Versa heart rate showing while not wearing, incorrect biking distance and floors

[Glinde]

I just bought a new Versa and there are multiple issues with this tracker.

1-As I type this I’m not wearing the tracker but the display is showing a heart rate of 77 beats per minute sitting on a table. How can I trust this to properly monitor my real heart rate if  it’s still reading a heart beat when I’m not wearing it?

3-This device thinks I walked up a whole lot of stair flights already today. I haven’t walked up any stairs today.

4-This next  issue has been a problem with the Alta and the Charge HR2 and I’ve discussed this with Fitbit many, many times. I did a 30 mile bike ride today on a flat smooth road with no hills. The tracker counted over 7000 steps at the same time I was riding and showed a caloric expenditure double what it should be. Again this particular issue has been a problem with every single Fitbit I’ve owned.

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[AlvaroFitbit]

@Glinde It's great to see that you've visited the Fitbit Community! Sorry to hear about the issues you are having with your Versa. 

Regarding the heart rate try restarting your device by doing the following:

1.- Press and hold the back (left) and bottom buttons until you see the Fitbit logo on the screen. This should take less than 10 seconds.
2.- Let go of the buttons.
3.- If your Fitbit watch doesn't work normally, use the instructions in How do I turn off my Fitbit device? to turn your watch off and on again. 

You can also turn of the sensor when not wearing your watch.

The floors count could be affected by gusts of wind, a working ac, stormy weather, walking up hills and similar. The Versa uses an altimeter to detect the variance in pressure and will grant one floor for every 10 ft you climbed. You mentioned that you ride your bike so the wind during this activity could be the factor here. Take note when are the floors counted and remember what you were doing at the time.

Finally about the steps detected while biking. The vibrations the Versa detects maybe counted as steps. Still the calories that show for this period will be based on your heart rate and the activity logged and will overwrite any walking/steps activity.

Let me know how it goes!

[Glinde]

Thank you for your reply and advice. There are multiple issues with this device.
1-I’ve already restarted the tracker without a positive result.
2-The falsely logged floors occur on every bike ride regardless of wind conditions and I never saw this happen on a bike ride with my Alta or HR2.
3-The falsely logged steps have been a constant problem well documented on Fitbit trackers. I had the exact same problem on my Alta and HR2. It is very disappointing that Fitbit hasn’t fixed this issue. It seems quite simple to write software that disables step counting if the tracker is set manually to “Bike”.

In addition to the above issues, there are new issues that have come up.
4-This tracker displays a heart rate even when I’m not wearing it.
5-Not only is this Versa logging false steps and floors. It’s actually creating bike rides I never did. Note below the 3 bike rides recorded by my Versa on May 25th. The 4:48 AM ride never happened. There are 2 rides one starting at 8:48 AM for 22.03 miles and one starting a minute later for 20.68 miles. Therefore, this Versa thinks I walked over 9000 steps, 9 flights of stairs and did two bike rides simultaneously.

This was an upgrade from my HR2, but has turned out to be a MAJOR downgrade.
I have now done a factory reset and we’ll see what happens, but I’m extremely disappointed with this watch.





Gary A. Lindenbaum MD FACS FCCP
Associate Professor of Surgery

Moderator edit: Removed personal information