Huawei Sync issues - the truth

[c3kkos]

Once more,

i see FitBit forum operators hiding behind their  "device compatibility list"

The story so far:

I've got 2 phones with me.

An old Samsung S3, capable of syncing via bluetooth with my Charge 2

A shiny, brand new Mate 10 Lite from Huawei, who PAIRS with EVERY device BUT my FitBit Charge 2.

Before, I had a Honor 7 (still from Huawei) and i did had severe sync issues. 

I had Honor when i bought myself the Fitbit device. I clearly remember i was UNABLE to download the firmware for the first usage. Luckily, i had an old samsung tablet. It served me well to push that firmware inside the Charge 2 and start using it.

With Honor 7, the sync wasn't perfect. The app synced 1/3 of the times and of course there were no other features working (like sms, incoming calls, notifications... )

Now the Huwaei Mate 10 Lite. No bluetooth pairing. This phone does not see the device. It simply do not get listed in, therefore no pair, no sync. no nothing, John Snow.

Of course the Mate 10 Lite DO SEE other devices, so i'm pretty sure the bluetooth is working. In every device i have.

Huwaei has a HUGE market slice in mobile appliances, they sell cell phone to the masses, and still, there are severe sync issues with those phones and our fitbit (a Charge 2 in my case)

Seriously, this is SICK for me, but even more for you. You are unable to sell a working device to at least 20% ppl having a so-called """""""""non-supported device""""""" (with a standard bluetooth stack behind!!)

I gave you my trust and therefore my money, i buyed myself a Charge 2. Now I deserve some tech explanations.

I want to know if there are any hopes or not. Is that simple?

Can this community know the state of works/investigations about this issue?

Thanks.

Dave.

[Gemgenie]

Brilliant thanks will try that when the phone arrives.

After a somewhat depressing Friday evening Saturday was spent in town at phone shops reviewing my options. Long and short of it is in order to get a phone that synched to the fitbit charge 2 I would have had to go well over the 500 pound limit I had set. Basically it makes no sense to spend more on a phone I don't really want to just get the fitbit working so decided to order the honor 10 that I wanted and I will have old Samsung s7 sat at home and sync stuff when I get home using that. Means no real time data but better than none at all. 

Does however mean that unless this stupid situation is sorted by the time I upgrade my tracker I will be probably looking at other Android watches that do work rather than a new fitbit. 

[Dipesh]

I have the same issue with my Huawei P20 lite and Fitbit ionic. There needs to be better tech support with this. 

[LanuzaFitbit]

Hello everyone.

As it has been mentioned before, as long as the phone fulfills the minimum requirements, Android 4.4 and Bluetooth 4.0, there is a possibility that it can work but we cannot guarantee it. Some users of unsupported devices have mentioned that following these steps helps with the syncing. 

The fact that it is not part of the supported devices list means that the app has not been fully optimized to work with that phone and those optimization issues could lead to the syncing issues or pairing issues that you have experienced.

Feel free to reach out with any other questions.

[c3kkos]

I can't believe that this carousel still goin' on always repeating the same "mantra"

UNSUPPORTED DEVICE

with a bluetooth universal communication protocol. equal for all. 

Not here. Here we have a device built to support 5 phones.

GG again Fitbit. 

I think this is the time to keep it silent and let this thing drift away as much as possible.

This reply it's just another piece of "SHAME ON YOU"

You are an unsupported moderator

[Moonglum]

Hi, I have an Honor 10 and am able to get good sync. As others have said try the following:

Settings > Battery > App Launch 

Set fitbit app to manage automatically (click on the toggle)..

You'll get a warning once in a while saying that the fitbit app is using a lot of power in the background, but it doesn't really.

Good luck!

Moon.

[hmrambling]

---

@LanuzaFitbit wrote:

Hello everyone.

As it has been mentioned before, as long as the phone fulfills the minimum requirements, Android 4.4 and Bluetooth 4.0, there is a possibility that it can work but we cannot guarantee it. Some users of unsupported devices have mentioned that following these steps helps with the syncing. 

The fact that it is not part of the supported devices list means that the app has not been fully optimized to work with that phone and those optimization issues could lead to the syncing issues or pairing issues that you have experienced.

Feel free to reach out with any other questions.

---

Yes, I have a question. When will the Honor 6x be supported in the compatible list? Honor 6x users have been waiting for quite a while after spending good money to buy Fitbit devices.

[LanuzaFitbit]

Hello @hmrambling and @Moonglum.

@Moonglum Thanks for taking the time to share those steps and for letting us know that it is working correctly for you. Hopefully other users find it useful. 

@hmrambling At this time we do not have any ETA or timeframe we could share of when will that phone be added to the slit. We do have a suggestion about adding it to the list. Maybe you could comment on it or vote for it to show that you'd like to see it implemented. If you do, be sure to read the FAQ to better understand how it works.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

[KingC]

I just bought a Huawei Se and have sync issues.  I just downloaded the EMUI 5.1 (system update).  And the fitbit has been syncing fine, phone calls, text, and all

[LanuzaFitbit]

Welcome to the Forums @KingC.

Thanks for sharing that with everyone!  Hopefully it will continue to work correctly with no hiccups or interruptions. 

If you have the time, be sure to visit one of our Discussion boards. Lots of different topics to talk about with other users.

Let me know if there is anything else that I can help you with.

[joymerry]

I have the same problem. 

[RickyBZE]

Completely agree with you. Fitbit need to up there game. Personally I have given up on Fitbit am buying a Huawei Ban 3 Pro Fitness Tracker. Why is is so difficult to sort out sync. Am still no wiser on that the problem is. All we get is it is not on compatible device list. Will you are no longer on my compatible buy list.

[Victoriastone]

It worked!!!!!

It begs the question why couldn't fit bit tell us this 

Thank you soooo much

[calamityclamuk]

I Have an Honor Play, i've tried, Garmin Vivoactive 3, samsung gear 3, gear fit 2, ticwatch e, huawei watch 2 and all sync perfectly, with notifications as well. Now I wanted to get a Fitbit as i have other friends that I would like to compete etc...So i went out and bought a new Fitbit Versa, really nice watch, liked the look of the fit labs stuff, quite excited to give it a go. 

So the initial setup went through fine, and I thought all was working fine, until I realised i was getting no notifications, then everything went down hill, as i just was unable to sync at all, i couldn't connect to the phones GPS for a run, then I researched the internet for help.

I tried everything from, resetting both phone and watch, optimising the battery life on the phone as per instructions in this thread and elsewhere, turning on bluetooth internet sharing, downgrading to an older version of the fitbit app, even downloading the app Sync fix for fitbit, but nothing worked.

Sadly I have returned my fitbit and am not sure what fitness watch to go to now, I don't want to buy a Samsung or Apple phone so I guess Fitbit is not for me, I would say Fitbit need to address this issue seriously as Huawei phones are selling faster then ever nowadays, their battery life and stability is far greater than Samsung and even Apple.

[Schof]

Hi Victoria,

Was it the power management changes that fixed it. I am getting occaioonal feedback on the fix I proposed. Mine has been working since I made the change.

Cheers

[calamityclamuk]

I tried that power management change, sorry to say it didn't work for me, my Honor Play has the 970 Kirin Chipset and running android 8.1 same specs as the Huawei P20

[Dipesh]

Unfortunately the power management fix did not work for me.  I still have intermittent sync only and no notifications coming through to the Fitbit device.

[Benjymann]

Firstly, huge thanks to czandor for creating this app. It has solved months of frustration for me. My Ionic now syncs seamlessly with my Honor 10 with full functionality. I tried the 10 day trial period first and then paid just under £5 to unlock the full version. 

I'm not happy that Fitbit have forced me into a position where I have to pay for and use a 3rd party app but that is not the fault of czandor and I am happy to contribute to him for his work. 

In an ideal world Fitbit would compensate me for the £5 but as we all know this world is far from perfect. 

Fitbit should hang their heads in shame. Not only has a 3rd party developed an app to sort the issue but Fitbit have shown little or no interest in getting the issue sorted. It is beyond comprehension that they still haven't made a fix or (as far as I know) reached out to czandor to work with him to implement the fix free of charge for all Huawei / Honor users. 

I was going to replace my Fitbit until John Lewis refused to refund me as they didn't consider the watch to be broken. In researching Garmin I discovered that they'd had the same issue. The difference is that their engineers reached out to Huawei and together they worked out a fix. Why Fitbit haven't succesfully done the same is a mystery and frankly doesn't fill a customer with confidence. 

Fitbit must do better. Their reputation is rock bottom. I'll never recommend Fitbit to my friends and I'm sure that goes for thousands of other customers too. 

However, if you're stuck with a Fitbit that doesn't work with your Huawei / Honor phone then I highly recommend czandor's app. 

[HansonToh]

Hi @Moonglum - thanks for your suggestion...but I've been using these settings for the last 1 year and unfortunately, it still hasn't made a difference for my Fitbit Charge 2. Still doesn't synch and even when I manually do a synch, it's very intermittent and I need to do it several times to get JUST ONE complete synch cycle.

Fitbit, you've developed a good tracker watch....but the reality is, you guys just aren't addressing the REAL problems, at least for this subsegment of users. Do your Product Managers even read/digest what's in the forum here?? Moving onto a Garmin Vivo 3.

[Nonsync]

I'm a retired, so very incompetent.  I have a Huawei Mate 9, & asked for a Fitbit Charge 3 for my birthday.  My sons set it up & it sync'ed fine with my Mate 9 until 3 days ago.  Now it won't do so at all, gives either a red ! or says something like "need to connect to the internet" .

I can't return the $150+ Fitbit as it was a gift, but it's useless to me now.

I have set the app to sync manually, although even when it was set to do so automatically, I had to touch the image if if  Fitbit to launch sync'ing (which took a long time)

[LanuzaFitbit]

Hello everyone!

Thank you very much for sharing your experiences on the matter and for trying the steps that have been suggested through this thread.

As I have mentioned before,  this is happening because some of the phones that are being brought pup are not part of the supported devices list. This means that the app has not been fully optimized to work with those phones.

If none of the above works, you could try to use a computer or another mobile device to try and sync your Fitbit to your account. Click here to get instructions on how to sync with other devices.

Let me know if you have any further questions.