Versa counting steps while driving

[Buck77]

I drive a truck for a living, just wasted $200 on a Versa, it counts 1000 steps every 17 mi of driving sitting on my butt! Need a fix or a refund.

Moderator edit: subject for clarity

[AlejandraFitbit]

A warm welcome to the Community @Buck77.

Regarding the incorrect steps while driving, this usually happens while driving in a car with a very stiff transmission or on bumpy roads. You can learn how to delete the data in the help article How do I delete data?.

I hope this helps, let me know the outcome. 

[Buck77]

For what it cost me it’s unacceptable this isn’t 90s anymore the technology is out there  there’s other fitness trackers that don’t have this problem .

  Now I find it won’t track steps on my treadmill set on treadmill exercise there’s no excuse for this I’m very frustrated if can’t tell !!!

[Airedales4Dayz]

I have the same issue, and it’s not explained by a “stiff transmission” or “bumpy roads.” Went on a 4.5 hour drive in a relatively new car that included I-5 driving on mostly newly pathed roads...now the versa says I climbed  208 flights of stairs and took 16,000 steps.....very frustrating, particularly in light of the opposite issue I have while working out on the elliptical (I.e., only counting about 2/3 steps).  

[Truckingal]

Ihave the exact same , yesterday I unloaded and reloaded and it said i did 55 flights of stairs and 17,324 steps while driving.

I really like versa but return it today until they fix , so you can just touch face of watch to set into driving mode.

Moderator edit: merged reply

[SunsetRunner]

I experienced this today as well - driving for ~2 hours resulted in 5 floors & 600 or so steps counted. (And I'll note that the road wasn't especially bumpy, nor do I have a "stiff transmission".)

The workaround that is has been mentioned in the fora, and available in the dashboard, is to log "Driving" as an activity, provided you know the start & duration, which removes the steps & floors from the daily count.

HOWEVER, doing so will log the driving as "exercise" and count those toward your weekly exercise goal (which is silly!).  Although this is the standard advice, FitBit forum reps don't seem to get that users are discussing the difference between step/floor counts and weekly exercise goals. 

This seems like it would be relatively easy to fix, but has apparently been an issue since before the Versa. So far there are many things I really like about the Versa, but some of the inaccuracies are frustrating.

[Buck77]

What’s really sad about this is I just had triple bypass surgery back in January. I have to walk and exercise every day now that I went back to work I thought this would be a good way to track this but what a waste of $200 even when you go to driving mode it doesn’t accurately remove steps . Some days I get 50000 steps tho lol 

[rl22 · Accepted solution]

I decided not to wear mine on my 7 hour drive home and it still counted steps!! Crazy. Kinda lame. Today on the 101 freeway it was counting steps and I was going 70mph. It must think I'm Superman. Does the same thing in a golf cart.

[Buck77]

I stick mine in my pocket it won’t count steps while driving that way,  it will count steps when walking around truck I do this on the treadmill too if you hold on to treadmill rails it doesn’t count them either !! They got our money so what do they  care ?

[Eriklb]

---

@AlejandraFitbit wrote:

A warm welcome to the Community @Buck77.

Regarding the incorrect steps while driving, this usually happens while driving in a car with a very stiff transmission or on bumpy roads. You can learn how to delete the data in the help article How do I delete data?.

I hope this helps, let me know the outcome. 

---

This is a terrible, almost comical answer.  I drive on smooth freshly paved roads and it still counts steps

[rl22]

I was driving in a fairly new, well maintained truck on the 101 freeway in CA. Wasn't bumpy and is a pretty smooth FREEWAY. Even counted about 3k steps on the drive home...I wasn't even wearing it. Thought taking it off would fix it.

[5ggggg]

why is this thread marked solved ... the problem persists. And I am sure deleting data manually is not the way how Fitibit  wants to address this:
Counts steps while driving

[Buck77]

I take mine off every day when I get in my truck , I have to put it in my shirt or pants pocket for it not to count steps if it’s left on the seat or dash it will continue to count steps

Sent from my iPhone

[Gibsae02]

This issue is NOT solved. To the Fitbit support/developer teams, there must be a software patch or something that can be done to fix this pervasive issue! At the very least, there could just be some code that tells the watch that if the person is moving at over X mph, they are obviously in a car or other vehicle and are not miraculously setting human land speed records! While there are positive features about the Versa, all the apps and frills in the world mean NOTHING if the main function of the device does not work properly. The extremely inadequate excuses of “stiff suspensions” and “bumpy roads” is obviously incorrect as a general rule. Like every other person posting here, I have witnessed 2,000+ steps added while driving 3.5 hours on a well-maintained highway in a smooth-driving SUV. And having to literally use an app to log my driving to ensure I have accurate data? Absolutely unacceptable.  And yes, I have restarted the watch, etc. Until this is fixed, I will strongly urge anyone asking about me this product to not buy it. What a waste of money!!

[Al2Mrt]

Labeled as "solved" but I'm assuming there still is no solution as of yet? This is ridiculous. 

[Cdogfishes]

I found a work around on my own, no help from,  ahem tech support. Swipe left twice and go to settings, swipe down to about, swipe down to Shutdown. Turn it off when you get in car and press a button and it turns on when you reach destination. I feel that I shouldn't have to do it but it stopped the phantom steps and floors.

[Al2Mrt]

Good tip but TERRIBLY inconvenient. I was in my work van 4 different times today and drove a cumulative total of 3+ hours and hundreds of miles. Surely there must be a better solution than turning my watch off every time I enter my vehicle...

[Cdogfishes]

I agree but it was the only solution that I could find and like I said tech support wanted me to manually log my driving and that was totally unacceptable.

[NaveenKG]

Issue not resolved, first remove that tag.

its very silly bug that counting steps in driving and some gentlemen provided solution sillier than the issue 

[boslon]

Seems to me that shutting down your Versa rather defeats the whole idea of having a smart watch, especially when you rely on it for alerts of various kinds. I've had an Apple Watch and a Samsung Gear S2 and neither counted car time as steps. I drove today from London to Manchester (about 145 miles) and it counted 8,000 steps. Smooth motorway in a smooth riding car. Really unacceptable for anyone who needs to spend time in their car or truck for work.