Over counting steps

[Leebee50]

Hi, so like others, my charge 2 is over counting, I've a small property and it's not 45 steps from bedroom to bathroom and I don't walk in my sleep, this morning I've woken to 168 steps! Mmmm something isn't right.
I bought the charge 2 yesterday, noticed before bed the steps were inaccurate, put it down to it 'getting used to my movements'. I've set it up as people have advised, less dominant hand, stride length etc.
Please can someone tell me if I've missed something, should I return it, was it a waste of money?
I know people that wear Fitbit and other brands and seem very happy, sadly I'm not and really like the concept of challenging myself, as I'm not confident to join a gym, but sure need to get fit.
Any advice much appreciated and thank you in advance.
Lee (soon to be fitlee I hope x)

Moderator Edit: Edited thread title.

[Azdebbie]

👍

Sent from my iPad

[Stargunner]

I have been on online chat with Fitbit today and they ran some diagnostic checks and looked into my account and have confirmed that there is a fault with mine and that I can exchange it from the store that I purchased it.

Now just deciding whether to get another one or go for a garmin model or even an Apple Watch, decisions decisions

[Azdebbie]

I hear the garmen's are good?

Sent from my iPad

[vle045]

If you are more into fitness rather than the social challenges with Fitbit friends, go for the Garmin.  It has a ton more features on the band.  You can access all notifications until you clear them.  It gives weather for 4 days. It think the HR is pretty close to real time when comparing it to the HR on cardio machines and you can edit your workouts if something goes amiss.  You can also sync, save workouts and connect to your phone from the band.   And you can control your music.  It also included the options for lots and lots of details for workouts.  The app isn't as pretty and can seem cumbersome but you can check it out before getting the device.   I like my Fitbit for the challenges with friends.  And now the swappaple more fashionable bands.  But for workouts and features, I think the Garmin is better.  I don't have experience with Apple Watch.   Garmin does sync with Apple Health. 

[Stargunner]

I got a refund and got myself an Apple Watch series 2 because Apple give you 14 days to try it and if you don't like it or think it's not suitable you can get your money back.

Really liking it so far and works brilliantly with my iPhone.  Plenty of additional apps to chose and have already found a.couple of good ones, one to monitor my sleep and a good gym workout app.

I know that it is a lot more expenxmsive so you do need to take that into consideration.

[vle045]

I am actually surprised that they told you to take it back to the store rather than offering you a replacement if yours was defective Stargunner.  Well, enjoy the Apple Watch.  I know others that have one and they like it.  🙂

[Stargunner]

They gave me 2 options. One was that they would send me a replacement which they said would take up to 10 days. The other was to take it back to the store I purchased it from for an exchange and they emailed me a copy of our chat as authorisation. 

I asked for my money back though which they did for me. 

[vle045]

Gotcha.  That makes sense.  :-).   One thing I can always say for Fitbit so far is that I have always received great customer service.  I have used many different Fitbits as well as trackers from other brands.   No one else's Customer Service has been as consistent and responsive.   Some have been close, but not the same.

[Stargunner]

I agree there customer service was excellent.

My wife has a Fitbit and she likes it, I was just unlucky that mine had a fault, but I do like tech and gadgets so think I will prefer the Apple Watch but it is more than 3 times the price.

[fgp2410]

had (7)fitbit trackers the 1st few years right on the nose . today not one
of them !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 10,000 steps are about 5
miles

[Rich_Laue]

@fgp2410 are you saying that there is a problem? I would be very surprised if your stride was 31.70 inches.

[saxonpaul92]

Since, I performed the steps I listed a couple of weeks ago, my Charge2 has
been very accurate as compared to my phone. 10,000 steps only yields about
400 step difference between the Charge2 and my android phone.


My only recommendation would be to turn off the step tracker when I am
using the "Weights" workout.

[Chandyman]

What about for those of us who are weird, any ideas? I'm not really left handed or right handed. I do certain that things righty and certain things lefty. I got an extra 200 steps from driving to work today! 

[Rich_Laue]

My suggestion  @Chandyman is to be your own detective and experiment. 

I eat and write as a lefthander, but do almost everything else, bowlling throwing, hamner,ring, even cooking, etc as a right hander. I prefer watches on my left arm. Sometimes it is a case of which ever hand is more convieniant. After comparing steps with the fitbit One, i set the tracker to non-dominate.  This seems to he best for me.

[katanel]

Hi all,

I had this morning the chance to wear another tracker in parallel with my Fitbit Charge 2 and indeed Fitbit is over-counting the steps: 300-400 steps at 8AM in the morning while the other tracker has counted only 180 steps.

Anyway, my settings are:

- handedness = right

- wrist = right

- quick-view = off

My dominant hand is the right one and I don't want to wear the tracker on the left one as I put my (analog) watch there.

Any advice?

[katanel]

Hi,

Come on Fitbit! I just found a real stupid bug in the algorithm counting steps:

- sitting in my chair at the desk and just rotating my right (dominating) hand with the tracker on it  (from left to right horizontally) but without moving my body or my feet - this action is just adding steps continuously like 20-30 steps

- changing the tracker on left hand and doing the same thing has added only 1 step

Settings in the app are the same as in my previous post:

- handedness = right

- wrist = right

This should be fixed quickly by developers!

[deocamdata]

Today for me was like this: the distance for biking was added also for the step counting .... that means was doubled ... i had to manually delete it to get the correct value

[katanel]

@Azdebbie

For Driving there are several iOS or Androids applications which will log Driving activity into Fitbit dashboard/website

[GGinColorado]

I'm experiencing the same dang thing.  Sitting at my desk at work, and the Fitbit Charge 2 is showing about 800 more steps than I did.  I bought this on Saturday, used it and thought it was accurate... until!  I discovered, unbeknownst to me, that my I-phone has an app to track my walking steps and was actively doing just that.  I then put both the I-phone app on and the Fitbit Charge 2 on this morning... same time, tracking everything the same.   Way over-counting my steps.  I tried everything suggested here on Saturday, changing handed-ness, wrists, etc. and still over-counting. I'm going to see the end result at the end of the day, comparing the 2, but based on my experience and reviews of the I-phone app, the Fitbit will be going back to Best Buy.  Disappointing.  

[gpt2plon]

Well in my case, I called customer support, then did some troubleshooting and at the end they sent me a new fitbit.

I left mine on a table for several days and it was basically counting around 4-5k by itself.