, such as walking on treadmill holding hand rails.  You could probably get a more accurate step count with a device on the ankle if step count was your only concern and didn't want to see the time, or any stats.  But then, what about sitting in a chair, swinging your legs without actually taking steps?

In your pocket, instead of arm motion, it is probably measuring leg swing, rotation of the hips, or any full body motion, including some not involving steps, for instance hula hoop'ing.  That probably gives a more accurate step count for people whose only concern is step count, and for people who still think of a Fitbit as a pedometer and think technical advances must be making step count more accurate.  But in your pocket, of course it is more difficult to actually see the stats, and you lose out on any chance of heart rate tracking.  So calorie counting can only be based on step count, which would be, at best, a very rough estimate.

But back to your original question, why are they not the same.  Have you brushed your teeth today? Combed your hair? Washed your hands? - All involving movements of the fitbit on your wrist but probably not the one in your pocket.  And fitbit is not perfect at telling which of these motions are steps and which are not.

[HaroldCharns]

When I synched tonight, my one had 7,315 steps and my Charge 4 had 5,309 steps.  After synching, they both showed the higher number.

[JohnnyRow]

You didn't answer if they are connected to different accounts.  It sounds like you have them both on the same account.  If so, then yes, after syncing, they will both show the same because on the Fitbit database, data is stored by Fitbit ID/email.  If you have 2 trackers on the same account, Fitbit has to reconcile them.  The following link explains how it does that.

Read about using 2 trackers on the same account here:

Can I use more than one Fitbit device with the same account?  including "Can I wear more than one Fitbit device at the same time?"

As explained in that link, when having 2 devices on same account, that is intended for wearing only one at a time, say one for work and one for play, and then Fitbit brings the totals into agreement.

[HaroldCharns]

Anther Fitbit One question: sometimes my One is dead, pressing the button does nothing.  Then it will show "Steps" and "Fitbit" buy no steps number.  Is my One dying?

[majorv88]

Mine does that sometimes, too. I just put it on the charger and it’s fine after that. Sometimes it needs a charge and sometimes it doesn’t. Kind of weird but it works.

[majorv88]

@JohnnyRow 

I have both an Alta HR on my wrist and a One clipped at my waist. I found that I get a more accurate step count using both. When I’m walking thru a grocery store, or anyplace I’m pushing a shopping cart, my Alta doesn’t do a good job recording steps since I’m holding onto the cart, but my One knows I’m walking. For step count (and climbing floors) I think the One is better, but I like the Alta HR for the exercise, sleep, and heart rate features.

[Williger]

@HaroldCharns sometimes dead and then turns on when button pressed and shows zero steps? Yes, it sounds like your One is dying and likely unrepairable, as that's not a basic battery issue but a circuitry one. RIP.

You still didn't answer @JohnnyRow's questions which were spot-on with explaining; different motions of our body will trigger different Fitbits to log as steps, so it's impossible for different trackers to track exactly the same. Wrist trackers are programmed to detect wrist motion and determine the type of activity. Playing musical instruments logs as steps. The technology just isn't advanced enough to determine every different activity we might be using, but they continue improving it constantly. Vacuuming my home sometimes shows as an elliptical machine, so I wouldn't consider it accurate in that regard but it did log activity and time, that's what counts in my book. One woman in a challenge I'm in overshared she removes her tracker when going to the washroom as didn't like Fitbit logging when she pulled up her pants, which is a bit extreme, but we've all got different tracking goals. 

[Williger]

@majorv88 you use both trackers simultaneously on one account? I've done this accidentally before, or rather my cat knocked my One around when I was wearing my Ionic and Fitbit took the 30 or so cat steps over the 3000+ I'd earned, so I'd be very careful using two trackers at the same time on one account, as the way Fitbit has it optimized, is to only wear one at a time (though I'd once read from someone else in this group doing it as you do). Now, off to figure out how to set up an account for my cat, LOL meow.

[Rich_Laue]

If you have both connected to the same account, and wearing both at once, fitbit compares the data from the two, for each minute to try and figure how many steps where taken. 

If you want to compare the two units, you will need to put each tracker on to their own accounts. 

Then I would keep a spreadsheet of the daily totals. After a week I bet the steps between the two units are closer then any single day. Then after a month they will be closer than any single week. 

I did this for a 6 month period. For 3 months I had the Charge and Charge HR on the right arm, the Surge on my left arm, the Ultra on one hip and the One on the other hip. usually no two trackers agreed on step counts for a single day, but for weeks they where fairly close and for a couple of months, few within 100 steps over the 30 days. 

It is easier to sync the trackers through the computer. Turn on the mode that will sync any tracker it may find. 

My Linux PC would often sync my two neighbors units.