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".

[sshouston]

That's right. What's SAD is that this issue has been brought up for years
and we see no response from the app developers. Guess they are focusing on
the smart watch!!! which is not for me. Just like the form factor of
Charge2 on my wrist, anything bigger than that is a NO NO.

[TRoss1776]

I agree 100%! I drive otr, and I get credited with hundreds, sometimes more than 3000 steps that I never took. A pause button is greatly needed. 


Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

[Chazx2]

Create an option on main screen to turn off/on step tracking. Reason is because some of us have jobs that require 8 +/- hrs behind a wheel of a vehicle and while driving steps are being logged and making Fitbit inaccurate. If allowing user to switch this function on and off, user can still keep track of heart rate while driving..thanks

[sibuve]

All these requests to add a feature for not tracking steps while driving/riding back fitbit is still providing the cumbersome solution it provided 3 years back. Sad!

[SunsetRunner]

I'll add my voice to the request for the creation of a 'Drive' mode in the Fitbit Charge 2.

Meanwhile I'll try using my iPhone as a step counter, with motion control turned off when needed.

[Survey]

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@MacWade wrote:

I know users often find that they are mistaking awarded steps, distance, floors, and calories throughout the day due to many reasons.  Some are driving, elevators, humidity, escalators, moving around in their sleep, etc.  It would nice is there was a feature on the dashboard that would enable us to quickly and easily delete the incorrect data.  I posted up mockup screenshots below. 

We click an "EDIT" icon to enter into an edit mode.

After you clicked the delete icon a little window would pop up saying "Are you sure you want to delete these steps, distance, floors, and calories?"

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If only this did actually work fro the Charge 2. Have followed the Activity Log process as instructed by fitbit. It records the steps for a time period but the steps on the dashboard do not reduce.  Absolutely crazy. For me wanting to remove steps when driving (or on a ride-on mower) I would just like to be able to switch off the tracker and switch on when that activity had stopped. Surely fitbit could sort this??
 

[NikhilJ]

With all the brouhaha and excitement in Fitbit community about their Fitbit trackers, let's address the WHITE ELEPHANT in the room..... Just how much botched up/ wrong is the Fitbit data? And how does it affect your stats and goal?

I would say, a lot of data is botched up. In fact, if you use tracker for counting steps and floors climbed... the data is pretty way off the mark, if you do drive a vehicle or travel in one.

Everyone has to travel in a vehicle everyday.  Then tracker goes on to add the following erroroneous logs in various situations...

1. Outdoor cycling

2. Steps taken

3. Calories burnt

4. Exercise minutes

5. Floors climbed

6. It must affect 'VMax' data too

There has been a long standing demand for a convenient way to negate "Driving" stats OR just simply a way to stop tracker temporarily for the likes of drummers etc. 

I made a similar request on this page...

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Driving-as-a-Charge-2-Exercise-Shortcut/idi-p/16...

Interestingly inspite of demand for the feature and response for the same, not one Fitbit representative has given his/her voice on it. 

On other threads, I have seen fitbit representatives are quite active.

The question is, Why is Fitbit so reluctant to resolve, or atleast ACKNOWLEDGE the issue?! 

Why the stoic silence, Mr. Fitbit?

Failing to resolve the issue, Fitbit has accumulated and pushing a LOT & LOT of Wrong fitness data.

Namely, all the data that I mentioned above is VERY VERY INCORRECT.

And fitbit continues to persue research that very sets of wrong data.

As much as I love Fitbit, it is really off-putting to have the wrong numbers everywhere. 

It may be small issue for Fitbit, a really Big one for us consumers. 

With all the amazing work that fitbit does, please find time to resolve this issue.

We, as consumers, would like someone from Fitbit to, at the very least, acknowledge the issue and resolve to work on it. 

Thanks.

P.S.- Do you know if there is ANY tracker out there which has solved the issue?

[Cocheese]

Please add motorcycle as an option here.

Moderator Edit: Added Labels/Title for Clarity

[Survey]

Indeed. So many requesting a delete step function. Courteous fitbit staff skirt around such annoyances when they must know their proposals do not work. 

I agre with an earlier post here that this appears to be a pretty accurate pedometer tracker. Sure it gives a heartbeat readout. However it is little more than this and if mine fails I shall look elsewhere for a replacement. Why fitbit do not improve the software on this product I do not know. Almost as if there is no customer care here. So fitbit what is your answer?? Are you updating the software or not?

[Mcastro13]

Fitbit, please do this!! I was on a boat for an hour the other day and it logged almost 2,000 steps 🙄 Especially when you’re part of a challenge it’s like cheating so I took the Fitbit off for the rest of the day hoping it would even out my count. Seems like this should be a fairly easy thing to do and everyone would appreciate it! 

[Cocheese]

Yes, the fix is simple. Seems like more of a server/dashboard fix than anything on the device. Not enough developers or no one cares, or both. I have reverted primarily back to a Timex sports watch. If the data is going to be bad, might as well use a better watch with better interval timer.

[V1nnie]

Pretty silly to record driving as an exercise. The whole point is to negate steps while on a train/ driving so why on earth would it count towards your weekly exercise? Something that should be fixed asap!

[Willy42]

Recently acquired a Blaze. Bought it for more than just the activity tracker so wear it most of the time. It records 40+ steps just washing my hands. Records phantom floors. Wear it on my non-dominant wrist but I must be ambidextrous. I'd vote for more options to easily reduce or suppress sensitivity. But I like the other features. And the black Friday price.

[alienbeing]

I agree with this idea - it still does not help if you forget to start (or stop) the exercise (like I often do), but since Fitbit seem to have no plans to enable easy step/stairs deletion other than slogging via the website, this presumably very simply mod (as drawn above by rainbow4abc) would be a great step (pun intended) in the right direction - thank you!

[alienbeing]

PS we do need calories counted, as we are alive (hopefully) while driving, and therefore burning calories 🙂

[SunsetRunner]

Hello, this would be a great feature, it would be so convenient to turn off the step counter when you need to. Preferably from the device so you don't have to pull out your phone. I use public transport so there's a lot of stopping and starting, sometimes traffic so the speed is slow, my fitbit counts a lot of steps taken when I'm standing still or sitting down on a bus or train. Having to manually add a driving exercise is a pain. I have to remember the precise time I got on the bus, and the precise time I got off. Take out my phone and fiddle with it to log in a driving period. I would prefer that this not be worked out in an algorithm that tries to automatically detect when to stop counting. I assure you that the diversity of human activity and the kind of surfaces used for travel will be hard for the fitbit to automatically recognise to stop counting. People in this thread have mentioned horseback riding and tractors, that's just to start. Roads are built very differently in different parts of the world. There are all kinds of motion experienced that change from bumpy dirt paths to poorly paved roads, to super smooth highways. I should be able to tell my tracker not to count steps when I know something it does not. Maybe in the long term Fitbit could use AI or something to determine when to turn the tracker off automatically, but for now, please have a manual option, preferably from the tracker. Thank you!

[taz4352]

As have others posted here, it would seem that the stair counts can sometimes be erroneous based on atmospheric pressure or other factors.  It would be nice to be able to adjust the counts based on what you know you did.  Currently, there is a workaround that allows you to designate a block of time a having been driving and that causes steps, stairs and calories to be deleted but when only the stair count is inaccurate, it is not desirable to delete all your other hard earned stats.  It would be nice to just be able to delete stairs as it can be an unreliable count at times.

[Stevenjm96]

I think it’d be beneficial to some of us to be given the option of pausing our step counters. My steps can sometimes be very inaccurate, as I work with my hands a lot. It’s a hassle taking my watch off and putting it back on every 5 minutes when I start working. A small hassle, I know, but a sort of annoying one nonetheless. Even driving on particularly bumpy roads can add steps sometimes. Doesn’t seem like it should be too difficult to add the feature, but what do I know! Thanks, Fitbit!

[Kingwill0120]

Yea as a truck driver it counts alot of extra steps a day and is next to usless for me without it. 

[adlai]

Please implement this!! Having a motorcycle is rendering my Fitbit useless, and it would be so simple to let me shut it down during the ride.

Or better yet, how about turning it off/on automatically based on acceleration?

[DCL_Mo]

Brand new to the Alta HR and I deliver newspapers in the early morning every day. Driving is adding steps most definitely,  Rolling and bagging papers is adding steps. I'm reaching 10,000 steps in about 2.5 hours every day.  A pause button would be a fantastic improvement!  

[CandidSplash]

I know this has been suggested many times, but from what I can see, the answer is always the "Add Driving as an activity with negate steps" workaround, or the "you can turn off your Blaze while driving" suggestion - it's a watch, I still need the watch part when I'm driving.

But we REALLY need to be able to just edit steps/floors etc with out it counting as an activity as that then throws out activity goals. 

[PuesChepe]

As a truck driver I'm constantly in and out of my truck driving from coast to coast I got so many badges I did not earn it be great to be able make fit bit a bit more driver friendly ie if gps says you going impossible human speed to not track steps 

[PeaNuTBoTTer]

I literally get hundreds of steps in my sleep.... Today I went horseback riding and got 6,000 of my 10,000 steps today... 6,000!!! That was all the horse! Not me! This has been asked for for ages. They obviously don't care about what the community asks for even if they've been asking for months on end. All I know is that I will let anyone who asks about my Fitbit know about this silly problem and will not recommend one to anyone until it gets added. smh

[Bobbert]

I actually don’t use mine anymore it’s pointless. Bit annoying really for the sake of a small software update