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).

[MarreFitbit]

It's nice to see you around here @Mattbot2112! Thanks for already restarting your Charge 3 in order to sort this out, nice way to go! 

I appreciate all the efforts in trying to fix this SmartTrack issue. We've found that some customers have a better experience with SmartTrack if they try wearing their tracker on a different wrist. Because SmartTrack recognizes activities based on the continuous movement of your arms, in some cases, changing the wrist that you wear your tracker on can improve activity recognition.

Remember that if you change your wrist, you should also change your handedness setting. For more information on how wearing your tracker affects accuracy, please see the article How accurate are Fitbit trackers?. For instructions about updating your settings, see the article What should I know about SmartTrack exercise detection?.

Let me know the outcome. 

[Mattbot2112]

Thanks for responding! I did set my Fitbit to Dominant wrist; that helped reduce the amount of spurious steps that were counted, but did not change whether or not SmartTrack recognized my biking. Thinking about this, both my wrists are doing the same thing while I'm biking (i.e., mostly on the handlebars), so it makes sense to me that switching wrist settings would not make a difference.

One useful thing about this whole switch is now I'm realizing how many steps my Fitbit is erroneously recording while I'm biking. I think the Fitbit app is misleading on this--see the attached pics. This is a ride that SmartTrack correctly recognized when I was wearing my Charge 2. You can see that despite the fact the Outdoor Bike activity that was recorded says there were zero steps, there are huge spikes (green) in my step count during the times when I am biking. If steps are going to be recorded while I'm biking (I would prefer they aren't, but realize opinions vary on the issue), they should be displayed as part of the activity. The app is trying to have it both ways--seems like it's trying to hide from me the fact that it is counting steps during a bike ride.

[MarreFitbit]

Thanks for getting back and for the details and screenshot provided @Mattbot2112! You can try using "Workout" mode when biking. However, keep in mind that if you rename your activity to Bike, the steps will be deleted so, let the activity as a Workout. 

On bumpy trails it's possible that your device will register steps but these should be negligible in your overall stats. Since you have a device with multisport mode, make sure you choose the Bike exercise before starting your workout. If you're relying on SmartTrack to automatically detect your bike ride, make sure the Outdoor Bike exercise is on. (In the app, tap the exercise title and then tap the gear icon in the top right.). For more information see How do I track my exercise and activities with Fitbit?

I'll be around if you need further assistance! 

[Mattbot2112]

Hi Maria,

Two things:

1) I mentioned in my original post that I did have auto-recognize turned on for outdoor bike. I am still disappointed that this is something that worked on the Charge 2 that isn’t working on the Charge 3. 

2) I would disagree with your characterization of steps logged during biking as “negligible”. My Charge 3 logged over 3000 fake steps on my morning and evening bike commutes today, which were short (15 min each) on paved roads, not bumpy trails. That represents about a 33% increase over my legit step count for today. I realize some users don’t object to this, but let’s be realistic—that is a lot of steps logged during short bike trips, it would be even worse for people with longer rides!

[d-a-v-e]

Hi I'm also having this issue with my charge 3. It has never been able to auto detect bike riding. Are there any other suggestions, solutions or patches on the way?

Thank you. 

[d-a-v-e]

Hi, i've been in contact with support who have nothing else to say other than to restart the charge 3 in various ways. I've done all of these now, more than once with no results.

The charge 3 doesn't ever auto track a bike ride (30 minutes+).

Any suggestions?

[Dunestowers]

I got the charge 3 as a gift specifically to track biking. I set it to auto recognize and it worked fine. Recently it has stopped recognizing it????? 

A lot of suggestions were given previously to other users and it appears it still doesn’t work. Fit bit problem?

[tut84]

I am also having this issue (among many others) with the Charge 3. I commute to work as well and my Alta fitbit recorded, without fail every bike ride, now with the Charge 3 it is just recording it as sport and is recording my ride for 10-15 longer than the Alta used to-same commute and same time. While the Charge 3 is my favorite looking model so far, it seems to be a huge set back in the technology from previous versions. 

[d-a-v-e]

I think the best course of action is to raise a ticket with support.

Unfortunately they are not very helpful beyond explaining (in excruciating
and slow detail) how to soft and hard reset the device

You may have better luck, but - in my experience at least - they try to
exhaust all options in hopes that you will give up trying to fix the issue.

The final suggestion I was given was to try it on another wrist and change
the dominant hand in settings. All this did was rack up a huge amount of
false steps. No bike rides were tracked automatically.

Eventually, after what felt like a lot of time waisting they admitted the
following:

"We’re aware of it, but may not be able to provide a fix in the immediate
future. We'll continue to monitor the situation, and keep our team informed
of the impact to you and other customers. We understand that this isn't the
resolution you're hoping for, but rest assured we're always working to
improve our products."

I think activity tracking is just not very reliable on these devices hence
the lack of useful replies or suggestions in these forum posts. I imagine
most people just give up trying to get it to work as advertised as it
/kind/ of works already.

If you get to this point, remind your support technician of your consumer
rights (consumer rights act 2015 in the UK for me) Auto tracking is
advertised as a function. in my case it has't worked once making the device
not fit for purpose. This means either their marketing department is
telling lies or the device is faulty.

I'm now in the process of sending the device back to them. fingers crossed
the next one actually works as advertised.

good luck!

[maxfavilli]

I am having exactly the same experience.

smarttrack is not recognizing my biking, it’s not accurately tracking the time, it reports it as “sport” with a much longer time

and reset or wrist change has no effect

I think the whole smart track feature is more marketing than feature.

swim auto tracking also doesn’t work, but I didn’t expect it to work since I read the forums before to buy my charge 3 and it’s clear swimming auto tracking works only in Fitbit marketing material.

but honestly I thought it was capable of auto tracking biking, in fact it does not

[Mattbot2112]

The most recent firmware update (1.63.5) seems to have fixed this problem for me...fingers crossed it stays that way. 

[maxfavilli]

I agree things got better.

It's more accurate, and most of the time it does logs biking as biking instead of just sport. Most of the time.

Swimming is recognized too.

[SunsetRunner]

My charge 3 auto recognizes my swimming!!!!  I thought its because of the type of arm movement. But it does not auto recognize biking. So arm movements do have a lot to do with it. With walking your arms are swinging so that would work. 

[d-a-v-e]

just an update on my end on this issue. It looks like one of the more recent firmware updates has imporved the bike tracking! I've not changed anything - same bike, same route, same time, but as of about a month ago I noticed that the charge 3 now picks up all my bike rides automagically! very nice feature to have working :)))))

[SunsetRunner]

Wow!!!! Thats great to hear. When was this firmware update approximately? Recent? I will try it again.

Sent from my iPhone

[John3441]

My Charge 3 was recognizing my biking until the last software update, then no or little credit for biking. I’ve had no luck fixing the problem. Biking is my primary means of exercise (roughly 150 miles per week) and a 30 mile ride was crediting me with around 10k steps, now very few steps. I’m disgusted with the product, going to find something else. 

[Janae]

I have exactly the same issue!

My charge 3 was recognizing my bike rides perfectly everyday until... a fitbit update and suddenly it only recognizes the bike ride in less than 10% of the time. And even then it logs it as maybe 10 minutes instead of 40 minutes. 

I contacted support multiple times for this issue and get nowhere with them. They give ask me to do soft and hard resets (even though I did them before). Additionally, my fitbit got replaced recently (for another issue) and the new fitbit is also not recognizing the bike rides. So the issue is bigger than a fitbit that needs to be reset.

My guess is that it can not deal with "pauses" in the exercise. Every moment you are biking calmy and your arm is not moving, every red light you have to stop for, … I have the feeling that fitbit exercise recognition starts counting from zero. So I never get to this continuous exercise time that's long enough to be recognized. 

I beg fitbit to please fix this! It is insane that such a company is dealing with such serious bugs, especially when it was working before.
I am so annoyed by it that it will be my last fitbit ever if they don't get a grip on their issues!

[John3441]

Thanks for the reply. It is frustrating since we both know they can meet our needs if only the company would step up.

[jcr2017]

I have the same issue. My fitbit 2 worked perfectly tracking my bike rides, distance, route, time and heartrate. The 3  starts tracking my ride for about 2 miles and then it stops tracking the miles  but the gps drawing shows my entire route of about 10 miles. I dont get it. Very frustrating.