Charge 3 counting steps while cycling

[kmaus]

Hi all,

I am new to Fitbit as I bought my Charge 3 this week and still figuring things out. However, I noticed that my Charge 3 continues to count steps while cycling. Is there a way to stop this?

I want my Fitbit to only count my real steps, as I commuting 5 times a week 20km to my work. For the past 3 days, I am over 15,000 steps on a daily basis, which I don't think is accurate.

Many thanks for your help!

Moderator edit: subject for clarity

[AdrianoFonseca]

I tested not today and even when you select sport/bike the Fitbit Charge 3 is still counting steps when you hit some bump. That is something easy to fix I suppose. 

[AdrianoFonseca]

I experienced exactly the same even having the most updated firmware version. This is something easy to solve, basically they should disable the step counter when in bike (mode).

Other concern is that when running or walking in exercise mode this calories will be counted in double. Since you have the workout calories and the step calories contribution. I would argue that step counter should be disable in any exercise mode.  For me this is a serious issue in the product and seems that they don't care about to solve it.

[Anders101]

You are probably right, it is an easy fix that they will not do. You might
have noticed that this thread is marked as "Solved"?

[Sdb56011]

@AlejandraFitbit and the rest of the Fitbit development team. I need one of you, literally any of you, to please admit that telling us something "should be" negligible is not a valid response to dozens of your users on dozens of threads telling you it *isn't* negligible in reality. Fitbit's repeated response to this issue makes no sense. I do a 12ish mile ride every morning on smooth paved roads and my new charge three has been counting 3-4000 steps during each one. Given that it ends up being over a third of my daily steps, you telling me that it "should be" negligible is: A) untrue, and b) unhelpful. Tell me what it "should be" all day if you want, but I'm telling you what it "is" and I paid $120 for this thing (Charge 3) so as long as what it "should be" and what it "is" aren't lining up I'm going stay angry. Claiming that 3500 extra steps is an insignificant error rate is absurd. I need a better answer from you.

Either the device is too sensitive or you algorithm is seriously flawed. Either way, it shouldn't count steps at all while I'm on a bike ride when I have told it I am on a bike ride. It just doesn't make sense. For a company and a product entirely built around the idea of tracking and providing good data on my activity this seems like a serious bug. Cycling is primary daily exercise, if my brand new Charge 3 can't accurately track this activity then it's not an activity tracker and it's being returned. Which is kind of a shame; I really like the device and platform other wise.

[Anders101]

After last week’s SW update the number of fake steps has decreased
significantly, now it is almost on an acceptable level.

[Sdb56011]

Do you know exactly what version number you have? I've only had mine for about a week - it updated right out of the box to version 200001.63.5; that's the version that's accumulating thousands of extra steps for me. Maybe Fitbit rolls updates out incrementally? or maybe i really do have a defective device

[Anders101]

Yes, it was 1.63.5 that was released the 10th. Sorry to hear that it did
not work for you.

[Sdb56011]

Same problem -  I do a 12-15 mile ride every morning and my new Charge 3 has been counting 3-4000 steps during each one. I ride on smooth, paved roads and bike paths. Those numbers are not just occasional "bumps." (and given that it ends up being over a third of my daily steps, Fitbit's help page on accuracy, claiming that this is "insignificant," is just ridiculous) It's absurd to say I hit three thousand potholes every morning.

Well after a week of chats and emails, dealing with a dozen Fitbit's customer service reps, all of whom agreed this was not correct behavior but were infuriatingly unhelpful, the only actual troubleshooting help I got was to restart it and then to do a "15-second" restart; neither helped. Then, after an email thread with 10 emails on it, going back and forth with restart instructions and promising to "escalate it and respond shortly" they suddenly changed their tune and decided this actually is how it's supposed to work. I take the email below to basically be Fitbit giving us all the finger, saying "We lied about that. If you bought the charge 3 to track bike rides and for use as a daily activity monitor, your s**t out of luck, it can only do one or the other accurately despite our advertising. You should return it"

https://contact.fitbit.com <https://contact.fitbit.com>

Hi Scott,

We do apologize for the delay in responding due to unexpected high volume of cases and We appreciate your utmost patience on this matter.

We just received an update from our higher support team. Based on their thorough investigation, the device is working as intended and do not see any abnormalities as some steps may appear when reading a bike. 

Should you have any additional questions, feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,

Dennis P. and the Fitbit Team

[Sathyak]

Yep, I'm one of you guys who deeply regret for buying Charge3, fitbit will always trying to convince you than accepting their bug in the device and never attempts to fix it.

[Sdb56011]

Fortunately, I'm still in my return window and Lord and Taylor is presently selling the Garmin Forerunner 35 for $85. the Fitbit will be going back this weekend if I don't get a better answer from them asap.

[Yaboi69]

This solves nothing. Fitbit get your act together, your customer service is horrific. From what I can tell you are not listening to anything we have to say and even you are you do nothing about it. FIX THE BUG OF STEPS BEING COUNTED WHILE DOING EXERCISES!!

It can’t be that hard.

No wonder people will happily pay more for an Apple Watch that actually works.

[JimT13]

I definitely feel the FB development team needs to do a software update to allow the ability to turn on or off the cycling to step conversion algorithm. 

I am a little suspicious that steps being counted during cycling is an actual “feature” as it seams more likely it is an error....either way FB needs to address all the concerns that are on these community boards. I am considering returning my charge 3 if it is not addresses.

[Slanesavage]

Sorry I dont get it what you dont get  .... Fitbit logs cycling as Both cycling and walking  .... its bonkers .... It is entirly possible that folks have differnet targets for their different activites e.g  triathalon, running swimming and cycling. So all fibit have to do is that when you select cycling on the device it knows you are on the bike and then also records steps which you want to record seperately. if you dont wish to differentiate then the Fitbit can still log everything as steps?

[Jetdiesel]

Rise and Shine, I realize this is late to the party, but I've been dealing with this for awhile with my New Garmin device. You state that the majority of activity trackers/apps convert "activity/work" to steps. 

I can say after contacting Garmin to see how I can get any of their devices to do this, that they state that NONE of their devices will convert one activity such as swimming or cycling into "steps". The customer engineer stated he nor none of his colleagues had even been asked by any other customer for their devices to do this. I agree with you that any activity tracker that monitors HR, has your biometrics on-board, such as height and weight, tracks activity duration, etc should easily be able to convert this work/activity into steps, with a modicum of accuracy. All trackers should provide an option for this to be enables or disabled whatever your preference. Our employers are measuring our healthy lifestyles by having us track our steps. Well if I prefer to swim 6 or 7 days a week for 60 minutes, this should register as activity or "steps" as our employers a like to use this as their surrogate for activity .

[Khurley]

The explanation you provide here is ignoring the issue. 

THIS IS A FITBIT BUG.

When "Outdoor Bike Exercise" is on (explicitly set) - there should be NO STEP COUNTING BECAUSE I'M RIDING A BIKE.

Does that make sense?

Yesterday during a ride, I hit 10,000 steps... a little unbelievable that this can't be addressed by developers.

I'd like to see this issue escalated. It seems like a very simple fix...

[Arodri17]

Can Fitbit add an option to delete steps during an activity? I don't want to put my Fitbit in my pocket or wear it super tight and I get 5,000+ of steps during an hour bike ride. I also use the rest of the data during my ride such as monitoring/tracking heart rate while I'm riding. Seems like a simple solve to correct the issue. 

[WilsonFitbit]

Hello everyone. @Arodri17 Welcome to the community forums.

I appreciate your suggestion and thanks for providing your feedback. Please note that our team is always working to enhance your experience and your feedback is a big part of that process.

On a side note, I'd like to let you know that while there isn't an option to delete steps or floors, you can log a non-step-based activity such as driving to override the steps or floors. For more information, I recommend visiting the following link: How do I add, edit, or delete Fitbit data and activities?

See you around. 

[Arodri17]

Thank you for the info. That also decreases calories burned and floors,
which is something I want to track from the real activity of biking. I
don't think this solves the problem. We should be able to keep our real
activity performed and just edit the steps. Inaccurate step counts also
affects challenges that I'm in. I'm cheating when I don't want to be.

[WilsonFitbit]

@Arodri17 Thanks for your reply. 

I'm sorry for the inconvenience. I understand how helpful it'd be to have a different option to delete steps while driving or biking, but at this time, this is the only available option to negate the steps or floors. 

Take into consideration that our team is always working to enhance your experience and your feedback is a big part of that process and it definitely helps a lot. 

See you around. 

[Teetree]

This issue is YEARS old guys. Workarounds are not solutions at this point. It is obvious that you are not listening.

I want to track my steps SEPERATELY and in ADDITION to other exercise. Why can't I have that option? It is 1s and zeros. This is not complicated and a fairly basic request.