Charge 3 losing steps when syncing after firmware update

[andrewinhouston]

Today I updated to the latest firmware upon the recommendation in the IOS FitBit App.  I do not leave the app running all the time.  See my other posts, but if it is left running, it constantly nags me with tips and to turn on GPS.

To be clear: I don't want tips and I don't want to enable GPS.  I'm in my home and don't need to know a route I've taken through the house.

But now, I noticed after some exercise on a mini-trampoline and syncing that the steps seemed off.  I had over 7,500 steps early in the day, so I was expecting to have around 10,000 steps.  I looked at the Charge 3 and saw 8,900-ish steps.  I opened the app on my phone and saw it show first 8,900-something and then drop to 7,500-something.  I started watching the device and the app before a sync.  It would lose 100 steps, or 25 steps, or 73 steps.  Then I went around the house to empty trashcans for the garbage collection.  I went to sync and the steps dropped from 15,020 down to 14,656.

That is, the Charge 3 showed 15,020.  When I opened the app, it showed 12,559 from the previous sync.  After the sync completed it rose to 15,020 and then dropped to 14,656.

I only have one tracker device and one Aria scale on the account.  I am unable to sync directly to a MacBook Pro (another complaint) and do not have the software installed.  I sync only to the iPhone and view results on the iPhone and the website.

I am looking for trends in my steps counts.  I don't expect 100% accuracy from the Charge 3.  But I do expect that syncing a device would honor the information on the device.  What possible reason would it have to remove any steps at all?

Moderator edit: subject for clarity 

[LiliyaFitbit]

Hi @andrewinhouston, it's nice to see you again in our Community Forums. 

I am sorry to hear your Charge 3 is losing steps after firmware update. I appreciate the additional details and I am glad to assist you. Thank you for your feedback regarding other features, our team is always working on our products and services, and your comments are always welcome. To share additional feedback or if you want the features to be improved, feel free to visit our Feature suggestion board. Here our product development teams consult regularly to ensure we're delivering on what our customers need and want. Please take a moment to visit and give us your feedback. Regarding the issue with syncing to your MacBook Pro, you can find our troubleshooting tips at Why won't my Fitbit device sync?

Regarding the issue with steps, please let me know if you manually log any activities and if you have any third party apps connected to your Fitbit account? I will be glad to investigate. For more information about accuracy of Fitbit devices, see How accurate are Fitbit devices?  

Looking forward to hearing back from you.

[andrewinhouston]

Good morning.  I've monitored every sync starting yesterday morning and the problem has not recurred.  For connecting to the MacBook Pro sync, I'll check the troubleshooting tip you referenced to see if there have been any changes.  The last time I reviewed it, nothing address the problem.  The FitBit Connect app tells me to enable Bluetooth on a 2014, 2017 and 2019 model computer.  On all three, Bluetooth is already enabled.

I have not manually logged any activities in a very long time, maybe even years.  The only application that shows in the account is "Apple Internal WebView by FitBit, Inc.".  I use the app on the iPhone and the browser on my Macs.

Thank you,

Andrew

[LiliyaFitbit]

Hi @andrewinhouston, thank you for your reply.

I am glad to hear the issue has not recurred. I appreciate the additional details and your efforts to check the troubleshooting tips about connecting to your MacBook Pro. I hope this information will be helpful. 

In case you have some spare time, I would like to invite you to visit our Discussions board where you can share your experiences, make new friends and create new topics.

I'll be around if you have any questions. 

[andrewinhouston]

Hi @LiliyaFitbit -

None of the posts or troubleshooting tips have helped me to resolve the MacBook Pro sync issues.  Mostly I just find a lot of other MBP users that echo the same problem.  For whatever reason, Fitbit and MBP don't play well together.

Regarding lost data, I made a few replies yesterday to some posts.  I do still lose steps, but I don't monitor it as closely.  I noticed that the hours with 250+ steps would sometimes decrement and that is where I made my replies.

I do find that if I stop all activity and watch that the Charge 3 tracker is no longer adding steps, I can watch the steps before/after the sync and rarely see it drop, or drop by any large amount.

I see room for improvements with the way the synchronization works.  I know that I've done over 200 or 225 flights, but I believe my best day shows as 175.  Since I didn't bother to sync before midnight that day, it didn't count as my highest day.  The tracker has the date and time of the activities so the sync process should be smart enough to retroactively mark those achievements.  The same with the number of steps in a day or number of hours with 250+ steps.  Why would the sync process ever want to lower the steps or hours the device has recorded?  Other than a very occasional update to the start or end time of my sleep, I don't record manual activities.  Likewise, I only have my iPhone set up for the sync process.  As noted above, I cannot sync to my MBP devices, so I'm stuck with the iPhone app.

Thanks for hanging out with us and helping to resolve issues and questions 🙂

Andrew