Fitbit Charge 3 way too many stairs

[WDiamantoni]

Going on a bus ride for a backpacking trip I gained 130 stairs climbed, I don’t know why the Charge 3 is so sensitive towards stairs climbed but was looking for a solution.

Moderator edit: subject format

[msbruin97]

Yesterday my Charge 3 tracked 179 flights of stairs and awarded me 3 new badges! Only problem is I climbed about 3. Feels like I'm a broken record with the others on this thread, but it's very frustrating. This problem just started last week and rebooting has not worked. Please help!

[AssassinGoddess]

I’m having the same problem as everyone else.  My Fitbit charge 3 counts a ridiculously large number of stairs.  And that isn’t the only issue I’ve encountered with it.  I’ve followed all the instructions and nothing fixes it.  

I loved the charge 2 except for the lousy strap (I got a free replacement strap for that but it lasted even less time)

Now I am just about to toss the charge 3 in the trash and never buy a Fitbit product again!!  Is there no answer? No free reliable replacement?  Very poor product and no satisfactory solution.  Word of mouth from a lot of disgruntled consumers will do this company no good

[SunsetRunner]

It seems as if Fitbit is not going to reply to this issue here. In the many topics about this, I see people complaining about the lack of feedback. What worries me more is that many have had the Charge 2 and switched to the Charge 3 and they all report the same: it used to be OK and now it's not. So, may we conclude it is a design flaw and Fitbit is afraid they need to start replacing products? I would appreciate Fitbit to just say it is aware of the problem and is working on it, instead of giving bogus workarounds.

I switched from 2 to 3 in 2019. In July 2018 I did a steep mountain climb and a portion of that was logged as stairs. The rest is pretty accurate. In 2019 it just started to get weird. No correlation with any activity. All is to do with the different way the Charge 3 is designed/programmed.

[Bryan_Z]

Just like many others, I have the same problem. It occurs specifically when I'm driving on my scooter. I have a feeling the airflow and vibrations might disturb the readings. Given that it uses GPS as well, I assume Fitbit could easily filter out the data since it's unlikely I'm climbing stairs with 50 km/h.

[Queen_Crouch]

I requested the Charge 3 for my birthday and one of the reasons was that it would count stairs -- a stat that is very important to me.  Why are we not getting responses to this thread that has been ongoing for months???

[hmthrman]

Mostly because the Fitbit community and their legal department contacted me
and told me to cease and desist. Google has since bought Fitbit out as I
posted some months ago and it is a fact and it is the reason why they are
unsuccessful and have products that are faulty and unreliable. They could
not compete with the likes of Samsung or the Apple watch. So my advice to
you is just get your money back and spend the extra money and get a Samsung
or an Apple watch. Until Fitbit sends me another product I will not be
silent and their legal department can threaten me all day long but this is
Free speech and it is an opinion that I share with many people that are
having problems with this product. Good luck to you I'm sorry that I
couldn't be of more help to you.

[SunsetRunner]

Care to explain more about the cease and desist issue? 

[Queen_Crouch]

It seems like a simple fix would be to include "driving" on the "exercise" activities easily accessible from the device itself.  That would at least make logging that time appropriately a lot more convenient.  Is there any way to update the software on the device to do that?

[hmthrman]

I can say I am a techy guy I install home theaters for a living and I can
say I have tried everything that was suggested by other people including
'FITBIT" support staff.

[SunsetRunner]

See here: https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Charge-3/Incorrect-floors-being-tracked/m-p/3524310/highlight/true#M...

And here: https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Charge-3/Wildly-inaccurate-floor-count/m-p/3725021#M92563

As I posted before, it is not that difficult to solve this issue:

If a device is moving fast and does not stay in the same position (like when driving a car), the probability that the device is moving up a staircase is nihil. With a little bit of intelligence, the device, or at least the app, should be able to make a distinction between a person going up a floor, or another factor is making it think it is (like air flow in a car).

And here: https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Charge-3/Wildly-inaccurate-floor-count/m-p/3709957/highlight/true#M9...

Moderator edit: merged reply

[hmthrman]

Excuse me, none of these things solved my issue which was the FACE display
is fading and therefore the screen has a difficult time switching modes. I
am not speaking to this particular issue any more. But as a solution, the
watch and the things you say to do DID NOT solve the issues I was once
having.

As I STATED BEFORE, I am very techy, and issues such as this do not
normally cause ANY confusion to me. So my "INTELLIGENCE" as you stated it,
does not reflect my inability to perform simple reboots or adjustments. I
read 1-2 tech manuals weekly on different kinds of Home Theater equipment,
and I assure you this takes a great deal more of technical savoy to
understand.

Thanks for your input, although it wasted my time, your time and
everyone else'
s who is still having problems.


Mike M

[SkyG]

I too am having this issue, yesterday I actually climbed 4 flights but my tracker counted 163, when sitting at my desk all day (where I will climb on average 12 flights/day total) I am often recording anywhere between 50 and 220 flights.  

[Ampereira]

Why should we have to "delete" stairs and have inaccurate calorie count. Isn't that the whole.point of a Fitbit. Stand behind your product and fix it!!!

[AssassinGoddess]

Thank you hmthrman  for your efforts!  Please do keep it up.  As for me, Fitbit has lost me as a customer.  The charge 3 is a huge disappointment!

[hmthrman]

 They had sent me an e-mail saying I cannot say the things I am saying on the Fitbit community web page, and that their legal dept. would take action against me unless I stopped posting things like this that were against their community posting rules.

I don't care I have faced greater challenges before and a little e-mail isn't going to deter me from posting my experience with their product that was said in truth and yes, some frustration.I have since purchased a Charge -2 that was upgraded and paid just 20.00's for it off of Craigslist, so far so good.

I'm sorry I couldn't be more help but I don't want to get you entangled in my mess, I'll take one for the team. 

Thanks, Mike M

I have tried EVERYTHING, you posted, and it DIDN'T work...I install electronics every day and I can assure you I can work a simple watch. Thanks though....

Been there done that, I tried everything. I can assure you I have been on many internet chat rooms to get suggestions and the device itself isn't working as it should because all those suggestions are now exhausted.

Moderator edit: merged reply

[SunsetRunner]

Same here... Tried everything. Was very polite and patient. Also tried to share and comment on this forum. None of the admins that I included in the many posts have actually constructively helped out. I, like many others, tried to offer suggestions and provided feedback, all to no avail. 

In the end, I resigned and opted for the replacement. I will be using it until it starts to fail (I am certain it will at some point start doing the same thing) and then switch to a better alternative. 

It’s a pity really, because form factor and feature set are exactly what I was looking for. But after having exchanged two Fitbit’s, I can’t say I am happy with the product. It did not perform as advertised. I am disappointed with Fitbit. 

For anyone reading this:

Think twice before you buy a Charge 3. There are too many issues with this device. 

[hmthrman]

Thank you for treating me with respect and responding in a manner that
doesn't make me insane with frustration. I hope you find what you are
looking for and deserve as a means to keep fit and healthy.

Mike M


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[SunsetRunner]

I don’t know why Fitbit’s answer to everything is restart it.  I have 153 flights today and should have had maybe 4.  I am averaging over 200 flights s day and one of every 5 days says I did not sleep or got up at 1pm.

Fitbit Charge 3’s are not inexpensive.  My wife’s Fitbit now takes hours to sync.  Come on Google or we are all going to Apple.

[SunsetRunner]

Just a quick update for those that added to this thread, or those that have not seen the many other topics posted about this issue and came here to find an answer.

My Charge 2 was replaced with a Charge 3 and soon after, I was getting erratic readings. After lots of trials, updates, restarts, posting here, reaching out to support and finally getting the faulty device replaced by a new Charge 3, I can now say that the replacement is still working fine.

As you can see in the graph, everything seems to be running fine since the replacement.

One thing to note is that I have kept the Fitbit away from water, which seems to be the main reason for misreadings to happen. I am still disappointed about the way Fitbit is handling this and the fact they are still, after all this time, persistent in downplaying the issue and offering nonsense workarounds to people complaining about the same problem.