Option to turn off step count (or add "Driving Mode") to avoid erroneous steps/floors

[MacWade]

I just got home yesterday from a driving 6 hours in my car and I checked my Fitbit. I was really suprised to see it had given me almost 8,000 steps, 3.24 miles, 134 floors, & way more calories thank I burned while I was sitting in my car.  I looked on the forum to see how to easily delete the steps, miles, floors, and calories so my data would be accurate.  The only way people are fixing it is by manually logging the activity "Automobile or light truck (not a semi) driving" and entering in the duration.  I think that is a cumbersome way to fix the issue everytime I drive because I have to make sure I write down what time I get into and out of my car so I know the start time and duration.  And how does it automatically know the calories burned when everyone burns calories when they are sedentary at different rates.

I think they should add a "Drive Mode" feature that when turned on it won't add steps, distance, floors, & will only add calories burned equal to you sitting in a chair.

You could access the "Drive Mode" either on your Fitbit One or on your phone app to turn it on/off.  If you have a Fitbit One you could press the button till the "Drive Mode" icon appears then hold the button down for 2 seconds to turn it on or off.

On the phone apps you would just go to your device under "Account" and there you could turn it on or off.

You could also have the option to give you an alert when you unlock the phone that reminds you that it is in "Drive Mode" so you don't forget to turn it off when you get to your destination.  It would also be cool if you could use Siri to turn it on by saying "Turn on Fitbit Drive Mode" or "Turn off Fitbit Drive Mode".

[Cassioneandonly]

Why has this not been done yet Fitbit?

[Baxman]

My wife wears a Garmin vivoactive. It does not seem to count steps while driving. Mine added 3.5 miles , 4K steps, 20 stairs during the same 49 min ride thru freeway and a smooth 2 lane road, not some off-road bumpy ride either. Not happy. Hope we get a fix from Fitbit.

Regards, bax.
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[Funkydrummer]

Don't hold you breath. It seems to me that they pretty much ignore their customers. I've never seen an official response to this issue. Pathetic.

[Cameron2and]

Please add a drive mode. This is getting out of hand. I have to use another tracker until you guys get your crap together and add this for your customers. 

[Platham3574]

I think there is a need for the blaze to recognise when I'm on my motorcycle. I don't always remember to turn it off and for instance today it has logged around 80 floors climbed and 6k steps whilst riding. The dominant non dominant setting does not help

Moderator Edit: Updated Subject for Clarity/Added Labels

[Cassioneandonly]

FITBIT - when are you going to start listening to your customers and rectify the driving issue????????????????????????????

[craigpd]

Only when people start voting with their purchases, it seems. It's a simple software fix that many others seem capable of implementing but as long as people keep buying....

[SunsetRunner]

Please add this feature, Fitbit. The DriveBit app is not a good workaround because driving activities also cancel out your BMR which makes this device completely useless for calorie tracking or weight loss!

[Apurv]

One idea to negate false steps and floor counts while riding/driving a motor vehicle:
Blaze can detect activity automatically right like outdoor biking, so can we factor in heart rate (which would be normal while riding/driving a motor vehicle) and the speed; which would be- dx distance change/elevation change with time. That way we cannot fix it completely but for ride duration like 5 min or more we can atleast help remove those unwanted floors and steps. (For small bumps here and there maybe we can come with some other logic?)

[ChakaCon]

I hope this is a feature that will be added soon.  It just 'drives' me crazy.  The current work around also has it's challanges as well.  If you  create an activity and you log the time as driving, it will remove your steps but it also removes alll calories for that period.  Well I was still breathing so I should have some calorie burn. 

[Rich_Laue]

My thought is that unless the Blaze is connected to the phones GPS it will not know how fast your moving.. In fact it will see the few steps and calculate that your not moving very fast at all. Normally your fitbit does not measure miles. 

[Stoneghost]

This is a must!!!! Otherwise the counting feature is basically useless if you wear the watch all the time.

[Apurv]

The thing is GPS always enabled devices wont last long if always on and moreover we will need to figure out with the tracker we have right now.
I think gyro sensor and accelerometer may help in this case.

Thanks & Regards,
Apurv

Sent from my iPhone
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[apothirdrail]

Driving mode to disable step and floor count while driving so i dont have to turn off my watch while driving

[Mrspitman]

I just got my fitbit flex and I am loving it! However, there is one thing that is beyond frustrating. When I enter that I rode my bike, steps are not deleted for that time frame. I'm using my fitbit in conjunction with my weight watchers app. So it records the steps and the activity and I end up with double counted exercise. The same thing happens in the Map My Run app. This seems to be a frustration with many people in the forums. Please fix it? If I log an activity it should negate the tracker steps for that time period.

[mslgtwam]

I've given up on this. I have a long commute and have grown tired of waiting for FitBit to fix this. My wife and I both stopped taking ours to work because we both had long distance commutes that logged extensive steps we never took. We waited long enough. The truth is time's up. I plan to sell our FitBits and move on to the next product that can manage accurate tracking. I'm tired of checking back, when this thread is long enough and new enough--the wait is finally over for us. Thanks for collecting all this helpful data from people and not using it.

[Sandishmily]

Now that school is back on and I'm driving bus again I don't use mine either. Really sad because I like keeping track but that does no good if the info isn't accurate. Checking into a product that will work better for me. Anyone have suggestions?

[ChakaCon]

Have you used the activities mode to undo the steps? Go to website, create
an activity, select driving, log the time you were driving. It will undo
those steps from your daily counter.

[Baxman]

I won't be able to accept that as a solution just to discount the wrongly counted miles that too twice a day. Really not a solution. I will really like you to either fix the issue or offer a recall for the model that does not have this issue.

Regards, bax.
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[durhamlou]

I really believe that fitbit doesn't listen to their customers and whatever
THEY think is appropriate. Fitbit has updated the android app but no
provision for driving and they took away a feature that I enjoyed. Wait
until your HR starts to fall apart. I just went through the wringer to get
a replacement and the original is about 6 months old.

[SDQBee]

I would like to see a drive mode included on the action button as I live in a rural area and can clock up a lot of steps and floors whilst driving. I can amend this on my own dashboard but it is very frustrating that it makes my challenges very unfair on the others in my challenge. A drive mode that would stop and start my Fitbit caunting steps and floors whilst driving would be great and stop the need for me to remove my fitbit whilst out walking to try and cover off the steps accured whilst driving.

[rubizuk]

I have the Blaze, and went for my first motorcyle ride since i purchased my tracker. A mode for this would be great. Love the Blaze.

[SunsetRunner]

I did write fitbit support (https://contact.fitbit.com) about this, and I'll quote below what they said:

"Thank you for your question regarding the driving mode.
For now we it's not being included on the features of Fitbit Charge2, but please keep us posted with your suggestions and Fitbit will review on it.
For the meantime, the only option we have is to negate the steps and floors that has been recorded while driving.
We hope that we have assisted you with this. Please let us know if you have any other question regarding Fitbit tracker and we'll be happy to assist you."

I also asked if someone from support would be willing to comment on this thread directly to update us.

"For the Community page, you may rest assured that our moderator are reviewing this page. Please give us some time for it and please do on keeping us updated with your suggestions.
We hope for your understanding and patience. Let us know if we can answer any other questions."

Obviously 2 years is enough time, but anyway that's the response they're giving.

I plan to make a youtube video this week demonstrating the issue and showing what solutions they've given, but mostly to prompt them to actually fix it.

[SunsetRunner]

also, i get e-mail updates when someone comments and appears they've deleted quite a few of the comments that are basically customers saying they're moving on to another product, etc.

[mslgtwam]

Floydius, that's why it's better to just move on and not bother contacting FitBit. It is obviously not going anywhere. The forum is just a chance for people to get strung along and maybe stick with the brand. They have stats that probably tell them it's better to not respond. It's being driven by numbers to not fix this--most likely their customer base is largely in cities/people with shorter commutes, and the rest they figure will just deal. Otherwise, it would be fixed by now. Since it isn't going to be addressed in the Charge 2, I'm not really going to bother coming back to look at what they decide to do, if anything, because you gotta cut it somewhere. Best of luck to everyone who comes later, having figured out this issue exists, because you're on your own.