Lose steps and active minutes every time I sync

[Jude_77]

This has been happening for over a week now. I go on a long walk 4-6 miles, build up my steps & active minutes & then when I sync to my app all my active minutes go & I lose between 1000-2000 steps. It’s getting very frustrating now. I’ve tried deleting the app & re-installing it, removing my device from the app & re-syncing it but it’s still happening on a daily basis. My app is up to date. It’s getting to the point where I’m thinking about leaving Fitbit & trying another. 

Moderator edit: subject for clarity 

[LiliyaFitbit]

Hi @Jude_77, it's nice to see you again in our Community Forums. 

Thanks for the details shared in your post and for already trying to resolve the issue. I recommend checking if you have any third party app connected to your Fitbit account. Sometimes the information from the third party app overrides the information recorded by your Fitbit device, and this can result in losing the active minutes and steps.

Hope this helps. 

[Jude_77]

Hi, I did wonder if that was why so I disconnected it from my fitness pal 3 days ago but it’s still happening on a daily basis. It’s not connected to anything now. 

[LiliyaFitbit]

Thank you for your reply, @Jude_77.

I am sorry to hear the issue persists, I appreciate your efforts and the additional details. I would like to confirm if you see your active minutes on the tracker itself? Please let me know if you manually log any activities and if you notice that you lose your steps after tracking your workouts? If so, please let me know how do you track your workouts? Do you use the Exercise app on your tracker or let the activity to be recognized automatically? 

I'll be around.

[Jude_77]

Hi

Yes I do see the data on the Fitbit itself but about 30 mins later steps go down & active minutes disappear from the Fitbit.

I don’t log any extra data as at the minute I walk from 4-7 miles a day on a walk. I don’t use the exercise app, I just wear the Fitbit on my wrist & it counts my steps & active minutes as I walk. 
Just so frustrating as it’s never happened before & I've had it several years. 
Many Thanks for trying to help 

[AKou]

I have the exact same issue multiple times over the year, very visible when I got for long hikes. E.g.

My Fitbit Ionic device showed 51K steps post hike. I synced with my Fitbit app, few minutes after, the app and the device both show 29K steps. 

1. For reference, my Garmin Fenix device on the other hand also showed 51K steps. So the Fitbit device is accurately counting pre syncing.

2. I don't have a second device. I have also deleted/added the Fitbit Ionic back. Also the firmware is kept up to date.

3. The watch/app shows 21.77 miles, which is accurate.  

4. Realistically its not possible for most humans to do 21.7 miles with just 29K steps. 

5. I haven't had any other syncing issues.

6.  I have been easily loosing 20K steps everytime I do 50K-60K step event. So now my habit is to take a screenshot of the page before syncing, coz I know I will loose steps.

Happy to be of any help to debug this privately. 

[AKou]

Sharing other threads reporting a similar observation:

Steps are disappearing after syncing.

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/iOS-App/Steps-are-disappearing-after-syncing/m-p/1955298

Fitbit randomly deletes steps and some days not included in weekly totals

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/iOS-App/Fitbit-randomly-deletes-steps-and-some-days-not-included-in-...

Fitbit app is deleting my steps, workout minutes and distance

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/iOS-App/Fitbit-app-is-deleting-my-steps-workout-minutes-and-distance...

[LiliyaFitbit]

Welcome to the Fitbit Community, @AKou.

Thank you for joining the thread and sharing that you're experiencing the same issue. I understand your concern and thank you for providing the additional details and links for threads with similar issue. I appreciate your efforts. I was able to see that you have already contacted our Support team regarding this. If you still need help, please feel free to contact our team back as they already have all the details and special tools to continue assisting you. 

I would like to mention that if you have a third party app connected to your Fitbit account, the information is being shared between the apps and it could affect your stats.

See you around.

[AKou]

To whoever this helps, the culprit turned out to be 3rd party apps with write permissions. I removed them all, and now the problem of losing steps after syncing does not occur. For reference, I was losing 10-15K steps consistently on long days for over a year.

Why might this be happening? On day-long hikes with 50-60K steps, I recorded data from another smartwatch, which integrated with Strava. Strava also combined with Fitbit. And that integration somehow started deleting the number of steps on Fitbit.