Innacuracy? Getting N/A instead of Distance

[PBMuels81]

I am having the same issues, where it is not counting about 20-30% of my steps, which fluctuates, depending on my pace.  I never had these issues with my Zip, which I used for two years straight, before upgrading to the Fitbit Surge. I truly miss the accuracy of the Zip, but wanted a device that had HR monitor, was somewhat curious about my sleep pattern, and thought it would be a nice change.

This is the 2nd Surge, and it still does not track accurately! The Fitbit website and forumns talk about proper wrist placement for tracking, but I have mixed this up, and does not amke much of a difference.

I shouldn't have to worry about my wrist placement, the whole idea is to make the wearable that you put on, and is an asset, not another thing to worry about, other than to charge regularly.

It has truly been very frustrating with the higher dollar wearable not properly tracking, now I have the distance showing up as N/A, and I have to continue to look for solutions on-line.

HELP! I have tried everything that is posted in this forumn, but still no changes

Moderator edit: Clarified subject.

[Julia_G]

Hi, @PBMuels81, your distance will show N/A ALWAYS if you rely on SmartTrack to detect your activities automatically.

If you use the "exercise shortcuts" to track your activity your distance will also show N/A unless the activity is labelled "walk", "run" or "hike".  There isn't a solution or "fix" for this -- it is how the program is currently designed. 

[Rich_Laue]

@PBMuels81 on the Surge, your posting in the Charge 2 forum., you have the option to use the built in GPS. Are you using it?

[YojanaFitbit]

Hey there, @PBMuels81! Welcome to the Family! And thanks @Julia_G and @Rich_Laue for jumping in! I hope all of you doing great today.

Congrats on your new Surge @PBMuels81! I think that you will love your new Fitbit buddy once you get to know him better! I know that you liked the Zip a lot, it's a great tracker, but new generations of trackers are awesome too. But please take in count that with wrist-based trackers, if you move your body a lot and not your arms (or vice versa), you may see a slight difference in step count than you would see if wearing a clip-based tracker on your torso. That's why it is very important check the next tips. 

Using your tracker in the correct hand will give you a better reading, since you wanted to have the HR option and this feature is only applicable for wristband trackers, we need to help your Surge to read your movements by choosing the correct option. Check this master post for more details. You can also check your Fitbit accuracy by doing this accuracy test: 

1. Put your wrist-based tracker on your wrist. And check how many steps you have on it.
2. Walk 100 steps, making sure to count a step each time one of your feet hits the ground.
3. Pause, then check your tracker to see your step count.

If your tracker counted less than 100 steps or more than 100, please let us know and we'll see if we can investigate further. 

Now about the N/A information when looking at your distance. As @Julia_G said, I would recommend turning of your SmartTrack option. You will find this in the Dashboard online, under Settings > Surge > Automatic recognition > Ignore Activity. Since this feature doesn't take in count distance for the overall stats. You can use the activities in your Surge, on the Shortcuts. You can add the activities that you would like to have in the Settings > Surge > ShortCuts. Fitbit Surge has GPS integrated so let's use this unique functionality too. 

Hope this helps!