Inaccurate Step Count

[kikisaurus]

My Fitbit Charge HR seems to be over-estimating my step count and/or mis-assigning workouts based on motion. Specifically, yesterday I spent 6 hours driving, I got in the car in the morning with something like 1300 steps. By the time I got home it had counted an additional 8k + steps and logged some of the time driving as bike rides. I got out of the car maybe twice on my trip, and it could not have been more than 100 steps total.

I understand that the hand placement and vibration of driving might "confuse" the device, should I be taking it off when I drive to ensure I get an accurate count? I prefer keeping it on because it tracks my HR and heps me control my stress level while driving (I'm near WDC - it's brutal here). This seems to be a more recent issue, I did not have this problem (or not this noticeably) until yesterday.

[SantiR]

@kikisaurus Welcome to the Fitbit Community! There is a quick solution about this! There is an application you can download to your phone, which is called Drivefit. This application will prevent your tracker from counting steps while driving and should track the rest of the data. This app should help you a lot.

Try the app out and let me know how i goes! 

[kikisaurus]

So let me see if I understand this... I have to buy a third party app (the free one is garbage) in order for my Fitbit to be able to accurately count steps and not count driving in my step count? Why not just incorporate a function similar to the Drivebit app into the Fitbit dashboard so you can manually log drive time the same way you manually log exercise, and food and water intake? This makes no sense. I love my Fitbit, but this is frustrating and having to use another app like a stopwatch to record my driving time (unless I get the paid version) is really inconvenient. 

[SantiR · Accepted solution]

@kikisaurus I hope you're doing well! It is possible to log "driving" as an activity and that should remove some extra steps gained while driving. Go to Log > activities > type in "driving" > log activity. 

Try that out and let me know how it goes! 

[kikisaurus]

That is exactly what I was looking for! I did not know you could log driving under exercise activities, that is not very intuitive. Thank you!

[Andypandy]

So can I put in tennis ? It's actually wheelchair tennis

[hoosiers62]

I also noticed this while driving with my arm out the window, the arm my fitbit is on. It started going off at 10k and i wasnt walking.  How do i get this to stop.  We had a 30 miles 30 days health tracking thing and I am quite sure some people were doing this and it was recording fake steps

[SantiR]

@hoosiers62 Welcome to the Fitbit Community! You can log an activity as driving to delete steps on your dashboard. You can also download DriveBit, which is an applications you activate before driving and it will prevent fake steps to be counted.

Try that out and let me know how it goes! 

[SantiR]

@Andypandy I hope you're doing well! Sorry for the delayed response, I was investigating more about wheelchair tennis. Steps will be counted by your tracker every time you swing your hand to hit the ball. To prevent those steps from being counted you can use any of the two suggestion on my previous post. Also, you can manually log an activity as "tennis" or "table tennis", try both to see which one works better for you.

Let me know how it goes! 

[NielsMark]

It seems that there are a very big issue with inaccurate step count - actually I have difficulty seeing the benefit of having a Fitbit Wristband....

Ive been using Fitbit for 3 weeks  with appr. 25.000 steps each week.

I've several times wondering why it counts 20-30% below actual stepcount.

2 examples....

1)  When walking 100 steps - repeted 5 times. Charge HR counts betw. 62 and 84 steps.

2) Yesteday I run 2 x 1 Km as an exercise. 1. km hit 582 step  - 2 km hit 624 step counted in Fitbit.  Actual steps were about 850 steps/km.

Please help me - I didn't know that a fitness tracker were so wrong about step counting ..... there must be something wrong.... somewhere.

br.

Niels M

[SantiR]

@NielsMark Welcome to the Fitbit Community! I will recommend to perform a restart on your Charge HR. That should fix any inaccuracies. Also, check the dominant hand setting! That will increase accuracy. If you want to fix previous inaccuracies on your runs; try to manually add an activity! 

As another tip, adjust your stride length. Doing this will better accuracy overall. It is always good to have everything in order.

Try that out and let me know how it goes! 

[pp6191]

I just started another post about these same issues.  I type for a living and am very sedentary during my work hours.  This morning I did a test.  I checked how many steps were logged on my Fitbit, typed for a half hour, never getting out of my chair, and then checked my Fitbit again.  I logged over 200 steps!  This is ridiculous.  I can't turn an app on and off every time I want to get up and walk the 20 steps it will take to use the bathroom, or get a drink, etc.  I also have activities being logged on my dashboard that I didn't perform, usually listed as biking, when I was sedentary or sometimes just doing something around the house.  My Flex worked great...this Charge HR is getting on my nerves.

[kikisaurus]

Do you wear it on your dominant hand or your non dominant hand? If you are right handed and wear it on your right, your count will be higher. You have to go in and set it so to dominant hand. At the same time, if it is set to dominant and you wear it on your non dominant hand, step count will likely be low. I noticed my step count seemed high because I also work at a desk all day and realized I was wearing it on my dominant hand (I just happen to dislike wearing watches on my left hand) and it was set to being worn on my non-dominant hand. I changed it and it was much more accurate after that. 

[ohiobetsy]

So I guess I have a similar issue as those who are having steps register while driving.  Today my husband and I went out on our boat.  I had looked at my steps before we got on and I was just over 7000.  While we were riding around, it vibrated that I had hit 10,000 steps.  We've gone out on the boat before, and I do not think it counted steps, but maybe the only way I would notice is if it vibrated while we were out.  The lake was a  little rougher today so maybe that was it-there was a little more vertical motion.  But this didn't show up as a activity so I can't attempt to edit it-I guess it was just counting as if I was just moving normally throughout my day.  Just curious if anyone  has suggestions as to how to eliminate this or if you've had it happen too.

An update-yesterday we took the boat out 2 hours on a smooth lake.  I put my Charge HR in my purse before getting on.  It still logged about 6500 steps during this time, along with a heart rate!

[Angie99]

hi there, my fitbit has been broken and sitting on the shelf the last week and a half and I just got an email stating I walked over 7000 steps last week.  This seems strange since it has not been worn or touched.  Id say that was very inaccurate...

[lezlyrs]

My flex also worked better. I stopped even wearing my HR charge because its not right. I have a friend that goes for a mile or 2 walks. I go for 4 mile walks. Im way more active than her. She logged a little over 4,000 steps for a mile. I walked 4 miles and will get 6000 steps.

[nkmcc]

lezlyrs, I also get low step counts if I am walking quickly with some arm swing. If I reduce my arm swing or put the Charge HR in my pocket it is dead on. I would bet that is the issue.

[ohiobetsy]

That is interesting that you get more steps counted with less arm movement.  Before I switched to manual tracking, I was walking in the rain one morning and it counted no steps for the time when I carried my umbrella in the same hand as the wrist with the Fitbit. 

But the differences lezlyrs sees with step counting and miles vs. her friend may be due to whatever stride length they have entered into their personal data.  I tried to measure my stride but apparently didn't walk far enough such that it was as long as it is when I am walking for exercise.  I finally went and calculated my stride length based on the distance of my route (measured by my car odometer) and the number of steps.  So now it records mileage closer to what I believe the distance is.

[Mixin_DJ]

I've been battling step accuracy on my HR since the last update. When wearing the fitbit, regardless of what arm or dominant setting, when walking 100 steps, it's only count between 60-70 of those steps. However if I put the fitbit in my pocket, it counts my steps almost perfect. I spoke with support, they sent me a new one. When I received it, before pairing with my phone, I tested it by wearing it and walking 100 steps. It counted it perfect. I tested it 3 times. Each time steps were accurate. I then synced with the app on my phone and it did an update to the fitbit. I tested again and back to only counts 60-70 steps when wearing it on your arm. Again in the pocket it counts fine. I also tested while wearing restricting my hand from moving while walking, it counted accurate. So it appears movement of the arm is causing it not to count all the steps. I also find it odd it was accurate until it performed an update. So for now when excercising I put the fitbit in my pocket, but then the heart rate monitor is useless.

[jvang]

Nielsmark - were your arms swinging while walking?  I have found that if my arms are down and swinging a I walk the fitbit underestimates the steps counted by around 30%. If I hold the lower arm parallel to the ground while walking it counts accurately.  Makes quite a difference and not sure why Fitbit should make logarithm like this since most of our walking, except when excersing specifically, will be with arms down. Any comments from the support team on this?