Alta HR and Moto G5 Plus compatibility

[KrisO]

I have scoured these forums and found post after post of users having issues with their Fitbit trackers syncing with their budget phones or less known brand phones (I have a Moto G5 Plus). I have reinstalled the app, restarted my phone, restarted the Alta, re-paired the Alta, bluetooth off then on, time and again as all the responses to those posts recommend. Nothing has worked consistently. And when those tactics fail for other users, I have seen response after response from Fitbit reps basically saying, "Welp,if that didn't work just know the phone you have is not on the list of compatible devices, so thanks but you're sol. Let us know how else we can help!"

I have an idea on how you can help. Can we get an actual solution to this problem? These posts date back for months. What is Fitbit doing to address this? Is your recommendation that we need to go and spend $800 on a flagship device because those are the only devices you will bother to support? Fitbit hasn't added a Motorola phone to their list of compatible devices in over two years. Are they planning to? Do I need to return my Alta HR? You tell me...

Moderator edit: Clarified subject/format

[Ilya0002]

My wife's Blaze does not sync with Moto G6.

My Charge HR stopped syncing with my Moto G5 Plus.

Hey, Fitbit, these are not some knock-off phones - in fact, based on a recent article on AndroidCentral, "(...)Motorola has sold over 70 million Moto G series smartphones since the line launched."

I think if your software engineers simply don't know how to make your trackers work with Moto phones, it's time to explicitly state this. 

I have been a very loyal user of Fitbit for years having 5 or 6 trackers in my family in total, but I am done. Every time this issue is raised you just throw in some blanket responses and resolve nothing. Sorry. I'm out.

Moderator Edit: Format

[mjleon]

The ironic part is that all Android phones use the same Qualcomm chip to do Bluetooth. Why is Motorola's phones any different then the others? Its different in that its pure android It would probably take a SW engineer 2 days to figure this out by looking at the logs. It speaks volumes about your desire to really keep investing in this business as opposed to selling it....

[Skingola]

This is just getting worse and worse. Now hasn't synced since Friday morning, keeps telling me it's because my bluetooth is turned off (it isn't and other devices find it just fine). Then fitbit rub salt in the wound by sending me my weekly summary which shows almost nothing because the stupid thing hasn't synchronised. Which is really annoying because I've been really pleased with my running and would love to be able to track and compare properly. 

I do wish the moderators/help would be honest and just say if it is ever going to work. Sadly I can't afford a new fitness tracker at the moment, or a phone (which I won't replace just for the sake of the fitbit anyway) so I am a bit stuck. And very disillusioned with fitbit. 

[jfmscouse]

Only thing I have found that sometimes works is to disconnect the Fitbit from my phone then start Bluetooth pairing from the start. Worked 4 out of 10 times which is still not good enough. What did work was removing the Fitbit from my account then adding it as a new device but after a day the sync stopped again.

[iluvbrewing]

I feel your pain: I was excited to get my first Fitbit to participate in a workplace health challenge, and was very disappointed with the sync issues on my Moto G5 Plus. I have a potential solution that may work.

Go to Settings, Apps, kabob menu (3 dots), and select Reset App Preferences.

This works for me more reliably than turning off/on Bluetooth, or unpairing/re-pairing, or the other solutions mentioned.

<soapbox>

I've been in software development and IT for almost 30 years, and understand the importance of compatibility testing. Web apps are constantly updated to work with all types and versions of browsers, and mobile apps should be no different. It is baffling that Fitbit hasn't included the Motorola Moto G5 series in its approved list of devices. It is a very popular phone, and Fitbit should do the right thing and make the necessary code changes on the device and/or the mobile app to provide compatibility.

</soapbox>

Let me add one more tip that seems to work in most cases:

1. Double swipe down to show the Bluetooth icon, click it

2. Click more settings toward the bottom of the screen

3. Click the gear icon next to Alta HR, select Forget (but DON'T add it again)

4. Go back to the Fitbit app and wait for it to sync

It appears that by not manually adding the Alta HR back in from step 3, the app (usually) does it for you when it tries to sync. It might take a couple attempts, but this seems to be more repeatable.

Moderator edit: Merged replies

[motoG5PlusUser]

I bought it used unaware that there were only specific phones that worked with fitbit. Should be prominently advertised that only select devices! One big point my MotoG5plus is on Android 7 much higher than kitkat.

I can maybe get it to sync once a week or less, restarting bluetooth and hitting the button to sync just never works. What is the secret to it sometimes syncing?

Is there an alternative app to just sync to google fit?

My entire family has this phone. Just to copy above, I too am just baffled. This isn't some $20 no name phone!

[mjleon · Accepted solution]

Upgrade your Moto G5 plus to Android 8.0 or Oreo. Yu do this by going to settings and then about phone. Check for updates. Once this happened to my G5 Plus it syncs flawlessly

[motoG5PlusUser]

Same. Latest update seems to be syncing great. Android 8.1.0

[luv2dig]

Thank you for your postings. Although it took a long time to do all of the
updates last night, it is working great on day one.

[jbcampo]

Need support for Moto e5 plus. Why can't Fitbit Dev come up with a different sync method than a per-device one. They will never catch up. I'm gonna see if Garmin does it better. Love my Fitbit but this sync issue is a major blocker to customer satisfaction.

[mjleon]

Update your Moto G5 Plus to Android 8.0 Oreo by going to "settings" and
then "systems update" Then "systems update". This will solve all you
problems.

[jbcampo]

My e5 plus is updated to Android 8.0.0, the highest current update. Not syncing. 

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

[FerdinandFitbit]

Hi everyone! Good to see you all in the Fitbit Community Forums! 🙂

I'd like to thank you all for all your efforts in getting your trackers to sync to the Motorola Moto G5 Plus. I wanted to jump in and clarify a few things. 

This specific phone model is not in the list of compatible devices. When it comes to devices compatibility, due to Bluetooth issues that prevent certain devices, like Fitbit devices from syncing, our products aren't compatible with the following phones:

Huawei P8 Lite
Huawei P9 Lite
Huawei P20 Lite
Xiaomi Mi 6

For all other devices, if they're not on the list of compatible devices as the Moto G5 Plus, you might be able to sync with them but we don't guarantee that the functionality will be optimum as we are still testing on these phone models and due to the large number of Android and Windows devices, our team has not yet tested all of them. We're continually adding more devices and improving our compatibility, so if you don't see your device on the list check back soon.

To use the Fitbit app you must have one of the following operating systems installed on your phone or tablet:

Apple iOS 10 or higher
Android OS 5.0 or higher
Windows 10 version 1607.0 or higher

Alternatively, you can use the Fitbit app for Windows 10 on your computer, or use Fitbit Connect to sync with a Mac or Windows 8.1 computer to access your data and take advantage of the many features of your Fitbit device.

Hope this clarifies some doubts. If you need more help with this. feel free to let me know!

[jbcampo]

iluvbrewing - wow, your solution to Forget, not add in, then sync finally got my Motorola e5 plus to synch. Now I'm curious if that will stick. For the past 2 months, after a software update, it stopped synching. all FitBit could tell me is it's not on the list of supported device. well, I got so fed up that last week I ordered a Garmin. I'm gonna try that anyway because I've read they have no issues synching. I hope it's not my phone version...

anyhow, big thanks for your solution.

[samigrace10]

I have upgraded to Oreo and I still can not get my Versa Lite to sync with my Moto G5 Plus. I don't know what to do other than return to fitbit which is SO frustrating because there aren't any other devices that seem to track as well as these. I cannot afford to replace my phone with a more up to date or expensive device because I am just too rough on my phone. 

[jbcampo]

have you tried removing it from bluetooth recognized devices, then re-recognizing it? That helped me finally synch my Moto e5 plus.