Walk logged as Elliptical

[LottaR]

Many of my walks are logged as elliptical. The first 10+ minutes of the walk is also missing, so a 25 minute walk is logged as 14 minute elliptical. The step count seems to be ok. It doesn't happen all the time, maybe 3 of 4 walks. It seems the faster I walk (arm movement I guess) the more likely log is elliptical. I know I can change the activity in the app, but it's not possible to add the missing minutes. I have tried to remove the elliptical as a tracking activity, but then the activity is not logged at all. This is a very annoying bug! I see in the forum here that other devices have the same problem for some people, so this can't be news to fitbit. Any way to solve this? 

[JohnnyRow]

Your problem could be completely solved if you are willing to use the Exercise App instead of relying on auto-recognition.  You tell it you are going to walk, tell it when you start, and then again when you end, and it is always called a walk, and the full time is always credited. 

[LottaR]

That's not really a solution, to just stop using auto tracking. It's one thing to turn on an exercise on the wrist band in the beginning of a work out, weight lifting for example. But to just walk a bit, maybe stopping somewhere, and then walk again, well...it's just not that easy to keep in mind to turn tracking on and off, and also keep guessing if the continuous walk will be 10+ minutes or not. I find this auto recognition of elliptical a bit too advanced for it's own good... just not working properly. Having said that, thanks for the suggestion, and I will at least try it.

[JohnnyRow]

That's why I always hesitate to suggest using the Exercise App, and avoid giving too much explanation of it.  Some people just were not aware of it and think it's a great idea; while others say 'Why would I want to bother with that when I'm not supposed to need it.  Just make it work right.'  And of course nobody here can do anything about how it works, just make suggestions on how to get the most from it.

[Rich_Laue]

You could go into the settings for the auto detection and disable elyptical. 

Apparently Fitbit thinks your arms are moving forward and back to much for the forward speed of your walk. My unicycle rides always get recorded as elliptical. 

You should also be able to edit and rename an auto detected exercise. 

[LottaR]

No, if you disable elliptical, nothing gets tracked at all. And yes, you can of course rename it, which I do, annoyingly often. But some 10+ minutes are often missing completely, and it's not possible to edit the length of the walk.

[Rich_Laue]

Why is the movement of your arms being interpreted as elliptical. What is different then the average person with the arm movement? Is there anything on the arms? 

[LottaR]

There is nothing on my arms, and I don't hold anything in my hands, no bag. But I think it has to do with quick strides and more arm movement. If I walk slower and more casual it is tracked as walk. Other people have the same problem, with different devices, so I know I'm not the only one. I don't know how average I am, average build, average speed I think. 

[Rich_Laue]

That is what I mentioned above, the arms are moving forward and back to much for the speed of the walk... 

[Jeska68]

You can edit the length of time for an auto recognized exercise that doesn’t update properly. You click the three dots on the upper left (on an Apple phone) and select edit exercise.  You can change the start or end date and time there.

[Rich_Laue]

Not on android or through the web, @Jeska68 

[LottaR]

You can't change an auto recognized exercise on android. I can't even properly log the walk afterwards, as it's not possible to log decimals (!), so I have to round up or down to log the distance. A workaround is to change from metric to miles, and log 1 mile instead of logging 1.6 km for example. This is really not an android friendly app... There are so many details that seem to work so much better with iphone.

[LottaR]

By the way, the elliptical problem has been a lot less frequent lately. Maybe because of the weather, no snow and no heavy winter jacket probably changed how I walk just enough to finally recognize my strides as walks. 

[Rich_Laue]

@LottaR through the fitbit app on my android phone, I just now did change an auto recognized walk to a run. 

You will not be able to change a manually started exercise.. However with Workouts, even manually started one's, are easily re-classified. 

[LottaR]

Yes, I know it's possible to re-classify, I was a bit quick when I wrote you can't change it. I was referring to the time. I wrote earlier in this thread that I change from elliptical to walk very frequently. But a lot of time is lost, since the elliptical tracking is shorter for some reason. So 20 minute walk is logged as 10 min elliptical. And the time can't be changed.