Charge floor count highly inaccurate

[laurafs325]

I spent most of the day in one room giving a training.  At the end of the work day, my charge said I had climbed 18 flights of stairs.  Ridiculous!  What's more, I feel that the steps were way low.  In the past, I've compared a Fitbit that recorded stairs against one that didn't.  The one that recorded stairs had too many flights of stairs and about 1,000 fewer steps than the device that didn't count stairs.  

I've loved having a Fitbit and I had upgraded about 3 times.  This might be the last time, if the upgrades count stairs and steps as oddly.

[Anwulf]

I put mine on right before Zumba. When I left, I had 25 floors. By the time I drove home...29.

?????

[CindyFitbit · Accepted solution]

Hey @laurafs325 @Anwulf welcome to the Community! Fitbit Charge tracks floors with an altimeter affected by air pressure, so any change on it could affect its readings, for example A/C. You can learn more about this at our help article. 

@laurafs325 About  your steps, if  you feel that the amount you are seeing is not accurate, you can adjust the sensibility of  your tracker by changing the dominant hand setting in your dashboard. Check out our help articles for reference. 

In case you want to negate the incorrect data, we have a workaround, give it a try! 

If after all the above, the issue persists, please restart your tracker and test it. 

Let me know how it goes! 

[AlohaAndrea]

I've had the same issue for only a few days. I've had no changes to either my routine, or anything else. Today when I got home from work, it said 28 floors, which is already very high. I drove to yoga I came back and now it's at 62 floors. Like I said it's only been the past few days so I don't know what is going on!

I was thinking, its almost as if it's suddenly started reading the elevation of where I live. It used to only track it when I would walk down to the bottom of the hill and back… I knew I would get 29 or 30 floors. But now, it's doing it driving perhaps?

[CindyFitbit]

Hey there @AlohaAndrea! Driving can make your tracker pick up some steps and floors incorrectly, this is due to the vibration inside the vehicle. If  you want to delete this false data, please check our help article. 

Let me know how it goes! 

[AlohaAndrea]

Well....nothing has changed at all, and the count climbs when I'm not in the car as well. This was a 3 minute drive. The point missing is I've had it 2 months, and all of a sudden this happened. Now, it's been windy here at night, but I can't imagine if I'm indoors that would have affected it this much. 68 floors? It wasn't even a work day. I did my valley down-and-up which always adds 29-30 as we are at about 300ft elevation. Customer support said to restart my fb.

[CindyFitbit]

Hey @AlohaAndrea! If you feel that your Charge is not working properly and the restart didn't fix the issue, the best step here is contacting support again, so they can further investigate and evaluate your case. I'm sure they will be glad to help you. 

In the meantime, I recommend checking our warranty policy for reference. 

Keep me posted! 

[AlohaAndrea]

Hey Cindy! I was hopeful...I restarted and for 2 days it was back to normal. The yesterday, I got home and it was at 17...normal for my work day. I was fussing in the kitchen for an hour....prepping dinner and such, and looked and it said 23. Again, nothing different than ever before. I've contacted customer service, as I've restarted, cleaned, wear loosely etc. will keep you posted and thanks for the suggestions!

[CindyFitbit]

Thanks for letting me know @AlohaAndrea I appreciate it! I'm sure support will be glad to take care of this and evaluate  your case. 

In the meantime, have you checked our Discussions board? There you can share your story, find some fitness tips, recipes and more! Give it a look!  

See ya! 

[AlohaAndrea]

Support has now asked me to set it up as a new device. Frankly I don't understand how that will change its data recording so I'm waiting on a reply.

[CindyFitbit]

Thanks for getting back @AlohaAndrea! I'm not sure why they recommendad that troubleshooting, I will send you a private message to follow up about this. 

[captaussie]

I've had a similar situation but it was in Mundss Park, AZ. where after shoveeling snow from the driveway I saw that i had recorded 17 flights but climbed none.  Then I walked ddown to the bottom of the hill (alt. change of about 80+ feet) and upon climbing back recorded only 4 floors.  !! ??  More data below.

I had a similar experience while shoveling snow in Munds Park, AZ.  I spent about 25 minutes shoveling snow from the driveway and saw that I had gained 17 floors.  Then I hiked down to the bottom of the hill and returned but gained only 4 floors.  The actual aaltitude change was just over 80 feet.  Hmmmm'  As an aside I climbed stairs inside a building in Phoenix and gained 150 floors but the fitbit recorded 149.  Hmmmm.  Outside and cold vs inside and warm.  HMMMM!!??

Moderator edit: merged reply

[CindyFitbit]

Hey there @captaussie! Since your Charge tracks floors based on its altimeter, any change in the pressure can affect the readings. You can learn more about this at our help site

Let me know how it goes!  

[marzpage]

What is a work around?

[CindyFitbit]

Hey @marzpage thanks for joining us! A work a round is a method for overcoming an issue, hope it helps!

Catch you later! 

[captaussie]

Thank you for your interest.
My cold weather count 'error?' came the day I shoveled snow in Munds Park (AZ) near Flagstaff.I had walked down a flight of 45 steps with '0' floors and commenced to shovel snow on a level driveway.  I shoveled for about 30+ minutes and noticed that I now had 17 floors.I had used the gps to gauge the difference in elevation to the bottom of the street and back to the driveway and it was a bit over 80 feet but when I hiked back up the hill (a block) it only registered 4 flights.  I felt that it should have been 8 floors.  This was in cold weather (in the 40's).Back in Phoenix, as I might have mentioned, I climbed 150 floors and logged 149 on the Fitbit.  This is why I thought that cold weather might have had something to do with the readings.  Phoenix was warm.
Again thanks for the interest.
Respectfully,
Aussie

[CindyFitbit]

Hey @captaussie you are welcome! Thanks for sharing your experience regarding floor count. If you feel that your Charge keep tracking  your floors wrongly, I recommend contacting support so they can investigate deeply and evaluate your case. 

See you! 

[Chrismoo]

Mine also has floor and step count issues is this a common problem.

My wife and mother-in-law both have Charge HR's and I have just the Charge both of them have 1000's more steps per day than I do and we are walking around all day together so we should have at least a comparable amount of steps.  There is also a wild difference between my Microsoft Band step count and my Charge count - I'm wondering if the Charge has step and floor count issues?

[captaussie]

  Thanks for the update.
Another  floor count problem just showed up.
Just played 9 holes of golf on a relatively flat golf course and at the end I noticed that I have  now 25 floors.  No way.
As to the steps my wife and I walk the same path and our steps are similar to each other.  She has a Fitbit one and I have a Fitbit charge.
Aussie

[Christian_A]

I was on a car ride to a destanation no more than an half an hour away said I climbed 100 flights of steps im kind of upset because this is not accurate at all and messes up my overall data.