Android 9.0 (Pie) not able to sync

[AlessFitbit]

Fitbit Update: 3/6/19

Hello everyone! 

We have some updated troubleshooting suggestions we'd like for all of you on Android Pie (9.0) to try. 

First, turn off Background Restrictions/Limitations: Phone settings > Apps & Notifications > Fitbit app > Background restrictions or Background limits.

Then, disable battery limitations:

1. Go to Settings > Apps > Fitbit app > Advanced > Battery > Battery optimization
2. Change view to All apps
3. Search for Fitbit app
4. Choose Not optimized

Please give the steps above a try to improve syncing with your Fitbit device and Android 9.0 OS. We're still researching and testing out long-term solutions to this ongoing syncing issue. We thank you for all your patience while we continue to work on this effort.

---

Fitbit Update: 2/14/19

Hi everyone!

Thanks for all your reports and patience with these Android 9.0 syncing difficulties. We’re aware of this ongoing issue and have been working to identify a resolution as quickly as possible. 

We're sorry for any trouble. We appreciate your patience and look forward to getting you back on track as soon as possible. 

I'll let you know if I receive any additional information on this matter. 

---

Fitbit Update: 10/3/18 

Hey Everyone!

Our team is still working on implementing a longterm fix for syncing with Android devices on Pie (9.0). 

For the background syncing issue, I have posted an update in the other floated thread which you can find here. 

We released Fitbit for Android version 2.80 today which contains improvements for that syncing issue. 

I'll make sure to keep you all updated with more information, as soon as I have it available. We're still working on this and I really appreciate everyone's patience. 

---

Fitbit Update: 9/26/18

Hey everyone! 

Thanks so much for your patience and cooperation. We are aware of the issue and working with Google on a solution.

I will continue to provide updates here, so keep an eye on this thread. 

---

Fitbit Update: 9/10/18 

Hi, everybody! 

Thanks for your patience while our team continues to work on improving syncing for those on Android Pie (9.0). They are actively working on this and for the time being, I recommend you keep the Fitbit app updated on the latest version for best syncing results. Right now that is version 2.78, so if you're not on this version please update! Also, another troubleshoot we recommend is performing a restart on your phone. 

When there are more improvements made in the future I'll announce them here. Stay tuned and subscribed to this thread. 

---

Fitbit Update: 8/19/18

We have escalated these syncing issues for those who are now using Android Pie (9.0) to our team for investigation. There aren't any updates at the moment, but rest assured we will keep you informed in this thread when more information is available.

Thanks for your patience! 

---

Fitbit Update: 8/11/18 

Hi, everyone! Thanks for stopping by the Community Forums. 

Seems like many of you who updated to Android Pie (9.0) are now having trouble syncing your Fitbit trackers. I'm going to escalate this to our team so they can look into it.

In the meantime, please update the Fitbit app to version 2.76.1 if you haven't yet. Let me know if that changes the syncing behavior. Please follow this thread for updates. I'll keep you all posted here! 

[SunsetRunner]

Spatula, as you say, it might be that there's a background process that deadlocks. Other possibilities include a protocol breakdown of some sort (e.g., both app and tracker are waiting for the other to perform the next step) or the app is has some data structure (like a connection handle) that it is treating as permanent, but Android Pie is now treating as ephemeral.

In any case, it's sure not working!

I have been watching this sad situation play out, and it seems that there are similarities to situations I've seen in the past.

For example, when an overall engineering organization has to support multiple platforms, one is often considered primary and is staffed as such, while the "secondary" platform gets fewer resources (and may even be outsourced to a contract firm, where any efforts expended on it are on an as-needed basis). This might explain why Fitbit was caught so flat-footed with Pie's release: any full-time, reasonably-staffed team dedicated to a given platform would've been closely tracking the underlying operating environment to prevent exactly what has happened here--being blindsided by a major OS release, and having to scramble to address the issues that inevitably pop up.

Or, Fitbit's Android support team--whether through intentional "secondary" staffing levels, or attrition of team members tired of playing second fiddle to the primary platform--is limping along with a skeleton crew that is not at all prepared to handle such a major change in any kind of timely fashion. Day to day bug fixes to the app? No problem. Entirely new operating system under which to run the app? Huge problem.

Now, if it is a contract effort that's handling Android support for Fitbit, well... I've worked at contract companies, and teams for "as-needed" contracts tend to be staffed with whoever tends to be available; qualifications of such folks might not be the best possible match to the task at hand. And there is the contract company's incentive to deliver on the contract as cheaply as possible, meaning that, unless specified by the customer (in this case Fitbit), the contract will preferentially select more junior staff, and allocate the fewest number of people to it as possible. None of this is the pathway to the most timely resolution possible (which, incidentally, can be a major benefit to the contract company, it it's a time-and-materials contract).

It might also be that the apps for both supported platforms share a codebase, and one (or both) make use of platform-specific frameworks that have their own potential OS-specific compatibility issues. So this problem might have a whole other dimension: if a framework is involved, and it is having trouble supporting Pie, then that needs to be fixed before any progress can be made on the app's code. And, of course, you get extra suck points if the framework was created in house (often by staff that have since left), or a dodgy outside team/company that fails to see Fitbit's crisis as a crisis for themselves. This may make them either is slow--or to outright refus--to make the framework actually, you know... work.

In any case, hilarity such as we've been seeing often ensues.

Now, I have absolutely zero visibility into any aspect of this issue. I know nothing about Fitbit's engineering organization, whether it employs contractors, the structure of its codebase, or anything else. It's just that, over the years, I've been in situations where things smell much like they do here, and those things I've mentioned above have often been the cause of the stink.

As for me, I have a Mac I can reliably sync from. So as long as I can do that, I'll just wait things out. I have a One; I know it won't last forever, and Fitbit seems entirely disinterested in providing a serious newer offering for folks that want a better-quality product that isn't worn on a wrist. I also wouldn't be surprised if Fitbit ends up having to drop One support in the app in order to make the rest of their trackers work. If either of those things happen, I'll move on.

But for now, I'll hang around and watch the train wreck.

[muppetman]

Removed.

[spatula]

I've done just about everything you could ever imagine doing, to no avail.  If you're NOT having problems, it's a modern miracle, because there are over 500 posts here from scads of other people in the past couple months who are.  I assure you, we're not all stupid or helpless, and we're not making it up.

[muppetman]

Removed.

[spatula]

yeliaB: like you, I have smelled this before too, having worked in development in Silly Valley for the last 20 years or so.  If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on it being an underfunded or outsourced Android dev organization that either can't or won't fix the problem because they don't understand it, don't have the manpower to work on it, or are so busy trying to meet the demands of new features or new devices that they don't have the time to work on it.

Meanwhile, Fitbit is developing a massive amount of pessimism and bad-will about their product among other Android users, as they create the impression that they don't acknowledge their bugs and don't care to fix them.  Support is almost certainly outsourced and lacking in any means to raise issues with engineering or product development, so even if they could identify trends (like nobody being able to sync reliably with Pie), they have no way to effect any change in the product.

Even before Pie, sync has always been dodgy on Android; there have always been some signs of stuck sync processes, or processes that needed to be able to time-out but never did, etc.  Fitbit has never really gotten it right, but it also does seem like something has changed in Pie that has caused their already poorly-behaving sync strategy to break down almost completely.  

I'd wager if I took the time to get adb connected up and watched logs, the act of cycling airplane mode would cause an exception to be thrown from whatever background task is hung... something someone at Fitbit should be doing, not a paying customer who spent money on their expensive wrist watch.

The impression I get is that it's totally amateur hour over there, and nobody organizationally cares.

[muppetman]

Ok.

I have removed my posts.

[atlanticpdx]

Just got the 2.79 update, hopeful that there was a fix in it. Nope. Disappointed doesn't even cover it.

I don't blame @LanuzaFitbit or the other mods on here, it's not their fault and they're trying to get things done for us, but man, it's very apparent that we're not a priority. I've been eyeing the Garmin watches, and it might be approaching time to make the jump.

[spatula]

It's hard to get much confidence in the app updates when the description for every single one of them is "bug fixes and performance improvements" and they turn out to contain neither.

[durytbdbitl]

It has been 10 days since the last update on this thread and over 6 weeks since Android Pie was released.  There are likely many Fitbit customers that this still impacts....is there a resolution in sight?  Any information would be helpful.

[gafferK]

Sadly, in my case it did not.  The laptop (new one since setting up Fitbit originally) the addition was seen as a new device and wiped the memory.

[VickieGonz]

Once you logged into the Fitbit app on the new device, the Fitbit should already have been there.  The Fitbit itself should not have needed to be added again.

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

[SunsetRunner]

All good points, spatula.

I just tried the airplane mode trick, and no luck for me with my One but, like you say, sync on Android has always been dodgy. I've had times in the past when the Android app would be unable to sync for days/weeks at a time, and then mysteriously start working again.

Interestingly enough, yesterday afternoon I was pulling down my phone's notification shade (like I do probably hundreds of times each day) and noticed that the notification for the app's keep-alive widget said that my One last sync'ed up about noontime. That's unusual, because in this brave new world of no-workie, I've gotten into the habit of syncing it up once a day, about 8am or so, using my Mac. Every other day when I happen to see that notification, it will occasionally tell me that there's a sync in progress, but the vast majority of the time it will list the last sync time as being about 8am that day.

It's the first time I've seen this happen.

I'm using wireless sync with my Mac (i.e., without using a dongle), so I guess it's possible the Mac might have magically done a sync on its own. However, I kind of doubt that, given that I manually launch Fitbit Connect each morning, press the "sync now" button, and then close the app. So it looks like the Android app actually...worked?

I was going to make a joke about the Android app being like a stopped clock--it's correct twice a day. But then I realized I'd be overjoyed if the thing worked as well as a stopped clock. smh...

When I saw the Android app's surprising notification, I immediately tried to sync using it, and no dice. Of course.

That evening I got the 2.79 update, which, shockingly, did not work. Interestingly, it seems that the update disabled the keep-alive widget in the app's settings. I re-enabled it, if for no other reason than it's an easy way to see if the dang thing miraculously starts working somehow.

I've also toyed with the idea of getting my logcat on to see what I can learn, but in my case I have a really small outlay of cash in all this. I bought a Fitbit Ultra back in June of '12, and moved to the One maybe a year later and--even wearing it daily--haven't lost it, run it through the wash, or toasted the battery in all this time. Given this, I just can't summon up the energy to try to do someone else's job for them. I know I'd feel more strongly about things if I had more of a recent investment on the line, but a couple hundred dollars spent more than five years ago just doesn't get me that worked up...

[spatula]

Interestingly, toggling airplane mode causes the notification widget to crash and respawn on my phone.  Today I also tried disabling the notification widget to see if that made sync any better/different.  It didn't.  Still get the "tracker not found" until I toggle airplane mode, then it goes back to the usual behavior of working for a while and then seizing up.

[jsicurelly]

I'd been having issues with my One tracker, and I figured it was the tracker dying since it's pretty old. I bought a Versa today, and was so disappointed to find that I still couldn't regularly sync! I have to restart my phone every time I want to sync. I contacted Fitbit (unaware of this apparently ongoing issue with Android 9). They said my Versa must be defective, and they sent one out under warranty. I kept troubleshooting and I logged into my Fitbit account on multiple other phones running older versions of Android, and it worked. So I contacted them and said I do not want the replacement tracker, because this one isn't broken. This time the represenatitve seemed to be aware of this issue and told me it was the Android version, and he didn't know when it would be fixed. 

ow I find this thread and to my disappointment, this has been going on since the beginning of August and Fitbit hasn't bothered to fix it?? I really like the Versa (if it would sync). It fits my ridiculously small wrists much better than most other smartwatches. If it's not compatible with my phone, then it's pretty useless. I may return it to Target and shop for a Garmin. 😞 

[SheWatt]

My widget also tells me it has synced. Its lying.

[Giampi71]

I'm really puzzled because both myself (pixel 2 XL with Ionic) and my wife (pixel with Versa) use Android 9 and don't have any problem at all.

Only explanation I have is that when we updated the Android system I factory reset the mobile and start over (I always do this when updating OS).

You might want to try.

[Airdra]

Syncing is still fine with my Pixel on Pie since FitBit's last app update.

(For reference, since I posted about it a week ago, all I did was update and then repair. No other steps were needed and it has been good as gold since).

Connected GPS works once I turn off battery saver mode.

However, it disconnects if the screen goes to sleep and I have to unlock my phone.

Keeping my screen on seems to work (as in, using an app like Wakey) but it drains my battery.

Any tips? 

EDIT: it's the FitBit Versa. A month old (upgraded from Blaze)

[Ultratech]

@AirdraWhich Fitbit device did this work with? I'm currently investigating to see which one I should get next based upon what Android users are saying about them.

[Airdra]

Oops forgot to mention. It's the Versa. I bought it around the same time as Android updated.

[Ultratech]

Thanks for the info!