Charge 2: Not tracking Active Minutes

[celyneadell]

My Charge 2 stopped tracking my active minutes 3 days ago.   I've rebooted and it's still not tracking my minutes.  What do I need to do to fix this issue?   

[RicardoFitbit]

Hello @celyneadell thanks for bringing this to my attention, I'm happy to help you today and to give you a warm welcome to our Community Forums.

Let me share with you that your Fitbit tracker recognizes and awards active minutes when the activity you're doing is more strenuous than regular walking, which includes everything from a brisk walk to a cardio workout or run. All Fitbit trackers calculate active minutes using metabolic equivalents (METs). METs help measure the energy expenditure of various activities. Because they do so in a comparable way among persons of different weights, METs are widely used as indicators for exercise intensity. For example, a MET of 1 indicates a body at rest.

Fitbit trackers estimate your MET value in any given minute by calculating the intensity of your activity. You earn active minutes for activities at or above about 3 METs. However, if an activity gives you active minutes one day and fewer active minutes the next day, remember that the intensity of exercise is key.

Remember also that, by default, the recommended amount of active minutes is from 20 to 30 minutes of daily moderate to intense activity. Something else that I would like to add is that, trackers with heart-rate sensing such as your Charge 2 do a better job of recognizing active minutes for non-step-based activities, such as weight lifting, strenuous yoga, and rowing. 

I hope this can help you out to clarify how to earn active minutes. Now if you still having more questions, let me know. 

[Heather5]

I too have had issues recently with the tracker not recording active minutes. I have been a long time user of charge 2 and have never seen this problem. I am also super active. My 5.5 hour bike ride (avg speed 21km/h) registered as 0 active  minutes after syncing .... something’s up! 5.5 HOURS registering at 0... this was not a leisurely little stroll 

[Widewildste]

Same problem here; since tuesday the Fitbit stopped registrering active minutes....

It was working properly before.

Is it broken?

[Widewildste]

Wow... suddenly it registers! I Should have sent a reply sooner! 😉

[celyneadell]

That’s awesome! Glad it’s working again for you!
I’m going to try again this morning .. and will call customer support if it’s not.

Keeping my fingers crossed! :).



Sent from my iPhone

[Widewildste]

Good luck! 🍀🏃‍:female_sign:

[Wallys65]

I have been having the same issue it worked fine, stopped for a week, worked for another week and now after the completion of another  successful week it's stopped, so far I'm averaging 72 continual active minutes, yet it's not tracking and days active. 

[cararams]

I just got zero active minutes after a 2 mile run.

So I just did 30 minutes on the punching bag and stairs with heart rate over 130 the entire time. Still no active minutes.

I know what active minutes means  but if it won't track me at 130 bpm heart rate then it is simply wrong.

Between the disaster of the PC web app and now this, I'm starting to think I need to look at another vendor entirely.

[Luccho]

Same issue here. one hour fast walk recorded nothing on my phone. however, the minutes are shown on the actual wrist band. just not showing on the phone after doing all the usual clean up restart things.

[cararams]

I finally got it to register and now it appears to have recorded my run and my speed walk time too.

What I did:

1. Killed Fitbit App on my Android phone.
2. Turned phone completely OFF. Not just dark screen, but full shutdown.
3. Killed Fitbit App on iPad.
4. Restarted Charge 2 twice
5. Restarted Fitbit App on iPad.
6. Synced and active minutes finally showed up.

I am starting to wonder if Fitbit is not properly budgeting for the backend servers we all use. The problem is that we really have no other choices without stooping to re-entering all our data manually.

I am definitely looking at other vendors for my next fitness tracker or sports watch. Fitbit's financials have been an issue on Wall Street for some time and I fear they are cutting corners internally leaving us with less and less functional servers.

[Luccho]

thanks for the answer. on my side, it's finally back on. it's tracking
again. I have no idea why it stops. I also had problem with the Aria 2
scale today. it lost my wifi for a couple of hours. it's now back.
I would tend to agree Fitbit has problems with their servers.

thing is, i quite like the wrist band format, I dont want a second watch.
not sure where to shop, apple watch is not as good and not for me...

thanks for the reply though.

[Lorimackie]

Interesting ... I couldn't figure out why my active minutes go from a zero some days to 80 or more doing the same activities another day.  It's pretty annoying especially when I specifically bought this watch so that I could track my progress to wellness.  I had an accident 13 years ago which led me down a pathway of several surgeries and then discovering I had hashimoto's disease (thyroid stopped working) and adrenals almost entirely shut down.  So nowadays I take my dog hunting every day between 5 to 7 miles a day through paddocks  up and down hills and I am in peak cardio mode according to my watch.  However when I sync my phone, it always tells a different story.   I'll be interested to know if there is a better vendor out there for me to continue my journey back to health.  

[VeryBadDoggies]

I understand the METs but I have been doing the very same exercises and same brisk walking which I have received active minute credits for in the past but about three weeks ago I started getting reduced credits and now it is to the point that I am getting no credit for active minutes.  I have cleaned the back of my Charge 2 thinking that the sensors were dirty but no that is not the case, so, not sure why all of a sudden the same routine that gave me credit in the past is now viewed as not sufficient. 

[Widewildste]

Hi,
Have you tried to reset the Fitbit?
It worked for me.
You’ll have to hold the button for a moment when it is in the charger if I remember correctly.
Good luck!


Groetjes,
Willeke

[HarleyQuinn90]

Did you experience the issue of when you would go to your calendar it would be on the correct day & month but your birth year is the calendar year? I had to uninstall & reinstall the app on my phone & their customer service isn’t much help. 😃 

[SMLisa]

My exercises have 37 cardio minutes in one exercise and 22 minutes in Fat Burn in another, yet the activity for the day shows 0.  I have logged out, signed back in and synched and nothing.  It shows the exercise, but still no activity minutes for the day.

[VeryBadDoggies]

I had a similar problem and found that if I clean the contacts on the bottom of my Fitbit with rubbing alcohol it appears to work again. The sensors on the bottom can get fouled up and do not read your pulse properly. That seemed to be the issues and even thought I take a bath daily I don’t bathe with the bank on and just wiping it down does not clean it sufficiently. So use the rubbing alcohol and see how that does. Let me know if this helps.