Fitbit and Pixel XL 2 compatibility

[J_A_251]

Hi.

I installed the final release (not Beta) of Android 9 Pie on my Pixel 2 XL on Monday (8/6/18 - it's release day).

Ever since then, I have not been able to get my phone's pairing to "stick" with my Flex. I'm been using my Flex for over 2 years and never had this kind of problem before so I believe it is related to the update to Android 9 Pie.

Essentially, when I try to pair my Flex to my phone, the "Flex" entry in terms of which bluetooth devices my phone sees seems to silently fail and move from the "spinning" icon (showing it's trying to pair) back to the list of seen devices. Multiple attempts don't work. I tried removing my Flex from my phone's Fitbot app and adding it back. That seemed to prompt me once for asking if I wanted to add the Flex as a device and it may have synced once. But trying to update it later fails again.

So far, the only predictable way I've been able to sync my Flex since this update is to plug the Flex into the charger and then plug the charger into my laptop. Then, my phone will sync. But as soon as I unplug the Flex and put it back on my wrist, it won't sync.

Hoping this is a simple problem that can be fixed in an update soon but wondering if others making the upgrade to Android 9 Pie are seeing similar behavior.

Thanks for any help/fix.

Moderator edit: Updated title for clarity

[SunsetRunner]

I can't get mine to pair or sync since my update to Android 9.0 yesterday either. It's not just you. Hopefully Fitbit will release a fix for the app soon.

[SunsetRunner]

And when I contacted them, they were of no help:

Fatima: Could you please let me know the model of mobile device you have?

Me: Pixel 2 XL

Fatima: I'd like to share with you that the syncing issue happens because the Pixel 2 XL is not a supported device yet in our compatible list.

Fatima: When the device is not compatible with the Fitbit app sometimes the features will work. Nonetheless, we cannot guarantee that all the feature will work or it does not present any issue in the future as it has not been fully tested.

Me: but it worked just fine before I updated to Android 9.0

Me: as you can tell by the sync data you referenced earlier

Fatima: It can work for a certain period of time, however, due to compatibility issues this behavior is suppose to happen.

[DramaQueenDiva]

I went ahead and checked the Supported Devices list and didn't see it either.  I did see Google Pixel XL on the list, so hopefully XL2 will be supported soon.

[Rho1029]

Same problem here completely dismissed the fact that it was working before.  No idea if they will fix it either 

[DannoVB]

Same. Not the first time that an Android system update has broken bluetooth pairing and synching for the Flex. Fitbit, let's get some devs on this please!

[MissRyoko]

I'm also experiencing a syncing issue, but my phone is still at 7.1 I know I updated the app very recently so I thought maybe it was in the update. 

Mine keeps telling me it's synced but no new data is showing. 

I tried doing all the basics - restarting, uninstalling and reinstalling the app... still not uploading the data when it syncs

[rhawks]

Oh no I just did the update today and now mine won't sync either!  I don't have a computer to plug the doggle into. I have the Pixel 2

[J_A_251]

Just wanted to provide an update since a number of you have been seeing the same problem. (And I'd suggest that we all "up vote" this post to try to get some additional attention from the Fitbit dev team to try to speed up the process of getting it fixed.)

Anyway... I have been able to get my Flex to sync with my laptop using the little dongle thing that came with the Flex. So at least I haven't completely lost the ability to track my steps. (This will be important soon since we have a work wellness challenge coming up that only accepts synced Fitbit data.) So, I'd try that.

Not completely sure but I also think I've been able to get it to sync on my laptop a few times without the dongle by plugging the Flex charger into the laptop and trying to sync from my phone. But that may have been dumb luck or something else going on.

Also, for any Fitbit support people who maybe are looking at possible fixes, I want to report that I am not able to get the Flex to stay seen as a paired Bluetooth device on my phone at all. (And a friend at work with a Charge 2 who is also using a Pixel XL 2 updated to Android 9 Pie hasn't had any problems at all but he sees his Charge 2 as a paired device on his phone.) For me, when I try to pair my phone with the Flex, the Flex shows up in the list of devices my phone can see, then when I tap it, it starts the process of trying to pair for a few seconds, and then seems to get cancelled out of that and the Flex re-appears on the list of devices that the phone sees but not as paired. So, it looks like the attempts to pair the phone with the Flex are consistently failing.

I also believe that, when my phone downloaded/installed the latest update to the Fitbit app on my phone, it may have synced once but not a 2nd time. But it could have been that I was closer to my laptop than I thought and that could be have been "luck" that my Flex synced with my laptop right as I was trying to sync it from my phone.

Anyway.... hope this info is helpful and that some Fitbit dev/support person can pass it along to the developers so they can get this fixed!

[FerdinandFitbit]

Hi everyone! Good to see you in the Fitbit Community Forums! 🙂

I'm sorry to hear that you guys are having problems with your trackers not syncing to your phones. Specifically in this situation, the Pixel XL 2.

When it comes to devices compatibility, keep in mind that the two devices that are for sure not compatible at the moment are the Huawei P9 Lite and the Huawei P8 Lite.

For all other devices, if they're not on the list of compatible devices, you might be able to sync with them but we don't guarantee that the functionality will be optimum as we are still testing on these phone models and due to the large number of Android and Windows devices, our team has not yet tested all of them.

As an advise, I'd recommend making sure that you have the latest Fitbit app version but we don't have any control on how Android updates will work with Fitbit and therefore can not guarantee the full functionality.

If you have any other question, let me know. I'm moving this thread to the Android app board for categorization purposes.

[SunsetRunner]

Thanks for replying!

All the recent app updates (at least three since installing Android Pie, I think), haven't yet made it so I can sync, so keep working on it! 🙂

[J_A_251]

Though I can relate a bit to your "not on the officially approved device list" comment a little... for the next month at least the Google Pixel 2 XL is one of the flagship phones for Android and it's an embarrassment that the Google Pixel 2 and Google Pixel 2 XL aren't on the "approved device list" and very disappointing that anyone in FItbit support would stoop so low as to use that as an excuse.

Moderator edit: Format

[FerdinandFitbit]

Hi there @J_A_251 @SunsetRunner, good to see you around and I totally understand your frustration with this.

However, we still don't have any news on when or if these phones will be compatible for syncing with Fitbit but as soon as we get any news, I'll be sure to share it with you.

In the meantime, the best thing to do is to keep an eye on the list of compatible devices for any immediate update.

[Cruzosaurus]

I am having the exact same issue on the Pixel XL which IS on the compatible device list...

[Dood1971]

Pixel (original) stopped syncing after Pie; this doesn't seems to be just a "non-supported" hardware issue.

[lcthompson1979]

Hi. I am having exactly the same issue. Fitbit Flex worked perfectly on previous Windows 10 (!) phone and current Pixel 1st gen until recent update to Android P. Only thing I can do to sync is use my tablet. Not great but only real workaround. Sort this Fitbit!

[Dood1971]

Even after 2.77, my Zip won't sync with my Pixel. The only time it will is if I remove and replace the Zip battery, then it will do it once and not again until I do that again.

[J_A_251]

Yes, I too had hopes that yesterday's update would make a difference. But it didn't. Still having to sync my Flex via the dongle on my laptop. My Google Pixel XL 2 still refuses to pair with the Flex. So, I think it's become very clear that this isn't an issue with the Fitbit Android app but really an issue with the Fitbit Flex and the Android 9 Pie Bluetooth pairing. Probably needs some kind of firmware fix on the Flex itself.

[Dood1971]

Will this affect the Charge 3? I was wanting to order it; however, if it is going to have these issues out of the box, it seems like the C3 would be almost useless.

[Crazy-Fritter]

It's a Fitbit app issue, right now there are tons of apps that won't work with Pie, every time a new version of Android comes out it takes a while for the app developers to catch up.

That's why I haven't updated to Pie yet, it's still too new 😉