Charge 3 not auto-recognizing biking

[Mattbot2112]

I just upgraded from a Charge 2. I'm pretty lukewarm about the Charge 3 so far. The biggest issue I'm having is that it is no longer auto-recognizing my daily bike commute correctly. The Charge 2 was very accurate in terms of time and getting the activity correct--my commute is anywhere from 14-20 min depending on traffic (I lowered the auto-recognize threshold for outdoor bike from 15 to 10 min to accommodate shorter days). However, the Charge 3 calls it "sport" and the length of activity is now anywhere from 20-30 min, even though I'm riding the same time/distance as before. Yes, I could track the activity manually--but I don't want/need GPS tracks for this. It is my daily commute--all I want is for the active minutes to be logged correctly. I don't want to have to do this manually every day. The larger issue is that something that was working perfectly fine for the Charge 2 doesn't work on the Charge 3. (P.S. Yes, I rebooted the device and no, it didn't help).

[ChrisDowning]

Nope its still an issue.  I've only just got a Charge 3 - first bike ride yesterday 1hr 25 mins - it was actually well over 2 hours.  666 cal.  HR 119 ave 149 peak.  Today same ride 1hr 15 mins - it was actually 2hr 3 mins. 354 cals.,   avereage HR 93, peak 127.  Blimey this thing's impossible!!

[jcr2017]

I was so frustrated, I returned the watch.  The Charge 2 had no problems with this function.  Do you think they fixed it in the Charge 4?

[jcr2017]

You fix did not work.  Has this been addressed and corrected in the Charge 4?

[RoBay]

Doesn't work for me. I have been riding over an hour several days a week and all I get is less than half a mile registered. I ride as fast as I can, I'm on a bike path. 

Sadly I've chalked this thing up to nothing more than a 1980's sport watch - it tells time and I have a stop watch and countdown timer. 

It was a gift from my son who lives 4 states away, I dare not tell him, nothing he can do. 

Good luck to you! 

[ChrisDowning]

I've decided to get a Polar chest band HRM and run that off a mobile app for bike training logs.  The Fitbit Charge 3 just doesn't want to accurately register heart rates whist riding a bike - I guess I can understand why - unless you really tightly strap it to yer wrist!!  But on the other hand it does a whole like of stuff a chest band won't.  I'm still not convinced that I'll keep t though....£89 for a sleep monitor and something to tell me my rested HR - for £89....I'm not convinced it isn't a grown ups toy.  If we weren't in lock-down and I could play golf maybe...............frankly I know what I'm doing every day to stay fit and a log system like this is just a distraction.  (And it's a pretty crap watch)

[RoBay]

Lol, perhaps it is! Thank you for taking time to share the info

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

[ChrisDowning]

Yes I returned it as well.  I found a Polar H9 that would do the HRM stuff AND it shows where I've been from GPS on the phone app it runs with - Polar Beat.  What's the point of FitBit advertising the cycling capability when it clearly is unreliable in that function.  It worked fine for walking and golf - but cannot cope with the shaky wrist issue when biking.

[SunsetRunner]

Agree

Sent from my iPhone

[Amberle70]

Did you ever get one to work?

[SunsetRunner]

Nope

Sent from my iPhone

[John3441]

No. I gave up.

[jcr2017]

No, I returned my Charge 3.

[SunsetRunner]

Maybe charge 4 will be a better option?

Sent from my iPhone

[John3441]

I don’t want to spend the money to find out. It upsets me that Charge 3 worked originally for biking, then after a software update it quit working. Fitbit could have fixed it but didn’t. They are getting no more of my money!

Sent from John's IPhone

[Phitwrinkly]

My FitBitCharge2 died,the HR flashing green lights disappeared.Believing the advertising,I bought Charge3 thinking it would track my outdoor bikeride. It does show where I’ve been during 90 minute ride, but says I’ve walked the route @ 11mph with a pace of 5’ 24”!! Sheer fiction, it will be passed to a friend who doesn’t need bike tracking. For pedal bikeriders, DO NOT buy this product!

[d-a-v-e]

I've had patchy bike ride tracking as well. And sync issues. If you're not happy with the charge 3 I'd suggest leaving an honest review on amazon so other potential customers avoid.

[RoBay]

Thank you for the suggestion. It was a gift but quite sure he bought it off Amazon. So glad I didn't buy one for my husband! I'm also bummed the band last long, it broke in just over a year's time and I didn't use it to swim nor wear in the shower. 

[ChrisDowning]

I think the basic problem is using a wrist sensor to read heart rate.  Polar use chest bands and upper arm bands as well as selling watches.  All I know is that the chest band works perfectly - after all you wet it to start and after that you just sweat a little to keep it moist - so it has a good electrical connection with your chest - and the elastic quality of the band keeps it in connection with your body in a way that a fixed wristband just can't.  I know one of the fixes FitBit suggest is just tighten the wristwatch band so it achieves that connection - but that's not only uncomfortable I think you risk breaking the band.  I was surprised at how lightweight the engineering looked and worked when I replaced the FitBit band for a leather one - it's just not confidence inspiring - so tight wristband was not an option I wanted to try as I thought I'd return from my bike ride without the watch, knowing then that the watch was somewhere back there in the last 25 miles!  The Polar H9 for about £50+ links to Android or Apple technology (phone or watch) and with the Polar app "Beat" gives me everything I want for cycling feedback for a lot less money.  And it talks to me all the way round the ride telling me every mile how I'm doing - FitBit doesn't.

I just think FitBit is just aimed at a different market.  People who want to wear a step and HR monitor all day, 24 hours.  But I'm not really into wearing a monitor all the time.  FitBit suits my wife as she uses it to step count and sleep monitor - she's not going the wear a chest band for that!

So forget using FitBit for cycling - that's really not its market.  Cycling shakes the watch about too much for it to get a good read on what you are doing.  And I guess it's the same issue which causes it to miss switching on automatically to cycling mode - it just can't get a good read on your activities from the wrist - after all what IS the difference to me doing a job in the garage and hopping on my bike to ride - it's a mystery how you'd build a sensor to tell the difference.  So maybe completely oversold by the marketing department - I can just imagine the app builders groaning "Noooo!"

[Phitwrinkly]

Just to clarify to all where I was coming from.Prior to starting a bike ride I did all within my power to tell the FitBit I was going outdoor biking, done by using the icons available on my iPhone prior to setting off.I already have a chest mounted heart monitor whose display I can attach to my handlebars and therefore easily keep an eye on the current HR at any time.The FitBit was tightly strapped to the normal wrist but with the optical sensor "reading" my pulse on the inside of the wrist.After the bike ride I see that the maximum HR is still 10-15 BPM lower than the chest mounted monitor's maximum. This figure is achieved in a painfully slow climb at 3mph on tarmac'd road, so I don't accept the theory of vibration affecting the FitBit HR reading at that stage.Today on returning home and looking at the FitBit data, the program locked up and had to be uninstalled then reinstalled before I could get any info from the 'frozen' App display.When the iPhone GPS does send a route to the FitBit App, it accurately shows my route but displays it as a 'walk' of 16 miles in 91 minutes using a pace of 5 feet and 24 inches-what does that mean? Apart from me being  a septuagenarian Olympic walker with 7-league boots??I note from other correspondence on the community site that others have had a Charge3 which at one time performed satisfactorily in bike mode but since a software update this is no longer possible and their communications with FitBit on the topic have had no success in restoring normal advertised performance.
Regards from Phitwrinkly.

[Murryy79]

I am on firmware 1.63.5 but still auto recognize doest show the trail map. Is that how it supposed to be ?