Inspire HR: Step accuracy

[franskemper]

Hello,

I am using my Inspire HR only a few days, but find that the step count is way off. Only today I put the Inspire to charge and already the count show 1.662 steps. (1.32KM) We do not have a small house, but to walk that many steps will not happen. This was my confirmation of suspecting the same during the past few days. Since I used the Inspire, it gives me consistent way more steps, and distance, than I actually did. Is there any way to fix this?

Thanks.

Moderator edit: Subject for clarity 

[CindiLi]

Unfortunately even though I love the Inspire, this and the issue with the sleep tracking are too big of problems for me to keep it.  Am going to try the Garmin Vivosmart 4 which is also a small tracker.

[SLD1000]

Replying as well so FitBit knows this is a significant issue.  I am also finding my active minutes it overstated as well.  I usually average 75 minutes.  Yesterday it logged 174 minutes.  

I still have my Alta and I am going to wear it on my other wrist as a comparator for the next few days.  If it's not something I see resolved on the board in a few days I'm returning my Inspire HR.

[Monale]

Just did a little experiment. For 40 minutes of doing Body Weight Exercises with dumbbells, I was wearing my Inspire HR on the ankle instead of the wrist (using the bigger band that came with it) and had my iPhone in the pocket at the same time. Result: Step counts differs by 2 steps! It seems that it still recognised the HR. All those arm movements would have given me LOTS of steps wearing it on my wrist...

[Treetop10]

My step count is way off.  It even increases as I lay in bed!  I have even worn another step measuring device at the same time and there is a difference of over 800 steps

[MattFitbit]

Hi folks. I've merged a few threads here to help keep the community tidy. 

First and foremost, I would like to thank each of you for providing such detailed examples. I will be sure to forward this feedback to our team. 

When working at a desk, cooking, or performing other activities with arm movements, a device on your wrist may add some steps. For most customers, the number of extra steps added by arm-based movement isn’t significant when compared to your overall stats. For more information, see How does my Fitbit device count steps?

I can also recommend checking this article on the accuracy of Fitbit devices in general. 

It might also be a good idea to give your Inspire a quick restart. This may help to refresh your tracker's system.

Hope this helps! Feel free to let me know how your Inspire or Inspire HR is recording over the weekend. 

[Treetop10]

Thx for the info. Now Iknow I’m not going nuts!😁

Sent from my iPad

[Treetop10]

Well.....my Fitbit was free from my Ins and don’t have any idea why they were so generous,,,,,,👀 but I am having fun with it. Guess I’ll just ignore the step part and wear my previous device for my step count.

Sent from my iPad

[leesa]

I tried the method that fkemper used to see if that would help. (Thank you for posting the steps you took) I think it may have helped a little but not enough. Ironically setting up a new account allowed me to connect my old alta that I still had. Now I am going to wear the Alta and the Inspire on the same wrist both set to non-dominant hand and see what kind of results I get. After that if I am not happy I am going to return the Inspire.

[Channel11]

I am wearing my first ever step counter, the Inspire HR and the steps are WAAAY off, over counting to the extreme. It will count hundreds of steps while I'm sitting! Very disappointing, and unfortunately there are lots of people experiencing the same issue. I've tried dominant/non-dominant hand, GPS on/off, reset and it's an exercise in frustration with over counting steps. Apparently today I did over 20,000 steps, that is insane! Is Fitbit going to do an upgrade on the Inspire HR for us? Thank you for reading.

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@YojanaFitbit wrote:

Hi @Ohnoetry, nice to see you around. Thanks a million for reporting this information to our team.

We really appreciate the time you've taken in order to troubleshoot the extra steps you're getting when doing different activities.  

We don't want to create frustration in our customers. Please know that we provide feedback to our team based on community posts and we are always working on improving our devices and overall environment based on what you share here.

Since those steps didn't solve the issue you're having with your Fitbit Inspire HR, I've requested to our support team to create a case on your behalf. You should soon receive an email from customer support at the email you used to register with the Community Forums. They will keep assisting you with this inconvenience.

I'll be around in case that you need more details about it.

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@YojanaFitbit wrote:

Hi @Ohnoetry, nice to see you around. Thanks a million for reporting this information to our team.

We really appreciate the time you've taken in order to troubleshoot the extra steps you're getting when doing different activities.  

We don't want to create frustration in our customers. Please know that we provide feedback to our team based on community posts and we are always working on improving our devices and overall environment based on what you share here.

Since those steps didn't solve the issue you're having with your Fitbit Inspire HR, I've requested to our support team to create a case on your behalf. You should soon receive an email from customer support at the email you used to register with the Community Forums. They will keep assisting you with this inconvenience.

I'll be around in case that you need more details about it.

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[markwbd]

Hi fkemper. Thanks for posting that. It's a frustrating amount of work to fix this problem. It it worked it does suggest there is something in the software rather than something affecting the (hardware) accelerometers. Assuming it is software must be some form of algorithm Fitbit use to assess a 'step'. Strange, given you'd think they'd use the same algorithm on all their devices.

[SergioUSA]

Hi MattFitbit,

Thanks for the tips but it seems like your suggestions are just a « copy-paste » of a Fitbit standard response for people having problems with their device.

If you read through the different posts, you’ll see all of your suggested actions to make the Inspire device work have been tried many times by many users without fixing the issues in most cases.

As a customer, what I would really like to hear from Fitbit is an acknowledgement of a problem and the actions taken to resolve it.
As simple as that!

Unfortunately, I am looking to return my Inspire today and so is my dauther’s boyfriend.

[SunsetRunner]

I am also seeing issues with the step count. My wife and I played golf a couple of days ago. After 9 holes it had counted over 3700 steps. That would probably have been accurate except for one thing. We were riding in a golf cart. Between the inaccurate step count and constantly having trouble syncing I am beginning to think I wasted money on this thing.

[fkemper]

@LanuzaFitbit , you and your colleagues need to stop trying to justify, and acknowledge that the Inspire has a problem. Might be SW or FW.

You'd do the community a favor to inform when and how your engineers intent to solve this.

Unfortunately I am not able to return the Inspire as I live abroad, so at this point it will disappeared in the junk drawer and USD 100 wasted on your product.

[witchesjelly]

I found on another forum (not for Inspire HR specifically) that you should change your settings for the fitbit. Wear the fitbit on your non-dominant hand, but select dominant hand in settings. This should help with sensitivity. I've just changed my settings so I can't comment on how accurate my step counts are, but it does seem a lot less sensitive.

[CindiLi]

To compare devices, yesterday I wore my Inspire HR and my Garmin Vivosmart 4 on the same arm all day.  They were within 50 steps of each other most of the day though the Inspire counted about 100 extra steps while I showered and about 200 extra steps while I styled my hair.  The Vivosmart 4 counted more steps while I was on the elliptical, which in my mind is a good thing as I feel that those steps should be counted. 

I hadn’t had the problem of it counting steps while driving or sitting as others have though.

[MattFitbit]

Hi all. Thanks for getting back to me with such candid feedback regarding your step count. 

If you feel that your Inspire or Inspire HR is over-counting steps. I would definitely recommend going into your advanced settings in the Fitbit app and adjusting your stride length. This can pay a large role in how our algorithm is tracking your steps.

For any newcomers to the thread, I can recommend taking a look at the articles posted above on step accuracy.

Looking forward to hearing more about this topic. Feel free to let me know how it goes. 

[Monale]

I don't really understand how adjusting the stride length should help with too many step counts... It will only change the distance presumably walked.

[Treetop10]

I am going to wait a couple of weeks and see if we’re sent an update for our device......trying to be positive🙏

Sent from my iPad

[leesa]

Hi Matt,

I don't think the issue is with actual step count, it is all the activity that is not step related that is being over-recorded. I am wearing both the alta and inspire HR on the same wrist today, both set to dominant and wearing on my non-dominant hand. I plan to do a lot of non-step activity today, cleaning and organizing so we will see what happens throughout the day.

[AlvaroFitbit]

@Monale @Treetop10 @leesa Thank you for your updates.

Remember that your your device will detect the movement on your arm and translate that movement into steps. There are situations in which your arm may move but you won't be actually walking. For example, this may happen when you are playing the drums, burping a baby or clapping. It can also happen when driving. You can negate these steps by logging a driving activity. You can try wearing your device on your non dominant hand but select that hand as dominant on the device’s settings to make it less sensitive to movement.

Let me know how it goes.