Counting steps while driving

[416pilgrim]

as I’m typing this on my phone in the back of an Uber .. the step count is going up. 

Not cool. 

Any tips?!

Moderator edit: title for clarity

[MarciM]

Hi @416pilgrim @welcome to the forum. Will you please share a few more details to help us understand the issue better? For example was the road extremely bumpy, do you have handedness set correctly (left or right), is this your first Fitbit? Once I know more I may be able to provide some tips, but I will say I often pick up a few extra steps while driving, but I feel it evens out for those times I pushing a grocery cart and not getting all my steps counted because my arms aren’t moving. 

[MattFitbit · Accepted solution]

@416pilgrim Welcome to the Fitbit community!

On bumpy roads or in a car with a stiff transmission, your device may add some steps. For most customers, the number of extra steps added when driving isn’t significant when compared to your overall stats.

If you want to remove the steps from your daily total, manually log the driving activity for the time you were in a vehicle. For more information see How do I edit or delete Fitbit data and activities?

Hope this helps! Feel free to let me know if you have additional questions. 

@MarciM As always, thanks for the help! 

[HannahLas]

I just received my Inspire HR yesterday and have been wearing it all day today for the first time.  It's only 1:56 PM and I'm not pleased.  This thing is counting ghost steps like crazy.  It's out of control.  

It has been counting steps while I've been typing at my desk, and counts a large number of steps while in the car (driving and while passenger).   

I have changed the settings to Dominant arm, even though I am wearing on my non-dominant arm. 

It counted 21 steps while I've been typing for about 15 minutes. 

It counted 15 steps while driving through the parking lot at work, changing parking spots. 

I didn't notice on my drive to work, but now I'm thinking my step count seems unreasonably high today, mainly due to my drive to work. 

I plan on manually tracking what it counts on my 25 minute drive home today.  I will be on the freeway (smoother) and back roads. 

This will be the third Fitbit I've owned over the course of about 7 years, and I've never had this problem before. 

[Lilbiddy]

A driving mode for fitbits was suggested in 2014. All people want is a way to stop the step count while travelling. Still nothing.

[Iaino]

This is a pretty poor solution and the excuse of bumpy roads isn’t really much more than an excuse As I’ve been on smooth motorways with very little gear changes, having just purchased the inspire HR day 1 of wearing and I’m disappointed by this. 

I drive a lot for a living and quite frankly this so called solution is just unacceptable and extremely inconvenient for any users of this technology. 

If only a few steps were miscalculated I could live with this but today alone I have registered in excess of 2000 and that’s with only 1hour and 20 mins driving I dread to think of the result on a busy day. 

Of course I’m willing to give it a chance as I do like the device and functions it provides but If this is the only solution my view is this isn’t fit for purpose. 

Hopefully an actual solution can be provide 

[Iaino]

So the result of my 10 min drive from the gym was an additional 145 steps seems like Fitbit has a massive issue it needs to resolve 

[Gabriellzsa]

Hi community! Just bought my first Fitbit, the inspire hr. I was super excited to see how many steps I do around the hospital. However I quickly started realizing that the step count was way off than the step counter on my phone. Driving to work for 20 minutes awarded me 500 fake steps (curvy streets around here!) and I’m also Italian. I make big arm gestures. Just having a two minute conversation got me 75 more steps standing still. 

While I realize it’s not going to be perfect my Fitbit ended the day saying I had done almost12,000 steps while my phone only 5,000. 

Quick search on previous forums said try telling the app I’m wearing it on my dominant hand. But still no luck. I somehow managed to accrue 1000 steps while the thing sat on my dresser charging overnight. Not even on!

any ideas???

Moderator edit: title for clarity

[Hendra]

I have used flex 2 before, the miss count steps while i'm driving just about 10-20 steps per hour. 

With inspire hr, it is about 500-600 steps per hour. What is wrong with this device? Please resolve this. 

[Bethanyp]

I’m actually having the exact same problem so a resolution to this would be great. 

I have found a way to take the steps away by logging your driving time into the exercise section but it’s actually really annoying (and sometimes mostly inaccurate) having to do that if you spend quite a bit of the day driving at various times.

Some help please!

[BennyPQC]

Thanks for reporting !

Exact same problem for me and my wife. 

Please fix this problem. 

[SunsetRunner]

I have noticed this as well today.  I commented on another post that the step counter is way off 

[Ladyjessop]

I am having this problem as well. My new Inspire recorded 1100 steps during my hour long drive to work. I created a manual “driving” activity to erase the steps but this is not an acceptable solution. FitBit needs to fix this! I have worn FitBits for many years and have never had this problem.

[Mackay271986]

Just finish cutting grass riding a lawn mower and the step counter said i did over 4,000 steps. That throws off my calorie counter.

[AlexaC]

Tried this with the app. Didnt work. It only increased my calories and didnt affect the steps at all, so worsened things. And yes I did specify it was driving, and not some other activity. 

[Jeggiei]

I tried your advice and it didn't work.  My fitbit managed to log almost 5000 steps whilst I was driving on a motorway today.  I've logged it as an activity but nothing has changed?

[JohnnyAue]

The excuses provided by Fitbit on the issue of setting up a driving activity is crazy ! I am EMS and in and out of my truck all day - I can literally watch the step count go up before my eyes as I am driving ! To the range of 15k steps in a shift !!!! I can’t keep logging in and out of any “activity” come on Fitbit sort your selfs out ! This is rubbish  

[SunsetRunner]

This is not an acceptable answer or solution. My $10 pedometer and $20 watch tracker don't have this problem. So why can't this be fixed? If this isn't fixable please let me know now so I can return my tracker before refund period is over.

[Fro1702]

Has anyone relied to you with info that is not manually adjusting the stats as I have the same issue and have no idea how many steps are added by driving 

[Fro1702]

This seems to be a very poor solution to this problem, if it was only a few steps  it would not be an issue however it is thousands of steps a day that are being Mislogged, So is Fitbit saying I need to personally track the steps that occur when driving and manually change every day?  Might as well manually just count my steps