Mismatch a total number of steps between summary data with a specific date and intraday-data

[sjsj1]

There are two ways to get a daily total steps using fitbit web API.

- first, request daily step data by API with a specific date (daily-summary)

- second, summation of step intraday-data with a specific date (intraday-data)

but sometimes, two results( total number of steps per day) are different even in the same date.

also, when i check number of steps in fitbit app, total number of steps are different with a total number of steps represented on the step intra-day graph.

Am I missing something?

Why those two numbers are different?

1) daily-summary

https://api.fitbit.com/1/user/-/activities/steps/date/today/1m.json

2) intraday-data

https://api.fitbit.com/1/user/-/[resource-path]/date/[date]/1d/[detail-level].json

[Gordon-C]

Hi @sjsj1 

Thank you for letting us know you are seeing differences in the totals.   I'm not sure of the answer yet, but I will do some testing and get back to you.   In the meantime, would you please answer the following questions

1. How much of a difference is there between the 2 endpoints you provided?
2. Would you provide the exact endpoints your executing?   #2 is a template.
3. For endpoint #1, do you see a different when the date is an actual date value vs "today"?
4. How frequently does this problem occur for you?
5. Does the step count difference only occur when comparing today's step count vs historical step count?
6. If you were to execute the Get Daily Summary by date endpoint, /1/user/-/activities/date/{date}.json, does the total steps align with the values from #1 or #2?

Thanks!

Gordon

[sjsj1]

1. How much of a difference is there between the 2 endpoints you provided?

It varies case by case.

For my data, daily summary steps of 4/11 was 123 but the summation of intra-day was 96.

also, daily summary steps of 3/17 was 14129 but the summation of intra-day was 13088.

2. Would you provide the exact endpoints your executing?   #2 is a template.

https://api.fitbit.com/1/user/-/activities/steps/date/2021-03-17/1d/15min.json

3. For endpoint #1, do you see a different when the date is an actual date value vs "today"?

No

4. How frequently does this problem occur for you?

not just me, but my friend too. It's hard to tell the exact frequency, but I just checked my recent data in fitbit app, 2 out of 10 data were mismatched.

5. Does the step count difference only occur when comparing today's step count vs historical step count?

no, it occur when comparing summary step vs total step upon in the intra-day step graph of fitbit app, also fitbit api too.

6. If you were to execute the Get Daily Summary by date endpoint, /1/user/-/activities/date/{date}.json, does the total steps align with the values from #1 or #2?

it align with #1 

[FoxMan32]

Thank you for the information

[Gordon-C]

Hi @sjsj1 

I found some information in the documentation that will help explain the discrepancy.   See https://dev.fitbit.com/build/reference/web-api/activity/#get-activity-intraday-time-series

Note: Any discrepancies between time series detail-level totals vs daily summary totals is likely due to how the device calculates on-wrist and off-wrist data. On-wrist data is defined as data collected while the device is worn. On-wrist data is also referred to as Intraday data. Off-wrist data is defined as data collected while the device is not worn. For example, step data can be collected if the device was in a bag while driving down a bumpy road. By design, daily summary totals include on-wrist totals and off-wrist totals; while Intraday totals include on-wrist totals only.