Charge 4 is tracking too many floors

[Ralpher]

My Fitbit charge 4 is overestimating my stair climbing.  Can that be corrected?

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[SunsetRunner]

You won’t hear from them. I got the same exact response verbatim several
times. No one ever got back to me, so I just gave up. I will never purchase
a Fitbit again.

[friluftsline]

My Charge 4 has been reporting an extreme number of floors for the past year. I even got a new watch because the old one's display stopped working. And guess what? The exact same floor count problem just followed onto the new device!

Costumer support tells me (the one time I've gotten through, all other times they never reply ... ) to update the app and restart the device. But come on, how many times does it take to make a basic function actually function? I can honestly say that Fitbit is not worth the struggle. Get an Oura ring instead.

[gavinwells]

And lo and behold... the latest from customer support by email was to do this...though I'm not sure how my phone or the app could be adding floors...


For us to further isolate the issue, you may follow the steps below:

1. You may do the "Clear user date" to your Fitbit Charge 4. To do so, on your Fitbit device, open the "Settings app then About then Clear User Data".
2. Remove your Charge 4 to your Fitbit app. See: Can I use more than one Fitbit device with the same account?
3. Force quit your Fitbit app on your phone.
4. Delete your Fitbit app.
5. Restart your phone.
6. Install your Fitbit app on your phone.
7. Set up your Charge 4 to your Fitbit app again as new. See: How do I set up my fitbit device
8. Monitor your Fitbit device.

We hope this helps. If you have additional questions about your Fitbit device or services, visit help on the fitbit page

[poruatokin]

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@gavinwells wrote:

And lo and behold... the latest from customer support by email was to do this...though I'm not sure how my phone or the app could be adding floors...


For us to further isolate the issue, you may follow the steps below:

1. You may do the "Clear user date" to your Fitbit Charge 4. To do so, on your Fitbit device, open the "Settings app then About then Clear User Data".
2. Remove your Charge 4 to your Fitbit app. See: Can I use more than one Fitbit device with the same account?
3. Force quit your Fitbit app on your phone.
4. Delete your Fitbit app.
5. Restart your phone.
6. Install your Fitbit app on your phone.
7. Set up your Charge 4 to your Fitbit app again as new. See: How do I set up my fitbit device
8. Monitor your Fitbit device.

We hope this helps. If you have additional questions about your Fitbit device or services, visit help on the fitbit page

---

And did it achieve anything?

[gavinwells]

I walked three thousand steps while sitting at a classical music concert for two hours on Sunday - I clapped the orchestra, but 3,000 steps?
And I climbed a floor at 1am when i was asleep, and several more at the concert

It was fine for a few days but now back to its usual overcounting

[karde825]

I don’t count stairs, but my steps seem to be high. I’ve had it for 2 years now and have just adjusted to it. Seems like there would be a way to manually calibrate each device. Whenever I get a new one I’ll be sure to look for a calibration feature offered, hopefully without upgrading to the “premium” status. 

[Revman1]

Thank you. No I won’t be applying  for premium as the product is flakey.

I am currently on Madeira and my floor count seems more or less accurate. I am walking floors ( say 130 steps a time) and my estimated floor count is being roughly matched by my Chargrge floor. The same steep hills, the elevation rises seem to give me fairly accurate floors…nothing I would complain @about. 
it will be interesting  to see what happens when I walk on level ground back home. Hopefully it will not invent floors again.

if it does I am off to another non fit bit product. 
Kind 

kind regards

[gavinwells]

In October 2021 Fitbit replaced by fitbit 4 because the floor count was badly off - counting many more than I do.
The new device was fine for a few months and then it started doing the same thing...after several months of fitibit chats....clearing the user data, resetting the device, deleting the app from my phone and reinstalling it.....on Monday I climbed 170 floors in a day, which with scarred lungs from several months in hospital with covid is nothing short off a miracle...
I spoke to fitbit chat again, they offered me another fitbit4....or 50% off another model.....
I have asked Fritz Weshly to ask his manager Monique to contact me so that we can discuss......

It seems that fitbit is truly broken

[Ruthy3]

I'm  afraid I've given up.Sent from my Galaxy

[joytown]

I have updated, refreshed, restarted, reinstalled... This thing is broken. And now one of the points that the band attaches to has broken. How does one go about getting a replacement?

[gavinwells]

Hi joytown - if you go to the chat function on the fitbit website (having logged in) - and explain the problem...they ask you to rest the device, to reset the user, to reinstall on your phone and sometimes to jump up and down on one leg..but eventually ..once you show you have done all these, and once you point out the design flaw in the watch..they offer you a replacement, or a choice of any other tracker / watch for 50% of the price.
They may try telling you that you have to send your faulty one in first..i said no and they "overuled that rule"

I am on my second replacement in 8 months.  The last one worked okay for a month and then started counting "160 floors on a Sunday" (I wish....).

If this goes wrong I have told the help desk that I will write to every point of contact i can find at fit bit, with all the transcripts of my chats with their helpdesks, plus Lizzy's advice at the start of this thread to "overwrite the issue with a manual activity like driving".  Good luck

[Ruthy3]

Done all of the above.  Told no replacement or discount because my Fitbit was more than a year old (by about 2 days....).  The only helpful (!!!) suggestion was that I should turn off the stair counting function.  

Since then, the crowning glory has been my having apparently climbed two flights of stairs in the same 15 minute period at about 2am when I simultaneously recorded 15 minutes of deep sleep......load of bulls**t! 

[HNK46]

Thankyou Gavinwells for being so persistent with this issue. I too had a FitBit 2 with no issues but updated to the FitBit 4 for the HeartRate feature. Floors worked fine for about a year and a half. Past 6 months I’m suddenly climbing a mountain’s worth of stairs each day even on days I haven’t left the house!

 I’ve read all of your posts (TY) and others’ who’ve tried to follow Lizzy’s instructions which are repetitive and obviously don’t work.
My decision is to ignore the floors counted feature as Useless from now on. Doubt I will purchase another FitBit. Ever. 
**And now, apparently just to be annoying, the label under my screen name has changed 3x. I never chose a label. They did! I’m NOT ‘stepping up’ I’m NOT ‘jogger’ etc. 😤 What next?!!

[EclecticActor]

Same issue. Replaced a Charge 2 with a Charge 4, and it gives credit where no credit is due for stairs. Not crazy overestimating like some of you are experiencing, but very disappointing. Looks like I'll be moving to a non-Fitbit product as well. Sad. I'm a nerd and was enjoying tracking my data over a period of 8 years.

[gavinwells]

I was on this thread a while ago, and had two replacement fitbits but the issue persisted. I moved to another provider who is excellent - Withings - and in so doing have realised my stepcount was overstated on my fitbit by ~15% over a long period.  Sad, but i am done with them

[HydeParkBooks]

It is July 17, 2023, and has been over 2 years since someone posted about how Charge 4 overcounts floors and it is still occurring. I had just started using my 4 again after not using it for at least a year which I had to do because the Fitbit I had been previously using died. I started using the Charge 4 again on July 5 and soon as I started using the 4 it started overcounting floors. I knew they were overcounting because I could barely walk for several days because of foot injury so there is no way I could have been climbing as many floors as they claimed 51 when I could barely walk. Secondly, I was on the couch in my one floor house and didn't venture outside much not even to walk the dog so either I have imaginary floors in my house that I'm not aware of or Fitbit doesn't know how to count floors. My bet is on the latter that Fitbit doesn't know how to count floors and that they've done nothing to fix this glitch