RESOLVED: Steps count increase while charging Fitbit Versa

[AlessFitbit]

Fitbit Update: 9/09

 Hi, Versa Fam! 

Thanks so much for your patience while our team continues to investigate and work on this issue. We're still working on this and I hope to have more information for you all very soon. 

As soon as there is a fix in place, I will make sure to announce that here. Please stay tuned and subscribed to this thread for updates. 

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Fitbit Update: 7/25

Hey, everyone!

I know many of you are wondering what the status on this bug is and I'm here to reassure you this is still being worked on by our team. For anyone still getting ghost steps on their Versa's, we are definitely working towards a fix. I don't have a timeline for when the fix will be released, so I appreciate everyone's patience for the time being. I recommend if possible, placing your Versa on a different flat surface without any vibrations to prevent the extra steps. 

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Fitbit Update: 6/21

Hi, everyone!

Sorry to hear that some of you are accumulating unwanted steps while charging your Versa's. Thank you for taking the time to report this issue here on the forums. Our team is aware of this affecting some of you and is working towards a fix on a future firmware release.

Thanks for your patience for the time being. 

[ey814]

Mine is still doing this. I’m so frustrated. 

[geepondy]

Thank you for making this a sticky.  At least now I can periodically check back and see if a solution has been implemented.  I work in electrical engineering and am most curious as to what the root cause of the malady is.  

[TshortRN]

I’m so frustrated! I just bought this Fitbit a week ago. I didn’t even wear it today and I logged 9,000 steps. No fan, no vibration. It was charging in a quiet room with nobody around. This is annoying!!! Fix this Fitbit!! This is an expensive pedometer that doesn’t even work!! I have tried everything to fix this! 

[Sgovea]

I had the same issue with the unknown counting. Called it in, they reset my Vera's couldn't figure it, replaced my Vera's but this one is doing the same. Just sucks because when in challenges it's not fair. I'm really regretting buying the Versace.

[tinamarie62]

Is there anyway to get rid of the mystery steps?  They have really skewed my stats. 😔

[Swiftkitty]

I had the same issue so I contacted the online help. What they told me was, my mystery steps were because I had it sitting on the same table as a fan. The fan makes the table wiggle and this created the mystery step. I have since moved where I charge my versa and have not had the issue since. They said that sometimes they are are able to change the step counts but in my case they could not.

[ey814]

My versa is across the room for any fans or acs. They are issuing me a new one / but reading people comment that even a new one has the same issue has me worried. I’ve restarted my current one several times and it seems to be working. I think. But oddly since owning my versa for about a month I’ve only had 11 minutes of activity register. And that’s not true. So who knows. Seems to just be off in general. 

[SunsetRunner]

I have not monitored steps during charging, but I have noticed steps increasing while driving.  Also while clapping, noticed at a dance recital I attended last.week.

[missbees]

I've had my Versa since launch and it just started adding steps this week. When is the firmware fix coming out?

Don't talk about fan jiggling when this thing won't even register any steps if I have my hand leaning on a grocery cart. 

[klc1244]

I have had my Fitbit Versa since May and have charged it without any problems until this past Thursday.  I put it on the charger before bed and woke up with over 25,000 steps the following morning.  There is no way to negate them as they don't even show up in my log. I have also noticed that since the last update on June 11th my resting heart rate is much higher.  Very odd.   I really hope a software update is released VERY soon!  I don't even want to charge it. 

[Jennio3211]

Just upgraded to the versa. First charge and woke up to over 19k steps. No fan or vibration around...

[geepondy]

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Did you by any chance upgrade from one of the Charge models?  If so, did it ever exhibit this problem?  I returned my Versa because of this issue and went back to the Fitbit One but now Fitbit has discontinued the One so if that dies, I'll have to explore other options.  They may be pushing me towards another platform.

@Jennio3211 wrote:

Just upgraded to the versa. First charge and woke up to over 19k steps. No fan or vibration around...

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[Phil_Perth]

Result: I seem to have stopped my Versa adding ghost paces at night. Don't know if it's permanent, and it does suggest to me that there's something wrong in the design of the Versa, but at least mine is behaving. When mine started adding 30K+ paces at night I contacted FitBit support. After a very short online chat, I got an email saying they were sending me a replacement, so I assumed there'd been an issue in the early ones and they'd now corrected it. Interestingly, the email said "When you receive the replacement, recycle your defective tracker at an e-waste recycling facility". The new one arrived - just the watch unit itself with no band or charger - and I charged it up overnight. Next morning it showed about 33K paces. Before getting back to them, I thought I'd try some experiments. Normally the charger is connected to a powered USB hub that connects to my desktop computer. It also has my mouse tranceiver, an iPod charger, a charger for my wife's FitBit Charge 2 and a couple of other things, and I thought maybe something was interfering with the Versa. So I connected the charger directly to a USB port on the desktop computer and charged the Versa overnight - no ghost paces. Next night I moved the charger to another USB hub we have elsewhere in the house - no ghost paces. So the next night, to see if the first USB hub is really the source of the problem, I connected the charger back to its original place - no ghost paces. When I thought about it, that desktop computer is on 24/7 and the Versa charger had been connected to the USB hub since the day I got it. The computer gets rebooted as needed (ie when it's misbehaving) and it's possible it had never been rebooted since I got the Versa. I can't verify it now, but it wouldn't surprise me if, when I started getting ghost paces, if I'd disconnected and reconnected the Versa charger, or even powered down the computer and the USB hub, it may have solved the problem there and then.

So if you're still having the problem of ghost paces being added at night, and you haven't already tried this, my suggestion is to try removing the charger from whatever is powering it now and try an alternative power source.

I'm now going to write to FitBit with the same explanation and suggest that, before they rush to send out a replacement when someone has this problem, they might want to get them to try a different power source first.

[geepondy]

That's a very informative post.  I wanted to try more experiments with mine but the return period was running out and I had no confidence a replacement would not exhibit the same behavior.  Mine too was charged via a USB charging hub, shared with many devices.  I wonder if the Versa doesn't have very good noise filtration and perhaps noise on the charging line is fooling the microprocessor into thinking it's actual step data?  The only thing is though is that many users are complaining they are getting mystery steps when the device is just sitting out by itself.  Hopefully yours will continue to behave itself.

I hope Fitbit will solve this and inform us of the root cause.

[algers]

I, too, have experienced this. In fact, I charged my Versa overnight and when I checked my steps this morning it was over 23,000 steps. This is the second time that I have noticed it. I have only charged it fully twice, and left it on the charger for roughly 30 minute increments a few times. When left only for a little while, it doesn't appear to impact the step count, only when I do it for prolonged periods of time.

[hayley95]

My versa has added 25K steps last night when it wasn't charging, so I'm not sure that this is the answer for it... this issue is really starting to cheese me off now as it's completely ruining my health insurance.

[Phil_Perth]

You could be right, although if I'm not charging it, I tend to be wearing it, so I could be making a wrong assumption when saying it's while charging. I haven't tried taking it off and just leaving it unplugged.

[Melhigg]

I’ve had this Versa less than a week! First 4 days- accurately logged steps. Now, it’s saying I took 24k steps when I’ve only walked .9 miles! 

Not happy. If not corrected with update soon I will return it. My Blaze never did this.....

[SunsetRunner]

Have you done a factory reset?  Sometimes computers need them, and that is a computer on your wrist.

[hayley95]

Yeap have done on Sunday and still is counting wrong. I don't think a brand new computer should need a factory reset so soon either. So annoying, may look good but absolutely useless compared to the charge.