Unable to complete the Ace 3 set up process

[Confusedparent]

I have an Inspire Fitbit which I use and love. I bought an Ace 3 for son and am having an unsuccessful battle setting it up. I also started Fitbit premium trial back in May and have cancelled it as don’t want to pay for it when it renews. 

None of the guides I have read show same options that I have as on Premium trial. I have set son up with a Google account and assume that also means he has a child Fitbit account. The Fitbit screen just says download the app which I have done and I can’t work out how to add son to my Fitbit and device to synch. Beyond complicated. Thank you.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject and updated label

[LizzyFitbit]

Welcome to the community forums, @Confusedparent.

Thanks for sharing all these details, and your efforts while working on this matter. To work on this together, may I know in what part of the set up process your son's Ace 3 gets stuck? Did you get an error message?

I understand you've tried this process, but please give a try to the following steps:

1. Forget all Fitbit devices from the phone you're using for the set up process
2. Aside from the Ace 3, make sure to move any other Fitbit devices to another place
3. Force quit the Fitbit app and reboot your phone
4. Open the Fitbit app and check if you're in the child account
5. Tap Devices at the upper left corner > select Ace 3 and follow the on-screen instructions 

In regards to your other question, I'd like to clarify that Premium isn't available for child accounts as it can only be used on standard accounts. To check if you still have Premium, I'd suggest checking your active Google subscriptions as described here.

[maddio]

I cannot figure the ace 3 out, I am so beyond frustrated. I just want a simple step tracker/watch for my daughter, I am unable to get it working. I have tried all the thing you have responded. I will be writing a very poor review, both my husband and I have sat and tried to get the watch to sync on numerous occasions for hours. Absurd! Waste of money.

[LizzyFitbit]

Welcome on board, @maddio.

Thanks for joining this thread and I'm sorry for the experience that you've had with your daughter's Ace 3. I understand how frustrating this can be and appreciate yours and your husband's efforts. To work on this together, may I know if you have created a family and child account? What is the error message displayed when trying this process? 

Because your post didn't mention, I'd recommend trying the steps described in my previous post to see if it makes a difference.

[JCT17]

Hello Lizzy - it appears that this has been an ongoing issue for over a year with parents using iOS. Parents can get to where they add the child, but not a device. If you try signing in to fit bit with the child account - you cannot because it is a supervised account.  Is there a bigger project / fix in the works? I bought these devices at Christmas- what will fit bit do to compensate me? 

[MoPri]

Yes! It has to be a bug because I have been trying for weeks trying to get this set up on my phone and then my husband’s phone. I had a prior Fitbit and never had these issues with the app.

[Alanark]

Yes to this!! I have tried with iOS and had this same thing now for months. When I use an Android device, it give me an error to try again later and I've also been trying that for weeks. I have removed everything, rebooted, forced quit, you name it. 

[Confusedparent]

Fitbit premium was the problem so I have now cancelled that. I had to set up a new Google account for my 7 year old (which I absolutely did not want to do) and had to link it to that account from my husbands phone because my Fitbit account couldn’t add it. Overly complicated and had I known I had to have an email address for my son, I would not have bought this in the first place.  Not impressed. 

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We got it to work in the end by creating a gmail address for son and setting it up from husbands phone as he doesn’t have Fitbit premium. Complete waste of time and money. I bought daughter a cheaper version from another brand and even though I didn’t need an email address, I did still need an app though. Wish there was an old school pedometer version without any of this ludicrous hassle!

[Viburno]

Hello. Since last Saturday Fitbit Ace3 of my doughter does not synch anymore to Fitbit App on my smartphone. It has beeen working for five months. Of course I have two accounts, mine and the one I have created for my dougher five months ago, both are in Google Family Group (Family link). Fitbit Italy phone support told me that now I need to install FitBit app on my dougheter smartphone (she does not have one and I do not want to buy one just for Ace3 management). I cannot configure Ace3 on my smarthphone, configured with my account, by simply switching to my doughetr account, I got from the FitBit App an error. Absurd ! It seems to be just onother trick to force a smartphone purchase. I am very, very disappointed ! Is it really true this situation ? Have you found any solution ?

Thansk for any reply. Bye.

[Familyuser]

Hello, I have the exact same situation. I had my son's recently purchased Ace 3 managed from my phone, and the synch stopped working last Thursday. Until then the Fitbit app was handling very nicely the child/parent account switch and synching both my son's Ace and my Inspire flawlessly. I have tried every possible troubleshooting step described in the help and community pages, but I basically cannot make the Ace synch with the app anymore. Today I called the support team, but the reponse was also that my son needs to have his own phone as we use the google family accounts with Fitbit. That makes no sense as 1. it was working until recently and 2. the instructions in the support page very clearly describe how to configure a child tracker from a parents phone & app using the google family accounts -- I past the link to that instruction here: https://support.google.com/fitbit/answer/14237923?hl=en&ref_topic=14236505&sjid=11359520488485739877...

To the Fitbit support team, please help! As you can see across many Q/A in this forum, there is a real problem here and it seems there is some confusion within your team about what is supported and not supported. Thanks in advance!

[Familyuser]

I will add to my previous post, I have tested synching my son's Ace 3 on my daughter's phone (instead of doing it on mine) with her account (she's part of our family in Google). Note I had to delete her Ace 3 and replace it with my son's, and guess what, it works!

This tells me that 1. my son's Ace 3 is not defective, 2. there really seems to be a problem with switching between parent / child accounts (of the same family in Google) in the fitbit app and each user has a different device (the whole point).

In any case, this was working before (as reported by many users in the community) and matches the instructions I referred to in my previous post... Fitbit team, please fix this issue!

[AdamdCanada]

 

I just bought my kids each an ace 3 as they want to compete with friends and each other. Managed to get the units connected partially and update the time but that is pretty much it. The Bluetooth connection won't allow sync, software updates or watch face changes. Pretty sad, please help Google/Fitbit support!

[AdamdCanada]

Adding that I use the OG pixel watch and pixel 8 to add the 2 child accounts and 2 ace 3's. Tried on a tablet with the same parent account and same results.

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This finally seems to have been addressed in the recent software update available August 26, 2024, in the play store.

[sr1711]

I am having the same issue. I bought 2 ace 3's - one for each child and have followed the prompts by Lizzy but still nothing. I get stuck with the bluetooth not syncing after the initial code setup. Were you able to resolve the issue?

[AdamdCanada]

What version date of Fitbit app are you running? The bug seems to have been addressed in the August 26 update. 

[MoPri]

Version 4.25…have deleted and downloaded app again and still having the
issue.

[AdamdCanada]

Well, the bug is back.. updated to September 11, 2024 version 4.25.2 and no more syncing with either ace 3! Wow!

[sr1711]

That's the version I have. Same issues