Versa counting too many floors.

[Acharpia]

Ever since I got my Versa it seems to be grossly over exaggerating my stair count. I had the Charge 2 before the Versa and it was fairly accurate with my stair count, but now it’s more than doubling the number of floors I climb in a day.

Is this a known issue? Has the way in which the Versa calculates stairs climbed change significantly over the Charge 2? I’ve now gone from averaging 15 floors a day to 34. 

Moderator Edit: Clarified Subject.

[AlejandraFitbit]

Great to see you here @Gjjen. Regarding climbing, I recommend clicking here. There you will be able to find more information about how the atmospheric pressure can affect this information.

See you around. 

[Gjjen]

You are missing the point. The charge 2 was spot on. Just walking around my neighborhood which has a little altitude gain, it adds 29 floors.

Sent from my iPad

[Oopee]

Hi AlejandraFitbit

I contacted earlier Fitbit support about this problem and the answer was almost identical sentences as yours. They told how Versa techically counts floors etc. same stuff as you wrote. I had a feeling that no one takes this seriously at Fitbit, they just repeat same sentences, not trying to solve this problem. Floor counting is quite far away from good

[crushalot]

---

@AlejandraFitbit wrote:

Hello all, I hope you are doing fine.

I am sorry to hear about the floors accuracy issue you are all experiencing and would like to know if you have test your watches by following the instructions provided in this post? If you haven't, please take a look at it and do the test.

Also, I was wondering how many of you have contacted our support team, have they offer you a solution for this? Keep in mind that your watches may give you credit for extra floors for a variety of reasons. Occasionally your Versa may detect pressure changes unrelated to elevation gains, such as a gust of wind, weather change, or opening a door.

Exposure to excess moisture can also result in extra floors being counted. This happens if the pathway to the altimeter on the back of your tracker becomes temporarily blocked with sweat or water. We recommend that your devices be worn loosely during exercise. Also, it's not possible to delete extra floors, but you can achieve the same result by negating them:

1. Log into your fitbit.com dashboard.
2. At the top of the screen click Log.
3. Click the Activities tab.
4. Under Log Activities, type in Driving and enter the date, duration, and start time.
5. Click Log. Your steps, floors, and calories burned will decrease for the time period you specified.

I hope this helps, catch you later. 

---

Thanks for posting, however this is a poor response.

Where to begin - 

1. A gentle walk around my flat neighborhood will count 20+ floors on a calm bright sunny day.  I am not sweaty for a walk and my Charge 2 didn't have the issue.  Ergo must be either a hardware design issue or software programming issue.  

2. Seriously, you are saying don't let the back of your FITNESS tracker get wet?  When I workout I get sweaty, isn't that the point? Again if your fitness tracker can't handle getting wet with sweat = design flaw.

3. Wear it loosely during exercise?  Again come on!  Have you ever tried working hard on a rowing machine or elliptical with a loose anything around your wrist flying all over the place?  Also the heart rate is not as accurate when not at least a little tight.

Once again neither of my previous fitbit devices had this issue, so if the old units can do this without a problem under the same conditions, then it must be a design/programming issue with the new device which should be an improvement not a step back.

I have not contacted support because I can see from the other posts on here that they will be of absolutely no help.  The extra floors does suck but I can live with that because I am not super concerned about my floor count. (But it is disappointing that a new $200 tracker can't count as accurate as the old $100 model) 

The biggest issue for me is that the step count is inflated on the Versa.  If you don't want to address the actual issue could you at least add the ability to adjust step/floor accounting sensitivity levels?

Currently I am back to carrying my iPhone on my person at all times as the step and floor counts are accurate regardless of the weather, but I was hoping the Versa would free me from this burden.

[tallgeoff]

I still suggest logging this with support. As a pharmaceutical marketer and business director for years I would receive formal reports on product issues by type and number. Senior management asked for these as well. Significant issues were flagged and every effort made to correct them. Apple battery is a good example. If you don't log the issue you'll never get attention simply by complaining in this forum.  

[SallyB605]

I agree with tallgeoff. Log a support ticket and provide them real evidence of the problem. I wore my Charge 2 and Versa on the same wrist for a day, and sent them photos of the data on each to show the discrepancies. I showed them photos of the Versa having logged many floors and a bunch of steps when I drove. I sent them videos of the Versa logging floors and steps as I raise and lowered my arm by only about 8 inches.

Finally, I persevered and they are going to replace my Versa. They are back ordered on the rose gold, so they are sending me a black one as a "loaner" for the next few weeks, then they will replace that with a rose gold one.

I asked the support person I spoke to the other day if he was certain that the problems would be resolved with the new Versa that I will eventually receive. He said he was positive, and mentioned something about "new optics". That sure sounds like hardware to me, so it seems that there are known issues with some Versas and they are working to fix the problems. 

It would have gone a long way with me if they had simply acknowledged known issues and said that they are working on a fix, instead of denying the hard evidence that I sent them for several days until I persevered and kept sending them more data.

[lauchard]

How do you log something with support?  There are different options and I'm not sure which one to use.

[ShaunMcGill]

So, they are saying that if your Versa is counting too many floors you can get a replacement which is presumably tweaked with better optics?

I have had 2 Versas, my wife 1 and so does someone at work, and they all count too many floors...

[SallyB605]

They didn't actually say that, no. They agreed to replace my Versa. And in a phone conversation the other day following up on my ticket, the support rep mentioned something about updated optics when I asked if he could guarantee that my new Versa would function properly. That's all I know. It was not an official statement from Fitbit.

To open a support ticket, I think you can either use the chat or phone call option on this page: http://help.fitbit.com/?l=en_US&cu=1&fs=ContactUs . I called them at (877) 623-4997 to open my ticket, and insisted that the first rep give me my ticket number.

[tallgeoff]

How did you get the loaner? It appears to be a product design issue not a faulty unit we are all experiencing,

Geoff

Moderator edit: removed personal info

[ShaunMcGill]

“Any idea what "updated optics" are?”

A figment of a support person’s imagination I suspect. 

[SallyB605]

Geoff, when I shipped them my rose gold Versa, they had told me the new one would ship to me in a few days. After they received mine, though, they emailed me that the rose gold is back ordered for 3-4 weeks. I replied and expressed my extreme displeasure because by the time I get the new rose gold, it’ll be too late to return it to amazon if it doesn’t work properly. I called and asked how they were going to make the situation right. The rep offered me a black one instead, which didn’t make very happy, either. He then offered to have the black one be a “loaner” and to send me the rose gold when it is in stock, after I ship the black one back, of course. 

In the course of the conversation I asked if he was certain that the new Versa I end up with will work properly. He said yes.  I sure hope so because this has been one of the most difficult support experiences I’ve ever had. 

I love the Versa but inaccurate activity tracking is unacceptable. 

[tallgeoff]

That's disappointing to hear.

Geoff

Moderator edit: removed personal info

[ShaunMcGill]

Sounds like this 'new optics' thing was just a glib comment. I know 4 people with Versas and they all say the same thing - far too many floors and too many steps as well. This is obviously a fault with the Versa and would appear that the support staff are not being informed of anything. 

I love the Fitbit app and the entire system has helped me lose a huge amount of weight since last July for which I am grateful, but I'm starting to wonder if the company is peddling magic tricks rather than devices that actually do the job accurately.

My wife has also lost weight and got much fitter using Fitbit and she moved to the Versa because she found the Apple Watch was not so obvious at presenting fitness data, but she is now considering going back to the Apple Watch because she has lost all trust in the Versa. She cannot wear the Ionic, Charge or Alta because they are too wide lug to lug for her wrist and so the Versa made sense from a design point. Alas it would appear to be a very inaccurate tracker though which defeats the object of a smart watch that doesn't do many apps and that is mainly focussed on fitness.

I would exchange the Versa for an Ionic, but can't get over the design so it looks as though I will be back on the Charge 2 or spending some time looking at the Apple Watch and coming up with a system using multiple apps to achieve the same level of tracking.

[SallyB605]

Drove 5 miles to work, got 15 steps and 3 floors. Physically impossible, but there you go.

[mzdov]

This did nothing for me. I'm at work in a temperature controlled room. No wind, no sweat, no nothing and it claims I've done 5 flights of stairs.

[ShaunMcGill]

Walked up one 12 step flight of stairs this morning and 20 floors! This is getting silly! 9 minutes of activity as well - have woken up, driven to work and that’s it so far.

[tallgeoff]

Your perspective makes complete sense. I can't believe Fitbit took a step back a la Microsoft Windows 7.

They may not have the corporate size to survive this.

Geoff

Moderator edit: removed personal info

[JustMeV]

I have the same issue with my new versa.

It is counting so many extra floors. I had a chat with support and I was asked to reset the versa.

If that didn't work, then factory reset.

Over the last few days, I did both.

But today I observed that it is not counting extra floors when I'm actually going uphill or climbing stairs, but just at random moments like when I am just walking or getting in my car. Today it added 5 extra floors in a span of 1 hour.I have my old charge HR on the other wrist and that had 5 less floors.

Not sure what to do next.

[crushalot]

At this point I don't think there is anything we can do about other than prepare to purchase another device that actually works.

Fitbit has already sold more than 1 million Versa devices and they all have this issue, but they are not going to recall that large of a product number.

So maybe they will try to fix it with a software update, but currently the company stands by the statement that the Versa works just fine even when presented with empirical evidence comparing it to its own older hardware.  I am not sure that they even can fix this issue with a software update as the reasons for the inaccuracies given by support and forum mods seem to indicate a hardware design issue.

Anyone in this thread have any contacts in the media?  I think that some media outlet would love doing a real world test showing that the Versa doesn't work correctly and that the Fitbit company is selling a product that is known to be defective.  All I see are glowing reviews and puff pieces, so it seems Fitbit may have an understanding with some media outlets because they are recommending everyone to buy this device but fail to mention that it is grossly inaccurate compared to older models.

This entire situation is a shame as I am well off family man and would have loved to give fitbit my money for years to come, but unless I see them at least attempt to rectify this, I will never buy another Fiibit product again.  We were going to get the new kids tracker coming out soon, but after this Versa BS we are going to pass.