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Steps lost due to software bug

Corr
9 months ago

On 9 August 2024, my Garmin Fenix 6S Pro did not record all data and steps taken.
I don't know what happened that day, but normally my Garmin functions without any problems. The only thing I can think of is the following.
- On that day, to my knowledge, there was a Garmin malfunction.
- I changed my country setting from Netherlands to Singapore and back to Netherlands once because I wanted to win a country related badge.
- I may have stopped a paused activity only after midnight.

Sometime after 09.00 AM, all data registration almost stops. However, it does show that activities were done that day.
The step count stops at 1,183.
On my Fitbit (which I also still wear), I can see that I took about 6,629 steps on that day.

I contacted Garmin support Netherlands (chat).
They looked into my account and can see that I did several activities on that day (including walking) but no steps (among others) were recorded.

Support said that the fit-files are not corrupt but that it is probably a software bug and unfortunately they can't do anything for me at all, I just have to import the steps from my Fitbit app, but that's not possible because Garmin won't let Fitbit overwrite its own data, only supplement it.
I don't think I can delete steps in Garmin myself.

I have searched here on the forum, but cannot find a solution. Experimenting with fit-files myself didn't work out (not enough expertise).

Does anyone know how I can get all the data back or somehow increase my step count or lower my step goal for the day, or is it a lost case? Being able to lower my step goal would already be something.

  • 0 9 months ago

    Changing time zone twice was the most likely culprit.  It stops recording so you cant cheat the system.  Otherwise at 11:59pm you could change the time zone to give yourself another few hours to do the steps.

  • 0 9 months ago in reply to ronand

    Changing the timezone=country back and forward never gave me problems like this. I do it regularly to get certain badges.

    I always go back to my original timezone=country before midnight.

  • 0 9 months ago in reply to Corr

    Before which midnight? Your own time zone? Then why do you need to change the TZ in the 1st place?

  • 0 9 months ago in reply to flocsy🤠
    Corr said:

     I do it regularly to get certain badges.

    I always go back to my original timezone before midnight.

    flocsy🤠 said:
    Before which midnight? Your own time zone? Then why do you need to change the TZ in the 1st place?

    If a certain badge - for example, an exercise between 04:00 and 07:00 for the Rise and Shine Badge - requires recording an activity at a certain time - if that time is missed, one way to "cheat" to win the badge is to change the TZ on the watch and then record the activity and then change back to the correct TZ so the watch thinks the activity was recorded when it was supposed to be in order to "earn" the badge.

    It's not very sporting, but apparently there are those who do it.

    HTH

  • 0 9 months ago in reply to gaijin

    Ah, yes I forgot about these. My problem sometimes was that I realized 5 minutes before midnight that I need 1000 more steps to reach my goal or the 60days goal getter badge starts from the beginning

  • 0 9 months ago in reply to gaijin

    It is not about "stretching time".

    To acquire certain badges you have to do an activity in a specific country, often not the one you live in (like Lantarn Festival, Kings day etc.). The only cheating you do is changing countries. It has nothing to do with time zones or trying to extend a day.

  • 0 9 months ago in reply to Corr

    But he chats a bit more than us: he wakes up at 9:00, and does some activity, but before that he changes the timezone so it's before 7:00 to get the early riser badge...

  • 0 9 months ago in reply to flocsy🤠

    I did not try to get a time related badge, I tried to get a country related badge >  National Day of Singapore. Record 1 activity in Singapore. 

  • 0 9 months ago in reply to Corr

    Then just change the country and do an activity in your timezone's day. No need to change timezone. I do it all the time. As I understand the country based badges, if let's say you live in Singapore, so your country is Singapore, but you're on a world trip and you are in some other place/time zone it doesn't matter. You "celebrate" it according to your local time.

    *) In theory it's possible that I am wrong, and I was just lucky so far, and if someone is in a very different time zone then it won't work because by the time he starts the activity it's already the next day in the country of the badge. But I have never heard about this problem in neither http://blog.garminbadges.com nor in https://www.facebook.com/groups/231050974366135 so I would be surprised if time zone would play part.

  • 0 9 months ago in reply to flocsy🤠

    I do not understand this anymore, I never indicated time zones are the problem, but you and Gajin are going on about it. I DID change the country back and forward. So the problem you're describing is not my problem. And yes I know e7Andy's website.

    In my OP I just wanted to have clear what might have been a problem, what I did that day and what happend that was different than usual.
    Garmin support already said that wasn't the cause and that it must have been a software bug.