Steps and miles not accurate

[fitibitmomma]

I got my charge HR in May 2015. I loved it. I started walked a 3.5 mile loop with a friend every morning. By the time I finished the loop, the tracker showed around 4 miles and around 8-9000 steps. This included getting my 2 toddlers up and ready and out the door to meet my friend... Not a quick or easy process. My husband has a surge. He always got 10-20% more steps and mileage than me on any walk we did together... Extremely frustrating when doing challenges with him. I chased 2 kids all day while he sat at a desk, and I barely beat him in a challenge? So last April we spent a weekend together walking all over DC and our trackers were way off. I had 20k steps one day and he had 30k. There were huge discrepancies in our miles and steps. We walked the same 3.5 mile loop and my charge HR measured 2.2 miles and only 3000 steps. So I called and got a replacement, and guess what.... It isn't any better!!!!!! Measures the same 3.5 loop as 2.2 miles. And I have since walked it with 2 other people wearing charge HRs and they are only getting around 2.5 miles too. Is there a major flaw with the Charge HR? It worked beautifully for me until last Spring, and then everything just went down in all of my counts. Getting a new tracker made no difference. I am beyond frustrated with these things and not even motivated to do challenges anymore. I can walk 5 miles and only get "credit" for 3. Is it time to just jump ship for an Apple Watch?

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[DC2099]

I can relate. My wife also has a charge HR and a friend of mine has the Blaze - both register significantly more steps than I do when we do the same walks. To put this to a true like for like test, I asked my wife to wear my Fitbit Charge HR next to hers (thus on the same arm) and duplicated alll of her settings for a day on my device so it was a true 'like for like' comparison - step distance, non-dominant arm etc. She usually does between 20,000 and 30,000 steps a day. She wore mine next to hers for 24 hours and there was almost 2000 steps difference, with my device being the one recording less steps.

I've also tried rebooting the device but to no avail. I thought these would all be the same, but clearly not. I'm at a loss of what to do next - if I had realised this within the money back guarantee period I would have returned it and got the Blaze. Now I feel stuck with an innacurate Charge HR device - I have contacted customer services now to see if there is anything they can advise me to do that I haven't tried yet.

I've also tried rebooting the device but to no avail - it remains inaccurate. I've also spotted it doesn't always start recording the steps I do at the beginning of each daily cycle and I have to jolt my hand against my leg to get the steps to begin to register - on one occasion I spotted that I had been moving around for almost an hour and the Charge HR hadn't registered a single step. Believe me, I'm not a Ninja!

I thought these would all be the same given it is mass manufactured technology, but clearly not in this case. I love the principles of Fitbit and what it records etc but I am frustrated that my particular Fitbit is innacurate. Hopefully customer services will be able to advise me on what my options are.

[fitibitmomma]

Walked 2.78 miles with a group yesterday... My Fitbit logged 1.6. Beyond frustrating. And the new replacement one is bubbling... Not even 4 months old.

[fitibitmomma]

Did a step count... It was off by at least 20 steps each time.

[MarreFitbit]

Hello guys @fitibitmomma @DC2099, welcome to the Fitbit Communtiy! 

I'm very sorry to hear about the accuracy issues you've been having with your buddies. Fitbit trackers have a finely tuned algorithm for step counting. The algorithm is designed to look for intensity and motion patterns that are most indicative of people walking and running.  When working at a desk, cooking, or doing other arm movements, the tracker can pick up some extra steps if it thinks you are walking. Many of these situations—such as working or cooking—do include a few steps in-between stationary periods so the tracker tries to give you credit for those steps. For the vast majority of customers, the amount of stray steps accumulated is negligible when compared to the entire day.

For wrist-based trackers, its important to specify whether you wear the tracker on your dominant or non-dominant wrist:

• The dominant wrist setting decreases the sensitivity of step counting and should reduce any over counting of steps when your body is not moving.
• The non-dominant wrist setting increases the sensitivity of step counting and should reduce any under counting of steps. Non-dominant is the default.

To change your settings, in the Fitbit app go to Account tab and choose your tracker at the top of the screen.

If you feel that your step count and distance are inaccurate, first make sure the wrist placement settings are correct. You may also want to manually adjust the stride length that we calculated automatically based on your height and gender. For more information, see How do I measure and adjust my stride length?

If after taking these factors into account you still think your tracker is significantly undercounting or overcounting steps, please try a step test:

1. Put your wrist-based tracker on your wrist or put your clip-on tracker on your hip or torso.
2. Walk 100 steps, making sure to count a step each time one of your feet hits the ground.
3. Pause, then check your tracker to see your step count.

If you have done this already without any luck, I'd recommend getting in touch with Customer Support directly so they can do a deeper investigation and see where the issue is coming from. If you've contacted them already I will keep recommending to reach them out once again.

Let me know how it goes!

[DC2099]

I ended up swapping to the Blaze. My wife and I were pretty much matched step for step as we walked over a short distance (5 min walk) to test out the step count difference between my Blaze to her Charge HR - her Charge HR registered almost 3x the amount of steps that my Blaze did! I'm having to conclude that there is something about the way I walk that just doesn't register with the Fitbit algorithm 

[Lori72]

I had the same problem and it was recommended I determine stride and program that. I am 5 foot and have a short stride. The Fit Bit measures number of steps of average height stride person. So we take more Steps to cover the same distance as a taller person or someone with a longer stride. Hence the difference in steps and time, and distance covered.

[SunsetRunner]

Fitbit sucks, very inaccurate!!!! What's  the point of doing challenges if it isn't accurate. I walk 11,323 steps=3.96 miles. It's frustrating!!! 

[wendyhopkins]

My husband and I walked 8.5 miles today. I have a HR and he has a Versa. Mine clicked 950 steps less than his and only 5.38 miles and his showed just over 8 miles which is nearly correct. This is really rubbish and is showing that I am hardly putting in any effort when I actually am. Fed up with Fitbit now. For years I have sworn by it but now he has one and we are comparing it just shows how inaccurate they are. So now I am calculating 2000 steps to a mile and then calculating calories burned based on an average walking pace. That will surely be more accurate than the flipping Fitbit.  

[Mtcboston]

I am beyond frustrated with my FitBit.  I just got a replacement for my Charge 3; my original stopped recording my HR after 10 months.  Yesterday I walked a route - FitBit recorded it as 10,085 steps   Exact same route today - 8,386 steps.  Seriously?   As a fitness tracker it is just unreliable