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".

[orosgp]

I have an odd solution that may or may not work I have yet test. I asked support if the Fitbit tracks while charging. They stated that it does not. A simple solution may be to plug it in to a charger while driving. If your on a motorcycle, maybe a portable charger. It's alsmos like a pause feature hack LOL. If someone can test, let me know. If not, I can post tomorrow on my results.

[JenniBircher]

Really windy where I live and it consistently tells me I've done more floors than I have. Its ridiculous that there is no way to delete erroneous floors. Negating them means that any steps I've done during that time period also dissapears, which it's utterly stupid, as if your fit bit records extra floors because of the wind, your outside, meaning your walking or running. Why would I want the lose all the steps I've done during a run! It's simple, put in a DELETE function. It's not that hard. Why has this been going on so long!

[BetterFit50]

Please add a way to amend an incorrect step record.  I tried the driving trick, but that did not work, it still shows the wrong number of steps.  My FitBit says I walked 48K steps one day when I did not, obscuring my actual record of 28K which I wanted to keep. Thanks! 

[weirdunclebob]

I'd like this ability, too, please. I signed up a year or so ago to see if it suited me but didn't buy a device then as there was no ability to change calories to kilojoules and there STILL isn't! 😠 My family just bought me a Charge HR for my birthday and, although I intended to buy a Surge when kilojoules were added, I'll stick with the Charge as it seems fine. (You lost a few bucks, there! Get cracking!) I just want to clear all the unneccessary data like the 18 hours of sleep I apparently had on the first day I wore it. Not sure why it thinks I was asleep for the whole day when I wasn't. /shrug

[LMinOz]

When I do dishes (standing in one place), I log about 60 'steps'! I'm also a Choral Conductor and when I'm conducting, the Fitbit records hundreds of 'steps'. Having a pause tracking button would mean I wouldn't have to remove the Fitbit from our wrist (I have a Fitbit Charge) each time I start an activity that I don't want tracking. The clasp is not easy to close, so removing and replacing the Fitbit on my wrist is something I would rather avoid. Thanks!

[LMinOz]

Please note that I have my Fitbit on my right hand and I have it set to Dominant Hand. The amount of steps logged during normal activity is really too high.

[Kathtaji]

Hi Team,

Recently I got Charger HR.But soon I found that this device couting steps/floors even when am driving two wheeler.Which I hope nobody wants to count the steps.

I've been manually negate/deleting the steps and foolrs every time after I drove my home to office.Please note that it's counting steps/floors even I put the device in bag.

So I request to have switchoff feature introduced in next update that would help not only me but so many others who wanted to have exact steps/floors to be measured.This way I can switch off the device while drving and On its once I want to start measuring the steps.I'm using Apple phone and running Charger HR on V64.

Thanks in Advcance.

Anil Kumar

[GBO323]

+1 for the Drive Mode ON the Surge SUPERWATCH...and another +1 for this on the Fitbit One. I ride a motorcycle and trying to track the times I'm on and off manually make this frustrating and non-exacting. I definitely get 1-2K per day while on the motorcycle. On the FB One, I can't event turn it off unless I'm near my USB plug. Since the Surge has different activity modes you can select on the watch already, the DRIVING mode would be a natural fit there. Add it like you did Bike. That one works well too!

[Tich]

+1 for this. I now have two "squash" exercises in my custom activites which is highly frustrating and significantly reduces the usefulness of the "most logged" feature (as my actual squash is split into two catgeories!). Please add a UI to allow editing of custom actvites on the PC (at least). Thanks!

[indermom]

When recording our daily water intake it is a PAIN to slide the measurement button to the EXACT amount of ounces. Can't something be improved where we can just 'type' in the ounce amount. That would be soooo much easier. It takes forever and very steady fingers to slide the bar and stop at the right number!!! Please consider creating an update to include this feature 😊😊

[mkeMike]

All of my statistics are messed up when I ride on my motorcycle. I tried taking it off and placing it in my pocket - but the device still totals what it reads during that time. I can try to exclude the time by adding an activity that says 'Driving' or similar, but that is a lot of work - and it still keeps the stairs and steps incorrectly.

What I need (and anyone that rides a motorcycle) is the following:

• I want to click the button for EXERCISE, then select DRIVING or something similar.
• When I click the Start button, it will treat the time as it does with the other events, where it tracks the time, heartrate, and even GPS coordinates, but it does this differently:

1. FLOORS and STEPS are not captured or added to my totals.
2. CALORIES and other metrics are not influenced by the values during this special exclusion event time.

I should be able to see the times I've driven and even see my heart rate and where traveled - but it doesn't mess up my physical stats.

WITHOUT this feature, every time I ride - my stats are messed up. This makes my goals, weekly reports, and comparison against my wife and others useless.

[Dycokac]

Beyond simply logging these steps and flights, remember the challenges and badges are "earned" by these eronious recordings. And others have pointed out that simply deleting the activity between the timeframe of your ride does not clear the badges earned or remove those steps from challenges you participate in.

[Longhorns2]

My charge hr is counting my steps: While I'm driving. Obviously I'm not walking or running on I 10. 😕

Support says to change steps manually but this brings into question the validity and accuracy of the step counter.

If you want to be the leading name in fitness trackers, I'd suggest correcting this issue ASAP.

[Cobeye]

I would like to be able to edit or delete data like on the Apple Health app.  That way when I ride my bike i could delete the steps I get added.  I have tried logging  avtivity with driving and it did not do anything.  I have a surge hr.

[V8]

I rode around 120 kilometres almost non-stop on my motorcycle and my fitbit logged around 27,000 steps, 18 walk-kilometres and 400 active minutes on that trip. Wished there'd be a way to disable step+distance+active minutes during cycling, riding and driving.

[motorcyclist]

It appears that it has been over a year that folks are requesting a driving mode or some similar solution to disable step and floors from being counted while driving or commuting.  If I would have seen this issue before I bought my charge I would not have purchased it.  It s ridiculous that something has not been done to correct the situation.  Requiring people to go back and set times to driving after the fact is not a solution.  That s a real hassle to do plus floors are not removed, unearned badges still exist and you can't honestly participate in any challenges.  Very poor timeliness by Fitbit to deliver a much needed solution to a very real problem!

[MorgansMom]

Fitbit application development team, do you have this in the works?  

We need the ability to edit and/or delete a custom activity the same we do for the custom food entries.  The requested functionality already exists in the food tab.  All you have to do is copy the code you used for the food tab and customize it for the activity tab.

[NDPeter]

Adding in another call for a pause feature.  I currently have to take my fitbit off everytime I teach class or else every time I write on the board an especially erase the board I rocket through steps.  I can register 4-5000 in an hour class and while I move around a lot, I think between the board work and gesturing with my hands I'm getting wildly inflated numbers.  It'd be much easier if I could quickly pause the device and come back an hour later.

[TJMac77]

My Charge HR tracks roughly 3500 steps and 30 flights of stairs on my daily motorcycle commute. I'm not sure what the technology difference is between Fitbit and IPhones M chip (GPS cross verification perhaps?) but my iPhone doesn't recognize travel to be steps. This is both to get a question answered, solution perhaps, as well as make a suggestion. Logging "driving" 2 or 3 times/day doesn't seem to be an acceptable solution. A driving mode would seem to be a short term patch until a way to recognize the difference between vibration and arm swing can be found.

[TJMac77]

This is frustrating me to no end and about to return because of this issue. I commute daily and its roughly 3500 steps and 30 floors added. Logging "drive" time doesn't seem to be an acceptable solution.

[SunsetRunner]

Funny, my Charge HR does the same thing while I'm driving. Heck even while washing my hands. Lol

[SunsetRunner]

It's funny, but my HR actually counts my arm movements (when I'm washing my hands) as steps. Lol

[razor0133]

There's a third party app called drivebit that does this until they can add the feature.

[Craic]

There is an app for your phone that logs driving directly to fitbit called DriveBit https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=mobi.littlebytes.android.fitbitdrive&hl=en I was notified of it on reddit and thought I would share.

[ChrisJr]

@Craic, doing it through DriveBit doesn't take the steps away from Challenges.  And I think the point is that we shouldn't have to use another app to do this.  We should be able to do this through the Fitbit App or the Fitbit itself.