Most common problems gathered in one post

[pilv13]

Most common problems with Charge 3 so far:

I rounded these up from these forums for your convenience. Any opinions expressed inside (brackets) are my own and are purely speculation.

- Battery dead on arrival. post1 post2
- Dead screen on arrival. post1 post2
- Dangerously inaccurate heart rate tracking (might be impossible to fix 100% due to limited sensors. Any fix would affect battery life. The issue might not affect all devices based on reports). post1 post2
- Have to reboot all the time because of loads of issues (99.9% certain will get fixed over time). post1 post2
- Sleep is not getting tracked properly. post1 post2
- Steps are getting recorded while driving a car (might get fixed with a software update, wouldn't hold my breath). post1 post2 post3
- Swim tracking is very inaccurate. post1
- UI is badly designed (might or might not get fixed with a software update). post1 post2 post3 post4 post5 post6 post7 post8 post9
- Weather is very slow to synch post1 
- Loads of synchronization problems, especially with iPhones (will 99.9% certain get fixed over time). post1 post2 post3 post4
- Cannot adjust screen turn off delay. post1 
- Doesn't disable screen wakeups during night automatically (might get fixed, wouldn't hold my breath). suggestion
- Inaccurate step tracking  post1 post2 post3 post4 post5 post6
- Heart rate monitor doesn't work properly with tattoos (probably can't be fixed). post1
- Very few clock faces and no date (they are 99.99% certain going to fix this, don't worry). suggestion
- Does not synch with MyFitnessPal (fixed). post1 post2
- Really bad support for Fitbit NFC payment globally (seem like mostly US only feature, don't hold your breath Europe) post1
- Cheap hardware (you get what you pay for, see posts about hw problems). 

- Cannot be turned off post1

 - No always on screen option post1

- Legibility of the screen post1 suggestion1  suggestion2

NOTE: Even though some people are having issues with their Charge 3 there are many more people out there whose Charge 3 is working as intended by Fitbit.

[pilv13]

Let me know if I've missed something big and I'll update the list. But I think this should pretty much sum it up for the major issues.

[abbit]

I want one!

Especially since the fitbit does not sync with Google Fit 

[seantnash]

I received my Fitbit Charge 3 yesterday. Here are my experiences (so far) on a few of the points:

Dangerously inaccurate heart rate tracking

I have extremely accurate heart rate tracking on my Fitbit Charge 3. I compared my Fitbit's heart rate by both taking my own pulse and by using my medical grade blood pressure monitor. Both these methods gave me exactly the same heart rate as my Fitbit Charge 3.

Inaccurate Step Tracking

I did an extended manual count of my steps alongside wearing the Fitbit Charge 3 and they were both exactly the same figure.

Sleep is not getting tracked properly

My sleep tracked perfectly. The only thing that didn't happen was the light / deep / REM graph, just the old style simplified sleep details (which I actually prefer anyway).

Steps are getting recorded while driving a car

This is true of every Fitbit and, I suspect, most wrist worn fitness trackers. When you steer your wrist moves. It's the same as steps recorded when sleeping. It's going to be a minimal number that won't really make a difference overall. Though, when you think about it, driving (and tossing / turning in your sleep) are activity anyway, albeit fairly minimal, so having a few extra steps counted isn't really a problem.

UI is badly designed

Personally I really like the UI so I guess this is a personal opinion thing (I was using a Fitbit Blaze previously).

Loads of synchronization problems, especially with iPhones

I have the iPhone XS Max and have had absolutely no synchronisation problems whatsoever.

[pilv13]

Hello people. I spent a couple of hours linking the first post with some of the posts that reported the problems! I hope this helps.

[pilv13]

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@seantnash wrote:

I received my Fitbit Charge 3 yesterday. Haven't worn it for a proper walk to verify accuracy of steps but here are my experiences (so far) on a few of the other points

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I'm really glad to hear not everyone is having these issues!

[pilv13]

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@abbit wrote:

I want one!

Especially since the fitbit does not sync with Google Fit 

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There's a third party app for that, fortunately. I'm gonna try it out and see how well it works when I get my Charge 3.

[seantnash]

I can now also add I’ve had the opportunity to compare Fitbit Charge 3’s step count with a manual step count and they are both exactly the same.

[SunsetRunner]

Steps are getting recorded while driving a car

This is true of every Fitbit and, I suspect, most wrist worn fitness trackers. When you steer your wrist moves. It's the same as steps recorded when sleeping. It's going to be a minimal number that won't really make a difference overall. Though, when you think about it, driving (and tossing / turning in your sleep) are activity anyway, albeit fairly minimal, so having a few extra steps counted isn't really a problem.

No, this isn't about driving a car but about the driving mode. Driving mode covers any type of motorised journeys, whether you're actually driving or a passenger, in a car, a bus, a train, etc. It isn't an actual activity but Fitibt's once-size-fits-all solution to compensate for inaccurately tracking bionic-level movements while people in reality aren't moving at all. It's indeed a problem with all their trackers but they could have easily fixed this with an off or driving button on this one. It's a known issue.

[seantnash]

I’ve just taken a half hour train journey and my steps haven’t increased at all *shrug*

[SunsetRunner]

Well good for you, but it's a well-documented issue for many people

[LawrenceH]

I'd done about 300 steps and 2 flights of stairs this morning, but after arriving at work by motorbike it was showing 7500 steps and 107 flights.  I'm now up to 8067 steps when in reality it's more like 500.

[seantnash]

That’s definitely a case for Fitbit support then Lawrence! 

[pilv13]

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@LawrenceH wrote:

I'd done about 300 steps and 2 flights of stairs this morning, but after arriving at work by motorbike it was showing 7500 steps and 107 flights.  I'm now up to 8067 steps when in reality it's more like 500.

@seantnash wrote:

That’s definitely a case for Fitbit support then Lawrence! 

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Heh, yeah. I'd definitely be interested in seeing if they're willing to replace your tracker based on that 

[LawrenceH]

Fortunately I bought it from Amazon so I'll be going for a refund.  Very disappointed with what was meant to be a premium product.  It's also useless as a watch since there's no way of keeping the display on, but that's just a niggle.  The step count inaccuracy makes it completely useless.

[RogerBest]

Most of that applies to my Charge 2 - which is why I have stopped using it - which is why I will not be buying a Charge 3.

[Rilkerae]

Thank you for this. I have never had a Fitbit and the Charge 3 is my first. Last night I went to bed, had 42 steps, which made sense. About half an hour later I had well over 300 steps. I was only in bed, looking at my phone, barely moving, and I was awake, so it was not tossing and turning while sleeping. I have read that there is no way to delete steps, which is ridiculous to me--a device like this which is on your wrist should have a way of correcting your steps that isn't pretending you drove for half a hour or some such.

I have also found that it is adding steps as I sit at my desk at work and type. Not too many, but I am not even moving my elbows, so it is odd. It would be great if I could add a custom activity called "just sitting at work, not walking at all" ( I joke, but even being so new to this it seems I should not have had over 2,000 steps before I even left the house). Am I supposed to add "driving" all the time just to negate the miscounted steps? The device is not that convenient if I have to b manually updating it constantly...

[fegriffith]

Font size.  Font size.  Font size.  Too small.  Too small.  Too small.  Too light, too light, too light.

Post 1

Post 2

Post 3

(wow, weird, I'm doing everything in threes today...)

[tommycat]

The only other items I have are the size of font and the wonky and backwards way to arrange the dashboard  Can the font  be increased?  The dashboard is like the charge 2 and original charge hr. And  I never found that intuitive. To have to put a x to keep it and a plus to remove. Thanks for sharing and getting everything together!

[LawrenceH]

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@LawrenceH wrote:

I'd done about 300 steps and 2 flights of stairs this morning, but after arriving at work by motorbike it was showing 7500 steps and 107 flights.  I'm now up to 8067 steps when in reality it's more like 500.

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Just to follow up on this now I'm home, my phone (iphone 6s, ios12) has recorded 3560 steps and 4 flights of stairs for today (which I think is reasonably accurate, I didn't do that much walking) whereas the fitbit has recorded 18480 steps and 197 flights of stairs.  If I'd done 197 flights of stairs in one day I'd be dead