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".

[Ton]

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@5ergiowrote

At the moment the only way to keep things accurate is to switch off the
watch when you drive.

Lately I noticed that my ionic doesn’t add too many steps when I am driving
a car (like 20 to 50 steps per hour or driving, not bad at all), but when I
am driving my motorcycle it adds thousands of steps and I definitely have
to switch it off. 

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Hi. I'm not sure I understand: how do you switch it off? Unless it's a feature that Fitbit Ionic has implemented?

[5ergio]

It takes too many steps, but what I have to do every time is go to settings
-> about-> Shutdown -> Yes

[sagar13]

Well, you don't have that option on Charge 3 😞

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @Synchro2003, thanks for explaining why you would like to have this option. I've moved it into a similar suggestion which has a lot of votes. As the more votes and comments an idea has the more visibility and momentum it gains. You can learn more about how Fitbit decides what suggestions get released in our FAQs.

[Ton]

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@sagar13wrote
Well, you don't have that option on Charge 3 😞

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...or Charge 2. Lucky the Ionic users and to hell all the others...

[Angie16]

Ain't that the truth.

[Ivar]

I laughed when I saw all these emails coming in again from this topic. Such an easy fix which has been explained countless times. No feed back, no beta option to test, no nothing.

Just some mod merging posts for 'visibility'. Ahhh haaa... What does that count for if it'll never be fixed.

Just add 'driving' to the activities on the watch, or let us stop registering steps/floors some other way. Driving to work for 1 hour on my motorcycle and having 4.5k steps is just plain stupid.

[Endui]

@Ivar

100% agree!

Additionally I will never ever recommend Fitbit product to anyone.

Respond on the 5 years old issue does not exist. It is like "Really?". No feedback no nothing. It is just ridiculous. Shame on you Fitbit team.

[LeahLiv]

Fitbit literally does not care. I've resigned myself to this fact. I just ignore their inaction. It's such an easy fix...and they won't even reply...36 pages of concerns over this and they won't fix it...

[CaptainJohnnie]

So no fix yet right...?

[Lilbiddy]

This baby should be in school now. Is the person meant to solve this problem allocated at birth when the problem is found and we now have to wait for them to get their degree? 

[Ton]

@CaptainJohnnie

...nor ever I'm afraid.

@Lilbiddy

I hope you won't be holding your breath...

IMHO the truth is clear by now. While we get close to "celebrate" the 5th year of this thread, whether there is a remote or close way to fix it is not important anymore. What matters is they have not had the slightest decency to show a spark of honesty and tell their customers  "Yes, we'll do something about it" or "Sorry, the problem is not fixable", or even better "We have no intention to fix it". That's what a serious company would do and that is what is unforgivable to me.

[vyshwanara]

100 pc agree with you. This is not a sign of company that will grow.

[Ton]

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@vyshwanarawrote

100 pc agree with you. This is not a sign of company that will grow. 

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Sadly I'm not sure  about that. The most irritating thing is that they do keep growing apparently, thanks to a lack of knowledge. The unsatisfied customers is only us, people who have bought already and experienced the problem on our skin, with very little means to spread the voice. On the other side they have the power of advertising: for instance British Telecom are offering the Charge 3 now to those who sign up, while other companies, like Lucozade to mention one, offer it as a raffle prize...

[KeithSloan]

When I got my FitBit 3  I gave my wife my AUPALLA 21BP tracker i.e. A Chinese made tracker. it does NOT add steps when driving whereas the Fitbit 3 does. IT IS NOT A BUMPY ROADS ISSUE just normal UK roads. I wear my Fitbit on my left hand as on my right hand it was counting steps when I brushed my teeth. I set the option nondominant hand in the App, but as I am led to believe that this makes it more sensitive I changed it to dominate, this helps a bit, but steps whilst driving it is still a problem.

An option to track driving would help but it is FAR FAR from an ideal solution. I don't want to have to remember to tell my Fitbit that I am driving each time I get in the car. If Fitbit cannot improve their algorithms to the same standard as others then maybe they need to develop a device that attaches to one's ankle that then communicates Bluetooth to the Fitbit on my wrist.

I REALLY REALLY wish Fitbit would step up to the mark and admit that this is a problem. Claiming it is bumpy roads is just flannel 

[Rich_Laue]

Fitbit would probably have to degrade there algorithm making it so less steps are detected. Currently Apple, Garmin, B-Fit, and Next all have complaints that steps are counted while driving.

Fitbit requires a minimum of 5 up-down movements before it will consider the user walking and count then as steps. 

[KeithSloan]

Well, it often but not always it records driving as riding a bike exercise. What it is about riding a bike that it then concludes its driving? Why not in the circumstances record it as driving i.e. ignore, unless the user has specifically initiated riding a bike by selecting the activity. If I go and ride my bike I always select the activity on the tracker as I want it to pair with the GPS on my phone, which I carry in my pocket. 

[LauraHatch]

I am asking for a simple feature, which could be turned on and off via either Settings, or from buttons in the App Dashboard (or even the device itself).

Settings:

Auto-Disable High Speed Tracking: On/Off (would default to "On")

Stop tracking steps and floors once it has been detected that you are travelling above the specified speed threshold. Note - Requires a GPS connection.

Always track when in "exercise" mode: On/Off (default is "On")

If the device has been put in an "excercise" mode then tracking would continue to record steps.

Speed Threshold: 10mph | { User can change value }

Disable tracking once your "speed" reaches this value, if it is enabled above. 

This would allow you to define your own "speed threshold" .. I imagine people who use their FitBit while sprinting / running would want a different threshold to someone who goes for the occasional long walk.

(Note - the average running speed is typically about 8-9mph - although obviously this may vary)

If you put the device in an excercise mode (say you are in a training session, or going for a run) then it would continue tracking regardless of what speed you achieve.

Usage

By default if the device detects that you are travelling above the threshold (say 10mph) it will stop recording steps and floors. This would disable tracking for the majority of complaints when:

• Cycling
• Driving a car
• Driving a motorbike

You could optionally disable this (ideally from an easy-to-reach On/Off button) so that you could collect step counts when you are walking around on a fast-moving vehicle (say on a boat, train, plane or bus).

The override available when in exercise mode would resolve people who might hit the threshold when doing an intensive "workout" (say hitting 15 mph when sprinting).

I think this would resolve the vast majority of "miscount" values that people seem to be complaining about, and the reliance on GPS (say from a linked phone) is a reasonable requirement for such a feature.

[Hunterc600]

Hello you need to have a driving mode on the watch to simply click on and off, when driving mode is ‘on’ it switches off the step and activity count.. 

I’m a lorry driver and I do 12–15 drops a day and to log my times driving on the log takes up so much time and effort and I’d have to do it 12-15 times a day! 

Looking at the forum most most people are having this problem and they are sending the device back and im tempted to send it back and pay an extra few hundred pounds and upgrade back to the Apple Watch, however if you just done this simple upgrade I much prefer this watch than my old Apple Watch 

[Mtiffen]

Great idea, failing that allow the device to be switched off, having driving as an exercise distorts my love of my Fitbit. The charge 3 is a step backwards from my surge.

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @Hunterc600, thanks for explaining why you would like to have this option on your Fitbit. I've moved it into a similar suggestion which has a lot of votes. As the more votes and comments an idea has the more visibility and momentum it gains. You can learn more about how Fitbit decides what suggestions get released in our FAQs.

Hope to keep seeing you around.

[YojanaFitbit]

Hello @LauraHatch and commenters! This is a very nice suggestion, thanks for sharing. I can tell that you think on every possible option. It might become in a very popular request, so watch this space for updates.

[LauraHatch]

What is going on? 

I had my own suggestion (which was different to this one) about automatically disabling step tracking based on a speed threshold (identified via connected GPS).

I login this morning and my permalink is redirecting me to this suggestion (about manually turning tracking on and off) and all of the comments for my suggestion have been placed here.

Where has my suggestion gone? I had loads of settings and all sorts! 

[Ton]

@LauraHatch

Don't worry yourself, sometimes the moderators like to do it: they move posts around. But what you can be certain of is that the outcome is still the same: nothing will be done about the real problem.

[Dr_AK]

Could you please "Driving" to the "EXERCISE SHORTCUTS" of FitBit Ionic?

Thanks a lot!