Wrong distance tracking

[Petra_d]

Within the pas 2 days, I used Fitbit to track my activity and both times the distance tracked was wrong, approxiimately half of the actual distance. First day, Fitbit said that I ran 5,4 km while the actualy distance was approx. 12 km. The next day, I decided to use also Runkeeper to track the run. Runkeeper recorded 25 km, which was in line with what also my boyfriend recorded using his Garmin watch, while Fitbit said the overall distance was only 11.18... (I used GPS in my phone to support Fitbit for both the activities and I have the latest version of the firmware installed). The journey map recorded by Fitbit is complete an copies the one recorded by Runkeeper, only the distance is wrong...

Do you please have any idea what might cause this? I really like the Fitbit watch, but this is annoying, since it impacts all the statistics and makes the watch use-less for activity tracking...

[Narm]

I totaly

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@MelleKing wrote:

Today did another run.

MYLAPS GPS tracking tracked 6159 meters.

Fitbit charge2 tracked 5460 meters.

It is totally laughable to use fitbit charge 2 connected to your mobile for distance tracking.

Fitbit should be ashamed for not urgently fixing this. Unbelievable!

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I totaly agree.

I made a race of 15km two weeks ago ; 500m before the arrival my charge2 was saying that I was only at 13km... if I had a correct distance displayed on my "coach", il would have done a better time 😞

[Hoffman25]

Same problem, ive experienced for a little over a year now. Any fixes?

[LanuzaFitbit]

Hello everyone! 

Thanks for bringing this up again. At this moment there haven't been any updates on the matter. I'll try to get some news on it from the team. Whenever I do get something I'll be sure to share it with everyone.

Let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.

[Petra_d]

Unbelievable. I guess I am giving up on that watch.

Can you please provide me with an email address where I can claim to return the watch? (I am from the Czech Republic in case this would be needed)

[LanuzaFitbit]

Hello @Petra_d.

If you wish to speak to our support team, feel free to reach out to them through one of the different channels.

Please let me know if there is anything I can help you with.

[MelleKing]

No update?

The GPS on phone is not used for distance calculation. The charge 2 is
wrongly used for distance calculation based on the "step size".

Instead the watch should display distance only as received from phone via
Bluetooth.

Make a user story in the Scrum sprint of the software engineering team to
work on this ASAP.

Regards

[LanuzaFitbit]

Hello @MelleKing.

Thanks for your understanding. I definitely see where you are coming from. 

I assure you that I am keeping my eyes open on the whole situation. As soon as I receive anything I will be sure to let everyone know. In the meantime I will continue to try and get any details I can.

Let me know if there are any further questions.

[bianca.f]

Any news on this matter?

Please, fitbit, fix this - even free apps on the appstores can accurately track distances, how come it's so hard to find the issue?

[Narm]

Yesterday activity correct by Strava...so my Fitbit connect to GPS, but to calculate my pace seems to use my steps...

[LanuzaFitbit]

Hello @bianca.f and @Narm.

At this moment we do not have any news on the matter. As soon as we receive some updates, we'll be sure to let everyone know.

Please let me know if there are any other questions.

[NatashaR_1996]

Hi, I just purchased a Fitbit Charge 2 on Wednesday the 25th of July. I at first had issues with the pedometer being inaccurate, so I switched from my dominant hand to my non-dominant and that's helped somewhat. But now I'm having issues with distance. Today I rode my bike 6kms around a lake in my area, I know it is definitely 6 kilometres as there are markings on the bike path that tell you the distance as you go and the total when you get back to the starting point. The bike ride wasn't tracked at all (I thought it would automatically track silly me) so I logged it manually afterwards and logged the 6km but that distance hasn't updated into my total distance, its only showing as 4km on the dashboard when it should be about 9km total for the whole day. Should this distance have updated when I logged my bike riding activity? It updated my active minutes at least. But I was really proud of myself for riding around the whole lake as it was the first time I had ridden a bike in years. Hopefully this can be resolved. Cheers.

[LanuzaFitbit]

Hello @NatashaR_1996! 

In this case the distance that you logged manually will not be added to the total for the day. 

As for the tracking, the Charge 2 should be able to recognize the activity automatically, but perhaps the road was very smooth and that's why the Fitbit didn't recognize it. Additionally, if you have your phone with you, you could select a biking activity on the Charge 2 directly, that way it can track GPS data and thus add more accuracy to the distance.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

[The.tx.freds]

Ditto...same issue as the previous posts. My biggest issue at this point is the Charge 2 HR will not save the distance correction when I edit the run stats. At least provide the ability to correct the erroneous distance data within the mobile app!!!  

[LanuzaFitbit]

Welcome to the Forums @The.tx.freds!

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I'd like to ask some questions about what you mentioned:

• Are you meaning the distance on your Fitbit itself or on the Fitbit app? 
• Are you using GPS to track your activities or letting the Fitbit track for itself?

Look forward to your reply.

[MelleKing]

So apparently tracking a run can also be done from the phone and watch at the same time. Just by clicking the clock in app. 

Unfortunately (?) the app does not combine the two runs but registers both.

The distance is different as the watch isus step distance. The overview for each KM between the two is very different probably because the step distance is also different during my run. In other words where one says second KM is fastest, the other says fourth KM is fastest.

Sigh.

[LanuzaFitbit]

Hello @MelleKing! 

Thanks for bringing this up and sharing those screen shots.

I will be sure to  bring this up to the rest of the team. For the time being I'd say that you try to identify which of the two options is more accurate and then continue using that one to track your runs. 

Let me know if you have any further questions.

[Petra_d]

Hi, are there any updatea on the solution to the original issue? Or are you already rather investing the effort of your team to a new product ->https://blog.fitbit.com/charge-3/?utm_source=FACEBOOK&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=USA%20-%20CA_64...

If that is the case, is the originaly issue at leasrt solved with the new Charge 3?

[LanuzaFitbit]

Hello @Petra_d.

Unfortunately I have not received any updates or news on the matter. I'll try to get something new and share it in here the moment I get anything. 

Please feel free to reach out with any further questions you might have.

[SunsetRunner]

Any update on this....  I have had a suspicion for a while that the tracking on my charge2 is not accurate....   for example, I ran a 10k race and fitbit said i had only run 9.5k -using the watch to trigger and using GPS on my phone. (i always wait until the icon shows that it is connected to my phone and gps) - This makes my time/pace etc inaccurate and so, useless. Last night i ran, I used the app to trigger, and left the watch at home. The app said i had 4.7k, when i got home, and synchronised.... it said 4.69 (no probs....) now when look at the exercise summary screen it says i ran 4.4!  - Sort it out.... I am losing approximately 0.5k each run. Reading this problem has been ongoing for some time...  i suspect you will not fix. Please confirm (truthfully) if this is going to be resolved...If not, i think i will have to go to Garmin, who have watches at the same price point and are accurate! (and i don't need to take my phone with me to run)

[KeepitRoz]

Hello. I am a Fitbit customer, not an employee.
I hope your issue improves soon.