Update woes; All the things which have been broken {"Sleep" Module Specific}

[SybillaSurreal]

*Edit 2022-08-4 [ONCE MORE, WITH FEELING]: Added to {LOSS OF ROLLING RANGE DATA PERIOD} regarding change in 3-month chart.

Added sections {MORE MISSING GRAPH DATA}, and {INCONSISTENT AVERAGING CALCULATIONS}

Minor formatting cleanup on earlier sections. Including spell-check, because I apparently missed a few things.

 *Edit 2022-07-31 [NEW WEEK, NEW DATA!]: Added sections below {CHART TYPE/DATE NAVIGATION}, {SLEEP SCHEDULE ONLY ON WEEK VIEW}, and {MISSING SLEEP SCORE}. Also edited subject line to indicate sleep module - that's what I use most in the app.

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Sooo many issues with the 'New Look Of Android Charts'.

I pretty much hate all but one aspect of the new app "look". I find it nice that avg hours slept gets it's own designated section rather than being bundled with another metric (hours in sleep stages, I believe it was).

Other than that, I strongly dislike bunch of things about the changes: {I'm looking at sleep data specifically here, but have seen the same problems with different sections.}

WHITE BACKGROUND

I liked the aesthetic of the dark theme. If there is a way to switch back, I cannot find it in the unnecessarily convoluted settings menus. 

LOSS OF ROLLING RANGE DATA PERIOD

The entire point of a fitness tracker is to track your progress. If you can't compare across the most recent data of any span, it's not useful.

Week is hard-set to sun-mon. Month is the current calendar month. Year is the current calendar year.

Three month is interesting.Rather than being locked into calendar designations (and showing in quarters jan-mar, apr-jun, etc), the 3-month period starts with the current month. So my first screen is May-July. I am guessing that will roll when we click over into August...But maybe not.

2022-08-04: Confirmed: On August 1st, the 3-mo reporting period switched from May-July to Jun-Aug. If you squint and turn your head, it makes this the one place with a ‘rolling’ graph time-frame… Even though the change in reporting period is totally outside the user’s control and is rather useless besides in terms of meaningful data.

LOADING DELAY

I notice any time I click back from one graph to an earlier one, the app has to think for a moment. Measuring it, I got anywhere of 5 - 15 seconds watching the loading animation. Viewing a graph which I already loaded is a reasonable amount of time... Until I exit the module back to the main menu. Then I have to go back through the loading delay on each graph.

YEAR NOT DISPLAYED ON GRAPHS

Have you looked back past 2022? Only the week/month/three-month period is in the chart title. This requires keeping track of how far you've clicked back if you're trying to view older data. Not great when you've got years of use.

UNABLE TO EXAMINE SPECIFIC COLUMN DATA

Used to be, I could get more details by tapping on the bar and I would get a pop-up with that info. Now, I suppose I could do the same by noting which time period I wanted to examine, then going back to that period in the next chart layer up. Well. That wouldn't work anyway, would it? So I could extract my data and play with it in excel I suppose, but that's hardly a sustainable solution.

Regardless, there is nothing resembling interactivity with the charts.

In summary, this is a rather horrible update which makes the app much less useful.

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2022-07-31:

NEW WEEK, NEW DATA!
It feels like a never-ending font of unpleasant surprises to open the FitBit app these days...
Can't wait until tomorrow to see how the new charts handle the month change.

CHART TYPE/DATE NAVIGATION

I didn't notice before, but navigating the charts in the Sleep module is weird.

We've got Report Type and Time Period selectors. Now, what I would expect is for each one to "stick"; so starting on [Week]+[Hours Slept], if I switch to [Sleep Score] it would stay at the [Week] time period. But if I instead I went from [Week]+[Hours Slept] and clicked [Month], I would expect it to change view to [Month]+[Hours Slept].

That is the intuitive behavior...Right?

Instead, what I'm seeing is that the Report Type is primary, with Time Period being dependent. Each Report Type remembers which Time Period you last viewed - so switching between Report Types may (or may not) change your Time Period, depending on what you viewed last.

SLEEP SCHEDULE ONLY ON WEEK VIEW
For this one, I have to say I don't know how it was previously, but now that I see it, it doesn't make sense. All the data is there - is there a technical reason that start/stop times for [Sleep Schedule] can't be averaged and displayed as aggregate data?

Even if not, the other Report Types show day-by-day bars on the Month view. Why not [Sleep Schedule]?

missing time-period selectors; only week data available

MISSING SLEEP SCORE

Today (2022/07/31), according to the daily details provided in the sleep module, I got a sleep score of 83.
Looking at the charts, that sleep score is missing. This is not the only absence in July. I haven't looked back farther.

I check the app daily, so I am confident if the graphs had previously been missing data like this that I would have noticed before now.
Sleep score in daily details; not shown on graphs

Tomorrow is a new month! Can't wait to see what there will be to discover.

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2022-08-04:

Once More, With Feeling
I considered not updating this post again, but apparently people still find it relevant, and I am still finding "features" I'm not fond of, so here I go.

MORE MISSING GRAPH DATA

At risk of duplicate repeating the issue listed above in {MISSING SLEEP SCORE}, there are more areas where the same data is visible in one place but not another.

The example here is from the Time In Sleep Stages metric.

On the 3-month view from Dec - Feb, there is only one column visible. (I'm guessing that column represents a week, but since it's not actually labeled, who knows?) On the 1-month view, the full data from January is displayed.

A different element of missing data is the charming tendency for graph data to be shy. It really wants to be seen, but is nervous. You need to look away, and when it thinks you aren’t paying attention it will creep out and be there when you are looking again.

In vaguely more professional terms, since the update, I’ve noticed several instances of the graphs reporting no information available. After switching view and coming back, the data is loaded. The effect is intermittent, sometimes repeating multiple times for the same data when closing and reopening the app, and sometimes not happening at all. Below are just two examples I captured today

INCONSISTENT AVERAGING RANGES

On each graph, the chart title lists the graph time-frame, with the calculated average value for the displayed information. The unit of measure is not listed, however, when the subject is hours of sleep, many people will already have the frame of reference regarding expected ranges.

In the Sleep module, each of the graphs related to time periods reports a number which seems to make sense as average for one night sleep.

Except the 3-month view of time in sleep stages. Mine reports nearly 40 hours. I presume this is weekly average, but have not done the calculations myself to confirm.

A secondary consideration regarding time in sleep stages, the old graphs layout gave average times in each sleep stage. Now, the Time In Sleep Stages simply duplicates summary information which is reported on the Hours Slept graph.

Another (tertiary?) problem with the average numbers listed is the matter of Sleep Score. As far as I know, this value calculation is unique to FitBit. I understand higher is better, but I have no idea how I might independently confirm the numbers reported (or if there would be any value in doing so).

Aside from that, with the units of measure not provided for the displayed average, I have no idea if the average given in those sets of graphs is daily across all four time period graphs. Give the other inconsistencies, I can't trust that without calculating the averages myself and comparing.

Maybe next time I'll check the math. Today I've given this enough of my time and am off to other things. 

[note: I received an automatic update when trying to post. I am not combing through this to figure out if anything is broken. If something seems missing, please comment and I will fix.This is frustrating because I only used the forum RTF editor and did not attempt direct use of HTML here.

Your post has been changed because invalid HTML was found in the message body. The invalid HTML has been removed. Please review the message and submit the message when you are satisfied.]

[meburkeRoboguy]

Agreed! I am moving to Garmin next month. The one feature I have desired for over 5 years is an alert that signals when drop below or exceed my specified heart rate zone. Garmin has this, and the crappy redesigned android interface has finally pushed me over the edge.

[DavidPa]

I'm with you on these. the only 'plus' is that the zero calories-in issue appears corrected.

[meburkeRoboguy]

Oh, yeah... I wish there were better stats for those of us on low-carb plans. Instead of the bar chart for calories, I  would like to have the ability to set carb levels and compare my performance.

[LiamMac]

If the ability to set carb intake levels were to be 'a thing', Firtbit would have to do something which I do believe has been requested at least once - which is to provide net carbs..... the carb totals are currently inclusive of dietary fibre, which they shouldn't be.(and yes, we all know that technically fibre is in the carb family but it is non-digestible to our species, therefore of no nutritional benefit/impact to us) . so there is always an overstatement of carbs which have been consumed that are actually bioavailable

[BCaliga]

Agreed.

Another annoying forced update that only the developers thought was useful and which doesn't allow you to rollback to a desired version.

Also, unable to find how to change weight range displayed. Now it is always just a fixed 50 lb range.

[Ftumch]

Without any change, my first Fitbit will be my last, including any Google product that incorporates it and uses the Fitbit app. The watch itself is fine. 

[helzayat]

While the iOS version of the Fitbit app is not affected by the change in the EVO graphs, it does share a problem with the Android version after this update to 3.64.

Both are now reporting a very low "Readiness" score. This turns out to be because the app thinks I didn't get enough sleep:

Android

iOS

The app shows I've been getting around 10 hours of sleep a night but insists I'm not sleeping enough.

The problem exists on both Android and Apple apps.

0 Votes

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[ZerZer]

Agreed on all aspects. Thank you for taking the time to write this all up. I literally can't stand the force 'light' mode the most... because of it, I have stopped using my fitbit to do pretty much anything other than count steps. Sad. This is my third fitbit and will be my last, which is super glued together after the band broke twice, a known issue with Charge 4 and 6 which hasn't been fixed... but also Android fitbit app STILL doesn't show step streaks. Thanks for the downgrade, literally. (Meanwhile my husband's Apple phone still has the old and better layout, as well, it shows step streaks.

My wasted time even writing this,  as other issues never get fixed... never again. 

[charleskn]

This is a fabulous post, and I will add the following. The way the sleep scores work with the new charts, when I hit a new week, I have to change the display week to the previous week to see the last night's sleep score.

Now, I do not live and die by my sleep score, or my oxygen variation graph (as some people seem, as upset as they get), but I feel like Fitbit is missing the bigger picture by not addressing long held problems/complaints, and then making half-@$$ed updates like this. 

The one thing I like, which they over brought from the iOS app, is the ability to move my finger along the graph and have the display show the data for each point as I move my finger. I haven't tried it on the sleep charts, which are the most problematic of the graphs (trying to get the right point on the graph with my fat fingers).

[SueChem]

I agree that I'm pretty PO'ed with the changes, and have already downloaded the Garmin App to check it out on my PC and phone.  I don't know what device you have, but the Sense can be set to vibrate during exercise for different heart zones.  Mine goes off for each of the 3 zones when I'm tracking exercises.  Maybe this will help until you buy a new device!

[pyro530]

I think the people at Fitbit owe you some money for your QA work.

[SybillaSurreal]

You know, I've found the app and website interfaces to be counter-intuitive since the first time I used them.

It's been a low-level irritation the whole time (years!), but my usage of my FitBit is very low stakes. I don't leverage all the features my basic model has, let alone lust after features I don't.

Now, however, I've started considering my option. This heart rate zone reporting you speak of sounds pretty cool. I wouldn't mind that feature being added to the Fitbit, since it would seem any watch with the ability to measure heart rate should have the hardware required. That just makes it a matter of software to add the functionality.

[SybillaSurreal]

I haven't done nutrition tracking in a very long while, but when I did, I used MyFitnessPal pretty much exclusively.

Now - with the disclaimer that I haven't personally tried this, and the post I found about it is from 2016 - it looks like MyFitnessPal and FitBit do have the ability to link up. If it's still possible, maybe that will help?

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Third-Party-Integrations/How-do-I-integrate-Fitbit-with-MyFitnessPal...

[SybillaSurreal]

FITBIT, PELASE LET ME ROLL BACK TO A PREVIOUS DISPLAY, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!!

Ah hem.

When you are speaking of "weight range displayed" do you mean the horizontal increment marks on the charts? If so, my best guess is that they're scaled by the data reported. I've had some significant(?) weight changes in the last year. Between the 3-mo view and the year view, the values on the vertical axis change in increments. 

[SybillaSurreal]

I do not have these features (I'm rocking an Inspire HR - I've got the most basic functionality, and that's it).

However, from the position of knowing nothing about it, I totally want to express an opinion!

Well, ok. Questions, actually.

Have you seen the same results via the web portal? I would presume the same data would show everywhere - that it's a server-level issue not correctly processing the data received, which would push the incorrect results out everywhere. Does that sound right to you based on what you've experienced?

For results, I recently found this setting changing the 'sleep sensitivity'. If I toggle that on and off, it recalculates my previously recorded sleep data. If I'm set on the more sensitive side, it thinks I've gotten more sleep than on normal setting. 

I vaguely wish I had access to an apple device so I could cross-compare how the apps function. That would be fun.

I wonder if you'll keep your dark-mode interface, or if it's just a matter of time before they push the new interface look to iOS.

[SybillaSurreal]

Manually switching to the previous week is the issue losing of losing the rolling data periods. With the previous display, 'today' was at the far right, and all other reporting fell off the left side of the display as time progressed, with the ability to scroll back to earlier days.

I really loath this thing like you've described of having the fixed display week where you have to tap backwards.

Also, !!!!!!!!!!!! OMG I DIDN'T KNOW THAT YOU COULD STILL GET DATA FROM THE BARS ON THE GRAPHS!!!!

Thank you so much for mentioning that. I tried when the change first happened, but yeah, the hitbox for the pop-up is itsy bitsy. Since I got no result tapping on it, I presumed they'd removed the feature. That was something I used a lot before the change, and was upset about it not working again.

Of course, it takes a bunch of tries to get that pop-up, but at least it's there.

[SybillaSurreal]

Do you use the Garmin app with the FitBit watch or is it a different device?

I have been hearing about this heart rate zone alert, and it sounds kinda cool.

I have the Inspire HR. Totally basic, and I've never really felt the lack of any of the functions of the more advanced models. It's several years old, but I have only given passing thought to switching since I really don't need all that much out of my smart watch.

[SybillaSurreal]

ROFL.

Wouldn't that be the day. 😉

Thank you.

[marissadevascon]

Can't even sync my Galaxy after rebooting Fitbit.  Can't change time or restore my history from 2019.  This is unacceptable.  Maybe I should rethink brands?? Any advice would be appreciated.