New Fitbit Accounts with Existing Supervised Google Account (Documented with Photos)

[MetalDave]

I've read through a good portion of the pinned thread on this forum, and it doesn't appear that FitBit or Google have been able to address the issue.

Short story:  I have a Supervised Google Account for my 9-year-old which works great for YouTube and all the other Google apps.  We just purchased an ACE 3 (the first Fitbit product we've ever bought).  Per the instructions that came with the ACE 3, we downloaded the FitBit app, and we signed in with my account.  When I try to add the ACE 3 in the Fitbit App, I get the following message:

Fair enough.  My child's Google account is already setup and ready to go.  She's even in my Google Family Link as a Supervised User.  This should be very straightforward, but it's not.

When we attempt to sign-in using my child's Google account on the iOS app, we get the following:

When we try to do it via the website, we get a similar error:

Available documentation on the Fitbit site pertains to converting legacy Fitbit or Fitbit Family accounts to Google Accounts (a subject following the purchase of Fitbit by Google).  However, this does not pertain to existing Google users who are new to Fitbit.

After reading through the pinned thread, it appears this issue has persisted for over 6 months.  It's well documented in other threads as well, so my information is a bit redundant at this point (albeit I'm providing the photo receipts to prove it).

[SummerNew]

I had the exact same problem as you and Fitbit support suggested I check the supervised child's date of birth listed in the google profile. I had an incorrect date (so was adult age in the profile). You cannot change this in the profile and then login because apparently it will always block that email address and not accept as a child. I had to create a new child account with a correct birth date and it worked.   

[TGGW]

Thanks for sharing, and it's great to hear someone figured out a way to get it done.

I guess working in the software industry for almost a decade with a focus on client usability has me - in principal - against the idea that a user should jump through those hoops for something that easy, especially when the brand hasn't really earned my loyalty from previous mediocre products. My development managers would have recognized this as an issue and worked to resolve it with whoever they needed in a much more timely manner than over a year as other thread history shows.

The fact that FitBit support also did not know this to be a known workaround and instead told OP to create a new account screams they are out of touch with everything going on, and there is no collaboration internally to resolve these sorts of issues.

Frankly, after getting hands-on the Garmin Instinct and knowing its mil-spec ratings, I am glad the Versa didn't work out for us. I will probably consider one for myself whenever my Samsung watch gives up.

[authorized_cust]

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@MetalDave wrote:

...it doesn't appear that FitBit or Google have been able to address the issue.

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Google is able to address it. The question is whether Google is willing to.

[Avemk]

This might seem *crazy* but how about just having a digital wearable for kids that doesn't track their every move and require them to have their own account / email/device. I understand buying a digital device for a kid means they're going to be tracked, but I think we can live in a world where you could just add a Fitbit ace 3 to your account and it knows it's a child who doesn't need their own digital footprint. So annoying!

[DSVA]

@Naydar can you confirm this workaround worked with the Fitbit Ace 3 or if this is with another Fitbit device?

[ctech2124]

I emailed sundar AT google.com , (yes, "email the CEO" is a viable option in many large companies, including Amazon and Google. They have a dedicated team of people whose job it is route those emails to a single point of contact that is supposed to help you resolve the issue).

I found out that Google explicitly made the decision to setup the FitBit Ace to require a supervised google account in order to protect children 13 years and younger (I can't fully explain it; the response from Google had something to do with data privacy laws and meeting legal requirements.  There are numerous laws aimed at protecting children under 13 and Google set things up in a way that meets those laws via Google Supervised account.  I know many people may disregard this as corporate mumbo jumbo; but I truly believe that there are people like you and me working at all of these large companies trying to meet various legal requirements and data privacy laws. My guess is that they came up with this process and tried to make it easy for people, but as we've seen, it ends up being kind of a real pain to setup a FitBit for a kid.)

The downside of Google working to meet these child protection laws is that only the FitBit Ace series works with Google Supervised Accounts.  No other FitBit will work with a Google Supervised Account (* at least during registration).

So yes, this is a real downer and a pain for all of us that just want to buy a fitbit for our kids and be more active as a family. In the past, we could just create a throwaway account for our kids and we were done.

Google, in an effort to bring everything under a protective umbrella and meet data privacy laws for children is now requiring us to jump through a bunch of hoops to use a simple tracker (and I do feel like Google is/was trying to make things safe for kids, but obviously they've failed at conveying that because all we see is a painful setup process).

The other major downer is if you have a google supervised account for your teenager, the only fitbit they can use is one in the Ace Series.  Google Supervised accounts are not compatible with any other FitBit (* at least during registration).

In the end: email sundar AT google.com  , ask for him to change this or ask for help in getting a refund.  Yes, Sundar won't read your email, but it will be routed to FitBit support like mine was and you can start the refund process because at this time it appears that Google won't be adding a use-case for a more simple setup process for the FitBit Ace and won't be allowing Google Supervised Accounts to use a non-Ace FitBit  (at least, that was the impession that I got from my email conversation with Google.  Perhaps they'd reconsider their use cases if enough people started telling them).

Note: I've done my best to convey what support told me. I do recommend that you contact support directly.

[Naydar]

@MetalDave, sorry for the delay getting back to you, but yes I'm in the same region (USA) and my 2 Google supervised kids accounts were created back in July 2022 on their chromebooks. The same chromebooks I used to get the Fitbit app installed and sign them in each respectively.

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@DSVA, yes it worked with the Fitbit Ace 3. I had to download the Fitbit App on my kids chromebooks and use then their Google supervised account to sign them in.

[DSVA]

Thanks for confirming @Naydar. I have now managed to sync Ace 3 with a standalone new supervised account created on an old Pixel 1. Followed up with Fitbit support that this is a workaround and they should fix the issue with previously unsupervised accounts not working. Will come back here if I hear anything!

[davewasthere]

Wow... I can't figure it out. If I'm logged in as me, then I try and set up the fitbit ace 3, It asks me to log out and log in as the child account.

I log in with the child account (which is a supervised account for a 9yo) and it just says "Can't use Fitbit with this Google Account. (because it's supervised)"

Catch 22, so broken. I now utterly hate google/fitbit. Made it so bloody difficult.

[masonoli]

what's funny is that I was able to setup up two Ace3s for two of my kids with their supervised accounts by adding a profile on my pixel6 pro. When I try to add my 11yo's Ace3 it says i can't do it with a supervised account. When I remove supervision I can't setup the Ace3 because it's only for kids. Absolutely ridiculous that I can add 2 of my kids but not the 3rd when they are all under the age of 13.

[ColumnKC]

Finally got it work.

You need to create a new kid google account from family link to get rid this supervised account joke.

If you have an existing google account setup for kid, after change the age from adult to under 13 and join family link, this approach is not gonna work and you will get the supervised account error.

These two supervised accounts looks the same but they actually different, the one created from family link can do more than the other one, e.g. you can transfer to other family group, the existing one doesn't have this option.

[MetalDave]

Just wanted to drop in with a couple of quick notes.  For myself, this issue was the end of the road for our foray into the Fitbit community.  Having to create a brand new Google account for my child (in addition to the one that already existed) was a non-starter.  I'm not a fan of creating or wasting a Google account as a workaround rather than seeing a technology company actually addressing and fixing the problem. 

It's good to hear that new accounts created after the "great takeover" will work through Family Link, but there's absolutely no reason they (Google and Fitbit) shouldn't address the issue with the large group of supervised, under-13 child accounts.

Finally, working with the structure of customer support on both the side of Fitbit and Google was the biggest issue for me.  I could not make headway through the proper channels, and I was much more determined than the average consumer.  There was no compelling reason to join into this ecosystem, and I went back to my tried-and-true Apple watch.

We're far removed from the holiday season, so the concerns of this thread (and the related threads) will die down.  My summary: return your devices and go elsewhere.

[Lynnpru]

Thanks for all your posts and efforts on this, it really is appreciated - I've already wasted a good couple of hours thinking I was going nuts. I'll be returning the Ace 3 tomorrow. What a ridiculous situation.