Battle Royale: Bluetooth stereo earbuds vs. Fitbit Charge 2

[veraperezp]

Referee: Nexus 6, and I have replicated this with two sets of phone + tracker + earbuds since both my wife and myself usually buy matching devices.

Here's what is going on:

The trackers work absolutely beautifully with the phones. We have been beating the literal crap out of these for a few weeks. We are convinced the devices are working perfectly.

Android app: one small nag which I am 99.99% sure is an infrastructure issue @ Fitbit OR a flaw in the app: the 250 steps/hour count status seems to lag between 5-7 PM EST, mostly on weekdays. This has been documented in other forum threads and is not what is bothering us.

Bluetooth stereo earbuds: we picked up two sets of TaoTronics TT-BH07U earbuds (Amazon ASIN B01GNYFT8E). These work really well with the  phones, but today on our morning walks they kept disconnecting every few seconds. I thought that the battery on mine had drained overnight, but my wife's had been charged overnight and she had the same issues. And it wasn't just the sound, I could clearly see that the phone was struggling to play the music, which is ridiculous since it was reading from local memory.

And it simply refused to work after about two miles into the walk. Walked another 3 miles, fuming every step of the way about having to return them.

So I got back home and I noticed that (a) the Android app had basically died and (b) no GPS status after the EXACT moment that the earbuds decided to stop working. Interesting.

So out of curiousity I Googled around to see if anyone was complaining, but nothing remarkable. So I recharged the earbuds under general principle, and started a second walk. As soon as I walked outside, the earphones started to break sound. I thought maybe the phone can't handle the sound stream and the Android app on "always sync" so I turned always sync off. No more audio problems. I walked 11 minutes, came back home, sync'd by hand and this time the GPS was recorded properly. 

Is this a known issue? I am going to test my theory again on my next long walk this afternoon, but so far the earbuds have been playing nonstop for about 30 minutes since I turned off the always sync with ZERO hiccups. 

[SantiR]

@veraperezp Welcome to the Fitbit Community! That is very interesting, thank you for pointing this out!

In order to identify this issue a little bit more I need to know a couple of things and I need you to try a couple more:

Are you using other devices connected to your Bluetooth aside of the earbuds? 

Also, the issue with the 250 steps/hour is a know issue and Fitbit is currently working on a fix. Thanks for reporting the exact hours in which it is not working.

I recommend doing this:

• Log out from the Fitbit app.
• Reboot your phone.
• Log back in to the Fitbit app.

Then, turn off Bluetooth, wait 10 seconds, and turn it back on. Use it again to check if that fixes the issue.

Also, let me know if it worked properly this afternoon in your long walk.

Keep me posted! 

[veraperezp]

Ouch, I forgot to update with the results from my further testing, sorry about that. 

I was able to use the Bluetooth earbuds while doing tracked walked walks. Even if the Android app has "always sync" turned off, it keeps trying to sync with the tracker, this is usually noticeable whenever there's a heavy tree canopy so one could suspect it is trying to get a GPS lock and it uses too much of the Bluetooth bandwidth available. 

Today I walked over 12 miles throughout the day and I listened to the earbuds for as long as I was walking and I had maybe one interruption towards the start and end of each walking session. My wife noticed that hers were showing some signs of interference, but all I have experienced is these dropouts. 

As for the 250 step issue, I have been able to clear it by either logging out of the app, or rebooting the phone. The problem is that this is happening to both phones and trackers at the same time, which makes me suspect that FitBit's network infrastructure could be a problem. 

Summary:

1. I can't get a reliable Bluetooth sound stream on Android if I am tracking a walk AND the Android App is set to "always sync."

2. Even with "always sync" disabled, the app attempts to sync if the tracker is currently tracking a walk, I suspect it is trying to tag the GPS. as I walk along.

3. Even with the "always sync" disabled, I'll get a split second interruption whenever the tree cover is too thick. 

Except for these three things, no problem listening to music while tracking exercises. 

[veraperezp]

After some extensive experimentation, I am going to go ahead and assume that my problem is not related to either the Fitbit Charge 2 or to the software.

Why? Because as the weather got worse and I kept adding layers to my clothing I started to notice that my Bluetooth stereo earbuds performance worsened, which means that they are very sensible to the Bluetooth signal strength. I also noticed that on walks my wife the interference is a lot worse as I walk closer to her, and she has the exact same phone and Bluetooth stereo earbuds.

So I went ahead and set the Fitbit app back to "All-day sync" and kept the phone in a chest pocket instead of in my pants, and ZERO sound dropouts. Then every time the part of the earbuds cable with the mike and buttons would slip inside my jacket's collar (which has a zipper for a removable hood) the signal would drop. Moved it back outside, it started working.

In summary: I have isolated my sound dropouts to a problem with the Bluetooth signal strength that varies with clothing and how the phone is carried, and this problem does not seem to affect the Fit Bit Charge 2's ability to stay connected to the phone (Android) during tracked walks. 

As for the problem with the 250/hour status indicator, it seems to have gone away.