Edits to Exercise Activity is Not Saving

[5u2anne]

Issue started ~08/19/2024: Fitbit App (on Android) > Edit Exercise > update Activity (i.e., Workout to Walk) > Save > the change doesn't save. Uninstalling/reinstalling the app and restarting didn't fix it. Other ideas?

[Jasond79]

Hi All

Like us all on here this is very frustrating and im on the verge of throwing it away to be honest...i reached out to support for the last time and they have advised the issue has been fixed and is expected to be on a release at the end of the week as per update below:

Thank you for letting me know. Jason I understand your concern, Fitbit will release a new update (4.34 ) to fix issues and bugs. This update will be available for everyone at the end of this week

Once you app is updated please do a test

if issue still happening please reach us back

[EnzoDragon]

That's great for people that are sticking with Fitbit 

Unfortunately, I've gotten tired of basic things not working or not existing in Fitbit so I've gotten rid of my PW3 and sent my Venu 3 in for repairs.

Like @IWABWY , the only reason I brought the PW3 was for the looks, but I'd rather have a practical fitness watch than a nice looking 1. I will miss the band locking system to be honest, not a fan of pins especially after I lost my Venu 1 to the Pacific Ocean after the pin pop out 2 yrs ago.

Good luck for those with more patience than I.

[dirthawker]

Same. I've been trying to adjust the time for a walk on Jan 4 when I accidentally left the tracker running. Version 4.34.1.fitbit-mobile- bunch of numbers followed by com.fitbit.fitbitmobile. Lets me edit and save, then instantly reverts. 

[JSC1967]

Got a brand new phone today, fresh install of latest Fitbit app.  Still can't edit exercise descriptions and can't manually enter common fitness activities, but thankfully "shoveling coal" and "sleeping" and "eating (sitting)" can still be manually entered as exercises.  I've said it before, they either don't care or are incompetent.  They spend more time deleting posts criticizing legitimate issues then they do addressing them.  They also have no credibility. 

Dec 2024 was my 9 year anniversary using Fitbit (they emailed to remind me) and i can honestly say the product has gone downhill a lot the past 2-3 years.  I've had six or seven devices (they typically don't last for me more than 18 months) but i kept buying them because i liked the app and the exercise data and food tracking on the website.  Now that the exercise data is useless and everything has to be entered on a mobile device there really no reason for me to stay.  

[ChuckSwim]

I apologize for the length and detail of my posts in this forum. I am attempting to provide specific and detailed information to the Fitbit support team so they can forward these detailed examples to their Dev team.  I am providing copy of my correspondence with Google Support here so you can track any progress that might be achieved.  Again, I apologize for the amount of detail I'm posting here.  Please feel free to skip it and say to yourself,  "Good grief, I'm glad I'm not married to that guy or I'm really glad I'm not related to ChuckSwim"

My response: sent today ( note, at the end of the email I include screen shots of activity before \ after and edit reversions.  I include screen shots of phone  OS and App Version as well as permissions allowed and even on watch GPS settings. This package should provide all needed detail for a Dev team to understand exactly where and why the issue persists. Note: I am not optimistic about this issue being fixed in the near term.

Thank you for providing status update.

No improvement after 3.43 update

I have documented and provided screen shots or pictures of activity tracking and my attempts to edit.  

I have provided detailed information on the phone as well as the status of phone settings and phone OS.

I hope this helps you debug this issue however I suspect the inclusion \ use of Google AI technology in some manner is causing a conflict in the edit process. 

I see that Google started application of their AI Gensis tool on or around March 2024. In August Google started telling users 

Text of above screen capture follows

"August date above

We’re excited to introduce some new features with Fitbit Premium this Fall. Beginning in September look out for these exciting updates: ... 

Google AI uses your goals, previous running history, readiness score, and target cardio load to power personalized recommendations and on-wrist guidance."

I suspect that Google is using past data for cardio scoring and predictive training suggestions.  It could be challenging to build 'cardio scores' , "recovery targets" and "predictive suggested training" if the user's "historic recorded activity data" can change at the whim of the user. That would explain why I can delete a swim activity that took place at a specific date, time and duration then build a replacement swim activity tile in the exact same specific date, time and duration as the deleted activity.  That process ( delete existing activity and then build a new identical 'replacement' activity) allows me to create and save correct data for the incorrect non-editable data set that I deleted.  

Because of my assumed AI complication, I don't believe you will have success fixing this 'failure to edit' issue.  Unfortunately, I do not think you will have success getting the AI team to even acknowledge this issue. I hope I am mistaken. I hope this issue is addressed and either corrected or we are advised that the issue is not a high enough priority at this time to be worked on.  

Thank you very much for your effort to help me.  If possible, please let me know the outcome of your attempts to get to the bottom of this issue.

With appreciation,

Chuck 

Moderator Edit: Personal info removed.

[dirthawker]

Hey Chuck, I truly appreciate your efforts to get this problem resolved. The average tech support person (which I was, in another lifetime) would be glad to have more detail rather than less. 

I made a short video showing the magical transformation of an edit back to its original number. I recorded this video on 1/14/25; app version was (as mentioned in my previous post) 4.34.1. 

[ChuckSwim]

Thank you Dirthawker!

Your video is spot on !!!  Thank you !!

I hope you don't mind but I forwarded the URL to your short as an additional example for Dev team.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mv5ycdhBt8A

Now I humbly ask you to remind me to review my document closer before sending... I see that I incorrectly reference version 3.43 rather than the correct version number 4.34.1. In my follow up email I note my error and point out that the correct 4.34.1 is shown in the first screen shot that I had attached.

Thank you again, perhaps if we box in Google support and Google Dev with enough pinpoint examples of the problem ... they will have no alternative other than to actually fix it.

Moderator Edit: Personal info removed.

[dirthawker]

Hi Chuck, I was hoping you would find it useful in your support ticket! Glad to help. 

[Yellowrocket]

I did contact support and they had me upgrade to latest firmware and latest version of the app.  As mentioned, this is probably a backend problem they haven't address yet.  Since the front end actually does let you type or choose the exercise type or change the time but when you click save, it reverts back.  This broke in a release in Aug (stopped working for me 8/20/24).  It would be nice for fitbit to give us a timeline that they will fix it.  This also broke after the change to google and with the new fitbit app.  I can't remember how long it took to fix (I think around 3 months).  However this time its been longer much longer.

[dirthawker]

Thanks Chuck. I really appreciate all the time and effort you've put into trying to get this darn company to fix this problem, and I'm sure everyone else here does as well. It seems so crazy that I have next to no problems adding new activities, editing them, editing sleep time, etc and all of them save just fine, but this one thing (which is, programmatically speaking, the same type of action as the others: edit a record, save it) does not work. Again, thank you for trying for all of us. 

[sjrily]

@JSC1967 Not to divert this thread (not being able to save exercise edits lead me to seeing what happened when I manually add one on top of another to correct distance - it works without changing zones, load, etc., but shouldn't have to go there),  but yeah! Walk or Workout!  

You've probably noticed the app search list is morphing, and entering the first letter of a word no longer gives any search results (seems to require two+ letters).

Activities no longer listed in search results when trying to manually add 

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@JSC1967  Are "shoveling coal, sleeping, eating, sitting" still available via search for you? My choices were dramatically reduced a couple weeks ago, and the WAY to search became illogical (enter at least two letters) unless you know the EXACT activity Fitbit decided to leave as a choice. 

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Moderator edit - Merged messages