Distance measurement on Verda 4 not accurate

[Kitmah]

I have a new Verda 4 and it’s measuring 60% less than the distance actually travelled. I’ve just done 3k and the watch says 1.8 k, any suggestions as to what I should do? I’ve tried shutting down watch, reloading app, changing stride length etc and no help. 

[Odyssey13]

Hi @Kitmah see if anything in this article - click to read - helps. I know for myself, if I don't swing my arms, many of my steps just aren't recognized.

[t.parker]

@Kitmah You need to give more details. How do you track your activity (GPS? Exercise app or automatically recognized? As Walk or Run?)?

Swinging arms makes sense but that is one bit to be also cautious about. Most systems that measure the distance from wrist motion assume that we swing our arms the most natural way. Overswinging or under-swinging may impact the calculation as this is used as an intensity factor. We don't move with a constant stride for each step so the swinging (in inertial positioning) serves as an intensity factor. We don't know however whether Fitbit makes any use of that. The stride is separately set for walking and running. I don't know however whether selecting Walk or Run as activities enables one of those stride lengths to be used or there is a more intelligent algorithm to figure that out (honestly, I don't expect it's the latter). 

One thing I find about Fitbit distance measuring is the lack of consistency. On the very same runs, it always ends up with vastly different distances. There isn't much that can be done about it. I can live with some inaccuracies (and if that could be fixed with a calibration factor, which in this case would be a stride length that would be absolutely fine) but inconsistencies make metrics useless as there is no way to use any reading as a reference one. It's not only Versa 4 but Sense 2, original Sense, old Ionic, and even Charge 2. Fitbit's algorithm is far from perfect in that matter (not to mention other inconsistencies like pace or even duration of activity).

[Kitmah]

Thanks t.Parker
I have used all 3 methods to track my walk. The phone app uses gps and is accurate but the watch isn’t. It’s consistently 60% of the actual distance. Total nuisance as the main reason I got the watch was to track my distances.
I met a lovely chap when I contacted Fitbit this evening and we did a factory reset. I don’t know if this will help but fingers crossed

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