Charge 2 won't connect with Pixel 3

[Kristy.W.]

According to the online list, the Pixel 3 is compatible. The phone can "see" the Charge 2 but will not pair with it. I've tried reinstalling the app, turned my bluetooth on and off again, disconnected all my other bluetooth devices, tried letting the Charge 2 die and then recharging it.  And.... nothing, it still won't pair. Can someone help me please?

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[Xiezz]

Hiya 1fatbunny, I had the same problem. I just followed what caityblue412 said above and got connected. Here's what she wrote.

"I know this is a bit old but I found a fix that worked when nothing on this page did:

I have my old IPhone still, I redownloaded the app, signed in, paired my watch with it, turned off my IPhone's bluetooth, then pressed sync on my Pixel 3 and it worked!

I tried every fix on this thread and several others and none of them worked, this did. Even if you borrow an Iphone from a friend I hope this helps!"

Good luck!

[J.Gayle]

You are under the assumption that iphones are easy to come by.   They are not.  In my small town I do not know anyone who has one.  It should not require another phone to pair  your Pixel 3 to your fitbit.  Not everyone has access to apple stuff.  I don't nor do I know anyone else who does.  There has to be another easier way than begging to use an iphone. 

[1Fatbunny]

J. Gayle, I completely agree.  It is so ridiculous that you are expected to use someone else's iPhone to get it loaded on your own phone.  Maybe someone else doesn't want the app on their phone.  I tried everything under the son and my Fitbit would not pair with my Pixel.  Finally, I accepted the suggestion and luckily for me, my husband has an iPhone (which he hates BTW).  I loaded the App on his phone, paired my Fitbit (very easily and quickly) and then went to my phone and magically it showed up there.  I don't know why the heck this would be the case, but I can tell you if my husband decides he doesn't want the app on his phone any longer, then I will be scrogged.  This issue needs to be fixed. 

[J.Gayle]

Unless you are married to it or gave birth to it, would be rather ignorant to ask a complete stranger to carry an app for you.  AND how safe is that, how much can they glean from your stuff.  Now I will not pair on my Lenovo brand new M7 tablet either.  Should have stuck with the little Charge HR.  Not problems with it.  My grand has it now and it is working just fine on her Pixel phone.  Feels like I have a $100 piece of rock.  Weird thing is everything works, HR, steps etc, but the date is Feb 27 and the time is 3am.  So very frustrating.  And apparently FitBit help has abandoned us.  Going to try calling tomorrow.  Not hopeful though. 

[Xiezz]

@1Fatbunny Hello again, Once your Pixel has been successfully paired. You can remove/delete the app from your husbands Iphone and Unpair it from your FitBit account page. It is no longer needed. I agree this whole ordeal has been a hassle. I believe it is because the Pixel 3 is nowhere near as popular as the other Iphones and as such not as much time and money are spent on there development/compatibility (this will probably change in the future seeing as Pixel is owned by Google and will soon be the dominant phone on the market). I had a windows phone earlier and that was much worse with trying to get apps to work on it, like 90% would not run on it. Reason being is less than 1% of the phones on the market were Windows phones, so the vast majority of App developers would not waste their time or money working on it (which is understandable). 

@J.Gayle    If you live in Australia you can have my old Iphone , I live in a small town as well and we lost the internet for about 3 months so I ended up buying it on ebay for 35 bucks a year or 2 ago. Used it as a mobile hotspot and ran the house of it. It's got a cracked screen but works fine.

[1Fatbunny]

Thanks @Xiezz.  Copying @J.Gayle too.  Although I am afraid to delete it from my husband's phone for fear it will stop working on mine. Can you believe this? I just got an email sent by the CEO of Fitbit that Fitbit has been bought by Google!  Are you kidding me?  Google owns it and it doesn't work on their phone. 

Moderator Edit: Formatting

[Xiezz]

@1Fatbunny haha yea I just got it aswell, hopefully they can sort their stuff out now.

[CL2021]

I tried it on my old Samsung Galaxy 6 phone and it worked. It did take a very long time to connect. I wonder if it doesn't work on the pixel 3 because the connection times out. 

[J.Gayle]

That is a thought.  My internet connection is via satellite, so possible could be the reason. 

[J.Gayle]

I am in Canada.  The Google phones here are quite popular as they are usually free from Bell, with your account.  The icrap is usually for the kiddies.  Wonder if the sale to Google will sort this out. 

[J.Gayle]

I just received that too.  Time will tell if they fix it. 

[teggy]

Hey, just wanted to reply that this worked for me using an old amazon fire tablet. 

Thank you all 

[AngryPerson]

Why in the hell does this actually work when nothing else does. Thank you for this. Your post was more helpful then all of fitbits customer service. 

[AngryPerson]

"Why in the hell does this actually work when nothing else does. Thank you for this. Your post was more helpful then all of fitbits customer service."

Would like to specify this worked with an old SG6 to a Pixel 3

[Legiito]

Thank you so much. It worked immediately on my Pixel 3 after pairing it with my girlfriend's iPad. 

[Jules.Horton]

Thank you! This is the only fix that worked after spending hours going through the standard "fixes"

[EthanSalz]

The solution of connecting the Charge 2 to secondary device other than the Pixel 3 works.

My Charge 2 had to download an update before it connected to my Pixel 3.

These are the steps that I followed: 

1. I removed the device from my account through a laptop and web browser. This will make it seem like you are activating the device for the first time on a secondary mobile device other than your Pixel 3. This will delete the saved data from the charge 2, but not your total account history so you may loose a couple days of data. 

2. Download the Fitbit app on the secondary device. This could be another cellphone or tablet, I used my previous Samsung Galaxy 7 that I had not used in a couple years as long as you can download the app in the latest version through wifi it seems to work.  

3. Login to your account on secondary device through the app.

4. Set up the Charge 2 on the secondary device. This initiatied for me, a update to the Charge 2. I am assuming that this update include changes to the Charge 2's firmware which may include changes to the bluetooth connection protocols for devices like the Pixel 3 and the updated Android OS. (This is probably why it cannot connect to Pixel 3 because the firware on the Charge 2 is out of date and simply doesn't "know" how to connnect to the Pixel 3 or the newer Android OS.)

5. Once the update is complete sync the Charge 2 with the secondary device. At this point the device is again associated with your Fitbit account. Remeber your can login to your account on any mobile device and your devices carry over.  

6. Download the fitbit app on your Pixel 3 if you have not done so already and log into your account through the app on your Pixel 3. (Make sure the app is the latest version). At this point for me, I could see the the device was connected to my Pixel 3.

7. It may still say that it needs a bluetooth connection to completely sync or is not syncing properly. I know this is not a great answer but after 24 hrs I had no issues with syncing. It eventually connected and was sending data to my phone properly. 

8. The final step that I performed was to revoke the access of my Charge 2 from the secondary device. To do this go to your Account on the Fitbit app through your Pixel 3. Navigate to Account Settings -> Authorized Devices you should see probably 3 devices at this point your Pixel 3, the secondary device, and the laptop you logged into your account from step 1. Revoke the access to the devices you do not want, for me I only revoked access to the secondary device. 

9. Test that your device syncs to the Pixel 3. Make changes to your Charge 2 like setting an alarm or changing the clock face of the Charge 2, if the changes made in your Pixel 3 update the Charge 2 your device is ready to go. If these changes do not sync then I would look at other posts to troubleshoot syncing issues. Again, I had to wait 24 hrs before my charge was working correctly with my Pixel 3.

The conclusion from this process is that the root cause is probably the firmware for the device is out of date and that is why it can't connect to the Pixel 3. Nothing that can be done from the Fitbit side, as the firmware of the Charge 2 has to be updated on the device before it can even connect to the Pixel 3. Since it has to be connected to a mobile device for the update to occur the only way to update the firmware is to connect the device to something other than the Pixel 3. Hope my post helps explain why this error happens and I hope it fixes your issues. Thanks to CaityBlue412 for originally posting this fix.😁

[Writedude]

@CaityBlue412 ... I have tried for countless hours to sync my Charge 2 with my Google Pixel 3a. Nothing seemed to work as explained throughout this thread by all users and by everything I know about cell phones and Bluetooth. I decided to try using my old Apple iPod to see if your instructions would solve the problem, however it seems as though my iPod battery is completely dead so I needed another solution. 

1. I decided to sync my Charge 2 to my previous android phone (HTC U Ultra) that was replaced by the Google Pixel 3a. The Bluetooth connected to my Charge 2 fine and downloaded all the data into the Fitbit app on my HTC U Ultra.
2. I then physically turned Off Bluetooth on the HTC U Ultra. 
3. I unlocked the Google Pixel 3a and searched for Bluetooth devices. It found the Charge 2 and connected to it just fine.
4. I opened the Fitbit app and synced with the Charge 2. All the data in my Charge 2 was transferred into the Fitbit app. Hurray!

The only data that I did not get was data that was older than 9 days. I waited too long so I missed out. Apparently, the Charge 2 only holds about 9 days' worth of data. No big deal. I'm just glad it finally synced. I was about to just go buy another watch. Why this works this way must be due to a bug on either the Google Pixel 3a or the Charge 2. Very strange....

I hope this information informs others you might not need an Apple device (not everyone has access to one) to solve the problem. Try using the device you previously connected your Charge 2 to and follow the steps above. Best wishes!

[REESE1021]

Thank you! Once I got the charge 2 connected to the Fitbit app via another means (iPad). Then I synced my Fitbit app on my Pixel 2 phone and it automatically showed up. Sad that you have to do it that way, but thank you for the workaround!!