help menu

Join us on the Community Forums!

  • Community Guidelines

    The Fitbit Community is a gathering place for real people who wish to exchange ideas, solutions, tips, techniques, and insight about the Fitbit products and services they love. By joining our Community, you agree to uphold these guidelines, so please take a moment to look them over.

  • Learn the Basics

    Check out our Frequently Asked Questions page for information on Community features, and tips to make the most of your time here.

  • Join the Community!

    Join an existing conversation, or start a new thread to ask your question. Creating your account is completely free, and takes about a minute.

Not finding your answer on the Community Forums?

Cancel
Turn on suggestions
Auto-suggest helps you quickly narrow down your search results by suggesting possible matches as you type.
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Android App - Mandatory Location

Replies are disabled for this topic. Start a new one or visit our Help Center.

‎05-29-2017 08:55

‎05-29-2017 08:55

Good day,

 

I'm liking my new Charge 2, does everything I need and is easy to use. BUT...

 

Why are GPS Location Services on my phone mandatory for a Bluetooth link with the FitBit Android app? Nothing kills my battery faster than GPS and I always keep it off unless needed. I work in a reinforced concrete data center and GPS does not work regardless. Forcing this on is just dumb.

 

With location services turned off, it says it can't sync with the FitBit, but when I logged on to post this topic, I see updated stats from 55 minutes ago and my location was never turned on. If you can sync with the website without location, you do not need it to sync over Bluetooth.

 

It's my phone, not yours. Please amend this silly "feature" in your next release to give me control over my devices.

 

Thank you.

 

Best Answer
0 Votes
1 REPLY 1

‎05-29-2017 09:07

‎05-29-2017 09:07

@shadragon, the requirement for Location Services to be enabled is a requirement of Google, not Fitbit. Google added this requirement when they released Android 6.0.  But, there is no relationship to having Location Services enabled and starting GPS. Fitbit does not start GPS unless you select an activity that uses it, such a Walk, Run, Hike, etc..  You can have GPS turned off if you do not want it opening, and that will not affect the sync process at all. Location Services can be enabled without using GPS, unless you use such things a Google Maps, etc.

 

You may want to check out this post by @ErickFitbit when this became an issue last fall:

 

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Android-App/Android-syncing-Permissions-Location/m-p/1622501#M35713

Best Answer