Many Issues but Here’s the Latest: Sense Counting Way Too Many Floors

[jujules]

I purchased my Sense back in February and I’ve had multiple issues with it thus far. I loved it for a while, but then back in May, the battery started draining extremely fast. I would fully charge my Sense, but then it would die within a few hours of me wearing it (it wouldn’t even last me a full shift at work). After fully resetting my Sense with the app, deleting and re-downloading the app, and disconnecting and reconnecting the Bluetooth (all multiple times), the battery issue was finally fixed. Not even a week later, my Sense wouldn’t show notifications for any apps, calls, or texts, and a few days later, it wouldn’t connect or sync to my iPhone 11 at all. After following the above steps multiple times once again, I was able to sync my Sense again. All seemed well for a few weeks, but now, the past two weeks, my Sense has been counting WAY too many floors climbed. I usually average 10-ish floors a day and suddenly I’m getting 50 to over 100 a day. I’ll wake up and already have 7 or so floors climbed somehow. I’ve tried repeating all the steps I mentioned above, but it’s not working this time, and I don’t know if this is affecting the amount of calories my Sense is showing I’ve burned. 

I’ve been using Fitbit devices since 2016. I had an Ionic before this and an Alta before that and I never had issues with those. This is the most I’ve spent on a Fitbit device, so I was expecting more from it. I’m definitely starting to get pretty frustrated at this point. Any advice on how to fix it?

[Guy_ · Accepted solution]

The issues and workarounds you describe are all the same issues as others, mainly due to bugs introduced in successive updates in the Fitbit app and not your watch.

There have been two firmware updates and the floor count issue was introduced.

In short until Fitbit start fixing issues rather than creating them there is not much you can do. Your watch was probably not the cause. You can verify this with the SimpleFloors app

There are no workarounds to the floor counting problems where it counts randomly.

You will probably find that it still counts floors correctly when going upstairs but just adds spurious extra ones.

Hopefully if the unpublished algorithms are correct it will add unwanted calories, but that is unclear, even though unfortunate due to the incorrect floor count.

There are other problems, such as inaccurate heart rate and poor vibrate that have never been fixed since the Sense was released.

Once Fitbit address these issues seriously your Sense should work as well as or better than the Ionic and original Versa, which are the benchmark for now.

[Leafsparrow]

I've had the inaccurate floor count eventually occur with every Fitbit device I've ever owned. Not great to hear it's happening with the sense also.

[jujules]

Thank you for the detailed answer! Not too happy that there isn’t really a solution, but at least I know now that it’s probably not my watch that’s causing the problems. I just hope Fitbit will address all these issues soon. 

[rfprice62]

For the past week and a half my Sence has also been counting way to many stairs climbed. There were a couple days that said 40 + stairs when I haven’t gone up any.

[Guy_]

Hi @rfprice62  - If you are interested in how your watch pressure sensor is behaving or whether you can get a more accurate floor count, you can verify you don't have a watch problem by using the SimpleFloors app.

The App shows how your watch is affected by environmental issues such as, going room to room, upstairs/downstairs, inside to outside, changes in temperature, etc.

This App is meant for checking purposes as it uses the battery a lot, but at least it will give you an idea if your watch is fine and if it is some other issue.

[rfprice62]

Hi Guy,

Thanks I will try it out.

Bob

Sent from my iPad

[rfprice62]

I downloaded the app but can’t even find it on my phone. Does it run in the background of Fitbit or something.

Also that is not going to correct my fitness levels or calories burned etc.

[Guy_]

@rfprice62  - swipe the watch face left till you find it and tap on it.

[rfprice62]

Oh okay I did that and I’m sitting in a chair watching it and it keeps on going higher and higher. Then it starts to go down a little. Then starts climbing again.

Also after a while it stops and returns to a different clock face.

[Guy_]

@rfprice62  -  it's just saving battery. If you wake it you can see the comparisons. 

It shows the pressure going up and down due to minute pressure changes and recalibration which shows it is working and you can see what affects the pressure.

[miaconis]

I know this is an old issue and I'm wondering if Fitbit attempted to solve it and caused another problem.  I had a firmware update a few months back and it seems ever since that update, my Sense will not always count the floors.  This happened occasionally at first but lately it seems to be more regular.  Today I have been up and down the basement steps more than 20 times and my current count is 9.  I think it should be more like 25.  I chatted with support this morning and their suggestion is to reboot the tracker and uninstall/reinstall the Fitbit app on my phone (like that's not a real pain).  I rebooted the Sense but did not reinstall the app.  I tried going up and down steps.  At first it seemed to be counting floors, but then stopped counting again.  This is so frustrating.

[Guy_]

@miaconis  - it is possible the sensor hole is partially blocked and the watch needs careful cleaning.

You can see what SimpleFloors tells you is happening with the pressure, to know the source of the problem.