Charge HR requesting location to be turned on to sync

[leeblack83]

anyone have issues with the fitbit android app now requesting for location to be turned on on the phone to sync the charge hr, i have never had to enable location (GPS) before only bluetooth

[Odyssey13 · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the forums @leeblack83

You running Android 6, Marshmallow?  If so, click to see what Fitbit Moderator Erick said.

Let us know how things go for you.

[leeblack83]

Yeah running marshmallow, thanks for info, still syncs fine just needs location on

[hamanda19]

So is there any plans to fix this? I don't like having both bluetooth and location on to have all day sync.

[JUST2SHORT]

Ok I have Android S6.  I did a update on Wed and ever since I have to have my location on to sync and never have before I'm not understanding WHY this is.  I sucks your battery down.  Is this Android or Fitbit Problem HELP

[hamanda19]

Make sure you go to your setting for which ever device you have and turn off the "always connected" feature.

[leeblack83]

Yeah it is to do with android marshmallow and Bluetooth needs location on for some reason, if you see link above for solution that will explain further

[ashes2ashes]

It would seem Android just wants us to have an excuse to keep location on for the sake killing our batteries and in turn phones even quicker and for the vendors, etc that sell our data / location / contacts....
They make enough on the phones, seriously - if we turn on bluetooth we should not have to enable location too. As a vendor, fitbit should have more say than we as individuals, unless of course they too are reaping the benefits of all those users with location being enabled?

[ashes2ashes]

Is there not a way to stop the insistent banner on the bottom, "Turn on Location to find your FitBit"
I'll turn it on when needed, not continuously to kill my battery. I should have an option to disable the warning or turn it off.

[Arrendalek]

Just threw my tracker into a drawer until fitbit or google gets their act together. Was looking hard at the blaze, but oh well.

[Lucus16]

But that Moderator is obviously lying,

 Howcome every other Bluetooth device i have, syncs through bluetooth, yet the FitBit is the only Bluetooth device i need to have location on? 

Morerator Erik, please link to google patch notes which state this connection? 

[HelenaFitbit]

Welcome to the forums @Lucus16! I'd like to comment on this. 

As of the Marshmallow release, Google has changed the permissions required for Bluetooth syncing. Location must be turned on as of the Android 6.0 update in order to sync.

The way we identify trackers (called a MAC address) is no longer the real address. Any mode (such as Battery saving) works, it just appears turning that off, kills Mac addresses, even on Bluetooth devices.

You can get more information in @ErickFitbit's Original post.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions

[killerhighlife]

My Android just updated to the Marshmallow v6.0.1. Not sure if this makes a difference but my new FitBit was prompting the location option as well. I have ignored it and my app seems to be scyning just fine. I will open it and wait 5-10 seconds and my app will then reload itself with the synced information from my FitBit. I don't know if the new update has enabled this to work or if having patient was just the right option. For anyone else when you open up your app does it automatically have your matched info or do you wait a few seconds as well? Just trying to figure out if it has fixed itself with the update? 🙂

[Arrendalek]

I'm not buying the excuse either.

Bluetooth media players headset work fine with no location.

I won't use the tracker or upgrade until this changes.

[Arrendalek]

Hey folks! Just google what is coarse location?. Coarse location doesn't use GPS, so why does fitbit need location? This is already done in the background. Coarse location can even be a cached location.

Fit bit needs to stop jerking the customers around. Right now they have no value to me.

[MarvKirsch]

Lately my fitbit requires my location to be on, normally I keep it off. Anyone else having this issue?

[SunsetRunner]

Hi @MarvKirsch

Merged your post previously posted in the Charge HR Section with this thread in the Android App section regarding the same issue..

Feel free to check out @13Odyssey 's or @HelenaFitbit reply.

[HelenaFitbit]

Thank you for your participation in the forums everyone! Thank you @SunsetRunner as well for keeping our members on the same thread with information. 

I would like to point out that since the Marshmallow release, Google has changed the permissions required for Bluetooth syncing. Location must be turned on as of the Android 6.0 update in order to sync. I encourage you to check on the link and get the details from the official Android source. 

You can get more information in @ErickFitbit's Original post.

Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks for stopping by!

[o0Heather]

I am not happy with needing location to sync. I keep my location off and will continue to keep it off. If that means that I can no longer use fitbit products so be it. I just got a new HR for mothers day, I can still get it to sync but the incessant and annoying promt to turn on location is unbelievable.

If you are blaming google then do you know where or how we can get this fixed. It is obviously not necessary to use location with bluetooth and this should be optional. We pay a lot of money for these devices and if we have bought one without location features we should be able to use the app without giving our location.

I would think fitbit should stick up for us and make an effort to contact google about this.

[Squidd]

Turning the location on is only necessary because of the way Fitbit is choosing to recognize their own devices (by querying the operating system for the MAC address) - they could easily add a different method via a firmware update for their trackers to work around it.