Incorrect distance tracked with custom stride length.

[GGinPA]

 I set my stride length to 30" and synced my Versa. This should produce 1 mile of distance for every 2112 steps. But the display shows about 20 percent less mileage than it should. For example, the current reading is 4732 steps and 2.03 miles. The distance should be 2.26 miles. What is wrong?

Moderator Edit: Clarified Subject.

[Marrrmaduke]

@GGinPA What was the default stride length? Try multiply it by your step count and compare. Perhaps Fitbit didn't update the length.

[GGinPA]

Thanks for the suggestion!

I don't know the default.  The Versa replaced my old Zip, so the stride length from that was in the settings and was 30".  I did turn off the GPS in case that was doing the calculations.  I just reentered the numbers and resynced.  Also, I checked that the settings are the same both in the device and on-line dashboards.  So, I suspect something else is amiss.

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @GGinPA, I hope you're doing well, it's nice to see you around. It's great to see you too @Marrrmaduke, thanks for all your help. 

@GGinPA, I appreciate your participation in the Forums and for sharing your experience with us. Please note that Fitbit devices calculate distance by multiplying your walking steps by your walking stride length and multiplying your running steps by your running stride length. The Versa estimates your stride lengths using your height and gender and when tracking one or more runs using on-board or connected GPS, it evaluates that data to automatically update your running stride length. For best results, run at a comfortable pace for at least 10 minutes.

If you're having trouble with the distance recorded by your Versa using your custom stride length, I would like to suggest you to measure it again and enter it manually, see How do I measure and adjust my stride length?

Note that when you're tracking an activity with GPS, Fitbit calculates your distance using GPS data rather than steps. If you begin moving before you get a GPS signal, the tracker will calculate distance using steps and stride length as described above until a GPS signal is found. If this is the case, I would like to suggest you to go to your phone Settings > Fitbit and make sure Location is set to Always or While using the app, then restart your phone and open the Fitbit app again. 

Make sure to start the exercise outside to prevent buildings or tress to interfere with the GPS signal and turn off WiFi, this will prevent your phone from trying to locate a WiFi signal to connect, if your phone is constantly trying to connect to a WiFi signal, this might impact on the GPS signal and resulting map after the exercise has been completed.

I hope this can be helpful, give it a try and keep me posted in case you need anything else. 

[Marrrmaduke]

@GGinPA Just out of curiosity how tall are you? 30 inches (roughly 76 cm) is a quite long stride length. So unless, you're as tall as me or taller, something's off. There are many online calculators that estimate an average walking stride length based on your height and gender, but right now I would revert to Fitbit defaults. You can reset the stride length in the Fitbit mobile app and choose Automatic option. From my experience it seems to work best.

[GGinPA]

I am close to 6' but long legged.  I've calibrated many times and 30" is correct.  I want my stats to be consistent with what I've already logged for 5 years.  Still trying to convince the system to accept the manual stride length.

[Marrrmaduke]

@GGinPA Yes, 30 inches would be about right. You may need to reset it several times, sync, input your own stride length, sync again.