Avg bpm and HR zones not showing up in Exercise

[AK220]

My device is recording my heart rate as usual but it is no longer showing my average bpm and time in each heart rate zone associated with logged exercise.  I am syncing with my iPhone SE.  

[Briana129]

Mine was working fine as of yesterday and as of today I used the same feature and it no longer works... looked online and found this thread dating back from August. Is this still an issue? How is it possible to be working one day and then the following day stop?

[RBotes]

No, it is still not resolved and FITBIT has no intention of fixing this........

[RBotes]

Any hope of EVER fixing this problem from FITBIT?????????

[Susiebird1957]

I have been having the same issue as well. I tried the restart and the HR is finally showing up again. 

[Briana129]

What did you restart? I’ve tried restarting my phone, logging out and logging back into the app and deleting and reinstalling the app but nothing seems to bring it back. 

[Susiebird1957]

I plugged into the charging cable and hit the little button on the end. It took me several tries but it finally reset. Press it 3 times within 8 seconds until you see the Fitbit logo. I’m not sure it’s a total fix tho because it didn’t pick up my workout at all today. 

[ShadowAndJeb]

It is actually am issue with the app. Happened a while back with an update
to the app

[the3amigos]

It is an issue with the software as of the 9/27/19 update. Fitbit has acknowledged it and states they are working on fixing it. My software has updated at least twice since then with no correction in how it works. 

PLEASE, Fitbit. Fix this. 

[vertew]

It's been four months since the infamous July update broke the 'exercise heart rate zone analysis' feature.  Thought I'd add my voice to the long list of frustrated fitbit customers ...

My  missus and I had been using Alta HR's to track our exercise for a long time and all was perfect until the July update which caused the heart rate analysis page to disappear from recorded exercise.  Weeks went by and the feature wasn't fixed.  I thought it might be an issue with just the Alta HR, and decided it might be a good time to upgrade to the Inspire HR model, which had connected GPS.  Nope, same problem, so back to square one (though with a considerably lighter wallet).

The Inspire model, did offer a ray of hope though.  As it has 'connected GPS', you can start exercise from the Inspire itself, which is quite neat.  We tried this a few times and the exercise shows up in the fitbit app exactly as it did the olden, golden days, with heart rate info showing correctly, yay! 

Except ... no.  There's another unrelated issue and it's a bit of shocker.  When starting exercise from the fitbit and running our usual routes, we noticed we seemed to be suddenly 'running further'.  Close examination of the GPS data, shows a load of GPS tracking errors, which exhibit as random double-backs, as though we'd stopped running jumped back 50ft and started running again.  This explained our 'longer runs'.  Some runs are affected by this more than others, it's all a bit random, but it's enough to comprehensively wreck the data.  This happens on both our phones (which are different) and fitbits, which I think rules out a specific phone issue.

So, here's where we are on getting a heart rate analysis in recorded exercise:

1. We can start exercise from the phone and get a recorded session with accurate GPS data and timings, but no heart rate info.  That's rubbish.
2. We can start the exercise from the Inspire device and get a recorded session with hear trate shown perfectly as it was in the good old days (yay), but crazy GPS data, so run distance / times / splits are ruined.
3. We've not done this - but apparently, we could use 'auto-exercise' and let the fitbit automatically detect the exercise, record and show heart rate (yay), but there's no GPS data or map recorded (boo).

My take on this situation is: AGGHHHH !

I really wish I'd not blown cash buying the two fitbit Inspires, in the blind hope that this would fix the issue - we could have moved to another fitness platform.  As things stand, we'll keep using the fitbits as they are for a while and hope there'll be a fix.  If a fix doesn't show up, we'll jump ship next year sometime.

What I can't get my head around is that fitbit had the (pre-July) system so beautifully sorted.  Brilliant little devices, syncing to a well-designed app, recording exercise stats and heart rate.  Perfect.  Then they messed up and broke the app in July.  I can understand that, we all make mistakes.  But now that four months have gone by without a fix, this seems less like a mistake and more like wilful product vandalism.

I can't over-emphasise what a critical feature 'exercise heart rate zone analysis' is and how its absence depletes the overall fitbit experience.  When I exercise, the first thing I want to know is how far / how fast did I go.  The next thing is how my cardio fitness is progressing, via the heart rate zones.  Not having this, means fitbit has lost at least half it's purpose.

I get the sense that there are a lot of people who feel the same way and many will be quietly moving away onto other fitness platforms over time and this would be a terrible shame.  Fitbit, please, PLEASE can you bump the fix of this critical feature up your dev backlog and get it fixed.

In the meantime … if anyone has a better workaround to get an exercise session with 'heart rate zone analysis' reinstated, along with an accurate recorded route on a map … please share!

[BettyJaneT]

vertew, My heartfelt thanks for this post. You took the time to try the ‘fix’ I was planning to take (another Fitbit) and especially the time to share your experience and frustrations. I could not have said it better! I desire the same results as you and, agree, we had them prior to July’s crash (or whatever it was).  I have given up on ever seeing a fix from Fitbit and just hoping Santa brings me any other brand as a replacement 🙂

[vertew]

@BettyJaneT- thanks for your comment + hope you get that Christmas presie 🙂

[the3amigos]

Thank you for a very eloquent post, vertew. You've expressed what's going on with Fitbit perfectly.

I also have lost hope but really dislike the looks of other trackers. It may come to the point that I'll actually have to look for something else. Five months of a no-fix after admitting the July update caused the problem and reassurance that Fitbit is working on fixing it seems to be our answer. They aren't going to fix it.

Seems a shame that they are losing die-hard fans over this. In the over-all picture, though, their loss of my business means nothing to their bottom line or even their concern to make things right.

[SunsetRunner]

Hi the3amigos,

Actually, I think we need to take it public. Go to FB and Twitter.  They don’t seem to care what is said in here about how horrible Fitbit has become, because it won’t affect future new customers. They only care about the bottom line. Money/sales. 

I also have a bad review on Amazon and in my signature line on all my emails. I’ve been telling my runner friends not to buy Fitbit. Many of them use Apple anyway but at least I’m getting the word out. I’m in many running groups, private and public. I’ve been updating them on the lack of progress with Fitbit and how they don’t seem to care about supporting their product/app. I’ve included Customer Support in my reviews and how they gaslight us and just use platitudes to try to pacify angry customers. 

Fitbit Developers on Twitter is:

https://twitter.com/FitbitDev

Fitbit Support on Twitter is:

https://twitter.com/fitbit

>>>If you’re planning on purchasing a Fitbit, ask me why I regret it. “If it ‘ain’t broken’, don’t fix it”. If it IS broken, FIX IT! >>>

[vertew]

Thanks for you comments both.

@the3amigos - I'm buying a Garmin Vivosmart 4 as an experiment to see if it could take over from fitbit 😑.  The main issue is that I can't yet see how strava integration works.

@SunsetRunner - I'm not much of a social media user, but I will take a look ... thanks for the links !

A fitbit community mod did reply to my other post (here same content) in the 'Inspire HR' forum.  Was a very polite post, but essentially, said 'we're aware of the issues, but there's no plan to fix anytime soon'.

What's scary about this is the following:

1. core functionality in the app has been broken - fitbit Alta and Inspire HR monitors no longer record exercise HR in way that's of much use to anyone.
2. Fitbit tech team know about this.
3. No fix is planned.

As others have said I think, if there was going to be a fix, we'd have seen it by now, which means the two issues I've mentioned have been judged by fitbit as too expensive to fix.  Eg. very sadly, cost/benefit does not stack up for fitbit.

As we're not getting any real info from fitbit on what the root cause of these issues is, here's my guess:

• Missing exercise heart rate zones (exercise started from phone) - The GUI elements to show 'heart rate zone analysis' still exist in the app, so that's not the issue.  Functionality to merge the exercise HR data stream from fitbit device with GPS data stream from phone was probably 'missed' when the app was rearchitected back in the summer.  A horrible mistake to be sure and adding this back later is no doubt, a major job.  On a positive note, at least a fix is possible.  Fitbit could bite the bullet, up the priority and deliver this fix.  This might require some new roadmap functionality to be delayed, but ... when you've killed your core functionality, surely that trumps new features ?? ??
• Inaccurate GPS recorded tracks (exercise started from fitbit) - this is the new 'connected GPS' functionality in the 'Inspire' fitbit.  The fact that this hasn't been fixed means there's something fundamentally wrong at a hardware level, probably also related to merging data streams between fitbit device and phone.  The phone is sending GPS data to the fitbit, which merges this with GPS tracking points to create a single exercise data file.  Timing between device and phone is critical here.  Latency issues could result in jumps/skips in the data file, which is exactly what's happening.  Timing issues are most likely on the fitbit given that its small processor is probably being asked to do a lot of work.  The bad news is that fixing this may be very tough and could require a lot of work to optimise the efficiency of all processes running on the fitbit. It may be that the device is just being asked to do 'too much' and the only fix is a more radical scaling back of processing tasks.  A software fix may not even be possible, so customers would need to wait for a new fitbit. 

So, that's my guess.  Could be total garbage, but we won't know unless fitbit open up about what is really going on.  If anyone has any other ideas on what the root cause might be, please do chip in.  If we can't look forward to a fix, at least we can have some fun second-guessing how fitbit managed to kill their exercise HR tracking functionality 😀.

cheers, Andrew.

[SunsetRunner]

Hi, 

The issue is ongoing since late July and it it now December. I already moved on to Polar Ignite and been using it since October and it works well.

Sleep analysis is seemed a bit sensitive (need to sleep at least 4hrs or more, and if you woke up with any reason and couldn’t go back to sleep within a short time frame then it will recognized you’ve already woke up) but it provides detail info about ANS and sleep data. 

It has built in GPS and running analysis with heart rate is also good and detail. 

Some information that Fitbit is providing as premium is free with Polar. My friend has charge3 and has to pay for detailed sleep analysis and when I tried a week trail for “premium service” it wasn’t premium. I think Polar is providing better analysis. If she asked me about Fitbit before she buy one, I would definitely tell her not to buy!!!!!!

Bottom line is, Fitbit is not going to fix the issue and possibly they provide that HR data as “Premium” and have to pay $15 / month which means you can just buy other brand who provides that service for free. 

Even if how many emails to customer support centre, they don’t care. (Every time when I sent email, response was the same and helpless)  

It was total waste of my time to wait for the issue resolving. 

Im now not recommending Fitbit anymore ( I was die-hard fan but NO Im not anymore, so disappointed with Fitbit and their customer service), strongly advise to friends and coworkers and even my clients (Im working in health industry) NOT to buy fitbit. 

I hope this posting help to someone looking for the replace tracker other than Fitbit brand. 

[vertew]

@SunsetRunner - thanks for that.  Interesting points about Polar Ignite and fitbit's move to premium services.

I do like a low profile / smaller exercise tracker as I wear a watch on my other wrist, hence Garmin Vivisport could be the one for me.  It's arriving soon, so I'll see how that goes with tracking heart rate during exercise.  If it works + sync's with Strava, then all the fitbits will be in a drawer (or on ebay if I can be bothered).

Good point about fitbit moving to a premium paid-for service.  Something I'd not considered is fitbit withdrawing previously free features, only to introduce them as part of a premium service later.  Could that be it?  Are fitbit withdrawing the 'exercise heart rate analysis zone' features from the free service, with the plan to add back as premium.  If so, then they didn't do it right, or haven't finished the job; exercise heart rate zones still work if you start exercise from your device (Inspire HR only).  I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist though - I think the broken heart rate zones are probably more 'screw-up' than 'design', but who knows? (Well ok, fitbit know).

Thinking about this more .... fitbit simply have to move to some sort of general subscription model to keep their platform afloat.  I doubt they'll generate enough revenue from selling devices alone to support it.  Sometime soon (now?) the market will be saturated with devices.

Tbh, I don't mind.  I'd pay a few $ per month for a subscription service that gave me even current features with exercise heart rate analysis + kept the app + device firmware up to date with latest features / but fixes.  Annoying, but it's the only way forward for them.

At the moment though, there's only silence from fitbit on the specific reasons for and plans to fix this problem.  So soon, I won't be around to opt in to any premium fitbit features as I'll have signed up to another platform ... garmin or polar.  Fitbit has an option to export all data data - let's hope that works ...

[vertew]

Reminder of what we're missing ... ah, those heady days when fitbit HR monitors showed an analysis of heart rate for exercise sessions started from phone.  Image and content from fitbit blog ...

Know Your Heart Rate Zones

You’ve probably noticed that after logging a workout, your Fitbit app shows you a colorful graph depicting how much time you spent in three heart rate zones. Knowing a little bit about how these zones were created can help you make the most of them.

[vertew]

Very sadly and very annoyingly, it's time for me to say goodbye to fitbit.  I've been experimenting with some of the gamin trackers and the 'Vivosmart 4' is nearly perfect.  It does all the things that fitbit used to do, but fitbit have now managed to mess up ...

1. Accurate GPS tracking - using Connected GPS.  This is looks as accurate as anyone could expect from a phone and there are no skips and double-backs.
2. Exercise Heart Rate Zones - present and correct.  Not much more to say, they just work.

Image pasted below shows three screens from the phone app with info shown.

I say 'nearly perfect' - the only thing it doesn't do (or I've not worked out how to do) is voice alerts on split times for running.  But I'm very happy to put up with that as the device shows split pace on the screen anyway.  The screen is also a lot more responsive than the 'Inspire', screen, which I'd pretty much given up on trying to interact with anyway.

I've bulk-exported most of my fitbit data into garmin, which was reasonably easy.  It just remains for me to lay our fitbit devices to rest on ebay on in a drawer. Perhaps we'll have a little ceremony.  Fitbit introduced me to the concept of fitness tracking and worked perfectly for 18 months - I'm really grateful for that.  Then the 'July update' happened, about which no more needs to be said.

So goodbye fitbit.  I'll have another look at the ecosystem in 2022 when we next upgrade - who knows, perhaps fitbit will have seen fit to fix the heart rate zones by then?  Or perhaps I'll leave it to 2024 ...

[the3amigos]

Thanks for your vivosport recommendation.

I think I'm giving up this fight. I've been hopeful about a Fitbit fix but I'm finally ready to admit Fitbit has no plans to fix this; I'll be looking for a new tracker as well. As I've said on other posts, I find other trackers to be ugly, mostly because of their size. the vivosport looks like something I'd be comfortable wearing. Thanks again and good luck with your new tracker.

[Julia888]

have been a loyal Fitbit customer since they first came out but this is it for me...it now doesn’t do what it advertised when I bought it - I think that’s called false advertising?? No point having a heart rate monitor that won’t provide the data!

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