Charge 3 Distance Tracking

[-Hayleigh-]

Hell everyone, 

I just recently got my charge 3 about 5 days ago. I have it all set up and I thought it was doing everything properly. However, my distance tracking and mapping is not working properly. I walk on a road way that I know for sure is 3.2 miles. About two days after I set my charge 3 up it was saying that I was only walking 2.4 miles when I would walk that road way. After those two days I walked again and it did track the distance correctly and it said it was 3.2 miles. Then these past two days it is back to saying I only am walking 2.4 miles. Additionally, when I have been tracking these walks, I start by hitting the exercise screen on my charge 3. I do not start my walk through my phone. All of the days in the past my charge 3 has been mapping my walks however, today it did not and I am unsure why it did that. So I’m hoping to get the answers as to why my Fitbit is not tracking the proper distance or mapping my walk properly either. I did contact a support agent and she said that the distance is calculated by my stride. I do not understand how my stride can change the true mileage of a walk though. 

[JohnnyRow]

I probably cannot answer all your issues but I think I can clarify some things.

If you are using connected-GPS, linking Fitbit to your phone's GPS, then you should get a map, and the distance is taken from the GPS.

If you are not using connected-GPS, then distance is calculated as number of steps times stride length.

One possibility that could explain your situation would be if the time(s) you got correct distance and a map, then you were using connected-GPS.

And the times your distance came up short, then you were not connected to GPS, and your stride length is set by default as too short by a factor of (2.4/3.2).

Here are some Help sections that explain this more:

How does my Fitbit device calculate distance traveled? 

and Can I change my stride length in my Fitbit account? 

[-Hayleigh-]

Thank you, I will look into that more!