Tracker logging Outdoor Bike when I didn't ride...

[HpyMmy03]

I am so confused my tracker is logging that I rode an outdoor bike for 70 min 0 steps and 550 calories. There is no way that's correct I was never not walking for 70 min. I was walking and shopping all day. Is it a glitch. Why would it say I was biking?

[kalimm]

I'd say this is a fairly common problem. For your activity yesterday, I believe it should enter all of your steps and other info if you change the type of activity to "walk" instead of "bike".

If you don't typically ride outdoor bikes, then you should be able to permanently fix the problem by ignoring Outdoor Bike in your Automatically Recognized Exercises. You should be able to find this option in your Settings and in the future your Fitbit should choose a more appropriate Automatically Recognized Exercise.

[SunsetRunner]

I recently found that mine was giving me credit for outdoor bike riding while I was driving! While the activity looks good, it sure doesn't say much for accuracy!

[Hpymmyo3]

UPDATE! 

So so after this happening for a while I noticed that the reason behind this is that while I am walking I am actually pushing a jogging stroller. So the tracker is thinking I am biking when I am walking with a stroller. Hope this helps anyone else who may be having the same issue I was! I don't know if there is anything to make it not track as that but it does still count steps on the tracker just not for the exercise. If you let go of the stroller with the hand wearing the tracker it doesn't register as outdoor bike.

[MsBattie]

I am experiencing this problem, and I don't use a jogging stroller. I hiked more than 2 hours today (about 7 miles), my hands at my side the whole time. My Fitbit dashboard recorded my activity as 1 longish session of walking and 2 short outdoor bikes. When I trashed all of those and manually replaced them with one 2:45:00 walk, Fitbit add 7,000 steps to my 20,000 step total. I trashed the manually added walk and the step total was corrected, but this is pretty frustrating -- I am getting random outdoor bikes added quite offen.

I wear a Fitbit Alta. The steps and mileage recorded seem to be accurate on the device itself.

[FerdinandFitbit]

Hi everyone! Good to see you in the Fitbit Community! 😄

@MsBattie, welcome aboard!

@kalimm gave some great suggestions above. If you don't do bike rides, you can remove it from the activities that your tracker automatically recognizes by going to the account section, then go down to Exercise and here choose the activities that your tracker recognizes.

If you do use your bike sometimes, I'd say, you will just need to categorize the activity after it's been tracked.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you need more help with this!

[lazygirl60]

Once this week my charge HR has recorded a period of Sport, when I was mowing a lawn. That's okay because it recorded 700 steps, although it was actually 1,000. A second time this week it recorded an outdoor bike ride when I was mowing the other lawn, and didn't record any steps.
I've looked on the dashboard to try and change the setting for activities, but I can't see any way of doing it . I just want to record steps and nothing else. Please guide me through what I need to do.

[FerdinandFitbit]

Hi there @lazygirl60, good to see you in the Community! 🙂

In your situation, it should've been because of the SmartTrack settings. If you don't want it to record activities as biking, please go to the Account section at the bottom right corner of your dashboard on the app, go down to Exercise and underneath Goals, you will see "Auto recognized exercises" and tap on "Outdoor Bike". Then where it says Auto-recognize, turn it off so that your daily activity will not  be recognized by mistake as such.

Now, for the one that has already been recorded, go to your exercise tile, choose the Outdoor Bike log and choose the option that says "Categorize exercise". Then you will be able to choose any other activity where you will be able to find one for mowing the lawn and then it should give you steps for that.

Now, keep in mind that if you're doing something like pushing a stroller or shopping cart, mowing the lawn or any activity where you are holding to something that remains steady, your wrist-based tracker will count your steps but the total may be slightly lower than usual.

Hope you find all this information useful and if you need more help, let me know!

[EricJRW]

I get "Outdoor bike" whenever I mow the lawn. 🙂

I now just change the activity (in the log) to mowing lawn when I see it. I don't recall if mowing lawn was already there, or if I added my own activity, but it works for me. 😉

Keep on steppin'

Eric

[lazygirl60]

Thanks for your reply. Under goals I'm not seeing Auto recognise. What
is Smart tracker ?

[FerdinandFitbit]

Thanks for getting back @lazygirl60 🙂

Smart Track automatically recognizes select exercises to ensure you get credit for your most active moments of the day without you having to log them manually which is why you're seeing "Outdoor bike" possibly because of the motion while mowing the lawn and you holding to the lawn mower.

Be sure that after going to the Account section, yo go to the "Exercise" section and here you should see two sections, one that says "Goals" and underneath that it should say "Auto recognized exercises".

Let me know if you're able to locate it.

[Cess59]

This happened to me the other day. How do I re catorgorise after the event

[FerdinandFitbit]

Great to see new faces around! Welcome aboard @Cess59 🙂

Please take a look at my post above for instructions on how to re categorize an exercise logged by SmartTrack. Click here to see it.

Let me know if you need more help with this!

[Nana03]

I received my new Alta HR after previously having 2 Charge HRs.  Like others mentioned today it recorded lawn mowing as outdoor biking.  I read the solution.  I read in your response and have heard from fitbit that the trackers won't record (or under record) pushing grocery carts, strollers, etc.  How are they able to record outdoor biking accurately which also doesn't have constant swinging of the arms.  Fitbit is telling me the reason my steps have dropped drastically is that i am doing things where i am not swinging my arms- walking around the house, elliptical, etc.

[FerdinandFitbit]

Hi there @Nana03, great to see you in the Community Forums! 🙂

It's all about the algorithms and how they work. The motion pattern of walking while swinging your arms is not the same as when riding a bike or when walking but holding on to something. While these last two activities may be similar, the motion patterns are different but because of the similarity your tracker might sometimes think you're riding your bike while actually pushing a grocery cart for example or vice versa.

If you have any other question, let me know! 🙂

[Nana03]

I'm still not understanding why i'm getting so few steps with the Alta HR compared to my old charge HR. It doesn't record steps around the house, the elliptical, the stationery bike etc.  i have tried resetting it multiple times.  I understand you can manually record exercise but having a tracker, my hope is the tracker does that for me.  Is there a fix in the works for the trackers recording exercises that don't involve arm swinging.  the phone support says this is why i'm not getting steps.

[FrazzledMom]

You said, "Now, for the one that has already been recorded, go to your exercise tile, choose the Outdoor Bike log and choose the option that says "Categorize exercise".  Then you will be able to choose any other activity where you will be able to find one for mowing the lawn and then it should give you steps for that."

I found where to turn off bike but i can't seem to find "Categorize Exercise" and i don't want to lose my exercise but i want to change it to walk. Please help me!.

[FerdinandFitbit]

Hey there @FrazzledMom! 🙂 Welcome to the Community Forums!

I can help you with this! For re categorizing an exercise, go into the Fitbit app, go to the "Track exercise" tile which should show a little man running. Then, scroll down to see your exercise logs. Here, choose the one you'd like to categorize and tap on it. Once you tap on it, in the exercise details, right underneath the name of the exercise, you should be able to see something that says "Categorize exercise" and here's where you can tap and type in the new exercise or activity that you want it to be.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you need more help!

[Charlotte63]

I rode my bike for 53 minutes yet my Fitbit only shows 20 mins active exercise. I have checked on setting and I only have it set to ignore the first 10 mins of exercise.

Please can someone explain why this is ?

[FerdinandFitbit]

Good to see you in the Community Forums @Charlotte63! 🙂

I would say this is because of the intensity when you're riding your bike. In order to gain an active minute, you need to keep the same intensity throughout the whole activity to ensure those minutes will be awarded. 

All Fitbit trackers calculate active minutes using metabolic equivalents (METs). METs help measure the energy expenditure of various activities. You earn active minutes for activities at or above about 3 METs.

To stay in line with the Center for Disease Control's (CDC’s) “10 minutes at a time is fine” concept, minutes are only awarded after 10 minutes of continuous moderate-to-intense activity.

Hope you find this information helpful and anything else you may need, I'm here to help!