My Charge 3 is not recognizing my exercise automatically

[AndreaRoga]

My charge 3 is not recognizing automatically the exercise I'm doing. Me and my husband have the same fitbit, the only difference is that he has an iPhone and I have a Samsung... doing the same exercises, he has a report on the exercise tab showing the type of workout (aerobic, sport), time, average heart rate, calories burned and exercise zone... not happening with me... any idea why is that difference?

Moderator edit: subject format

[JuanJoFitbit · Accepted solution]

@AndreaRoga Welcome to our Fitbit Community! I'm sorry to hear that your Charge 3 is not recognizing your exercises automatically. I'd like you to take a look at this help article which explains how your Fitbit tracks your exercises and make sure that you are following the steps listed in the article.

Let me know if the issue persists after following those steps and I'll be happy to follow up! 

[Tessre]

Hi, I am running into this same issue. I did an aerobics class for 60 minutes today. I had it set to auto-recognize aerobic workout over 15 minutes. My "active minutes" was updated, but there is nothing under "exercise".

Any ideas? Thanks.

[rejjp]

Same thing happened to me yesterday. The day before it automatically registered my workout. I had my phone with me though during the work out. This time, I had my phone in a cubby. And nothing! Totally upset about that. I had to manually document. So I am wondering if I have to have my phone on me every time I work out for it to register. I think I am about to return this watch. I am having too many issues.

[armandsalmon]

I am experiencing the same issue with my new Charge 3.

My Charge 2 HR auto detected anything over 15 minutes  Today I chopped wood for about an hour and later at the gym was on eliptical for 20 minutes .. Both raised my active minutes but logged no exercise  

Is there something that needs to be done manually on the charge 3 ?

*EDIT: Found a solution here: 

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Charge-2/Charge-2-not-auto-tracking-exercise-anymore/td-p/1895073

Short Version:

1.) Go into Fitbit App > Exercise

2.) Settings (gear icon) 

3.) Auto Recognized Exercises > (change the time to anything other than what it currently is. I changed all to 14 minutes..) SAVE. 

4.) Go back to dashboard (pull down to sync... May take a few attempts to sync. Previous data will sync (exercises and active minutes.)

5.) You should be able to restore the time setting for auto detected exercise back to 15 minutes or something else. 

In my case, this only happened after getting a new Fitbit so I think the app needs to reassociate that part of the app even though the new tracker is already added. 

[rejjp]

I am not sure. I returned my fitbit and got a Garmin. I have not had any problems with my Garmin.

[Gerryoz]

That fix worked perfectly for me, thank you 🙏 

[JuanJoFitbit]

@Gerryoz Welcome to our Fitbit Community! I'm so glad to hear that your Charge 3 is working properly now. Thank you for posting the update here.

I'd like to invite you to visit our Discussions board where you can share your experiences, meet people and create new topics.

Hope to see you in our Fitbit Community more often! 

[BB_1]

Mine is doing the same thing. I have the Fitbit charge 3 and there has been a few times my app won’t recognize my exercise but it will for my active minutes pulse and steps. Why is this and how do I fix it. It is on automatic so it’s suppose to recognize it automatically

[JuanJoFitbit]

@BB_1 Thank you for joining us in this thread and our Fitbit forums! I'm sorry for the late response. However, I want to follow up and would like to know if the issue persists or if your Charge 3 is recognizing your exercises automatically.

In addition, I'd like you to take a look at this help article, which explains how your tracker recognizes your exercises.

Keep me posted! 

[Lisa1531]

I am also having this problem. It tracks active minutes etc but not the exercise. And I reset it to track after 10mins today to see if that would help and still nothing. 

Also if I manually set it to track “workout” it tells me my pace. Even tho it’s a hiit workout I’m doing. How do I change that back to calories used like it used to show?

Thanks, Lisa

[ktGraham]

I am having this problem too. And this "solution" doesn't work for me

1. On your tracker, open the Exercise app.
2. Swipe left to find the exercise type.
3. Tap the exercise to select it.
4. Tap Start to begin the exercise, or Set Goal to choose a time, distance, or calorie goal, depending on the activity.
5. Tap the middle of the screen to scroll through your real-time stats. On Charge 3, your progress toward your maximum heart rate is shown on an indicator next to your beats per minute.
6. When you're done with your workout or want to pause, press the button. Note that if you set an exercise goal, Charge 3 vibrates and flashes when you reach the goal.
7. To end the workout, press the button again and tap Finish. Swipe up to see your workout summary. Tap the check mark to close the summary screen.

THERE IS NOTHING WHEN I SWIPE LEFT?

And here too,

1. On the Fitbit app dashboard tap the Exercise tile to open your exercise history. This is the tile that says "Track exercise" if you haven't worked out today. If you've already worked out, you'll see the exercise category on the tile instead (for example, Run or Hike).
2. Tap the gear icon in the top right corner and tap your weekly exercise goal to change it.

There is nothing there after tapping the gear icon.

And here too- under GOALS > EXERCISE - the screen is blank

If you skip this guided (personal) goal setting or want to make a change, you can do so at any time: 

1. From the Fitbit app dashboard, tap or click the Account icon ( ).
2. Scroll to the Goals section.
3. Tap the goal you want to view or adjust.
4. Tap the individual element of the goal and follow the onscreen instructions to adjust it. 

Moderator edit: merged replies

[Lia_of_Whiterun]

I'm very frustrated (and DEmotivated) with trying to use the Charge3.  It syncs very, very erratically.  I've lost whole workouts to the ether.  It is claimed to have integration with apps like TrainingPeaks and RunKeeper but, neither has worked for me so far, despite disconnecting and reconnecting everything.  I was a Pebble owner so I hoped that buying FitBit (which bought out and for a brief while supported Pebble) would be a win.  Not finding it so.  I found my partner a 50 dollar tracker, which has a color display, its own app, and all.  I'm left wondering why I fell for the Charge3 hype.  The heart rate tracking is acceptable and that's pretty much it.

[KittyFerret]

I just upgraded to a Charge 3 from my Charge HR. The HR ALWAYS automatically tracked and recorded my treadmill use, but the 3 only does it sometimes. Why is this thread implying that you have to manually start treadmill tracking but the Fitbit occasionally does it automatically? Yet why did my HR always do it but my newer 3 doesn’t  always?

I just upgraded to a Charge 3 from my Charge HR. The HR ALWAYS automatically tracked and recorded my treadmill use, but the 3 only does it sometimes. Why is this thread implying that you have to manually start treadmill tracking but the Fitbit occasionally does it automatically? Yet why did my HR always do it but my newer 3 doesn’t  always?

Moderator edit: merged reply

[Go4sharon]

Ok. over the past 4 weeks since I received my charge 3 (on Jan 11. upgraded from Alta), I have taken multiple hours, and  feel that I’ve been very patient. I’ve rebooted. Deleted. Added. Changed exercise min times. Synced. Synced. Synced. Bluetooth on/off. Phone reset. Rebooted. Purchased new bands. Worn them tighter. Looser. Further out on wrist.

I’ve only had 5 consecutive days of auto exercise tracking.

Please tell me there is something else that can be done? Or should I not be expecting auto tracking? 

I had ZERO issues with this on my Alta. (The weather sync sucks but that I can live with). 

Sorry my frustration is not towards anyone- just the product. Thanks in advance. 

Sorry. I should also put that I exercise almost daily. (Mostly elliptical & treadmill walking). Thanks!

Moderator edit: merged reply

[KittyFerret]

@armandsalmon was right! Click the exercise tile in the app. Click the gear settings icon. Change all the auto recognize times to 14 minutes or any other number. Save. This worked for me! 

[MichaelaIvanova]

Charge 3 is not recognizing your exercises automatically, active minutes and calories get updated but exercise is not added.

Unfortunately did not work for me, I've been using it for 2 months only walking get auto logged. I tried sync restart sync restart but in vain. 

Moderator edit: merged reply

[Lia_of_Whiterun]

Hi everyone,

I think the Samsung Galaxy phones are really popular this year, so I wonder if anyone, anywhere, has looked into whether something in the Samsung OS is causing some of our problems.  Me, I no longer claim my Charge3 does many of the things that FitBit claims it does.  I am stuck with it for now (and I admit it's okay for sleep tracking and HR tracking during workouts WHEN I SET IT to do a workout manually).  I'm tired of testing out strategies to try and make mine do what it is supposed to.  This is a MUCH more simpleminded device than the developers claim it is.

[Mssoup67]

I changed the time on the auto-recognize walks and it worked for awhile, but it’s back to not recognizing the exercise again. If I log it in manually, it takes away the active minutes. Example - I took my dogs on a walk this evening. We walked .8 miles and it took about 20 minutes. The watch recorded 20 active minutes, but no exercise. I manually logged the exercise and it removed the active minutes. I’ve had a Charge HR 1, 2, and now a 3. This was never an issue with the other 2. 

[MichaelaIvanova]

Hi,I am using Huawei P20 Pro I am having exactly the same issue, nothing helps.