Can't add children to family account

[ben86]

Hi

I can't set up family account to set up Childs ace 3

I bought a ace 3 for my daughter, im not a Fitbit user so had to set an account up 1st. I used my google account to log in. I set up my family how ever on my family it just say

to add children, make sure they're part of your family on Google, then set them up on Fitbit, their name will appear

I have made my daughter a account on my account as she is only 5 and added her to my family on google but nothing is showing up in my family on Fitbit app

please can someone help 

thanks

ben

[MetalDave]

I have been documenting my troubleshooting steps and interactions with Fitbit support in another thread.  I'm attempting to get it escalated to the proper attention for the sake of all the parents out there who've been dealing with this for the past six-plus months.

[Yddiw123]

😞 i spent days and days going round in circles adament I'd be able make it work. I didnt and was so furious. So goad i just swapped it...luckily was able to get a refund. 

[SupervisedAccou]

@Yddiw123 I have zero expectation that this will be resolved. I only stay subscribed to make myself feel better if I screw up at work.  

[MetalDave]

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@SupervisedAccou wrote:

I only stay subscribed to make myself feel better if I screw up at work.  

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Your username alone gives me hope for humanity.  Lol.

[MetalDave]

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@Yddiw123 wrote:

😞i spent days and days going round in circles adament I'd be able make it work. I didnt and was so furious. So goad i just swapped it...luckily was able to get a refund. 

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I'm thinking that's where we'll be headed on this one, which, of course, stinks for my kid.  I bought all the accessories to go with it, too, so that screws up my holiday gift giving plans.

[PePaH]

Hi All Frustrated Parents! I hope this will help many of you. I want through the same hassle as many described on this forum and other places with no luck...spent 2 hours with this on Christmas Eve. Tried to add/remove supervision for my kid's Google account. Tried on iphone, android phone (even creating a new user account on it), laptop no luck.

At the end for me the trick was to add a new child account from within the Google Family Link app on my own iphone as per the instructions here. I just used the default parental supervision settings. Then just use this new Google account (email) to login to the Fitbit app on your kid's device or on your own device and after going through few steps and entering same password few times you get to the screen of picking the device where you have only 3 choices...Ace 1, 2 and 3 and then just pair it. Hope it helps! Merry Christmas!

@LizzyFitbit maybe it is a good idea to update the fitbit.com help material as well.

[gene4212]

Wow, thank you so much! I spent the last hour on Christmas eve trying to install it with my son. This must have been one of the worst onboarding processes I've dealt with. I followed your instructions to create a new account and everything worked as you said.

Have a Merry Christmas! 

[MattMooney]

I am just adding my voice to the chorus. You are clearly being told that the instructions you are providing simply don't work, by not one but many, many people. There is an endless loop where we prompted that we have to setup a child's google account and then told in the app that you can't sign into the Fitbit app with a supervised account! Surely someone can test this process and see that this is the case.

There is nothing in the provided article that gives any assistance in dealing with this issue.

[MattMooney]

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

After hours of searching for a solution yours was the only one I found. Hopefully fitbit can at the very least push your workaround and link it to their own information regarding this fault, and acknowledge that there is a fault.

You are a lifesaver.

[Harry_V]

The workaround is creating a new child account. Existing accounts unfortunately don't work. Believe me when I got my child's Fitbit a few months ago. Even new accounts did not work back then. So this is actually an improvement. 

[MetalDave]

Thanks for the input.  I believe I’d seen this workaround from Fitbit Support as well, so this is known if not well shared to their customers.  Again, the trick is starting with the Google Family Link to create your supervised account, and it must be new as the legacy accounts (those that were created before Google took over Fitbit) will not work.

This is my sticking point for Fitbit Support, and I am doing my best to get their developers to push this up the chain to Google to authorize the Fitbit app for use with existing Google Supervised (ie child) accounts. It’s an unintended bug that just doesn’t have their attention yet.  Shouldn’t be too hard for them to address if they had it on their radar.

[Harry_V]

Hope it works. There was a time after google moved Fitbit to Google account that even new google child accounts did not work. It took them a month to fix it. Why would they only fix new accounts not sure. 

Imagine big families with multiple children. I think max 5 people can be on a Google family. These people will basically have to create new parent and child accounts and start a new google family group. What a pain. 

Love how Garmin had a dedicated app to bypass these issues. Such a simple and elegant solution 

[New2tiBtiF]

I'm done too!

Heading to the store tomorrow to exchange for Vivofit Jr...

[aed82]

My child DOES NOT have his own device.  How is this helpful?  And even with my phone and my husbands' phone (both Androids) Google Family Link does not allow me to add a child as a user of my device - and therefore I cannot add the Ace 3 device to either of our phones.

[Harry_V]

So I've posted this workaround before but it probably got lost in history. If your child does not have a device there is a simple workaround:

• First make sure to create a new supervised account. Older accounts don't work at the moment. 
• When opening the Fitbit app on your phone logout of your own account. 
• Within the Fitbit app only try logging into it as your child. You don't need to change the phones profile. 
• Now you'll be able to setup the watch. 
• Optionally Once the watch is setup then logout of the fitbit app and disconnect your child's watch from your list of Bluetooth devices. This will ensure the child's steps don't count as your own and your notifications don't show on their device. 

Now their watch is active and will work as a standalone device. It won't sync to anything but that's all. Hope this helps you. 

[aed82]

Does that still logging out process still apply for accounts migrated to
Google? That seems to be where the hangup is...

[Harry_V]

This logging out is only for people who don't have a dedicated device for their children. It has nothing to do with Google of Fitbit accounts. Parents most likely don't want their children to see their notifications or mix-up the step count. 

Android devices have OS level profiles but it is extremely cumbersome and I would not advise it. 

Garmin solved this by simply having a kids app that syncs steps etc for kids separately. But that's not an option in the Fitbit ecosystem. 

[aed82]

Thank you for this information, it's super helpful. We'll be returning the
Ace 3 Kids and getting a Garmin kids since it is a separate app. With
Fitbit, everytime I try to login as my child, I get an error message

"Something went wrong.

This Google Account is managed with Family Link.

To add your child to this device, you can either remove all other accounts
or create a new user for your child.

Learn how

Why is this required?

When multiple people (like a parent and a child) share a single device,
personal stuff can get mixed up. Having separate spaces for children helps
avoid confusion, especially with parental controls."

[saibabug]

Thanks and i will do the same.Worst setup issues i ever seen

[Eileencpearson]

Having the same issue. Unfortunately cos I've opened the box I won't be able to return to Argos 😢 have wasted hours on it today. So upset.