Update your Fitbit App by September 30, 2024

[AndreaFitbit]

In order to ensure an optimal experience, please take a moment to update your Fitbit app to the latest version by September 30th for those using Fitbit app versions 3.00 to 3.90 and 4.00 to 4.21. If you wait beyond that date to update, the Fitbit App could experience performance issues.

Visit the Google Play Store to update the Fitbit app.

To determine your app version:

For Fitbit App 3.00 - 3.90
Google Account: Today > Account Menu (Top Right Icon) > Help > Version
Fitbit Account: Today > Account Menu (Top Left Icon) > Help & Support > Version

For Fitbit App 4.00 - 4.22 (and higher)
Google Account: Today > Google Account Menu (Top Right Icon) > Help > App Version
Fitbit Account: Today > Settings (Top Right Gear) > Help > App Version

[Emma_T]

@Palexr Arrgh, so frustrated. The app automatically updated yesterday to version 4.26.1. I was hopeful.

Unfortunately, the app deleted about 3,000 to 4,000 steps from my Fitbit device today. I hit 10,000 steps at 9:45 am.😣 I noticed the change this evening at 7:23 pm. The miles have changed several times in the last few minutes from 3.62 to 5.19 to 3.62

I find this issue unacceptable.😤

[Fotomaker01]

All of the technical requirements say the latest versions of the Fitbit app require at least Android 10 to operate.

Don't worry. You will not be missing anything. The Fitbit Android app does not work correctly for anyone anymore. Even  those of us with Android 14.

[Emma_T]

@Fotomaker01 Android 14 user here, too. This app issue is so painful. I just picked up a new activity in August—biking—and I can't correctly record any of my rides. Do you know if there's a forum where FitBit users compare other fitness devices? I can't believe that Google, with all of its resources, cannot fix this problem. 

[AlanBFit]

If they want to fix it....

[Emma_T]

@AlanBFit I do not want to shop around.😭😭 I'll give them until the end of the month.

[speedf]

I suspect they want to fix it, but my money is on the Fitbit/Google engineering staff simply not having the "smarts" to be able to fix it.  Look at what Google has just done with the latest WearOS update - bricked their own devices!  If that isn't a sign of engineering incompetence then I don't know what is.

Fitbit have already proven their support staff to be as useful as a chocolate teapot based upon the conversations I have with them and their dumb comments and next to no updates on this forum around getting the Android app working.  How embarrassing for them must it be that the iOS version works better on an Apple device than their own operating system!

[Fotomaker01]

Me too! If the blankety blank Android app isn't fixed by end of Sept 2024 my Inspire 3 is going back in the box for good. Bad data. Badly collected & summarized data = worthless data.

It is a sad sad time for a close to 14 yr Fitbit user (formerly loyal customer).

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@Emma_T. Hi Emma, There are a variety of YouTube videos that compare a cross-section of fitness devices (& associated apps). I've started reviewing some of them. It's an easy search to find such vids on YouTube. They provide various analyses (pros/cons). I'm only giving Google Fitbit until the end of Sept to fix what they've broken (which we all know they won't/can't do...). Good luck! I hope you find a great alternative that works to support your fitness needs

[Skylane]

Since the final acquisition date of FitBit by Google, Jan. 14, 2021, nothing has been fixed.

I didn’t ask on this thread if everyone had moved their Fitbit Account to Google and that is the reason they are having issues.

I did not move my account just for the reason that Google plain and simply has no quality control, i.e. software testing. If they had any resemblance of a testing suite, these issues would have been found and corrected. Had this been going on in the company I worked for, I can guarantee that the CEO would have done housecleaning from the top down.

Right now, except for the issues I have noted, the Fitbit app for Android version 14 has been working with my Samsung. All the data has been uploaded to the server. The data has also been retrieved by my Health Insurance and other tracking apps for rewards. I will keep my Fitbit account active until Google fixes their issues.

[8wheelsgood]

Clearly Google has hired high school interns to practice on the software rather than actual software engineers.  These incompetents have no idea of how to test. 

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Rolling back code would suggest they know how to maintain code versions properly. Seems more like they are allowing flunkies to edit code directly on the server.

[wm1]

Not sure the problem is with the app per se, rather its with the data collection and processing back-end - where Google make their money of course.  It broke on August 26 and they have been struggling to fix it since. I wonder why they wont roll back both the app and the backend. 
I know they look at the App reviews on Google Play. The 1-star bar has almost overtaken the 5-Star bar! This should concern someone senior at Google Fit.

[Emma_T]

@Fotomaker01 Thank you for the suggestions. I've been watching other product videos for a few months. I've been holding onto my Charge 2 because it contains an altimeter. I enjoy outdoor activities, and that's an essential feature for me. I also like the Charge's slim profile. I tried the Versa 3 but returned it because it felt clunky on my wrist. Now that the app is erasing steps from the device and reporting no activity on high-activity days, I may not have a choice.

The app is also reporting incorrect info to third-party apps like Stridekick, which is sad. My deadline is also the end of September. However, devices normally go on sale closer to Black Friday.

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@Skylane You're fortunate. First, I have not converted my account from FB to Google.

Second, I also have a Samsung (Android 14). I am experiencing worse issues with Wednesday's (Sept 25) update: erased steps from the device, erratic changes in data in the app, no record of activity even though the heart rate section shows long-sustained exercise, and incorrect info sent to a third party app (Stridekick). I'm at the end of my tolerance for this glitch.

I called Fitbit customer support today to report the latest problems. The first agent told me that the app could not affect the steps on my device and hung up on me. I redialed. The second agent admitted that the app is causing device issues but could not provide a date for resolution.

[Fotomaker01]

Yes, all the wrong data the app now manufactures, for me, is being sent to MyFitnessPal (which I link Fitbit to) and it is totally screwing up my data there b/c my data from Fitbit is used to offset food and nutrients collected there.

I'm resigned to the fact Google won't fix this in the next few days. I will stop using my Fitbit on the last day of this month (Sept 2024) if they won't fix what they broke.

If they refuse to roll back to better rel. 3.81 because they're too embarrassed that they don't have the skill to fix what they broke in Aug., all they have to do is re-roll it out using a higher release number! That's why "god" invented corporate Marketing; to spin things like that. And, not have max exodus' of customers...

[8wheelsgood]

I have the Fitbit app version 3 on my android 9 phone. I have no problems
with it that are not google bugs. My charge 6 updates with it just fine,
and whatever is on my watch is transferred to the google database and app.
I wasn't using the food entry at all.

I loaded the Fitbit app onto another phone (much later version) I have
access to, and it of course is version 4.26. It mostly looks the same to
me. Same awful sleep graph. Same inability to change the name of an
exercise. In order for me to keep track of just exactly what "aerobic
exercise" I did, I have to keep track of myself. Manually.

One bug I noticed (or dropping of a feature?) is for an exercise using
gps. On my version 3 app I can touch the map, then the map goes into a
mode with + and - buttons to zoom in and out of the map. Those buttons do
not exist on the version 4 app. I can do nothing at all with the map.
Can't do the finger pinch zoom either, so they didn't replace the buttons
with that.

I haven't tried syncing with the later version phone as I am afraid things
will get messed up. I won't either, unless my phone version quits working.

So is google telling me I need to upgrade my phone?!!!! That is not
google's decision to make! I'll use my android 9 phone as long as I **ahem**
well please. If my phone app quits working I'll have to resort to syncing
with the other device that is only usable through wifi.

[Fotomaker01]

If you have a working vers. 3.x app, do not update it. The app will be ruined once you do so. 

[Coneykid30]

Readiness score finally updated, but it lasted for 1 day . Now when I tap on the icon in the app on my iPhone 13 Pro the app crashes!! So support escalated it , was told today it will be fixed in a week…

[dltabor]

Sorry that I can't help, but wanted to tell you I did lose all my 9 yrs of history when switching over to the Google fit app.  I'm very upset about it.

[Fotomaker01]

That's what I suspected. Loss of data with an acct change (I have 14 yrs history). Because it follows "muck"-ing things up wrt to how Google is delivering fitness devices, apps/data and health-related systems of tools. I'm sorry to hear you lost that data. I'd be livid!

[Palexr]

Have you looked at https://dashboard.exercise.quest/

If you link it will show a web based dashboard of your Fitbit activities. One thing it does also show is that the issue is the syncing from the servers to the app. All the data that is missing from the apps is there, so the data appears to be getting from the devices to the servers but not from there to the smartphone apps.

[Emma_T]

@Palexr Does this site collect and display the same data as apps like Stridekick? If so, I'm going to give it a try.

[OlegS]

I have installed the latest update a couple of days ago.  Didn't help.  I'm still not seeing anything except steps that keep disappearing every couple of minutes.  Activity minutes are displayed at zero, but on the activity minutes tab I see the graph that shows the minutes at the right times during the day.  Nothing gets propagated to third-party apps. 

And now suddenly I receive the weekly summary from Fitbit by e-mail, and everything looks ok - step counts, distance, active minutes.  If everything is there, why don't my third-party apps get the data?!  It does not sound like an app problem, it is something on the backend.