Fitbit Versa Inaccurate HR and Vastly Inaccurate Step Counter

[ljwinc01]

I received my Fitbit Versa about 1 week ago and although this device has sleek features and a cool design, its functionality has been very subpar. I have used many fitness trackers, pedometers, and accelerometers over the years and for the money, this has been the most inaccurate device that I have used to date. My heart rate fluctuates wildly while at rest with this device and through manual calculation and use of chest strap devices, it is not an accurate fluctuation. During even moderate intensity exercise, when my HR is realistically around 140 bpm it is reading my HR at 110 or less. If I tinker with it a few times it will eventually read a fairly accurate HR. However, this is not the biggest issue. The step count on this device has been awful. Simply sitting in my office at my desk has resulted in an accumulation of 1,000+ steps on several occasions. Yesterday, I gained ~1,500 steps while sitting at my office desk for 45 minutes. I understand a little excess sensitivity, but this is unacceptable. Reading forums across many different websites, it appears that this is a common issue.  Fitbit truly needs to remedy this situation sooner than later. 

[nlfass]

There are many others that are also having the same issue. I have been driving in my car and hit my step goal for the day. If you open the Fitbit app and just swing your arm around you can see the steps go up. Nice smart watch but a HUGE fail as a fitness tracker and I have been using their products since 2013

[AlvaroFitbit]

@ljwinc01  @nlfass A warm welcome to our Community! Sorry to hear that your Versa is over-counting your steps and not giving an accurate heart rate reading. Your tracker 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 tracker on your non dominant hand but select that hand as dominant on the tracker’s settings to make it less sensitive to movement.

Regarding the heart rate reading I suggest you clean the back of your device with cotton and rubbing alcohol and restart it. Also check these tips to improve the heart rate reading on your device.

Let me know how it goes!

[nlfass]

But that is definitely a problem because of the fact that any movement is being counted as steps. People are using these as fitness trackers and they are not. I have been using Fitbit's since November 2013 and my counts have never been so inaccurate until I purchased the ionic and then the versa.