Blaze Firmware Update - 17.8.200.3 [Closed]

[AndrewFitbit]

Update 5/6/16:

Hey all,

I've been keeping a close eye on this thread, and I wanted to give a quick update.

For reports of Blaze steps and/or distance being inaccurate, I think this is definitely something worth looking into. I've passed on all the feedback to our team so they can investigate. As a friendly reminder, remember that accuracy depends on many factors.

Here's a couple things being worked on:

• Excess Calendar Notifications
• 'Auto' brightness setting is too dim or adjusts slowly

For 'Auto' setting being too dim, you can switch to 'Normal' as a workaround in the meantime. Please note switching to 'Normal' will have a slight impact on battery life.

I'll provide updates when I can. Thanks everyone. 🙂

Update 4/27/16:

The firmware update should now be available to everyone. Update your Blaze and let me know how it goes! You can read the release notes for version 17.8.200.3 in the lead post or check them out on our help site. 🙂

Update 4/23/16:

Sorry for the wait, here's the release notes!

"The Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages are now available on Blaze. Note that Blaze is only available for pre-order from fitbit.com in China, Japan, and Korea.

This release also resolves a couple issues:

• Some customers were unable to resume a paused FitStar workout.
• Some customers reported problems with the Blaze screen (display)."

You can find these release notes for this update (17.8.200.3) on our help site.

4/21/16:

Hey everybody,

Some of you may have noticed there's a new firmware update for Blaze! We just started pushing this update out yesterday, and just like any other update, we'll be rolling it out in waves. This update focuses on a few bug fixes. Release notes will be posted here soon.

Thanks!

[jb262004]

I really hope an update comes out soon on the heart rate sensor.  

My heart rate sensor is definately off anywhere from 5 - 20 beats maybe more.

[picasso66]

@jb262004 just in case you haven't tried this but this worked for me. I moved my tracker during workouts up the wrist to the recommended 3 finger from wrist bone and it made a huge difference in accuracy.

Patricia
Sent from my iPhone

[bmiller1969]

I have also found that to be true witht the battery.

[Robofit]

I am having the same issues regarding undercounting both mileage and steps - roughly 30-40%.  This has happened consistently for both me and a friend.   I'm still hoping that a fix will be made as promised, but my friend is close to returning his.  The only time it does seem accurate is when it's connected to the GPS for my phone but that's not a great commentary.  It should work all the time.  When is the next Firmware update???

[trevorms]

The steps that my Blaze calculates on a walk compare extremely well to the steps my Google Fit app calculates on my phone.  The difference I get is that Fitbit overestimate the distance I have walked and therefore is probably using the wrong stride length in its calculation.  This only happens when using connected GPS, otherwise the Blaze/Fitbit uses my "calibrated" stride length which yeilds the correct walk distance.  The Google Fit app. and Google Maps estimate the same (and I assume the correct) distance I have walked.

I believe from other posts that the Fitbit engineers are working on these Blaze issues...so I guess we'll need to wait, but hopfully this won't be too long.

[KingofKings7]

I have been cycling lately and I just mapped out my morning rides and so far here are the differences:

06/18: FitBit Tracker: 11.51 mi., plotaroute.com: 12.85 mi., ridewithgps.com:12.93 mi.

06/21: FitBit Tracker: 12.58 mi., plotaroute.com: 13.11 mi., ridewithgps.com: 13.2 mi.

06/22: FitBit Tracker: 13.05 mi., plotaroute.com:14.73 mi., ridewithgps.com: 14.8 mi.

I'm going to download another app and runn it at the same the next few times to see how it reacts real time. There is clearly something not right with the tracking. I've been wearing this Blaze since Feb. and never knew about any errors as I didn't question it really. This make me wonder, how many miles have I not known I've traveled, steps taken etc. VERY DISAPPOINTING. My brother in law has the Garmin, I told him the Blaze was better, now I have to go eat my words....

[Fred_Mendes]

Why are you all concerned with step tracking??? Is it that important a good pedometer??

Arent other things much more important?

Wouldnt it be much more important to solve ALL the conection and sync issues? Improving heart rate accuracy? Who cares about steps when a pedometer costs less than 10 dollars??

That said...

Cant sync mine for 3 days and after the update battery only lasts 3 days on dim and no gps usage....

Also never could really use my gps as it wont find the phone -Thats a real issue if you want to track activity...

Also while doing squats i achieved 10,000K steps. LOOOOL The movement pattern is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo off......... (Would not notice but it vibrated and showed the animation)

Rode my motorcycle yeserday and it started "smart tracking for Bike", really???

Also you could really review calories expenditure. I am a firm tracker on calories and macros intake. I am consistently eating 3K calories and allways spneding more than that according to the tracker - it makes no damage to me as i am used to track calories and adjust diet accordingly (so i just dont count calories burned by the travker), but to be reliable for someone it needs a lot of improvment. I would gain a looot of body fat if i adjusted my diet accordingly to the tracker caloric expense.. (MUCH MORE SERIOUS THAN STEP COUNTER ISNT IT?)

Come on FitBit. Its way too serious.

Right now my watch is just a piece of jewelry as i think its pretty - Its completely USELESS as a tracker!!!

 Runing on Android KitKat

[jdigs56]

It just seems as if the Blaze is not as accurate as it needs to be and
needs to be corrected and quickly.

[jdigs56]

Sorry you are having connection problems! Yes they are important.

This is a tool just like a voltage meter or flow meter. We all purchased it
to help us get get and stay fit. It isn't working as advertised and needs
to be corrected.Once you get passed all your current problems you will
wants these items fixed as well.

[fionafc1999]

After update, it now changes to Chinese display, how can I change it to English display? Please help

[Rich_Laue]

That is interesting,  on the app, what lamas odd ypir dashboard in?

I went to help.fitbit.com, searched for language and came up with this doc.

Check your settings on the fitbit phone app amd make sure location is set to automatic.. 

[TickledPinkTeri]

Wow I'm glad it just not me. I thought I should have more steps than I have for all I do. My husband and I have the blaze and for our walks he has thousands more steps than I. For all I do my steps seem very low. I know I was doing a lot of walking and stepping yesterday and my steps were not getting counted.😐Hopefully this will be corrected soon. What can we do? I went through all the steps you posted.thanks

[ReyL]

Hey man, I am using an iPhone
Would you please update to support the traditional Chinese? I have lots of songs in traditional Chinese 😞 now is like a whole lot of boxes with a question mark

And can notification support more things such as whatsapp notification(my old pebble could do it)

[2001Spur]

This is minor but it would be nice to be able to just tap on my watch whenever I have water rather than needing to find and remember to do it on my phone as it is not always near me at work.

[badneck]

hey maybe you can help me.... when i go for a ride i use the excer button and it seems to work fine, but when i get home and look on my dash board there are like two or three differerent workouts for the same thing i just did..... when i delete one my calorie count goes up.... do you know what this is at all?

[fuzzylife]

---

@2001Spur wrote:
This is minor but it would be nice to be able to just tap on my watch whenever I have water rather than needing to find and remember to do it on my phone as it is not always near me at work.

---

This is exactly what I was going to post. Would be a really handy feature.

[fuzzylife]

Another feature would be the ability to label silent alarms, I would find this really useful to set reminders.

[Corvettekid]

When can we expect a firmware update to fix the Steps/Distance problem and some of the other egregious glitches reported here ?
 
Are we talking weeks....months....never ???

Moderator edit: format

[Robofit]

As long as we are asking for new features, how about an easier way to tell your battery strength?  It would be nice if you could see a small meter on the clock face but anything on the blaze itself instead of having to check my phone would be great.

[Fands]

when you go to the "Today" screen with the fitbit logo--the battery icon is on the top left, plainly visable--but very teeny.