Charge 4 is counting flights of stairs erroneously

[Bobbii21]

My Charge 4 registers at 40 to 60 flights of stairs daily when I have not even gone up a single flight.  Is there a way to fix this?  It worked fine when new, but that last few weeks it has gone bonkers.

Moderator edit: format

[WilsonFitbit · Accepted solution]

Hello @Bobbii21. Welcome to the community forums! 

Thank you for the detailed information. At this time, I'd recommend performing a restart to your Charge 4 by following the instructions here: 

How do I restart my Fitbit device?

On a side note, I'd like to let you know that your Charge 4 detects floors with an altimeter, which is a sensor that calculates altitude based on atmospheric pressure. Your device is designed to detect pressure changes based on elevation gain, but other types of pressure changes such as a gust of wind, a weather change, or opening a door can occasionally cause your device to register extra floors.  

If the inconvenience persists, I'd appreciate if you can reply to the following questions: 

• Are you close to a door or window when you notice the discrepancy?
• Does this happens when you are doing anything in particular?
• Was this after an update to the firmware? 

On a side note, I recommend making sure that the Fitbit App for your mobile device is up to date. 

I look forward to your response. 

[Bobbii21]

Wilson,

I have tried restarting my Fitbit, but it did not fix the problem.  My Fitbit app indicates that it is up to date.  I have not noticed any consistent activity or being near doors that changes the count, but have discovered that it added floors while sitting on the couch while watching a movie and I am not adjacent to a window or door.

i had a Charge 2 prior to this and never had a problem.  Also the Charge 4 worked well when I first got it and just began randomly counting floors over the last month or two.   I can't pinpoint it to a specific action, but it may have been an update to the firmware.

Sorry I can't be more detailed, but I will try to watch more closely and see if I can find a correlation between the adding of floors to a specific action and I will let you know if I do.

Thank you, Bobbii21

[Bobbii21]

Wilson,

i recorded 3 flights of stairs while sitting on the couch and another two while washing dishes.  I live in a one story house.

i just restarted my Fitbit again an hour ago and, thus far, no new flights.  I let you know how it goes.  

Thank you for all the excellent information and suggestions. I tried to flag your response as the most helpful, but I accidentally marked the wrong one.  Is there a way to undo the wrong one and then flag yours?

Bobbii21

[Bobbii21]

Wilson,

Bobbii21 here with an update.  I have restarted my Charge 4 twice since I last posted and it still has not fixed the problem.  It still is recording 30 to 50 flights a days that I do not climb and it registered 4 flights while I was still lying in be in the morning!  I will be contacting customer service to see what they have to say.  I never had issues with my charge 2 so maybe some of the upgrades modified this function and not for the better.  I hope they can roll out a fix for it.

Thanks for you feedback,

Bobbii21

[SunsetRunner]

Hi Wilson,

I have the same problem. I posted this a couple of weeks ago... and it was marked as 'answered', when it is NOT. This was my post on July 14th:

Same problem here. It has been happening for the last weeks, roughly since early June. Couldn't say if it was after a firm update. Some days 30 floors, some days up to 200. I live in a flat, no stairs, and no changes on windows/doors opened. As an example, today: when I got up (7;30am) I already had climbed 8 floors (while in bed!).Then following your instructions reset my fitbit.

Went out 40 mins to the shops (street flat as a pancake) and coming back my fitbit registered 50 floors already. Literally, I saw it adding floors as I walked on the flat street.
Something is not right, definitely. I went for a run on Sunday along with my partner, both with our fitbits: same route, same speed. My fitbit registered 240 m elevation gain; the other fitbit registered the usual 50 m (we always run same route, that 50m is what my fitbit used to mark).

---------------
Something is wrong. We users expect a solution.

And please, DO NOT copy and paste again how Fitbit counts floors. We know that. And like Bobbii21, I have restarted my Fitbit as well and the problem still is there, so please don't say that again.
My Fitbit (still not 1 year old) worked quite well before June, and nothing has changed on my side. Something is NOT right with your product.
Looking forward to hearing from you.

[Ethed]

I've got the same problem, usually when I get up I've done 1 floor whilst in bed. I thought I could be sleepwalking ! I don't pay too much attention to it normally but when I compare it to my husbands charge 2 when we have walked the same walk I've usually done 20 more flights than him. One particular day it said I'd done 20 floors whilst driving on the motorway. I figured I'm just multitalented able to climb stairs and drive at the same time. 

[dz1234]

I have a related issue--I run (approx 1 mile) laps around my block and each lap the elevation is lower than the previous one according to my altimeter despite the fact that it should return to the same level. I understand what you are saying about changes in pressure, but every day the altitude goes down and never goes up. I run in the mornings, so maybe it has something to do with temperature/pressure changes in the morning as it warms up. 

[SunsetRunner]

Clearly there is a problem that is not easily fixed by a restart. I too have this problem of climbing stairs when I am asleep and definitely do not go up any stairs and there is no real obvious reason when the Fitbit does this. 

if I use stairs say 10 flights of stairs Fitbit does count it correctly, but then walking it will add more flights later, even out walking on the flat.

I have put it down to changes in barometric differences as I also travel a lot, but then it never used to have any affect before. So clearly there is a problem somewhere 

Thanks. 

[Ethed]

I read somewhere that if you add an activity of "driving" (not an exercise fitbit!) Then the app removes the flights. I tried this and yes it does, but it also removes the steps too. So kind of defeats the object of the activity. I also got flights whilst on an escalator in a store whilst I did none of the work, I got all of the credit.  Never had the problem with charge 2 so why is this still a problem with charge 4?