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!

[ErickFitbit]

@Fands Restarting the Blaze will not mess with your settings as it is only a soft restart of the hardware; doesn't affect software on phone or Dashboard settings. Restarting resets the hardware just like I restart my phone from time to time when it starts to feel like it's slowing down. Looking forward to the results.

[meresydotes]

@ErickFitbitI'm not going to do all that for a full workout - I'm not wasting the effort and having it not counted!

I have restarted my blaze and walked a bit on the treadmill, then checked steps and counted the next 100 and noted that the blaze counted about 70. So I've done that test, and the blaze failed.

I have the hand setting correct on non-dominant. I didn't like missing out on all those steps, though I think a lot of it was that you get some "bonus" steps when you do things like wash your hands that make up for the few steps you miss that I call "puttering" steps - like walking three steps across the kitchen to open the fridge and 3 steps back across the kitchen to scoop the ice cream. Having the hand setting incorrect skipped the bonus steps AND the puttering steps.

It's not so bad keeping my hand on my body (chest for running and no one can see me, so), it would just be better not to have to.

As far as disabling the autoworkouts, it was counting all my workouts as Elliptical and somehow counting all my daily steps as elliptical. So, nowadays, I generally get 15000+ steps/ day. With the autoworkouts on, I was barely making 10000 some days.

After I disabled Elliptical, it stopped auto detecting workouts, so I disabled them all.

[DKHough]

I just got my Fitbit Blaze yesterday and it took 1 hour and 45 minutes for the firmware upgrade and to sync between phone (LG G4) and the Fitbit. Is this usual because the message says up to 10 minutes. It has the new firmware version 17.8.200.3.

[AVM]

For me it took 15 mins...1hr 45 mins is highly unusual.

[hsdewitt]

Umm.....I just got my new Blaze yesterday and the firmware update has been going on since then-about 11 hours now.  One of these days I'd like to actually wear it and use it!

[goldenweekend]

Ok it's been like three months since the last blaze update. Can we get an update please?!

[Rich_Laue]

@hsdewitt does your Blaze show a status bar! 

Of you haven't done so yet, force close your app and try again. It should take less than 10 if everything is working. 

[hsdewitt]

@Rich_Laue the blaze does not show a status bar.  The screen is just showing the logo with fitbit.com/setup at the bottom.  I have stopped the firmware update and started it over-now it says my Blaze's battery is too low to do the update.  I've been charging it all day but is doesn't seem to be charging at all.

[Rich_Laue]

This means that the Blaze needs to be connected to your Fitbit accoint. Then it most likely will need an update.
http://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1873/

[hsdewitt]

@Rich_Laue No there was no status bar.  I did restart the update and I see one now.

[Int3rceptor]

In relation to the GPS accuracy, my blaze generally records 1km as 0.8km - thats on a natural run with turns, bends in the track etc.  On straight runs the accuracy is a little better.

If you then look at the mapping of the run, you it looks like the blaze is using a rather brutal point to point measurement, often cutting corners, whereas other apps follow the curve of the run.

Over the course of 10km the corner cutting adds up to a rather large discrepency.

Im my opinion, either the blaze is not recording enough GPS points or the smoothing algorithm is too harsh.

[Jeanvaljean2]

It's hard to imagine that with all the community input for all the various feature requests, Fitbit has yet to implement any of those. Patience is virtue but in a world where near final products are sold prematurely, the expectation is that you'd at least get half decent updates every so often. This is highly disappointing. Meanwhile, the apple watch had gone through multiple updates.

[Rich_Laue]

I'm wondering if and when an update will come, but have noticed that Fitbit seems to do a lot of testing before they release. Sometimes it still doesn't go smoothly, as in the last update, and that might be why the perceived delay. 

I'm not sure how many updates the AW has had, recently an Apple salesman told me that while he does sell them the are not ready for distribution, and can not reccomend buying. I did not ask. 

[DKHough]

Makes one wonder if this is worth keeping. My elliptical 'mileage' and the Blaze is worlds apart. 2.5 miles vs. 1.06. Going up & down the basement stairs - I have to do twice each in order to get 1 floor. I have the 'newest' firmware but not 100% sold on this.

[picasso66]

@DKHough I see a significant difference in mileage on the elliptical. I've tested out the steps when using the movable arms vs. letting my arm hang and the steps are spot on. The mileage is WAY off. For every mile I do on the elliptical, it registers a .4 on the Blaze.

Patricia
Sent from my iPhone

[DKHough]

I always use the arms on the elliptical. Glad to know someone else has a huge discrepancy in mileage. I basically wanted steps & heart rate - but didn't like the Charge HR.

[pierrotsc]

Just got my blaze 4 days ago and used the elliptical today. Although the fitbit app counted my steps and so on live, when i finished my 40 mn workout and pressed the pause button, it said i only did 5 mn of workout. Is that a normal behavior ?

It looks like the steps were reporting fine though. They were adding by 2 increments.
The distance on the elliptical was less than the fitbit. It could be that the stride on the elliptical are smaller than mine.
If the elliptical is correct, maybe i should decrease my stride length to match it. Dunno.

[picasso66]

@pierrotsc changing your stride will affect your distance for everything, not just the elliptical. For me, the distance is somewhat okay once I change the stride and my height. Changing it so the elliptical is correct would then affect the days I do treadmill or take nature walks. Not sure you'd want to do that.

Patricia
Sent from my iPhone

[Robofit]

Perhaps someone can explain something that customer service told me.  I am using the Walk and Run exercises which supposedly have connected GPS.  If I go the same distance in Walk vs Run, it measures completely different distances (e.g, a 1 mile run is the same route as a .65 mile walk).  You would think that the GPS would determine the distance but customer service is telling me that my steps x stride length determine the distance.  If that's the case, what is the connected GPS actually doing other than drawing a map?    On a related front, the run distance is usually close to the Map My Run distance which I do in parallel and is more accurate than the walk distance. 

[smac65]

I just received my Blaze yesterday and couldn't get the update to happen.  Today, I forced to restart the Blaze, it took 2 attempts, before the update started. It's only been about 3 minutes and the update is about halfway done.