How can I go back to Active Minutes and get rid of Zone Minutes?

[kekirk5]

The new update replacing the Active Minutes with Zone Minutes is absolutely horrible! I use the Active Minutes to help motivate me, but I’m not getting credit for: walking for long periods of time, weightlifting and parts of cardio sessions. This also assumes that the heart rate monitor is accurate, which mine is consistently lower on Versa read than actual heart rate. 

FitBit developers- at least let us choose the platform we want to see (Active Minutes or Zone Minutes). I was considering upgrading to the Versa 3, but won’t waste my money if this doesn’t get resolved.

[Ibgon1]

I agree. I just updated from an AltaHR to. Charge4. Where are my active minutes. These zone minutes are meaningless to me and as some of you have pointed out not very accurate. My home entrance has 6 steps and I go in and out a lot. At the end of the day I might have 10 for stairs. Can Fitbit do a software update and give us back a way to track true active minutes?

[jdmindy71]

I am furious!  My employer provides a discount on my health insurance for every day that I either exceed 10,000-steps or obtain a minimum of 30 active minutes.  I decided to go with a Fitbit, again, rather than a less expensive step-counter because I knew what I was getting with Fitbit.  I did not know what I was getting after all!  I have not been able to obtain 30-zone minutes so I've lost a way to achieve the goal.  I would not have continued with Fitbit had I known that I would have received an altered, an I argue "inferior", product.  This sucks!!!

[Peeelay]

Super disappointed about this. I just updated my tracker and realized I lost my active minutes. I never would have changed if I knew it would change.

[Bear-in-Mind]

What's this Active Zone nonsense? My company sponsored wellness program tracks and awards points for Active Minutes, points that accrue for a sizeable discount on health insurance premiums. It was such Active Time, a concise meaningful and recognized number, that I'd become accustomed to with the Fitbit Inspire HR provided through the wellness program. Wanting a larger and clearer display, I bought a new Charge 5. Tonight I fired it up, ran the setup, the forced app update and went out for my typical 3+ mile walk, roughly 45 minutes of what was previously deemed Active Minutes on my Inspire. Synching my Charge 5 with the app afterward tallied only 13 Active Zone minutes! What do I do with that? No points awarded in my wellness app as a result! Reading the many comments posted on this topic by irate Fitbit users, I find I'm not alone in my outrage. Learning there is no way to replace the silly Active Zone with the reasonable Active Time, I too am far less than happy. Fitbit will either undo this mess or I'll return my Charge 5 and buy a Garmin or other quality smartwatch. It's that simple. Perhaps venting on this forum will prove meaningless and futile, no one seems to have received a clear answer, even after the threat of jumping ship for a competitor. Yes, perhaps I'll just put my money where my mouth is and shop elsewhere. Not going to place my hope on Fitbit to fix this, not after the year+ of such comments and still no corrective action. How difficult can it be to tweak the software and allow the user to choose between Active Zone and Active Time? I imagine not at all difficult. 'Nuff said. Out.

[Dazza1955]

Hi Arwilson86, thanks for your advice.  I have found a clock face that still has Active Minutes and installed it.

[SLVNana]

I want my active minutes back, too.  I hate this zone minutes stuff.

[Dazza1955]

HI,
I found a clock face for my Versa 2 that displayed Active minutes. This worked for a period then it changed to Zone minutes. This doesn't answer your question but I think it's not possible to go back now. Anyone out there that can prove me wrong??

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[LZeeW]

@Dazza1955and others.  You can't go back to active minutes.  Fitbit is a US based company and uses exercise recommendations based on the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the WHO.  Both the CDC and WHO changed their adult exercise recommendations a few years ago.  The current recommendation is 150 minutes of moderate activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week.  The CDC also has heart rate zones for moderate and vigorous activity.  Fitbit zone minutes that give 2x minutes for higher intensity activity are consistent with current activity recommendations.  I actually prefer active zone minutes to the CDC heart rate zones.  Active zone minutes use your resting heart rate as part of the equation and the CDC equation doesn't.

[smcgregor]

Where can i find it?

[SunsetRunner]

I AGREE, Fitbit is not what it used to be! I am switching to a tracker that will track all my daily activity correctly. Should not be so hard to get results. I am no longer a FITBIT user.

Fed Up

[NanaRuns]

@SunsetRunner   If you’re sure about this, be sure to delete your account.  Fitbit will continue to count you as a happy user unless you delete your account.

[Guy_]

For a Versa 2 I use the SimpleClockPro watch face which can show on the watch face both active zone minutes and active minutes (on the second screen), if that is useful.  

[Bear-in-Mind]

Thanks Guy, I see the SimpleClockPro is compatible with the Versa and
Ionic. I wear a Charge 5, so finding a compatible clock face with similar
functionality would be ideal. Admittedly I don't make customizing my FitBit
a priority, so if such a clock face is out there it would practically have
to fall into my hands. Cheers mate...

[charleskn]

So this is the bug, I think, and the work around. From my poking and prodding, it seems that the error occurs (for me, at least) when I try to delete the zone minutes for a specific period of time on one day. The app crashes, or you get the error ANY time the end date and time are BEFORE the start date and time.

When you start in the Delete AZM window, the default date and time values are:

1. Start date/time is the current time, minus 5 minutes (e.g. 02 FEB 2023 @ 2:30 PM)
2. End date/time is the current time (e.g. 02 FEB 2023 @ 2:35 PM)

What I noticed is that I can set the start date and time, with no problem - e.g. 27 DEC 2022 @ 7:30 PM

The error now occurs when I change the end date to 27 DEC 2022, because the end date & time are now BEFORE the start values.

If I change the end time FIRST, to 8:00 PM, and then change the date to 27 DEC 2022, there is no condition where the end date and time is before the start date and time, and I can delete the data.

I hope this makes sense.

[MrsLorino2u]

A little late but thank you!! I’ve been needing this fix for almost 3 years now.