How to restart your Alta

[SunsetRunner]

Here are the steps on how to restart you Alta. Steps are also availible here.

1. Plug your charging cable into a USB port on your computer or any USB power adapter.
2. Insert the other end of the cable into the port on the back of your Fitbit Alta™. Your Alta will begin charging.
3. Press the button on your charging cable three times within eight seconds, briefly pausing between presses. The button is on the end of the charging cable that is plugged into your computer. 
4. Eight seconds after the first button press, you'll see the Fitbit logo on the screen. This means Alta is restarting.
5. After you see the logo you can unplug your tracker from the charging cable.

[SunsetRunner]

If you have any questions or something is wrong with your Alta, feel free to reply with your questions, I will help the best I can!

[Jeetje]

Hi, I hope you can help me. My Alta refuses to synch since 4 days. I want to restart it, that should resolve the issue. I follow all the steps for restart. Charger via USB connected to laptop, Alta is charging. Pressing the famous button, charging box changes from solid into lines. Perfect. Press button 3 times within 8 seconds with brief intervals. Still lines of charging on the Alta, no appearance of the Fitbit logo.

I'm starting to get quite frustrated, any suggestions on what to do now?

OK, I just discovered that the restart did work after the alta was fully loaded. During the loading process it was clearly not willing to interrupt? Is that indeed the case? If so, better mention that in the instructions.

Unfortunately the synch still refuses, so I'll start to look for additional advice here on the forum how to fix this.

Moderator edit: merged reply

[SunsetRunner]

That is NOT the case. When you do a restart, you will know when it restarts when the fitbit logo comes up on the screen and says the current version of firmware. I need to know if you are trying to sync with your computer or your phone. Please reply by telling me which you are trying to sync too.

[Jeetje]

I'm always synching via my android phone. My husband once synched it via his laptop to get me started. Synching was never an issue, but suddenly on the 26th it refused. Last successful synch was at my 13:18. Usually I synch 6/8 times a day. Nothing changed as far as I know. I did notice that on the 25th the synching process suddenly was much slower than before, but still possible. I've got version 2.25

[SunsetRunner]

Have you tried restarting your Phone? Also try turning off your bluetooth and turning it back on. Since this problem has occured, have you tried syncing with the sync dongle on a computer or laptop?

[Jeetje]

Yes, turning off the bluetooth and turning it back on was the first action. I anyway only use the bluetooth to synch the alta, it's by default switched off. And the phone is detecting the alta as well. Just the synch starts but keeps ongoing forever until it ends up in a 'failed' message.  Restarting the phone was the second action I took when I was confronted with the issue.

My husband just managed to synch the alta with the laptop and dongle, afterwards I gave it another try to synch with my phone - again failed. I'm now starting to wonder if I should re-install the app. But that sounds like an overkill and should not be needed...

[SunsetRunner]

I would try doing that and see if that works.

[Jeetje]

At first it seemed to work - after reinstalling the app I was able to synch with my phone. And after a few hours again. But than after a couple of hours the sync again failed. I'm getting quite frustrated now. Disabled bluetooth, no effect. Restarted mobile, no effect. Removed app and reinstall app for the 2nd time on one day - still no result. Reset the alta which for some reason is impossible for me at my laptop but it works for my husband on his laptop. Still no synch between mobile and alta. This is truly very, very annoying.

Only thing I can imagine is that I had still the bluetooth on my phone switched on when I got close to another bluetooth connection between an Ipad and a children's toothbrush. Might the other bluetooth connection somehow disturb the bluetooth connection between my phone and alta to such an extend that it's completely distroyed? That should not be possible... but I start to consider bizarre explanations by now.

[SunsetRunner]

It is very possible that other bluetooth devices are interfearing with the sync. Multiple bluetooth device trying to connect to your phone could be why it's not syncing. I would try either turning off those other devices or moving away from them. Let e know how that works!

[Jeetje]

Well, I did move away from that other bluetooth signal which was by the way never connected to my phone. But even now with no other active bluetooth connections active in the entire house, it fails to connect. Not after restarting bluetooth connection, restarting phone, deleting and re-installing the app, restarting the alta. 

Patience is starting to run out as well, I fear since frustration starts to build up. I want my smoothly working alta back as it used to be until last week Thursday!

[SunsetRunner]

I would contact fitbit support.

[Jeetje]

Thanks for your help!

[CindyFitbit]

Hey there @Jeetje welcome to the Community! It seems that you have tried all our recommended troubleshoot, if the syncing issue persists, the best step in this case is contacting support, they will be able to investigate and evaluate your case. In order to get a faster response, you can contact them via phone at (877) 623-4997 M-F 4am-8pm // Sa,Su 6am-5pm (PT) or via chat. I'm sure they will be glad to assist.

@SunsetRunner thanks for your great assistance!

Let me know how it goes! 

[SunsetRunner]

No problem @CindyFitbit and @Jeetje! Always a pleasure to help.

[JEB17]

I followed these steps to restart the Alta but I get Fitbit setup on the Alta and an stuck what to do next

[SunsetRunner]

Have you set up your device before @JEB17?

[JEB17]

Yes. It had been working fine until synch issues started yesterday and I tried restarting it.

All I see on the Alta face is Fitbit.com/setup. I have the app on my phone and I see my dashboard. Don't know how to get to the initial setup steps to start over.

Moderator edit: merged reply

[SunsetRunner]

Ok. I would set the device up again. To do this you need to remove the current device from the phone app go threw the set-up process again. To remove the device you can either do it in the settings or when you go to set up a new device, replace the current device. Let me know if this works!

[JEB17]

Problem solved. Thanks