Activity not tracked

[Lea-Samira]

I was a bit disappointed today: rode my bike to the gym (recorded on Versa) and then did 1 hour of Pilates (also tracked on Versa). While I can see that heart rate has synchronized with my phone (1:45 hrs fat burn), this is not reflected in active minutes (12 min). 

Anyone with the same issue? Hope this bug gets fixed 😞

[WendyB · Accepted solution]

Pilates will not pick up active minutes

"Active minutes" are earned while doing cardio workouts and high intensity activities like jogging and running. Note that your active minute count will be lower for activities that are not primarily step-based, such as weight lifting, cycling, and rowing.

[MarkMM]

Wrong WendyB. I either cycle or weight lift nearly every day, and get active minutes just fine usually. Active minutes accumulate by raising your heart rate at least into the calorie burn zone and maintaining for 10 minutes and beyond. Nothing to do with steps. If I get distracted while lifting weights and there's a long break between sets, active minutes will stop counting, where as a leisurely 10mph average speed biking won't count either. Gotta keep the heart rate up a bit. Still happy with the Blaze for now, so don't know how the Versa performs, but either do you.

My findings, which I did not test for 100% accuracy, is you have to get your heart rate at least over 100 BPM, and keep it there for 8-10 minutes for activity to start counting. Not really hard, but it's more than just moving around the house like a slug. 

[Shattycakes]

I’m having the exact same issue. I did a 2 hour workout yesterday and it showed 18 active minutes, even though I could click on workouts and it fully tracked all 2 hours. I’m also having issues with the HR and sleep not tracking. Super frustrating.

[jumper0888]

I erased and reloaded the app, factory reset the versa, still nothing. Noticed initial Bluetooth connectivity issues when trying to download the watch faces.  I was pissing around with it for two hours last night as it didn’t sync for two days. Just happened to start working. Turned phone and versa on and off 3 or 4 time. Very frustrating for a 4 day old product 

[BlazeFS]

I haven't gotten a single active minute yet, except through the Fitbit Coach workout. My Alta (no HR) would have recorded active minutes every day in the last 4 days. I'm going to do some testing this week to see if if I can get active minutes at all. Hopefully it's just that the HR addition shows that I'm not really working out that hard so it's not counting it. 😛

[Dem13]

I also have noticed that my Versa does not pick up all my activity.  I had the Alta HR before the Versa and even if I was doing housework and got my heart rate up while doing it, my active minutes would record.  Now I’m lucky if I can run on the treadmill for 45 mins and even get 30 mins of active time recorded.  It seems that with the Versa you need to get your heart rate up higher maybe for minutes to record?  I’ve gone up 4 flights of stairs so far today as well and it’s only recorded as 1.  Don’t care so much about the stairs, but would like for active minutes to be recorded more accurately.

[PammyJL]

I, too, have not had an active minute since I received my Versa except for two  official “workouts” I logged. With my Charge HR I would get upwards of 2 hours of activity every day  just doing normal activities around the house; chores, gardening and walking the grands to the bus stop. There must be a solution. Anyone??

[mlnyc]

I've seen a number of threads on this issue, and I don't think the Fitbit moderators are understanding the issue because they all repeat the same answer over and over again, even as people try to explain the issue.  It seems like a rote response rather than showing any understanding of how their own product works.  Perhaps they should test try manually logging the two fairly comparable activities (yoga and pilates) and see what the result is on their own fitbits.  It's not about the tracker auto-recognizing the activity or intensity.  It's a matter that the default for pilates when you manually log the activity, is that that no active minutes are counted.  On the other hand, if you manually log a yoga session, you get the full number of minutes that you log for that yoga session. I don't think it's a matter of intensity because my heart rate does not get very high in either of the two activities, but still I get active minute credit for yoga but not for pilates.  It doesn't seem that Fitbit treats all activities equally - I can log gardening which is definitely not high intensity and get active minutes, but not pilates.   This seems to be a backend programming issue on Fitbit's end, rather than a user issue.  

[Bitterlemming]

I have the exact same problems after the update last wednesday and never experienced any problems with my Charge HR. Even my training is not tracked correctly. 

Could anyone from fitbit please look into this?

[JoyJ]

I'm having same issue except it is over counting my floors. I think I might have climbed two flights of stairs yesterday and it gave me 14. I did yoga for 75 minutes (more meditative than work), did a water aerobics class for an hour (heart rate elevated for 40 minutes straight in the middle of class), and swam laps for 20 minutes. Laps kick my butt and heart rate is usually higher than if I do any other cardio. It only recorded 8 active minutes and that was during my laps. I would have expected at least 60 with my water class and lap swimming. Didn't expect yoga to record active minutes with the type of yoga class it was. Very frustrating. Syncing issues as well. 

[AreaMan202]

One more user here (Charge2) with these kinds of problems. I get active minutes if I get up from my desk and use the bathroom, but I biked around the city for almost 90 minutes yesterday with my heart rate well into the fat burning zone for much of that time, and got 0 minutes. The fitbit auto-detected the activity as "outdoor bike" and recorded the number of minutes in the log, just not in the active minutes.

My takeaway is that the device only gives you active minutes if your arm is swinging. Maybe I should put it on my ankle for cycling? Seriously, this would be nice if it could be fixed. Seems like an easy programming fix, because the cycling minutes are detected in one part of the device, but not the other (active minutes). Also, they should figure out a way to hold back giving you active minutes for routine movements like going to get a cup of coffee.

Bottom line, "Active Minutes" is severely broken.

[Gemini83]

Not even the swinging arm.  I marched the track for an hour, then did 35 minutes weight training..hr in the cardio-peak zone over an hour.... zero active minutes