Charge 4 is tracking too many floors

[SunsetRunner]

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).

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[mr_mediocre]

I've got a similar, but not identical issue.

I had a Charge 2 HR for a few years, but the battery crapped out a few weeks ago.  Now I've got a Charge 4 as of July 15.

My walks around the neighborhood have been pretty consistent in terms of time, steps and distance.  Since Saturday, July 24, I've been getting overcounts of almost double what I expect.

Here's the weird part: It only happens in the middle of the day.  I can go out in the morning or late evening and get the counts I expect.  Walking the exact same route between 10am and 1pm gets much higher numbers.  This is happening in the state of Georgia, USA, and the biggest variable I can identify is the air temperature. Low 70sF in the morning, around 90F mid-day, low 80s evening. Air pressure, at least as measured at the local airport, shows no consistent change over the course of the day.

[poruatokin]

You are not alone.  I had my C4 for 7 months and considered it accurate within reason, but about 10 days ago the floor count has gone crazy.  There have been many comment recently on the same topic and I'm convinced it is a hardware or firmware issue but the mods here seem to be trying to brush this under the carpet with their "gust of wind" theory.

Please take a look at my testing in the second post of this thread.  I'd be interested if you can try to test yours in a similar was to see if it is repeatable.

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Charge-4/Charge-4-Too-Many-Floors/m-p/4919125#M49937

Also, here is another recent report from a C4 user.

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Charge-4/Floor-Tracking-too-high-Charge-4/m-p/4918129#M49852

And another recent one from a C3 user

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Other-Charge-Trackers/Charge-3-tracking-floors-while-sleeping/m-p/49...

[Mar7in]

Thanks for directing me towards your post on this subject. 
i have read the “wind” theory and thought what utter garbage considering the time I have had the C4, the conditions I have worn it in and had very satisfactory results. 
i hope Fitbit respond to the problem, my device is a tool to aid my fitness and not a fashion accessory, if it doesn’t work it might as well be in the bin.

I have had two, don’t think there will be buying a third just to overcome this fault that could reoccur on a new device.  
 

[poruatokin]

I did a little more testing today.

What is particularly frustrating is that despite the problems noted above my C4 still seems to record legitimate floor climbs correctly. 

• At my company we have two floors with a set of 25 steps of 19cm each totaling 4.75 meters elevation. 
• With the tracker in my shirt pocket (so it was not influenced by heart rate or wrist movement) I just completed 10 climb and descend cycles and on each climb, the floor count increased by 1 or 2. (colleagues thought I'd had a brain episode)
• At each descent I also walked about 30-40 meters away then back to the bottom of the stairs and noted that the count did not increase on the flat (same as Tuesday's result when in the shirt pocket)
• So I got a total increase of 15 floors with a total climb of 47.5 meters or 3.17 meters per floor.  Fitbit claim 3 meters per floor count so this suggests that the altimeter is working well within tolerance.

Again, it points to some spurious signal being received by the floor count during regular walking either due to a hardware or firmware error.

I'll keep reporting new data both as reference material for others who may have similar issues and as a way of keeping this topic on the front page.  I'd be more than happy to hear some feedback from a moderator.

[katmomma]

I have discovered that arm movement seems to be the culprit. We were dancing around the living room and I clocked 5 flights of stairs. When I danced and held my arm down at my side it did not clock any flights of stairs. I will restart and see if that helps.

Thanks for your reply to David, I found it more helpful than his reply!

[katmomma]

I have reset my Fitbit twice. It tracked 7 floors climbed while I was sleeping overnight. I do not sleepwalk. There was no breeze or change in humidity. There is something wrong with the Fitbit.
Susan

------------

I have reset my Fitbit twice. So far it has tracked 50 floors climbed today. I have not climbed any. It tracked 7 floors climbed while I was sleeping. I do not sleepwalk. There is definitely something malfunctioning with the charge 4. I only bought it in February. When do I send it to get a replacement.

Moderator Edit: Formatting

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi everyone. Thanks for participating in the Community Forums.

I've moved your posts to this new thread to keep our forums organized. Thanks for your continued reports about the floors tracking on your Charge 4. For the ones that haven't done so, please give a try to the recommendations and tips described by @MarreFitbit in this post.

I'm sorry for this inconvenience, your feedback is truly appreciated and will be passed along so we can improve our products, their performance and the overall Fitbit experience.

See you around.

[JNance]

Adding my +1. Looking at my floors history, it is clear that this issue started for me on July 11.

[poruatokin]

For anyone who is interested, My C4 continues to read erroneous numbers of floors each and every day, no matter how carefully I handle it.  Over the weekend I was doing my best to be a lazy slob, and didn't wear it half the time but anyway I still clocked up 50 to 70 floors a day and just received my "747" badge for apparently doing "many steps".  On Sunday, it never left my house and yet it managed to do 55 floors.

I have reset it multiple times, and as a last resort I recently deliberately run the battery down fully in order to force another method of reset but nothing has made any difference.

I know that some will say the floors count is not valuable, however, I found it used to make a good reference for how much casual exercise I was doing.

[Mar7in]

Still no improvement after numerous resets, and no sensible response from Fitbit. 
very disappointed in the customer service. 

[SunsetRunner]

Hi,

Now reading a lot on the forum and see lot's of reaction of fitbit administrators, 

- standard texts and after most times no solutions

- probably done so they can close and stating it's solved, so administrator get's credit's

- most problems needs update on firmware or extra functions installed and i guess that is no option for fitbit dev's to work on.

[Mar7in]

Yes, they have huge sales so why bother, just means I will not recommend and buy something else next time. 

[CarolMR1]

Same problem. My husband hasn't been paying attention to number of Floors, but I just checked his dashboard and it's been ridiculously off for over a year.

Today he's been up and down our stairs about 6 times. His fitbit says 42 floors. 

As far as this suggestion from MarreFitbit (https://community.fitbit.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/463105😞 "Why does my fitbit...extra floors?" (https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1136/?q=floors&l=en_US&fs=Search&pn=1#extrafloor...)  These explanations are equally ridiculous. "Gust of wind", indeed!

I guess this is an issue that needs to be escalated.

----------------

For what it's worth - his firmware seems to be pretty old (43.100.100.43, I think), and there's no message about updating it.

Could that contribute to errors?

[FitbitUser307]

So mine has started counting too many floors also (don't) I wish I did 101 flights today. Have they ever resolved the issue? It seem if the floor count is off that makes the calorie count off too if they calculate an extra load for walking up stairs.

[FitbitUser307]

Thanks for the reply. I had reached out to support and chatted after a 15 minute wait and got restart you device and contact us again if it does not fix it. I think that is pretty much their standard. I am with you. This is my last Fitbit device. Other may have the same issues but they are a lot cheaper.

[SunsetRunner]

Hi,
Yes the fitbit moderators just have standard answers and never go into
detail .
I guess because they don't know and don't really work for fitbit themselves.
Probably just get a fitbit for free for the work.

You think this community looks good and I also had positive thoughts in
beginning.

Probably all smartwatch products have same issue's.
Biggest thing I find bad is you're unable to turn of the watch.

Cheers
Koen

[FitbitUser307]

OK, I am one chat, two calls and one email in with Fitbit still not resolved. I am about to go for call three, wish me luck. Maybe the third time is the charm with them.

[FitbitUser307]

OK three calls later and fingers crossed they will be shipping out a new Charge 4. Not sure why they make it so hard. They must just have too many customers and want to lose a few.

[SunsetRunner]

Great news.
I had a new one month ago due a crack in thr mounting plate on the fitbit.
Good service in the Netherlands