Aria Air won't sync if Fitbit app is open

[JF1988]

There seems to be an issue with the app. I have just had to get in the habit of force stopping the app every morning before getting on the scales. Kinda a hassle but that's the only thing I have to reset. Watch sync works perfectly. Hope Fitbit can get the app straightened out to work better with the scales.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject and updated label

[Robery]

1. Because your scale won't sync if the Fitbit app is open, does the same happen if it's in the background? It will not sync if Fitbit app is running in background. 
2. Do you see an error message on your Aria Air scale, or on the Fitbit app? There are no error messages in the App or on the scale. 
3. Have you tried the troubleshooting tips described in this help article? Yes. It will work if I force close the App and restart it. 
4. Is your Aria Air nearby your phone when trying to sync? Yes. I have the phone in my hand. 
5. What is the model and OS version of your phone? Samsung Note 9, Android Version 10, Kernel Version 4.9.186-21635681

[LostHilltop123]

It is interesting that one of the 'troubleshooting tips" says to make sure no other Fitbit devices are nearby.  Well of course one is, the Versa 3 on my wrist, which I never take off except in the shower.  Phone is a "Moto G Fast" with OS Android 10.   Forcing the app to quit and then setting up the Aria Air again does work, even with the Versa3 still on my wrist, so I really doubt that is a factor.  And none of the 'troubleshooting tips" reveals anything about what the cause is or does anything to fix it, other than suggesting the App or the Aria is buggy.  Workarounds are not a fix.  I don't lose sync with the Versa3.

At least it still works as a dumb scale and I can manually enter the readings into my phone.  (To an app that is NOT from Fitbit.)

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi there, @Robery and @LostHilltop123.

Thanks for getting back with the requested information, and your efforts while troubleshooting your Aria Air. I see where you're coming from about this situation, I'm sorry for this experience and please know your feedback hasn't gone unnoticed. I understand you've tried different steps on your own and because you have Android devices, please give one last try to the following steps in the given order:

1. Forget your Aria Air from the Bluetooth settings.
2. Turn off other Bluetooth connections nearby, or take them to another room.
3. On your phone's settings, tap Apps > Fitbit > Storage > Clear Cache.
4. Go back one screen, tap Force Stop and uninstall the Fitbit app.
5. Reboot your phone and reinstall the Fitbit app.
6. Try setting up your Aria Air as a new device one more time and let me know how it goes.

Hope this helps.

[LostHilltop123]

Ok I did all that, and it indeed was then able to display the weight reading on the App.  But I have been through all this before, minus the cache clearing and reinstall.  The big question is, will it work again tomorrow?  btw, the Aria was never listed under Paired Devices in phone settings.  I don't think BT LE devices do that.

[LostHilltop123]

Sure enough, next morning the app is open, I step on the scale, it displays my weight, but nothing happens on the phone.

It is as though this device was never tested in the real world, just once in a lab.

[RaRaRichard]

I too just feel stupid that I didn't do enough research. I found archived forums, people have been having this issue for years. I bought the scale having had great experience with all of my other Fitbit trackers. I had to restart the scale twice, restart my phone.... Having to do all this every morning defeats the ENTIRE purpose of having a scale that will log your weight for you. Someday I really hope that Fitbit will figure out how to make this tool work the way it should without so many people having these issues. In the mean time I returned my scale.

[Jonnie_Palmer]

This is exactly my experience. I'm using Google Pixel with Android 12. Only a force-stop of the app allows a sync to happen.

Fitbit know this but aren't commenting it would seem. Rather they would have you go round in circles trying just about anything else to solve the problem. I just wish they came out and said, yes we know this to be true! Hang tight and we'll fix it. Instead, silence. 

[Robery]

I have tried this suggestion. Last night, the app did attempt to sync with my scale, on the second day after doing the suggested tasks. So a little progress. However, the weight that was logged in my app was the same weight as logged the previous day. It was not logging the weight that the scale was currently displaying. I tried multiple times and it continued to log the same weight as the previous day. I had to manually enter the correct weight.

Get Outlook for Android

[Jonnie_Palmer]

Hmm that's no good. My experience is that the force-stop method clears all problems. Sync is fine and accurate. It will sync any number of times until the app is dismissed to the background. After which it will be unresponsive until the next force-stop of the app. 

I have had a few emails back and forth with support but my last email has gone unanswered.... here it is...

------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi thanks again for your reply.

All of below actioned as you suggested. 

I can confirm that none of these measures make any difference. 

The only measure which seems to result in a sync is  to force stop the fitbit app before taking a measurement on the scale. 

Is this in line with what you have previously been reported from users?

This is far from ideal. 

Can you suggest any other solutions that do not involve a force stop?

Thank you again for your continued help. 

[LostHilltop123]

I don't mind entering the weight manually if I could find where to do that!  If it does sync with the scale, I get a nice display of the weight history, but I can't find any way to see that again, or to enter a new weight, on the app.  I don't want to deal with the web site every day.

[Jonnie_Palmer]

On my app in the Today pane, three from the bottom there is a yellow 'scale' icon with a plus button. If I hit the plus i can enter a manual entry. 

(it's above 'log some water')

[LostHilltop123]

I had to go into Edit mode, scroll down to find that and enable it.

Now, can somebode describe the "Force stop" procedure?  I don't want to have to login again every day.

[JJsQuest]

Two day old Aria Air purchased on fitbit's amazon storefront. Exactly as the others, It synced fine to my already open fitbit app the very first time I weighed myself just after pairing, and then never synced again. Of all the suggestions I've read from moderators and community members in the many posts on this subject, force quitting the app prior to using the scale is the only working solution for me.

Here is my use case and hardware/software details in case it's helpful to fitbit for isolating the issue:
Pixel 4 XL running OTA Android 12 Build SQ1A.220105.002 (stock, zero mods or bootloader tweaks or sideloaded apps) 
Fitbit App version 3.53 Synced with Fitbit Sense(fw version 44.128.6.12) and Aria Air(brand new). Fitbit sense has google assistant enabled, spo2 enabled, and call answering enabled. The only fitbit item in my paired bluetooth devices list is "Sense Controls".

I hope this helps. I'll be honest that I'm really struggling to understand how this has been allowed to persist for so long considering it breaks the primary use case of your scales. I can't imagine the number of returns you're getting when users buy this scale, it doesn't work, and then they don't have the time or know to look up solutions online. Good luck to your dev and SI&T teams on this one. The Android team is probably pointing fingers at the Aria team, who's pointing fingers at their SI&T team, who's pointing fingers back at the Android team ... round and round. Am I close? 😉

[LostHilltop123]

I think I discovered something:

1. Make sure you have the weight tracking panel enabled on the Today screen.  Click EDIT then scroll way down to find it, tap it, then click DONE.
2. To weigh yourself, tap that "weight lost" panel to open the weight history screen.
3. Now step on the scale.  Wait for the numbers to stabililze.
4. Now step off the scale.  The "Log weight" screen will open by itself with the latest reading from the scale displayed
5. Tap the "Save" button at upper right.

So it is not that the scale does not work, it is that the instructions are wrong.  The procedure I described here works for me, and the last time I forced the app to 're-discover" the scale was last week.

There is a way to prevent this going forward: you have the procedure tested by somebody who had no involvement in development of the product and has never even seen it or anything similar before.  They will have no knowledge of what the right way to use the product is.  If the instructions are unclear, this will reveal the problems.  This technique is well known in the software industry but apparently escaped the Fitbit people.

[aepace]

Hi, giving my two cents on this issue. 

I've owned an Aria Air for over a year now, and it 99.5% of the time never syncs without first force-closing the fitbit app and reopening it first. A bit of a pain in the **ahem**, but it's not the worst. I've gone through the 1:1 fitbit support and i've gone through their suggestions about not having your tracker near the phone/scale when you're trying to sync; I've gone so far as to (as a test) place the tracker in a downstairs basement pantry while i weigh myself in the upstairs bedroom and that 100% does not work. Charge 2 and Sense, same behavior. 

Strangely enough, what i don't understand, is that there's a firmware update up in the google play store for the aria air: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fitbit.fwup For some reason though, fitbit support and the forum moderators NEVER bring that up, and continue to ask questions about what particular phone or OS a user is running, when it's exactly the same uniform behavior across every device. What's the common thread? The scale. And I say this is "strange" because usually the very first thing a dev asks when you have an issue is, "are you updated to the latest firmware?", but as far as I can tell fitbit support doesn't know that the firmware update even exists. 🙃

On a whim I decided to try and install the firmware update (this was over a year ago), but after I did that and then trying some resetting steps that fitbit support suggested, my scale became unusable to the point where it got RMA'd. I've been reluctant to try this again.

One more data point: as far as I can tell, the bluetooth icon on the scale itself illuminates when it's connected to the fitbit app. For example, I step on the scale with the app open in the morning (without the force close), and the scale measures the weight and the icon appears. But nothing on the phone. Okay, then I go to settings--> apps--> fitbit to force close and the icon disappears. It reappears when i relaunch the app, and then it syncs. So that makes me think that the scale at least can talk to the app, but for some reason the app isn't prompted to sync. Each time the app updates I get hopeful that maybe they'll address this issue, but no dice. 

And since the moderator asked, this is with an Aria air syncing to a Pixel 2, then a Pixel 4a. Android 10, 11, now 12. 

It's pretty obvious that Fitbit support just does not care about this product or long-term support for it. Which, given the recent acquisition, is pretty on-brand for a Google product tbh. Go back through the support forums, this has been an issue for years. And the response is always the same: asking what phone/OS people are using. How close are their trackers. Mark my words: this problem will never be fixed, and the Aria Air is abandonware.

[cgrebert]

We have a Wyze scale that syncs with Fitbit.

[Robery]

 I replaced my Samsung Galaxy Note 9 with a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra earlier this week. My  scale has synced with the new phone for the past 3 days without having to force stop the fitbit app with the new phone.I don't know if this useful information to anyone trying to correct this problem, but there must be a reason behind the phone upgrade correcting the issue.

[Buttetsu]

I have found a viable workaround for this issue, at least for Android users, but unfortunately it is not easy to setup. I was extremely frustrated with my new Aria scale the same way everyone in here in at least two separate threads have reported; it worked great the first time out of the box, and then it stops updating recorded weights after that.

As others have noted, force killing the app and restarting it fixes the problem, but only for a single weigh-in. This lead me to try and find an automated way to force kill the app, as it seemed like the only way of mitigating this bug. After much research and experimentation, I finally found a setup that works.

The short answer is:

1. Install the 'Tasker' app from the Play Store for $3.49 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm
2. Install the 'Tasker Permissions Helper' on your PC to enable full app-killing ability for Tasker (only required if you don't have root on your phone) https://github.com/joaomgcd/Tasker-Permissions/releases/tag/v0.2.0
3. Create a 'Kill App' Task in Tasker that terminates the Fitbit app
4. Create a 'Profile' in Tasker that triggers the Kill App task on the 'Display Unlocked' event

Now what happens is that locking and unlocking my phone automatically terminates the Fitbit app; this way, whenever I go to open the Fitbit app and take my weight on the Aria scale, it is ready to go.

This is definitely a hack, and going through the Tasker Permissions Helper and setting up Tasker was not straightforward for a novice. That being said, if anyone is interested in additional details on any of these steps let me know and I'll do a more detailed write-up on any stage needed.

Fitbit Team, this is a really bad blocking bug for what is otherwise a great product -- please let us know how we can help you debug and resolve this! As it stands I can't recommend the scale to my friends and family because I know it will only cause frustration and confusion.

Thanks to this thread for the idea to use the 'kill app' function in Tasker https://www.reddit.com/r/tasker/comments/gq3yt5/automatically_force_close_an_app_on_app_close/ 

[Greengiants]

I can't believe all the issues with a simple task like logging weight using a scale.  This is a piece of junk.  I'm so disappointed in Fitbit.  I've spent more time simply trying to get my weight from the Aria 2 to show up on the dahsboard.  It's like you need a degree in engineering to get it to work. Complete waste of time and money.  

[MrGlenn]

Very weird the only mention of the Aria Air Firmware update app is by someone who pretty much warns against using it...

And support never seems to even be aware of its existence > @LizzyFitbit ?

Ever since I updated my Aria Air (it was on version A08 and is now on A16!) I can consistently follow the steps to get the weight display to pop up on my Fitbit app and save it. Without having to restart the app each time.

I follow pretty much the steps outlined a few comments above, they are much more clear than the Fitbit instructions.