My Fitbit "Charge" will not update from my android app. Dongle question too

[Soccercoach]

Hi i have a Fitbit Charge, it's about 3 years old(?) Firmware Version 8.80

I lost the dongle. My Fitbit app on my android phone does not update the tracker software (large pink button/bar at the top) when i click it and tell it to. It tells me it may take 5-10 minutes and to keep my device nearby the phone. This never updates because when i restart the Fitbit app (after waiting about 15 minutes) it tells me to update my device software still. I can't sync it up either (probably because I need to update the software). I have no clue why the phone app will not update my software when i click it, and wait 15 minutes. Why won't my android phone app update my Charge's software so i can sync up? When i click Update Tracker Software, it shows me the screen "A few things to know before updating your Fitbit Charge 2". When i click Next Step it searches for my Charge for a second, then returns to the screen where the large pink button is that i just clicked. What the heck.Then nothing happens, the app keeps trying to sync, and the All-Day Sync slider is to the right.

When i open the android app, my app does tell me i have a Fitbit Charge... so it's detecting something - right? The Charge is a full battery... i have tried to sync and update software while the Charge was unplugged, and I will try to do it again while it's plugged into the computer. Yes I have tried the troubleshooting steps of cycling both devices etc...

The other thing i did after i couldn't find my dongle is that i bought a generic dongle off of ebay. Can i upload Fitbit's driver into the generic dongle i have? My computer recognized the dongle, but your website does not because i get to the point where i want to update the software via the Fitbit website, and it gets to a popup that says to put in the dongle. So it's not recognizing the generic dongle.

Help!

[Soccercoach]

Hi i have a Fitbit Charge, it's about 3 years old(?) Firmware Version 8.80

I lost the dongle. My Fitbit app on my android phone does not update the tracker software (large pink button/bar at the top) when i click it and tell it to. It tells me it may take 5-10 minutes and to keep my device nearby the phone. This never updates because when i restart the Fitbit app (after waiting about 15 minutes) it tells me to update my device software still. I can't sync it up either (probably because I need to update the software). I have no clue why the phone app will not update my software when i click it, and wait 15 minutes. Why won't my android phone app update my Charge's software so i can sync up? When i click Update Tracker Software, it shows me the screen "A few things to know before updating your Fitbit Charge 2". When i click Next Step it searches for my Charge for a second, then returns to the screen where the large pink button is that i just clicked. What the heck.Then nothing happens, the app keeps trying to sync, and the All-Day Sync slider is to the right.

When i open the android app, my app does tell me i have a Fitbit Charge... so it's detecting something - right? The Charge is a full battery... i have tried to sync and update software while the Charge was unplugged, and I will try to do it again while it's plugged into the computer. Yes I have tried the troubleshooting steps of cycling both devices etc...

The other thing i did after i couldn't find my dongle is that i bought a generic dongle off of ebay. Can i upload Fitbit's driver into the generic dongle i have? My computer recognized the dongle, but your website does not because i get to the point where i want to update the software via the Fitbit website, and it gets to a popup that says to put in the dongle. So it's not recognizing the generic dongle.

Help!

[RobertoME]

Hello @Soccercoach good to see you around the Fitbit Community. I was reading your post and I see you are having a hard time updating your Fitbit tracker. Indeed, if your Charge is running the version 8.80 the is require to update to the version 8.110.

Make sure you are running the latest version of the Fitbit app. The latest for Android is 4.460

You can review which version of the app you have by doing the following:

1. From the Fitbit app dashboard, tap or click the Account icon.
2. Tap or click Help. You'll see the app version at the top of the screen.

Even if you have an outdated app version, you will be able to sync although in some cases it might present difficulties or stability issues. 

In addition try the following suggestions to address this issue:

1. Turn your tracker off and on again using the instructions in the following post. (The steps for restart is for the Charge HR but the process is the same for the Charge tracker)
2. Try the firmware update again. If it doesn't work, reboot your mobile device and try the update again.
3. Try the firmware update again. If it doesn't work, on a different mobile device or computer (if available) log into your Fitbit account and try updating your firmware.

Although as you mentioned, if you are going to try the update from your computer, it will be require to have a Fitbit dongle. In this case a 3rd party dongles or non official product, it wont work since is require to use the original Fitbit dongle to sync with your computer.

If you have a windows 10 computer with native Bluetooth feature you can download the Fitbit app from the Windows store and update your tracker without the need of a dongle. On the contrary it will be require to acquire a new dongle from our Fitbit Store.

Hope this information helps. Keep me posted how it goes.

[Soccercoach]

When i go into "account" on my fitbit app, i do not see anywhere that says Help it is simply within the same drop down menu. I see that my version of the fitbit app is 2.15.1 and it says 2017 Fitbit inc. I just downloaded this app from the google play store like a month ago though. Should be the most current right?

[USAF-Larry]

@Soccercoach, the current Android app is version 2.48, so your version 2.15 is quite old. If this just installed from the Google Play Store, I suspect your phone has an older Android OS which will not support the newer versions of the Fitbit app.