Bluetooth keeps disconnecting

[Konwakeri]

I have a fitbit alta that is only about a month old. I keep getting a message that says i am having bluetooth issues
I have turned my phone on and off
I have uninstalled and reinstalled the app and still nothing has change i have also tried to restart my phone several time.
It has become very frustrating

[SantiR]

@Konwakeri Welcome to the Fitbit Community! Try restarting your phone's Bluetooth (turn it off, wait 10 seconds, and turn it back on). Also, make sure you have Internet connection as well. You must have both Bluetooth and Internet connection for it to work properly. Then, reboot your phone once more and try again. 

Hope this helps. Let me know how it goes! 

[USAF-Larry]

You don't mention what phone you have, @Konwakeri - is it an Android phone that is running Android 6.0 Marshmallow.  If so, it is possible that the new Battery Optimization "enhancement" is turning off the Bluetooth to save the battery. I had to turn this off on my HTC One M9 phone after it upgraded to Android 6.0.

[Konwakeri]

I have an lg 3g.

[Konwakeri]

@SantiR i have tried that several times and it still happens its getting rather annoying

[Fremoc]

@USAF-Larry how did you turn that off?

[USAF-Larry]

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@Fremoc wrote:
@USAF-Larry how did you turn that off?

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On my phone, an HTC One M9, I had to go into Settings, Battery Manager, Battery Optimization, and select "Don't Optimize" for that apps that I wanted to be able to keep active, including Fitbit, Maps, K-9 Mail, etc..  The Fitbit app was then able to keep the GPS active instead of it being put to sleep to preserve the battery.

[chinolatino]

I have an LG G3 also, and a Fitbit Alta. I recently got (very expensive) Bluetooth 4.1 headphones and I'm not sure if it's that or the Sept. 6 Fitbit 2.33 app update, but now my Bluetooth will stop functioning without a reboot. The behavior is similar to this video, but much faster (< 1 second): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_OsvzwR4k4. Really frustrating.

The one thing that seems to fix the issue if uninstallation of the Fitbit app. That's just sort of OK, since I can sync with my PC, but I like the call and text notifications of the tracker.

I'll try turning off battery optimization for the Fitbit app (turning them off for Bluetooth did nothing) and I'll report back if that does anything.

[chinolatino]

Update: I've had to restart my phone 5 or 6 times since my last post. Bluetooth won't stay on for more than a minute or so. I've reinstalled the app a couple of times and while yesterday that seemed to be helpful, today it's still shutting off without the app and without anything connected.

I also noticed my phone is really hot behind the back buttons and battery life is plummeting - from around 50% an hour ago to less than 15%. So I suspect I may have either hardware issues with my phone, which is currently in the freezer to cool off, or a bad battery.

[chinolatino]

I was able to keep the **ahem** thing up long enough to turn off battery optimization for Fitbit and Bluetooth. It's at 13% battery but bluetooth has been on for about 15 minutes with the headphones connected and streaming. so it's possible that fixed the problem.

It's out of the freezer but hasn't gotten super-hot again, so I can't rule out overheating as the cause for the Bluetooth turning off, but turning off battery optimization might work. Or it could be that going into battery saver mode when it dipped below 15% killed some other apps that were causing it to overheat. I'll have to monitor it.

[chinolatino]

So far, so good! Though I'd say there's a bug in the Fitbit app (or Android) that makes it misbehave with Bluetooth, it does appear turning battery optimization off for Fitbit has fixed it for now.

FWIW, I have been using Fitbit for about 9 months and haven't had sync or Bluetooth problems prior to the last week, so I would investigate what changed in that last update as a root cause.

[Konwakeri]

I have tried that and i am still getting that message that my bluetooth as stopoed working

[chinolatino]

Yeah, it happens a little less often but it was definitely a temporary solution for me. 😞 Bluetooth dies on my about once a day. Sometimes killing the Fitbit app will let me re-enable it, sometimes I need a reboot.

[chinolatino]

An update: LG supplied an update for the G3 on 12/1/16, I think, and that seems to have greatly stabilized the Bluetooth behavior. It will stay up for days at a time. Usually if the sync stops, it's because the Fitbit app died on me, not the Bluetooth connection.