Versa not tracking distance accurately

[AngeN]

Lovely walk along Cornish lanes today... both iPhone and Fitbit recording just over 20k steps.. however Fitbit says 8.5 miles, whereas iPhone says 6.5! It was mostly steady walking, can anything be done to resolve this and which should I believe? 5’4” woman.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[MarreFitbit · Accepted solution]

Hi there @AngeN, welcome to the Community Forums. Thanks for the details provided in your post, I'll be glad to help you about inquiry in regards to the distance tracked on your Versa.

Fitbit devices calculate distance by multiplying your walking steps by your walking stride length and multiplying your running steps by your running stride length. The Versa estimates your stride lengths using your height and gender and when tracking one or more runs using on-board or connected GPS, it evaluates that data to automatically update your running stride length. For best results, run at a comfortable pace for at least 10 minutes.

If you prefer to measure your walking and running stride lengths yourself and enter them manually, see Can I change my stride length in my Fitbit account?

Note that when you're tracking an activity with GPS, Fitbit calculates your distance using GPS data rather than steps. If you begin moving before you get a GPS signal, the tracker will calculate distance using steps and stride length as described above until a GPS signal is found. 

Make sure to start the exercise outside to prevent buildings or tress to interfere with the GPS signal and turn off WiFi, this will prevent your phone from trying to locate a WiFi signal to connect, if your phone is constantly trying to connect to a WiFi signal, this might impact on the GPS signal and resulting map after the exercise has been completed.

Hope this helps, I'll be around if you need further assistance.