Alta HR no longer syncs and does not show up via bluetooth

[Leigh2307]

I've got a Alta HR which was working perfectly with my Samsung S9 until 4 days ago. Now, my Alta HR no longer syncs with my phone. I've deleted and reinstalled the Fitbit App, but now my Fitbit no longer shows up as a device to connect to, either via bluetooth on my phone or the Fitbit App.

[VickiGalecki]

This is a very crappy way to support a product. I agree. Just discovered this today.  I have no history of anything since April 24.

[TWZellers]

Got it for fathers day or some such a couple years ago..   It woulld rarely sync at all....   but I could use it for time and to watch my heart rate when exercising..         Well now I'm covid vaxxed and started going back to the gym... dug this out, ...  it's an amazingly exact half hour off the time! and cannot sync it at all... reinstalled app, checked all settings,  rebooted phone, switched bt on and off a couple dozen times.    tried to "replace" (in the app) my alta-hr ... numbers come up on phone,  it says connecting, then yaks of some error and asks me to try again, and again, and again.

Meanwhile while this **ahem** has never worked worth a **ahem**, at least once a week I get emails from fitbit about how wonnerful a new tracker watch would be.   

I was originally vexed at fitbit, but as said used it ok as a watch and heart monitor....  arguably marginally worth it's cost if it still worked...   but now it seems from what I read here they're not even trying.     

And no fitbit I don't want a discount on buying a new watch when my kids spent decent money on it the first time and YOU never delivered a product anywhere near what they thought they were getting for me.  By now the time I've spent trying to get this crap to work is worth MANY times the original purchase price. You want me to be not PO'd, send me a watch that works and syncs.  And no I will not contact customer support as it's obvious from what others say here you have no interest in support.  I'll contact anybody on social media who ever mentions anything related and tell them what a scat sandwich your products are.

[NellyG]

Hi @Leigh2307 Have you tried restarting your tracker? If not try restarting a couple of times and see if it sync then. If it is not showing in the list of devices when you try to set up again, then uninstall the app from your phone and reinstall it (again). Log back into your account and then try setting up again. Fingers crossed for you.

Restart your Tracker  

[TWZellers]

Thanks NellyG. But it's kinda useless.   Yes after my rant here I was still looking and saw the restart thing in some vid.   A PITA without the orignal cord, but I eventaully got it.    At the time, nothing....  Got the little fitbit logo and then the app wouldn't sync.   Did the phone restart, reinstall the app every other magic ritual dance I heard here or elsewhere and any variant of it I could think of. The watch still doesn't work but I think I've made it rain.

But the app says it sync'd sometime over the past two days....   But the phone is still a magical half hour fast.  Yes I have all the settings "automatic" for timezone and such.     It's still a useless **ahem**.

I'm a programmer.  ... pardon Senior Software Engineer. (never did phone apps)    I must have written thousands of programs in my years on the job.... But I think I'd blow my head off, or at this age have myself declared senile and check into a retirement home, if I ever wrote a program this unreliable to the point of useless.    It's a friggin embarassment.   How the hell did fitbit come to be considered the goto with crap like this?

Meanwhile I've ordered a $30 (otherwise reasonably well regarded in some reviews) exercise watch from Amazon.   I'd have no problem paying many times more for such a watch if I knew it weren't going to be the same kind of **ahem** show this Fitbit is.

So unless this crap starts magically acting consistently and correct in the day or so before the LetsCom gets here, the Fitbit's going in the trash heap.   And ANY discussion I'm ever in in ANY forum is going to hear a long harangue about just how incompentently useless a Fitbit is.     Amazingly I'm seeng clips now of Charge and Versa owners having these kinds of problems with their watches. 

[klh9999]

I had the same thing happen with a Google Pixel.  Fitbit doesn't care.  Their response is to give me a discount on a new one.  Sorry - but they should last more than 2 years

[EstherDutch]

Hi,  I have the same problem here! At first my fitbit tells me I took over 65000 steps a day..seem quite a lot to me. And then it wouldn't sync properly,  so as fitbit advices: I disconnected the Bluetooth and reconnect by app...nothing..

Sucks! 

I've removed and replaced the app,  still nothing..I did the reset thing with the cord... nothing. 

Hopefully it didn't just died.. 

[VickiGalecki]

Hi All - I hope you all see this message. I called their customer support line. It's available weekdays and Joni did a superb job of getting my Alta HR synching and working correctly again. She was on the phone with me for 45 minutes. At one point, she told me I had to turn off my phone and restart it and I was concerned. She called me back immediately and not only going everything working but also made sure my preferences for the display were exactly the way I wanted them. I was ready to give up on Fitbit. That investment of time and her fantastic and very helpful attitude and knowledge restored my faith in the product and in the company. PLEASE don't give up. CALL the support line. The menu was pretty specific and I got exactly the help I needed. Kudos to Fitbit! and especially thanks to Joni from Jamaica.

[VickiGalecki]

Their customer support was amazing. It was not like calling offshore Asian where you can't even understand them and they just want to get off the phone immediately. Joni, their customer support tech person, was pretty phenomenal. My experience was definitely 5 star and best - the Alta HR is working like a champ and all of my steps had been recorded - no data lost. It was 45 minutes for my issues but the time was well-spent, the agent was superb and my product is back to life and working great!

[VickiGalecki]

Hi All - I hope you all see this message. I called their customer support line. It's available weekdays and Joni did a superb job of getting my Alta HR synching and working correctly again. She was on the phone with me for 45 minutes. At one point, she told me I had to turn off my phone and restart it and I was concerned. The phone needed updating, too. She called me back immediately and not only got everything working but also made sure my preferences for the display were exactly the way I wanted them. I was ready to give up on Fitbit. That investment of time and her fantastic and very helpful attitude and knowledge restored my faith in the product and in the company. PLEASE don't give up. CALL the support line. The menu was pretty specific and I got exactly the help I needed. Kudos to Fitbit.

[VickiGalecki]

Hi All - I hope you all see this message. I called their customer support line. It's available weekdays and Joni did a superb job of getting my Alta HR synching and working correctly again. She was on the phone with me for 45 minutes. At one point, she told me I had to turn off my phone and restart it and I was concerned. She called me back immediately and not only got everything working but also made sure my preferences for the display were exactly the way I wanted them. I was ready to give up on Fitbit. That investment of time and her fantastic and very helpful attitude and knowledge restored my faith in the product and in the company. PLEASE don't give up. CALL the support line. The menu was pretty specific and I got exactly the help I needed. Kudos to Fitbit

[theirix]

The same problem as for me. It seems you hit the Fitbit app version with sync and pairing bug. I have successfully paired Alta HR with the new version 3.43 (released this week).

[EstherDutch]

Hi thanks fot the tip!
I'll see if I can find the right version.