Swimming exercise app not counting the length until after starting the next length

[Carhub]

Have noticed that the swimming exercise app does not count a length until after you have turned and started the next length. This throws me off with counting lengths. After completing a lap the length counter should show 2 lengths not 1.

Also why do I have to set up every time I use the swim exercise app the display? Why can it not remember my last settings from my previous swim. Prefer to have the lap counter displayed in the middle and have to set this up each time I go for a swim.

Moderator edit: format

[AlejandraFitbit]

Great to see you here @Carhub.

Could you please be more specific about the issue you are experiencing? Are you using an app to track your swim or are you selecting this exercise directly from your Fitbit? Can you provide me with a some screenshots?

In the meantime, I recommend taking a look at the help article How do I track my swims with my Fitbit device?.

Hope to hear from you soon. 

[Carhub]

When swimming lengths and I want to see how many lengths I have gone, I look at my watch at the end of a length. My definition of a length is swimming from one end to the other, a lap is then returning to where I began. So there are two lengths in every lap. I am using the swim app in the exercise function that came with the Fitbit Versa. So after I swim one length, I look at the watch and I do not have any lengths showing. It is not until I turn and begin to swim back to where I started that the length is registered. This means that every time I look at the watch is it one length behind. At the end of my swim, the last length is not not registered until I press the pause button.  What this app should do is start off at 1 length as soon as I start to swim so that when I get to the end of the pool, 1 lap is displayed which is the correct number of laps. (This is how other swimming watches work) I am not sure how the fitbit app registers that I completed a lap but if it is the motion of turning and beginning to swim in the other direction then the app should begin the length count at 1 and not 0 so just before you turn and look at your watch it registers the correct amount of lengths.

Another issue that is annoying is that I have to set up the swim settings each time I swim, it does not remember my settings from the last time. It remembers the pool length but does not remember  "Show Laps" on or off, "Automatic lap settings",  "Customize Stats". I swim 4 to 5 times a week and it is annoying to have to set these settings each time.

Screenshots would be useless for these situations, plus I would be unable to do them since I am in the water.

[Carhub]

I have just posted a second reply, since fitbit did not respond to my first reply?

[straz]

I just used the swim app to track a mile swim today, and did not have the problems you report. I had previously set the app to update every 2 lengths, so all I had to do to start the app was tap the top right button to get to exercise, then right swipe once to get from Bike to Swim. Once at Swim, I tap once to see the Let's Go screen, and start my exercise by pressing the lower right button.

Once thus started, the app automatically notes when I have completed 2 lengths, which it indicates by vibrating a second or so after I reach the end of the lap. At the end of my entire swim, I then press the lower right button to pause the swim, followed by the upper right button to end the swim, confirming by pressing the on-screen End option that then appears. On doing that, my time and distance stats for the swim appear.

Only once has the Versa count of laps differed from my manual count, somehow crediting me with only 63 lengths rather than the actual 64.

[Carhub]

I prefer to see the number of lengths I swim throughout the swim. Looks like you do not look at  your watch until the very end. I set my watch to vibrate every 20 lengths (10 laps) to let me know that I have gone that far. Looks like you are using the defaults set up for the app and that is why it is already done for you each time you swim. But if you check your watch after your first length (not lap) you will see that the counter is still at 0.
Have you had an issue where the time recorded for your swim exercise does not match the actual time you swam? I will usually swim an hour and 10 minutes (70 minutes) continuously and sometimes the watch will only display a part of that time, but when I go to my ipad to check the app it records the whole time?

[straz]

I also measure my laps manually, using my pool entry card and my glasses to count. Each lap, I rotate my entry card 90 degrees. After 4 laps, when it returns to the orginal position, I rotate the glasses 90 degrees. That combination logs up to 16 laps (32 lengths) accurately, so I do it all twice to get 32 laps (64 lengths) to make my one mile goal. That’s why I don’t need to look at my watch during the swim, as it is just an extra log of my efforts.

As for time not being recorded correctly by the watch, that hasn’t been a problem for me. I expect swimming a mile to take me 36 to 38 minutes, and that’s the time logged by the watch, varying only by how often I have to pause and clear my goggles after a lap.

I did once notice the watch appeared to have missed counting 3 laps, so swam extras, but as you noted, when I synced, all of the missing laps were properly recorded after all.