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

[SunriseRun424]

I have 2 inspires that I wish to return. I purchased them 5 days ago from Verizon. Should I return them to the store or open a ticket with you. Your product counted 300 “steps” while on the charger in my vehicle. Your product registered almost 100 steps while I was wearing it and sleeping for 4 hours. People buy this product to record steps and steps only. Waste of money. And I will bet your “warranty” is just as good as your product and customer service. Wish I would have researched before buying. This has been a “solved” issue for how long????

[EdsonFitbit]

@SunriseRun424 Welcome to the Fitbit Community.

I regret to hear that you want to return your 2 Fitbit Inspire devices. Thank you for your feedback about our products and services and thank you for the provided information.

We are able to issue refunds for purchases made through the Fitbit Store only. On this case, I would recommend contacting the authorized retailer. I'm pretty sure they will be happy to provide assistance.

If you have any question, please let me know.

[JaySonic]

is this issue ever going to be addressed ? This thread is quite old now. I purchased an Inspire HR recently and I am completely shocked that the pedometer/step counter is SO far off the actual steps taken. I drive several hours a day, and it adds thousands of steps to the tally ! Thus as a fitness tracker is is of no use to me at all. Add to that that I'm now told that the app does not support my phone (despite being on Android 8.1, a very recent release!) and the sporadic accuracy of the HR monitor... well I'm wondering why I shouldn't just return this device for a refund, as I'm struggling to see any value in it as a tool to monitor my activities....... 

Moderator edit: format

[EdsonFitbit]

@JaySonic Welcome to the Fitbit Community.

I regret to hear about the difficulties you experienced to sync and register your steps.

Currently, we recommend manually logging a Driving activity on the Fitbit account to negate the extra data. If necessary, you can find instructions on this article. In addition, if you haven't done it already, you can set the wrist on your account as dominant. This setting decreases the sensitivity of step counting and should reduce any over counting of steps when your body is not moving. You can go to the online Dashboard at fitbit.com > Settings > Devices > Wrist.

Regarding compatibility, our team is constantly working to add more devices to the list. At the moment, there is no information about which phones will be supported but once any update be available it will be communicated as soon as possible. Whether your phone is not listed, this doesn't mean that you can't sync. Many users are able to sync and receive notifications from devices not tested by our engineering team. However, on these cases we are not able to guarantee that everything will work as intended.

If you are experiencing difficulties to sync, please follow these instructions.

There are different factors that can affect the accuracy of the heart rate. If you haven't done it already, please follow our recommendations to improve the accuracy of your heart rate readings.

If you have any question, please let us know.

[JaySonic]

@EdsonFitbit 

I found the perfect solution to the issues. First I returned the useless FitBit product....

... and then I bought a Garmin. On this new device there is NO ghost-logging of steps while driving. To suggest that users manually log a driving session is rather ridiculous, and does not solve any issues. 

So... goodbye Fitbit. I really wanted to love the Inspire HR, but when a fitness tracker is unable to perform even the most basic of functions correctly, well... it's nothing more than an expensive bracelet. 

[Joekool40]

HSN doesnt mention that in there sale pitch. Its just not right to keep
telling people to do anything manually. Its a waste of my time and money.
It now sits in my junk box in closet. Not happy

[Sallychan96]

Sorry but this is an excuse your answer isn’t significant at all 

[KarlWhite]

Y apple watch is in for repair.  I have purchased sed a fitbit inspire hr.  i am a lorry driver and after a three hour drive and being up for around 5 hours I had clocked up 3300 steps.  I would image in reality I’d something like 300 steps.  The inspire is far from accurate, no where near as accurate as an apple watch. 

[gengiskhan]

I am a driver and own a Fitbit surge hoping  to get a Fitbit ionic and it is a pain all the steps I am taking according to the Fitbit surge but in the real world it is only a fraction of that. I thought my Fitbit would have realized I can not do 80km per hour and do this for hours I cannot even  run 20km for even twenty minutes. 

[Gavdg]

I’m a new user of a Charge 3. Today it  registered over 5000 phantom steps while I was driving on a motorway in cruise control mode....I’m shocked at how bad the Fitbit is and at the moderators response which is essentially saying they have no solution 

[SunsetRunner]

I have had my inspire hr for 3 days & step count is ridiculously inaccurate. The tracker replaced my $35 xiaomi Mi Band 2 which had a perfectly accurate step counter. Has Fitbit fixed this issue? If not I'll return my inspire. Not a quality product. 

[Roduinn]

Doesnt happen with my Garmin and my wife's Apple watch. Only happens on my daughter's Fitbit that she got for Christmas. I hope a firmware update resolves the issue ASAP.

[Sweetpeet]

Hi there, just new owner of an fitbit ionic but also having troubles driving my motorbike to work. Ionic thinks I do about 4500 steps and 40 floors is 45min. Can this be solved?

[johnnyb81]

Having done a bit of searching and reading, I can't believe this is still an issue. Does Fitbit need to hire more programmers? This can't be that hard.

Personally, I don't even care about automatic driving recognition, but I would like a "Start Driving" and "Stop Driving" option. Apparently there were 3rd party apps that did this in the past, but are no longer available. 

As someone who's in and out of a vehicle many times a day, remembering the start time and duration of every single drive is not a solution. I just want to stop tracking steps and distance when I'm driving, so I know how many steps I'm actually taking.

On top of all this, even after manually logging driving, it's still showing as an exercise with steps and calories burned. 

This is not hard to provide a real solution to. There's no excuse not to have this figured out better than manually logging driving.

[Lilbiddy]

I think the suggestion for this has been running for 5 years. No they'd rather give us a sleep score that no one really understands. Thanks fitbit. 

[Kirstypeach42]

What a stupid answer.  My husband is a lorry driver who gets in and out of the lorry all day whilst doing deliveries so you expect him to manually log his driving times !!! That’s not an answer. He hasn’t got time for that !! He got this for Xmas and I can safely say if I can’t find an answer it will be returned. 

[Amicyco2]

I was bedridden for a week and literally never moved my legs or walked, but I swung my arms around and when I do I got all 5000 steps counted for the day. Hows that possible? And how accurate are the step counts when I'm actually walking? To prove it to my cousin I sat still in a chair only moving the arm with Inspire HR on it and got ALL 5000 steps again. Somethings not right if this happens.

[SunsetRunner]

I drive all day, every day.  Almost ALL my steps aren’t actually steps.

What good is a watch that think is I’m going up and down stairs when I go up a hill in my car (or an elevator). 

You guys need to fix this.  I wasted my hard earned money on a watch that doesn’t know the difference between driving and walking!

[Joekool40]

I totally agree. 

[Timseeman]

How can I adjust the sensitivity on my Fitbit versa? I sit at a computer for work typically for an hour or two at a time and do a lot of typing. My Fitbit will actually credit me for steps while I’m sitting still and typing on my computer. My steps are not even close to reality. Please help