Versa 3 is over counting my steps

[Chupakun]

Hi FitBit Community,

I am using a FitBit again after almost 7-8 years and went for the Versa 3 along with my partner. 

I have noticed that my one is both counting steps when I am not moving and also overcounting steps:

- When I was sitting down in front of the TV it somehow counted 50 steps

- When I was sleeping it counted 70 steps (!!!)

- My round trip to the toilet was a total of 200 steps (it is 40 at best)

- It counted several steps when I was sat on a bus

For comparison my iPhone counted 730 steps over the same utilisation period that the Versa 3 counted 1200. 

I have:

- Set my wrist to “Dominant” (despite wearing it on my non-dominant hand)

- Rebooted it twice

My partner’s does not seem to suffer from the same issue. 

What should I do?

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[MarreFitbit]

Hi there, @Chupakun. Welcome to the Community Forums. Thanks for trying to troubleshoot the issue with your Versa 3 before reaching out. I understand where your concern is coming from. 

To better assist you, I'd like to confirm that you've restarted your Versa 3 as suggested here How do I restart my Fitbit device?

Also, confirm the following are correct in the Fitbit app:

• Your wrist settings (For more information, see Does the wrist I wear my device on affect accuracy? )
• Your height (For more information, see How do I manage my Fitbit profile?)

Since we use height to estimate your walking and running stride lengths, you may want to measure and manually adjust these values if your legs are longer or shorter than average. For more information, see How does my Fitbit device calculate my daily activity?

Sometimes, when you start walking, your steps may not update on your device right away. After about 10-15 continuous steps, you'll notice the steps catch up and start updating in real time with each step you take. For more information, see: How accurate are Fitbit devices?

Hope that helps. 

[Chupakun]

Hi Maria,

Thanks for getting back to me. 

I have indeed followed all those instructions with regards to restarting as well as the wrist and height settings. I even upped the stride length but it is still over counting and worse: counting when I am stationary. Perhaps the sensors have issues? 

I already upped my step and calorie targets by 10% to compensate for general variation but based on my phone’s tracking (which has matched very closely to my actual steps), it seems the over-counting is much higher than that. I find it kind of annoying that I’ve had to try (and unsuccessfully) work around a likely mechatronic issue by tweaking my stride length and wrist designation.

[Chupakun · Accepted solution]

Despite the changes this device registered another 40 steps whilst sleeping (and no, I don’t sleep walk). I’m going to get a replacement and see if that’s any better first.