Versa not tracking swim lengths

[skeogh]

I was using the swim tracking function for the first time and I noticed it wouldn't track lengths accurately.

I lowered the length size a number of times but it still wouldn't work.

Anything special I need to do?

[HeydyF]

Hey @skeogh, welcome to the Community!  Your device tries to identify lengths each time you swim, so you may still see an estimated number of lengths after your open water swim. 

In addition to completing only a handful of laps or stopping to rest often, inconsistencies in your swim data may be caused by any of the following:

• Stopping to rest midway across the pool
• Resting for longer than 60 seconds after completing a pool length
• Changing stroke type midway across the pool
• Swimming with a kickboard or not using your hands
• Swimming less than the minimum duration set to be auto-recognized
• The units for the pool length setting don't match the units you use for your Fitbit settings. For example if you measure length in feet and inches, and specify a pool length in meters. For more information, see How do I update my Fitbit settings?

Verify that information and let me know how it goes! 

[bobmccon]

well...so far it just doesn't track lengths most of the time.  Is it counting # of strokes/length and guessing from that?  doing back, breast, free, taking between 8 to 13 strokes/length depending on stroke, picks up on ~ 30% of laps.  Maybe should pickup on turns..or pushoffs.

[Pink-Flamingo]

Tonight I have been swimming and it has not detected that I swam at all! My settings are the same on the app as the watch, the pool length was correct, I swam for 30 mins without stopping at all and it has not even picked up active minutes. In fact when I synced my watch with the app it has doubled the amount I slept instead!!!

What on earth is wrong with it. I have tried all the suggestions about switching on and off, resetting etc and non of what the moderator has said would cause this are valid in this case. I need this to be resolved ASAP!

[swim4lifekac]

@Pink-Flamingo were you swimming crawl or freestyle, or one of the other three recognized strokes?  I have found it doesn't recognize drill or kick sets....

[blu-steel]

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@swim4lifekac wrote:

@Pink-Flamingo were you swimming crawl or freestyle, or one of the other three recognized strokes?  I have found it doesn't recognize drill or kick sets....

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I have found the same with the apple watch 3 as well. These devices dont track kicking no matter what watch manufacture it is. 

[Pink-Flamingo]

I was swimming breaststroke. I didn't change stroke at all and didn't stop. I only slowed down to swim back in the other direction. 

[bobmccon]

yes...free, back, breast.  Today the versa did a lot better as i slowed myself down by wearing a cotton t-shirt.  i think it only missed one lap (and did catch the old fashioned trudgeon crawl/over arm sidestroke OK which i use to give my left arm which had rotator cuff surgery a year ago a bit of a break).  It did take a couple of minutes before i could stop the recording even after drying off my hands and the watch, but that's livable.  The Versa STILL reads hr about 20-25bpm faster than the polar h10 chest belt (on dry land stuff) for the first 10 minutes or so and then starts to jibe with the h10 reasonably well.

[DavidPeugh]

Is there an option to edit the swim lengths to add back lost lengths for drills like kickboards?  I believe this affects the calculation for both cals and pace.  I tried creating a default workout exercise log and then editing it to Swim but all of the fields are greyed.

[MyBigMac]

After swimming the breast stroke continuously in open water across a lake for an 48minutes my FitBit only registers that I swam 50m and burned only 57 calories.  If I swim in a 25m pool for 51m it will register that I swam 1225m and burned 213 calories.  Why is my FitBit not accurately tracking my swimming in open water? Disappointed....

[TessaFaye]

I have had the exact same issue when swimming. And since it’s only available on auto recognize, most times It does not register my open swim at all. Since I’m swimming on a lake, I have to keep an eye out for boats as well and I like to just be aware of my surroundings, so the only traditional stroke I can do is breaststroke. I have also noticed that it doesn’t recognize when I’m treading water or doing any other type of water exercise which is a bummer since I cannot select it myself. Or have not quite figured out how to do so. 

[JeffersW]

Yes, the Versa 3 seems to be pretty terrible at tracking swim lengths. I've been using it a few weeks now and it *constantly* under counts how many lengths in my 25 yd pool. Yes, I have read a number of threads on how to "fix" this over the last couple of weeks. As a tripple check, yesterday I swam 27 laps (54 lengths). I swam free-style. Didn't rest at the ends and so on. It got closer since I was trying to do everything suggested, but it still only counted 41 lengths.

[MyBigMac]

The Versa tracking is even worse when swimming in open water. It doesn’t seem to know where I am and cannot track the distance much at all.
Kind of disappointed since I thought the GPS would do a better job of it.
Regards
Big Mac

Sent from my Debbie Mac's iPad