Turn on location to find your fitbit?

[Dobbs33]

With the new update sync keeps asking to turn on location to find my fitbit - why?

Fitbit HR's work with Bluetooth and therefore do not need to know my location in order to sync and this has always been the case in the past.

Is Fitbit now tracking my location everytime I sync?  I've not given Fitbit permission to use location information so why does the app need it to sync???

Please advise.

[rebdre]

Mine will still only sync if location is turned on. It's SUPER annoying. 

[rebdre]

I'd really appreciate this update!  I'm annoyed about having to turn on bluetooth and location and have wifi or data running just to sync my tracker.  I've had a tracker since they first came out and now syncing is a laborious task. Sucks!

[Indre777]

Same here. Why they need our GPS data? Now I sync only once or twice a day and use GPS for the short time only. 

[Drurf]

It is really annoying to open GPS before synchronization and then one forgets to close it resulting in unnecessary battery drain. Also seems that location information is being used by fitbit otherwise not a big issue to solve.

[Tokes]

Just had my new charge set up after being sent a replacement for a faulty one...WHY ON EARTH DOES IT NOW NEED LOCATION TO BE ON AT ALL TIMES??? Not good...this will also the affect the battery on my phone! Having it on should be optional.

[SteveH]

@Tokes it seems that it needs to be on when you want to sync because of a change Google made with the introduction of Android 6. One of the moderators explains in this thread:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Android-App/Syncing-on-Android-6-0-Marshmallow-official-release/m-p/...

I know there are conflicting views on this but there is a school of thought that says having location services on by itself won't cause battery drain, it's only if apps make use of it.

[troj]

Just to be clear, on any device when services like this are utilized the services will drain the battery. On your Android device, you can see this by going into Settings > Battery and looking at the "Use" listing. Any services that are turned on, will show here.

Now, services turned on may be small users of battery, but the fact remains... if you turn on location services, bluetooth, wireless networking, or any other service, it will impact your battery life.

Most concerning for smartphone users is that both Google and Apple will track the location of your device (and you) on their servers. The only way for Android users to avoid this is to turn off location services on the device directly.

Why do you want location services turned off?... For the most obvious privacy reasons. I do not want Google to know that I walked into a tobacco shop and start marketing tobacco products to me. Maybe I only went in to buy a gift for a friend?!?   Big Brother is not the government in todays world... it's the marketing department trying to sell you something.

If location services are not needed, then don't require them.  Fitbit... it's just that simple!

[Tokes]

Gotta agree with you...only time i need location services is when i am running or using my gps or checking in on social media. It is rather annoying when one needs to sync, having to activate location services, Blue Tooth...etc.

[Tokes]

Hi SteveH, thanks for your feedback...location services definitely uses battery power as it performs a search if you have apps like weather or anything that needs to determine where you are,, active at any point. Only reason i can think why Google would want this to be active, as another user troj mentioned, is so marketers can tailor there ad recomendations to the user...not cool though; hopefully fitbit can sort this??

[kalimm]

On iOS devices you can go into your privacy settings and turn off location services for specific apps and system settings such as the compass, cell network search, etc. Does Android not have anything like this? I keep most of mine turned off even though my overall location services is turned on - except for certain apps which only use location when I'm using the app. Would this would be a decent alternative until the new Google change is sorted out?

[Indre777]

I noticed I can sync app without turning on GPS by going deeper in the app - like checking my whole day pulse or how many hours I slept or how my steps counted throu the day. I still have red !, but can get data synced. It's Android 6.0 problem, not app itself. 

Hope it helps to others. 

P.S. This is fitbit team answer when I filled the ticket:

Validating the information on our system, we noticed your Fitbit Surge is syncing via the Fitbit app for Android. Please note that if you recently upgraded to OS 6.0 (Marshmallow) you must have location services turned on to sync your tracker. With this latest update, Google changed the permissions for Bluetooth syncing, requiring the use of location services. For more information about the latest Google permission requirements, see Google’s Android 6.0 Changes document here: https://developer.android.com/about/versions/marshmallow/android-6.0-changes.html#behavior-hardware-...

We are hard at work trying to find a work around for this new change from Google, however, as stated, this is not related to our company, but Google and the Android update.

[troj]

kalimm... yes on more recent Android devices we can block service access to specific applicaitons. However, doing this will disable the fitbit's ability to sync.

Thank you for asking.

[troj]

Indre777,

Thanks for sharing that. We have discussed the requirement of using "Fine location" management versus the "Coarse location" management within the app. This is an option available to the developers. Hopefully we will see a resolution soon.

Thanks.

[kalimm]

I would think you should still be able to sync if you leave location services turned on for the Fitbit app only.

[Iceman29]

Guys this is ridiculous! Why do you need to even find excuses on why it's important to use the GPS locator? I want the watch to do its job without the location detector: 

1st, Privacy!!!!

2nd, Phone battery!

3rd, POINTLESS.

4th, PRIVACY, again!

[SteveH]

It's not a case of making excuses, it's just having to follow the rules that Google impose. 

We'd all like location to be off. We just can't.

[rebdre]

I'm pretty sure there's an engineer somewhere that can figure it out.  The fact you need internet connection and location is SURELY NOT a requirement of Google's that cannot be gotten around.  VERY disappointed and will continue to barely sync my fitbit now making it far less useful than it used to be. I'll no longer be recommending it to friends and family either. 

[AXEL314]

Android users are able to deny permissions for any apps. The problem with synchronizing fitbit to the fitbit app is that it requires location services enabled - which is idiotic. With location disabled, not only are you not able to sync your fitbit device, you are not able to receive text or call notification. Coming from a Gear 2 neo, this is unacceptable.

[MissRo]

I agree, I don't like to have my location on constantly, unless ive selected to have an activity tracked. It just seems like an unnecessary update. It's very annoying, a waste of battery, and feels somewhat invasive

[Rich_Laue]

This is a limitation of Android 6, fitbit uses the trackers MAC axdress to identify the acvount tge tracker belongs to. Android disables tye MAC address reporting unless location is turned on.
It is true that nany other devices wull sync without licarion on because they dont rely on the MAC address.
So to sum up this location needing to be turned on is caused by changes in the Android market OS not Fitbit.