Charge 3 is tracking too many floors

[Chrystel78]

Hi, 

I just got my charge 3 last week and I love it ... but except about the floor calculations... I had the HR charge before and Fitbit one too. So i'm used that my tracker will put more floor if it's a windy day (cause I live at 4000 feet altitude) but the last 2 days were without any wind and it counts 57 floors when I did maybe 10...? It often happens when I got at tennis. Any ideas??

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[MarreFitbit]

Welcome to the Fitbit Community @Chrystel78! Thanks for sharing your experience with your Fitbit devices.

Charge 3 (and Fitbit devices) may track floors while doing everyday tasks such as opening doors, driving, or riding elevators or escalators, or from abrupt weather and atmospheric pressure changes, exposure to excess moisture can also result in extra floors. I recommend wearing your device loosely during exercise.

Keep in mind that if you want to remove floors from your account, follow the instructions provide in the help article How do I edit or delete Fitbit data and activities?. 

Let me know if you need further assistance.

[Chrystel78]

Thanks a lot for your answer, but I would like to keep my steps and active minutes during this time. It's really that my watch add floors during my tennis but I wouldn't want to have my active minutes from tennis to be erased... Is there a solution for that?

[MarreFitbit · Accepted solution]

Hi @Chrystel78, thanks for coming back! As suggested above, the only solution we can recommend is to negate the data. 

It's not possible to delete steps and floors, but you can achieve the same result by negating them:

1. From the Fitbit app dashboard, tap the Exercise tile. This is the tile that says “Track exercise" or shows how many days you've exercised this week.
2. Tap the stopwatch icon 
3. Tap Log or Log Previous.
4. Enter Driving as the exercise type and enter the date, start time, and duration.
5. Tap Add or Log it. Your steps, floors, and calories burned will decrease for the time period you specified.

I'll be around, keep me posted! 

[Dlanor12]

Fitbit states claimed 100 flights of stairs.  Have not left the house.  What is wrong with this thing

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[AlvaroFitbit]

@Dlanor12 Welcome! It's great to see you around! 

Let me assist you with your floor count. Your device uses it's altimeter to detect variance in altitude. It will count 1 floor for every 10 ft it detects you climbed. There are situations that may affect the floor count like stormy weather (that has an actual impact on atmospheric pressure), gusts of wind, an AC unit in a closed room or opening a door. I suggest you start by cleaning the back of the device with cotton and rubbing alcohol then use compressed air at a distance to clear the altimeter's opening. Finally restart it.

Let me know how it goes.

[SunsetRunner]

Agreed. Today I 'climbed' 39 floors however hubby who uses Charge 2 didn't do any, which is consistent with the terrain we were on.

[fuhsame]

This is not a solution!  It is a crappy work around.  I had a Charge 2 and it would occasionally add an extra flight of stairs or two...No big deal, but when it starts reading a lot more than that it is unacceptable.  It needs a hardware fix, not a work around that you have to remember to change or edit!  That's not the way a tracker should work!

[Chrystel78]

I agree, my charge 2 was way more accurate than the 3 that i just bought...

[3500]

Agree, started adding additional floors from approximately July 2019;  update required

[Alekxandra]

When I got my Charge 3 at the New Year’s Eve I worked hard to get 10 floors suggested each day. It often didn’t count them properly. I had to climb 10-15 in our split level house to get the 10 goal. 

Now, from September or earlier it’s recording 30-50 a day even on days I never leave my house. Not even walking out my front door. Something has changed and it’s very upsetting. When I ran a marathon earlier this year it recorded 255 floors!! This used to be a motivational and useful point of data but now it is completely useless and completely false. 

[Sarfer70]

I tried to delete the floors by adding a driving exercise to my log, and... it got rid of the 7,000 steps I took during that time as well! Well, luckily I deleted the driving activity and my step count would be back. So that is not a good solution! 

[Stowdog]

My Charge 2 for 2 years was spot on the number of stairs. My Charge 3 - worn for 2 weeks - is way off. Today, when I should have had 20 at the most, I have 52. The "fix" above is not a fix. Very disappointing.

[SunsetRunner]

I have not done any stairs today but my Fitbit counted 75 floors!  I’m so aggravated.

[jonezy84]

Mine has recorded 108 floors today. I've done 17,000 steps but I could see the floor count going up as I was walking on level ground and even downhill! I've had to take it off as I don't want falsely get the 125 floor badge. Should have the option to delete data!!

[SunsetRunner]

I’m very frustrated. I’m sure you are too.

Sent from my iPhone

[fuhsame]

I don't know how I could have climbed 33 floors on a day that I never climbed any flights of stair...just a power walk  (like norma) with no wind or hills.  😡

[Chrystel78]

I agree

[PhillipC]

I've been having this problem as well for some time. The workaround is not a solution!  I'm on my third Fitbit, and it will probably be my last if the product isn't accurate at all. I guess it's not worth fixing since Google bought them out.  Maybe an Apple Watch next go around...

[HooDad]

Totally agree this is not solution.  Fixing it would be a solution.  Been w Fitbit for years.  Moving on to a new product.