Fitbit run mileage and pace inaccurate

[dianehealy]

I was out with a group today and we did 4 miles and my Fitbit at the end said we only did 3.4 so my Pace was way off and I need this to be more accurate what should I do?

[JohnnyRow]

Since you didn't say, I will assume you did not have your tracker connected to your phone's GPS.  If you did, everything I am about to say is irrelevant and a waste of time.

Distance is measured as number of steps times stride length.  Fitbit makes an initial guess as to your stride length based on height, and other characteristics. People vary so fitbit's default stride length cannot be expected to be exact for everyone.

This help section tells how to measure and adjust your stride length:

How do I measure and adjust stride length for my Fitbit device?

Note there are different stride length settings for walking and running.

Based on your recent measurement, you could just multiply your running stride length times 4 / 3.4) should make it fairly close.

[dianehealy]

Thank you! To be honest I'm not sure if I was hooked to my phone's GPS or not. I'm connected via Bluetooth to my phone. My stride is probably a lot shorter than someone my height typically. How would I know if my phone is connected to GPS ? Thank you for the information!

Diane

Sent from my Verizon LG Smartphone

[JohnnyRow · Accepted solution]

After selecting exercise app on Versa, on 'Run' screen there is a gear icon at top left to get into run settings.  Scroll through them and one of settings is 'Connected GPS' on or off.  You were probably not using it it not aware of it; if using it, you get some kind of 'connecting' message while it established connection to phone's GPS, and should get map in exercise summary.

[dianehealy]

Great thank you!

Sent from my Verizon LG Smartphone

[cathall24]

I am having the same issue, but my GPS is on and the resulting maps are woefully inaccurate. I ran a 5k race;  the mileage, pacing, and map from the fitbit versa did not correlate with the actual route and bib time. Since getting my versa in December 2019, the VO2 score has also dropped from good to fair, I'm wondering if there is a correlation with the inaccurate run stats and the VO2 score as well. 

Any ideas on how to fix this?

[iandavies95]

I'm having the same problem. I've gone from running 8min miles to 12min miles? But strava I am doing the same pace. There is also 0.5mil difference between the before. Previous fitbit charge 2 was dead on 

[13MS]

I am having the same issues. My fitbit was 0.83 miles short of what the treadmill said yesterday and 2.5 miles off from a walk I went on with a friend today who was tracking. This has happened in the past but never this much of a discrepancy.  Any ideas?y GPS is on and connected.