Persistent notification: "Fitbit lost access"

[AlessFitbit]

Hi everyone - Thanks for your reports on this persistent notification in the Android app "Fitbit lost access to status bar notifications." 

This has been escalated to the Android team. If a fix is included in the next version 2.69, I'll make sure to announce that here.

If you haven't yet, please try a restart on your Android device. This should help and prevent the notification from showing up again. Thanks for your help and cooperation!

[LeahRob]

Then, as I said, they need to give us the option to opt out. 

[JaceLightning]

If you swipe down, you'll see that it tells you to reboot your phone. Restart your phone to make the notification go away. You only see this message if you have at least one notification (i.e. Call, SMS, app) enabled.

[LeahRob]

In a previous comment I said that I disabled notifications in the app itself and rebooted my phone. The thing still came back. I ended up having my phone block all notifications from this app. Which is unfortunate because I want some of the notifications, like low battery and some of the stuff from my challenges.

There needs to be a box in settings that we can go uncheck...just like all day sync etc

[FogPanda]

There's another blanket way to get rid of notifications completely, from Fitbit, and this is what solved it for me. That said, my phone's old.

System settings > Sound and notification > App notifications > Fitbit > Allowed notifications - turn them off

That'll block all notifications from Fitbit and is ungraceful if you actually want some of them, but it gets the job done.

Another place to check, but just toggling these won't prevent their forced one:

System settings > Applications > Application manager > Fitbit > Permissions

A third place to check:

System settings > Sound and notification > Notification access

Anyway, only the first option actually got rid of the intrusive notification, but yeah, it does make useful notifications absent.

[Goosse1962]

With Android 8.1.0 I can slide the notification left, click the gear, and toggle off the notification display. Older phones that won't run Oreo don't appear to have this option, such as my backup phone, a Nexus 5.

Hope this helps at least a few people and have a Terrific day!

[Stormclouds]

I do not want to give it those permissions. I do not want it to have access to that much information. 

Have people learnt nothing from the latest Facebook scandal? I want the ability to choose what permissions I gave it based on my peace of mind and what my device can do. I also don't want to lose the useful battery and steps notifications.

Please don't tell me to do things I've already said I do not want to do. That just upsets me because my fears and concerns have been blithely dismissed. 

[JaceLightning]

FYI this only happens for notifications that are forwarded from Android to your Fitbit device. It doesn't affect Fitbit notifications (from Fitbit to your phone).

You should be able to fix this by rebooting your phone. If you don't want notifications on your tracker, go to Account → Device → Notifications and click on the menu on the top right and select "Disable Notifications"

NOTE: you may have to enable notifications to get to this screen and reboot your phone after disabling notifications to get the popup to go away.

[vixx24]

I don't use my fitbit for any notifications other then entering my data from the device, I do not recieve messages, phone calls etc. So I did go to Notifications settings on my Samsung Galaxy S7and there are slider buttons to turn off/on for each app. I have done this with other apps as well. So i just simple turned it off for Fitbit. you will still get updates but if you aren't using it for other messages no big deal and no annoying notification

[vixx24]

If you go to notifications settings and turn it off just for the FItbit app, you would still get notified from your other apps. (Idk wtf is wrong with that idiot guy) Besides if you aren't using to get calls or texts, the only "notification" I ever get is yay you reached your goal. You would still be notified about updates b/c thats through play store, i turn off half my phones apps notifications they all still work. I turned it off for fitbit and my annoying message has been gone.

[Specky]

Sure that would stop the annoying message but I don't want to grant FitBit this permission. There is no need for the app to have these permissions.

[LeahRob]

Except that you can't do that on all phones. I did exactly that. Restarted my phone, and it was still there

[Specky]

Do you mean, if we enable notification forwarding then disable it again, the annoying message will go away?

[Specky]

@JaceLightning when you do that, the message does disappear, but as soon as you revoke the permission in the Android security settings, it just comes back.

[SunsetRunner]

and for the people that just want their Fitbit to count steps and NOT read their contacts and private communications, what should we do? 

I've already disabled all notifications from Fitbit, which obviously will remove the annoyance, but i guess I'd just like to know if the devs plan on fixing this BUG. as it's not a "feature" to require your user to do something that they absolutelyabsolu want to do and have absolutely no use for, it's called choice and the last update took it away needlessly.

[JaceLightning]

@Specky You should be able to enable the permission, hit that button to disable notifications, disable that permission in settings, reboot the phone, and it will disappear.

[JaceLightning]

@SunsetRunnerIt should only appear if you have tracker notifications enabled, but haven't given the notification permission, or have and the service isn't running for some reason. If you've disabled notification access, the app won't ask you to enable it.

[Specky]

On my phone, the notifications are disabled in the app, and the app is
complaining that it doesn't have system-level permission to do something
that I'm not asking it to do.

Moderator edit: removed personal information

[Specky]

Ah OK - reboot. I missed that bit. I rebooted and so far the message has
not re-appeared.

How awful that 25 million FitBit users are being put through this
aggravation! Someone in their app team needs a serious word in his/her ear.
--
Darren 

moderator edit: Personal information

[Goosse1962]

@Specky,

My guess is that it isn't all 25M. I know many people that will just accept and move on. Others will look at it and want it. And I wonder how many had settings or phone situations where it didn't show up for them.

From what I see, this is an Android level security issue that came up due to one of:

1) new Fitbit app feature needing it

2) a Fitbit app fix for some users (that then needed this)

3) a change to Fitbit app architecture for a future feature (that then this was needed)

Whatever the reason, it looks to me like Fitbit should have had something in the release notes about it.

I ran across another new 'request' in the app that I don't see on the forums and so far only one response, a request for a screen shot.

So far, I am set for the status bar issue. I didn't give permissions and it no longer shows on the phone I use. If I switch to my older backup phone, then I am likely to have an issue.

Have a Terrific day!

[SteveDawg]

The Original Poster specifically said they don't want to give such access to the Fitbit App. I'm having the same problem.