Time adjustment when traveling abroad

[Anny-Lin]

When I'm traveling abroad and sync my Fitbit with iPhone, so the time zone gets updating automatically. I'd like to know how the data is collecting during this kind of situation especially when I'm traveling between the US and Asian countries which time differences is at least 10-12 hours. How my workout and sleeping hours has been kept, I got curious every time when I read the summary. 

Thank you. 🙂

[MarreFitbit · Accepted solution]

It's great to see you around the forums @Anny-Lin! Thanks for raising such a great question. 

When traveling, keep in mind the following information:

• Most trackers store up to 7 days of detailed minute-by-minute data. If you wait longer than 7 days before syncing, you may only see the most recent week's detailed data.
• Summary data (calories, distance, steps, and floors) will be stored for 30 days. If your tracker measures heart rate, summary heart rate data will be stored as well. 

You can designate one time zone as "home base", and only sync while in that time zone (as has been mentioned, the tracker can hold a week's worth of data.) This would ensure that there are 24 hours in a day, though the times on travelling workouts will be off, but the data will be consistent.

Note that:

• To avoid data loss, in the Fitbit app, tap Account and then tap Advanced Settings. Under Time Zone, turn off the Set Automatically option. Tap Time Zone and select the correct time zone. Note that the time on your tracker may not update to reflect the time in your new time zone.
• To make sure the language in your app does not change, tap Account and then tap Advanced Settings. Tap Country, turn the setting to automatically set your country, and then select the country of your choice. 

Hope this helps!

[Anny-Lin]

Thank you @MarreFitbit for an answer. So it means I can't use Fitbit as a watch when I'm traveling abroad then. Otherwise during traveling from place to place the time record won't be 24 hours since it keeps changing from place to place, especially when transiting in a few countries before reaching the destination. 

[MarreFitbit]

You're right @Anny-Lin, however, keep in mind that all your data will be recorded during 7 days so make sure to sync every time you have the change in order for your tracker to transfer the data already tracked. 

Catch you later!

[sch58]

I also lost data. Searching the forum I see many users have this issue, so please come up with a solution! Setting the time zone to manual is a really weak workaround. I want to see the local time on the Fitbit, not the time at home. And what good are reminders to move in the middle of the night? I recently travelled from China to LA. I had 8000 steps when I got on the plane at noon. When I landed it was the morning of the same day. I launched the app upon landing and I still had my steps. But the next morning they were gone. If I make 1000 steps at 10 am in China, and make 1000 steps more at 10 am (after a time zone change) in LA, that's 2000 steps total, not 1000. Why couldn't the steps be added instead of wiped? Every step takes effort. Deleting steps is demotivational.