Distance Difference

[Alexisonfire]

Hi all. Just went out for a run with my new Versa 2. The watch had tracked to 6.2 miles so I stopped knowing this is 10k. 

When it synced with the FitBit app the run was recorded as 6.16 miles. I never had this issue with the Charge 3 so would be keen to understand why it's shortened the run distance despite the watch stating 6.2 miles. 

[t.parker]

This is an ongoing issue in the app which has been there for quite some time. There are several threads about it already and so far no fix visible on the horizon.

[Alexisonfire]

Thanks for the response. It never happened with the Charge 3 though? Which distance is actually correct; the device or the app? 

[t.parker]

Upload your run to Strava. Strava will show you the correct distance. I doubt any distance showed by Fitbit is correct considering the way the distance is measured (steps x stride even with GPS). Strava will compute distance based on GPS trackpoints which should be the closest to the real one.

[Alexisonfire]

I can do, however there surely must be a reason for the discrepancy between the device and the app, no? 

It's quite disappointing if the more expensive device is less capable. 

[t.parker]

There is a reason and the reason is a mere bug in software that requires fixing but Fitbit is not in rush to do so. There is no any other answer to that really but negligence.

[Alexisonfire]

How massively disappointing. This was a Christmas present upgrade as well. I was in love with my Charge 3 so feel very bad about asking for this upgrade. 

[t.parker]

If you are into running then Fitbit is rather bad choice. These are not running watches considering very limited features and lack of focus on sports tracking. They are daily activity trackers (steps, calories) and regardless model it is still main focus of the brand.

However, I understand your disappointment. The distance issue on Fitbit devices is actually strange thing. The TCX file contains Distance field which changes even if you don't move. If you step in place, for example waiting for traffic light to change, the Distance keeps increasing. It may be the reason of disprepancy. One may use such step-based distance (probably watch during run), while the app, after uploading computes the distance based on the map. It's just a guess but if it's the case then it makes the live data on the watch useless (at least it looked like that when I owned Ionic).

You may use third-party software like Strava for detailed analysis. Since such services (Strava, TrainingPeaks) are hardware independent it's not such a bad idea to use them rather than what comes with watch. If you change the brand just make sure the new watch can sync to the service you use and you can have continuity. I went through 3 brands and I figured out using 3rd party analytics service is way to go. Then I can use any brand I want have my data in one place (and analysed correctly).

[Alexisonfire]

I uploaded the run data into Strava. I guess I'll just have to use that as my validation source. 

Interestingly if I upload my old charge 3 runs they're bang on in Strava and match the FitBit data.