Steps getting counted on a Swim exercise.

[JRW]

Today I read the bottom statement in help as it relates to the swimming app.

"Does swimming with my Fitbit device count toward my step goal?

A swim exercise counts toward your active minutes and calories burned goals. You don’t earn steps for swimming."

     Yet today my swimming & my wives added our swimming to our step count.  Yet the above instructions tells me; You don’t earn steps for swimming. Yet it does.

Could some one explain why the discrepancy?

Moderator Edit: Clarified Subject + Format

[Marrrmaduke]

@JRW It's a wrist tracker so it is always possible to earn some steps. In the same way biking will add steps. Did you start the exercise manually on your Versa or did you let the tracker autorecognize the exercise?

[JRW]

I appreciate trying to answer my question, but you didn't.  The quote from the Fitbit help in my original tells me "A swim exercise counts toward your active minutes and calories burned goals. You don’t earn steps for swimming.".  If this statement is inaccurate then it should be removed or changed, else it add confusion to understanding how the fitbit works. 

I still believe that each exercise should stand on its own and not mix the stats.  If I am bicycling, then the stats should reported separately in one column and the steps in another.  Swimming should be easy if what is documented the steps are turned off when swimming. Then all the strokes could be reported in a separate column.  By the way the number of strokes per lap is important to a swimmer who is into competitive swimming.

Moderator Edit: Format.

[Marrrmaduke]

@JRW I guess it's a quid pro quo then as you didn't answer my question either. 🙂 I am sharing my experiences, but I am sure Fitbit will appreciate your feedback. As I am not a Fitbit employee, I can only advise you contact Customer Support. 🙂

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @JRW I hope you're doing well, it's nice to see you around. It's great to see you too @Marrrmaduke, thanks for your insight about this situation. 

@JRW I appreciate your participation in the Forums and for sharing your experience with us. Indeed, a swim exercise should not give you steps, which is why at this moment I would like to ask you if you started the exercise from the watch or did you let the watch track the exercise automatically? This will be very helpful for us to check this further. 

In the meantime, please restart your Versa by pressing and holding the Back and Select buttons (left and bottom right) until you see the Fitbit logo on the screen.

Thanks for your patience and understanding, we'll be waiting to hear from you. 

[JRW]

I always used the swim app.  When I was looking around on the options I noticed the automatic recolonization was turned off. I decided not to turn it on, because this year the watch was working perfectly in counting my laps until today.  On lap 88 it stopped and rebooted. After the watch came up I restarted the swim app and then swam another 50 lengths successfully. I usually shoot for 130 laps (2 miles).

Does Fitbit update your tracker in the middle of the day? Could that be a reason for the reboot. It did capture the stats for the 88 and the 50 lengths.  Since the beginning of the summer it has only happened one other time; I have been in the pool 11 times and have had no reboot for nine.  Except those two reboots it had been working flawlessly.  I swim freestyle only and don't stop in the middle of the lap. I am not unhappy with the Versa as long as it doesn't reboot on me too often.

I have a bunch of questions on the swim stats, but I will leave those questions for another time. Do you know where I can read on swim stats?

Thanks
Joe

[JRW]

It has been quite a few months since I posted this question, but I will give some additional information.

I use the swim exercise app. I seem to have better success this summer if I reboot my watch daily.

However, you didn't answer my question if Fitbit updates the watch whenever it wants to. If I reboot my watch daily will that prevent reboots when swimming.

By the way Fitbit stats need some serious work.  I have written about this before. Fitbit does not follow standard stats for swimming.  As said from another user why are not the stats on the watched transferred to Fitbit.com or at least the phone. For example the splits. And when looking at the splits on the phone it does not list all splits for the laps swam and you cannot go back and review them.

Why does the watch track calories by length; haven't figured out why. Other swimmers I have asked do not understand why either; even swim coaches.