Custom food units changing randomly.

[liz4cps]

I am having a problem very like the one in this closed thread except it's not supposed to happen past version 2.32 and I have version 2.33.1 of the iOS app.

In particular, I have a custom food called "Coffee with half & half and sugar" which I created with fluid ounces as the main unit size (or "fl oz").  A few days ago, I noticed the calories for my coffee were really high and when I looked at the food log, instead of "40 fl oz" it was showing "40 pints"!  When I tried to change it to fl oz, I found that the only units I had available were cups, pints, and quarts.  I guess I should be glad it wasn't changing to quarts!

I thought it very odd that a custom food would be changed that way, but I went on the Fitbit site and edited the food and added "fl oz" as another unit and gave it the correct information.  (I was puzzled that I couldn't easily find the custom food list on the Log page and edited it from the entry instead.)  I wondered if you had promoted it to a normal food?  But later I found it was still on the Custom Food list on my iPhone, so I guess not.

Anyway, I thought I was good until today when I found the same problem again.  This time, I'm just changing it to 5 cups, but I'm used to thinking of how much coffee I drink in terms of fl oz, so I'm a little annoyed by this.

What's going on?  Don't you like fl oz any more?

Thanks.

Moderator Edit: Clarified Subject.

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @liz4cps, it's great to see you around, I hope you're having a good day. 

This seems like a very odd situation. If the site nor the app are recording the custom food correctly, I would like to suggest deleting it and creating it once again through the online Dashboard

1- Go to the Log section of the online Dashboard and click on Create a new food.

2- Choose a Food Name/Brand,  fl oz on Serving Size and the amount of calories for your Custom Food:

3- After saving the Custom Food, click on Edit Food, on the next screen locate your recently created custom food and click on Edit. Make sure the Liquid? box is checked, that the category is correct and that serving size remains the same as when you created the custom food. Then save it.

Now that the new custom food has been saved, please try logging it from the Fitbit app. 

I hope this can be helpful, give it a try and if you're still experiencing issue, please feel free to reply, I'll be happy to continue assisting you. 

Let me know the outcome! 

[liz4cps]

Ok, I edited the existing coffee item and told it was a liquid and categorized it.  I'm going to see if that fixes the problem.

I created this item a long time; I don't believe there was an option to check off to indicate it was a liquid.  I'm the sort of person that pays attention to those kinds of details so I'm pretty sure I would have checked it off if it had been there.  (I used to write software.)

I guess I should check my other items to see if they were also liquid, so I can add the check marks to them as well.  I'll probably just fix them as I come across them.  Thanks!

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @liz4cps, I hope you're having a great day! 

Thanks for taking the time to reply and letting me know the steps you've performed so far, I hope my instructions can be helpful and if you're still experiencing issues after editing your custom foods, please let me know so I can check this further.

Happy stepping! 

[liz4cps]

After editing my original food, it worked fine for a couple days.  However, today when I went to add it to my log, it was back to not offering fl oz.  I went back to the food item and the check mark for "liquid" was gone.  I fixed it again and will see if it stays a bit longer this time.

Looking at the custom foods I've added, I am wondering which items are supposed to be liquid.  For example, are sauces considered liquid?  Also, which units of measurement are only used for liquids?  It looks like I can use tbsp and tsp for any item that has a volume equivalent which is good.

Well, I went back to look at my coffee again to see what units it had and see that it's messed up again.  That sure didn't last long!  Off to re-create it from scratch...

Ok, got it created but not convinced it'll work for long.  I don't like that it was originally saved without the checkmark on liquid because you can't put that in when you first add the food.  As you say above, I had go edit the food after creating it and the liquid checkmark was not there.

I'm inclined to think this is a mis-feature.  If I put the units in fl oz, why can't you just leave it alone?

It's also annoying to tap on an old entry and find that the calories and units have changed, partly because I'm then wondering what I'd originally entered.  I had entered my old coffee, while it was still taking fl oz yesterday, with about 14 fl oz but when I went back to just look at it on my iPhone to see the units, it was changed to 40 cups or so.  Usually, it'll show 14 cups, so you figure it used to be 14 fl oz, but this time, it seemed unrelated.

Last, this means that the old coffee will be on my frequent list where it has been so convenient to use, and the new one won't be there for a very long time.

Shaking my head, but I guess I'll manage.

[liz4cps]

The new coffee lasted about 4 1/2 months, apparently.  Yesterday, when I went to enter my coffee, it put in 40 cups instead of 40 fl oz!  Yikes!

So, I created it, carefully, last March, making sure it had the "liquid" box checked and defining it based on fl oz.  Yesterday, I find it no longer offers me fluid ounces.  I checked the food details and find the check mark on liquids is gone and the amount was converted from fl oz to cups.

Why are you changing my coffee?  You really shouldn't mess with someone's coffee!  LoL!

But this isn't good.  Please stop doing this....

[SunsetRunner]

I have a similar issue to the original post. Created custom food via webpage, marked as liquid, with serving size in millilitres, and saved in favourites. I log it almost every day, sometimes more than once. I wouldn't say it converts back to cups every day, but certainly with infuriating frequency.

I don't recreate it each time, but still have to edit the food (seemingly only on the webpage), re-tick the liquid box, and update the serving size. The issue seems more common after logging on the Apple app than directly on the website, but I couldn't say with certainly that it is only/always then.

[liz4cps]

Mine was changed back to cups again today; it now looks like:

I noticed it messed up because after I logged 40 fl oz, it looked ok until I finished entering food and hit save.  When I got back to the food page in the iOS app, it said I was over for the day already.  My first thought was I'd put it on the wrong day somehow, but then I looked and saw my coffee was showing 1349 calories!  I clicked on it and saw it had 40 cups instead of 40 fl oz.

Just edited the coffee, added the tick to show it's a liquid, and added the fl oz, for the umpteenth time, fixed my log, etc.  Now my coffee shows 169 calories; much better!

Tired of this....

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello everyone, I hope you're having a great day. 

Thank you all for reporting this issue, I'll make sure to forward the information provided to our team so they can take a better look at this. In the meantime, could you please confirm with me if this issue is only affecting creating custom foods through the online Dashboard or are you experiencing the same issue in the app? 

Thanks for your patience and understanding, once I get more information about this situation, I'll make sure to update the thread. Additionally, if there's anything else I can do for you, please feel free to reply. 

[SunsetRunner]

My creations have all been via the website.

[liz4cps]

I probably created my coffee on the website, but I'm not 100% sure.  I almost always enter my food using the iOS app, though.  When I notice my coffee is messed up, I normally go to the website to fix it, temporarily using cups to enter it on my iPhone.  So, if I'm out and this happens, instead of 24 fl oz, I'll put in 3 cups of coffee.

The app doesn't show the box to tick when you want to indicate something is a liquid.  You could create a food measured in fl oz, still, but it probably wouldn't stay in fl oz long without the tick box checked off.

My coffee has stayed a liquid for a few days, now; it's probably due to mess up soon, though; lol.  I still think that you all really shouldn't be messing with folks' coffee!

[liz4cps]

My coffee went back to a solid today.     At least, it's not showing fl oz's any more.

Posting because I hadn't entered coffee for a few days; I normally have coffee at least every other day, but none for the last 4-5 days.  I had more today and it entered alright, but I've been leaving the webpage for my coffee open to check it which I have been, almost daily (the link probably only works for me and Fitbit staff).  When I reloaded it a little while ago, I found it had gone back to cups.  Up until today, it had been showing fl oz.  I'm now suspecting that something about entering my coffee is triggering the change.

Notes:

1. It doesn't change every time I enter it, so it's not that simple.
2. I very nearly always enter my food on iOS; I don't know if that would make any difference if I used the website instead.
3. It actually went in correctly when I entered it today; I just checked the web page a couple hours later and found the page was wrong.
4. In the past, it has changed sometimes as I entered the coffee.  For example, I'll put in 24 fl oz and notice the number of calories is way out of line.  When I click on the coffee to see why, I'll find it's changed to 24 cups.

Hope this little bit more of into helps you all debug this.

[mandamarsha]

I just noticed this same issue today on my app. All of my custom foods were created through my app and I have never seen an option to check it as being a liquid. Some drinks were only allowing me to choose teaspoons or tablespoons when editing, others showed in cups or milliliters and allowed me to change it back to fl oz. I had to go back and change my previous entries as they were no longer showing correctly. I deleted one of the items that only allowed me to select teaspoon or tablespoon which of course now will not allow me to alter the item on a previous day when the old entry was used (unless I go in and change them all myself). I have never had this happen before and my app is always kept up to date. It is rather annoying when it suddenly shows a food as having too many or too few calories despite having no problem with the custom item in the past.

[liz4cps]

My workaround is to:

1. When an item messes up, go on the website and fix it:
   • From your Fitbit dashboard, click on "Log" at the top.
   • Click on "Edit my foods" which is at the bottom of your favorite food list in the right hand column which takes you to My Foods.
   • Find the problem food in your list and click "Edit".
   • Put a checkmark (or tick) in the box that indicates it's a liquid.
   • Categorize your food to something that's liquid, like beverage.
   • Fix the units for your food.
2. Keep an eye on the calories when you tap "save" so you know if it messes up again.

This isn't too bad for me since I only have one food that messes up (though I still think Fitbit shouldn't mess with my coffee like this!).  It doesn't mess up every time I use it either; perhaps every 4-6 times?  Given I don't drink coffee every day, this works out to fixing my coffee only about every other week.  It's annoying but I'm hoping Fitbit will get it fixed soon!

Alternatively, since you said tablespoons and teaspoons were pretty inconvenient, edit the food change your units to cups (or some other unit Fitbit lets you use for non-liquids?), and just use those for a while.

I am hoping Fitbit will fix this Real Soon Now, and we can go back to using the units we want.

Recommendation to Fitbit:  Just use the units we tell you to use and don't worry if something is a liquid or not.

[shadskeet71]

Mine just did the same with a custom.  It was originally entered by fluid ounces, now my only options are cup, pint, and quart.  After reading all this I’ve decided I’m just going to adjust my measurements to the allotted defaults, but would like an update when fixed.    1 fl = .125 cup

[JojoDew]

I started using the app this week and have custom food that the portion is changing randomly. I enter it in ml and it has changed to cl. Is there a fix?