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!

[kathysjourney]

Fitbit Blaze has now been removed from some advantage health rewards programs including Walgreens Pharmacy where you earn rewards for healthy living.
No one believes in the blaze any more.
Some stores have stopped selling the blaze.
Come on Fitbit. Give us hard earned fitbit fans something we can use.

[Godzy89]

First full day of using the Blaze yesterday

Both my pedometer and my Blaze are set on a stride length of 27 inches

My pedometer says i walked 7.27 miles but the Blaze says 5.20 miles

This morning i did 400+ steps before i even got out of bed!!

This isn't very good for what is supposed to be the latest and best model in the range

I think it will be a trip back to the shop for my money back very soon

[picasso66]

There are "leaked" photos of the new Charge HR and Flex which means the Blaze is all but forgotten at this point.
Patricia
Sent from my iPhone

[Kikizmommy1]

If they don't fix the blaze and just skip to a new product I feel they should take a loss and give their customers the new and actual working product. This just isn't right. People paid good money for this and it's not working properly. It is their job to fix it. Period

[bmiller1969]

I know have the Samsung gear 2 and I absolutely love it!!!! Walked last
night and it was right on track with my map my run app!!!!

[AndrewFitbit]

Hey everyone,

Friendly reminder to keep all posts in this thread related to the topic. Any further off-topic discussion will be removed from this thread.

We haven't forgotten about Blaze, and we definitely still support it. Our team does plan on releasing a new firmware update for Blaze. Once the update becomes available, a new thread will be created with more details. So keep an eye out! 

[SunsetRunner]

Thank you Andrew

[wardrich]

I still don't understand the upset over updates... Excessive flashing is bad for the chip. You don't see android or Android Wear updates weekly (unless you're running a custom ROM).

I have had the watch for just under a month and the step count seems to balance out by the end of the day. I look forward to seeing the new update and hope it comes soon and contains some new features as well as bug fixes.

The Blaze is the nicest looking of all the trackers. And with the Android app "Fit Notifications" it's the best for price option for budget smart watches I've seen.

[MikeS1971]

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@wardrich wrote:
I still don't understand the upset over updates... Excessive flashing is bad for the chip. You don't see android or Android Wear updates weekly (unless you're running a custom ROM).

I have had the watch for just under a month and the step count seems to balance out by the end of the day. I look forward to seeing the new update and hope it comes soon and contains some new features as well as bug fixes.

The Blaze is the nicest looking of all the trackers. And with the Android app "Fit Notifications" it's the best for price option for budget smart watches I've seen.

---

I dont think anyone is upset over the lack of contant updates. What we are upset about the the lack of any update to address the issues the last update seemed to have caused. If your's counts steps to your liking, thats awesome. But for those of us that have tested, retested and re-retested and have also received replacements only to have them still severly undercount steps, I'm sure you can see our reasoning to want an update.

[Godzy89]

@AndrewFitbit

When can we expect the update?

Its all well and good saying it will come but i have just paid out £160 for a device that does not work how it is supposed to and therefore it is not fit for purpose

If the firmware fix is coming out in the next week i will keep the Blaze but if not i will be joining the ranks of those that have returned it and obtained a refund

[CherylV]

Hi @AndrewFitbit,

I'm sure you've heard it all at this point, but I'm such a huge fitbit fan (I've had the Flex until now) that it's making me deeply, deeply sad that my 'upgrade' is killing my step counts. I thought I was losing my mind until I checked out this thread. I hate it when technology gaslights me. So...as an IT professional, I get that coders/engineers hate to promise a timeframe, but, well, should I return this and look at other solutions or is holding tight and staying loyal to fitbit going to payoff?

[finsfindley]

I have been wearing my fitbit blaze and my flex which I set up a separate account for and the balze is consistantly off by about 30%.  I have been very disappointed in the blaze, I love fitbit but they really need to set up and do something about this.

[AndrewFitbit]

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@Godzy89 wrote:

@AndrewFitbit

When can we expect the update?

---

@Godzy89 I don't have that information, but when I do, a new firmware thread will be created and this thread will be closed.

I'm not sure what will be included with the next firmware update other than reminders to move and clock faces.

For those discussing accuracy in this thread, I'd encourage you to check my post here.

[Godzy89]

Thanks for the reply Andrew

Seems a great community with caring mods this but its such a shame that nothing seems to be being done about a known problem

I don't want updates every 5 mins but i do want ones that fix known issues

My Blaze will be going back over the weekend

[PieMavi]

And please, add more functionalities, more fitstar workouts, more notifications for both iOS and android. The blaze costs more than many android wear devices that do so much more! Give the costumer the chance to chose if he wants to receive like maybe Facebook or Instagram or Watsapp notifications. We bought it on a promise your own Ceo made (there's this interview on YouTube where he says that the hardware allows it to do more than it did at that time), because we trusted your company. So please, make it worth it because after 6 months of wearing it, I find it totally useless.

[Godzy89]

Blaze gone back and full refund recieved

Such a shame that Fitbit don't seem to care about their customers

One last thing

I returned the Blaze on Friday and, according to my dashboard,  today i have burned 1067 calories..

How does it know that????????

Laughable

[jdigs56]

The worst thing about this entire mess is you make a decision to live a
healthy lifestyle and what to properly balance your eating and work out to
be better! You buy a device that is supposed to help you do this and then
you find it isn't accurate. It a really a shame since the application does
such a good job. I've had it with the inaccuracy especial after supplying
good accurate information for FitBit to use for free.

They want us to stay on topic how about FITBIT stay focused on the problem
a fix the darn thing now!

Dig

[CherylV]

To be fair on the calories burned calc, Fitbit always gives you a baseline calorie burn using your personal stats. Any additional calorie burn count factors in your activity. It threw me the first time I saw it. 

Spoiler

Spoiler

[Uber]

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@Kikizmommy1 wrote:
If they don't fix the blaze and just skip to a new product I feel they should take a loss and give their customers the new and actual working product. This just isn't right. People paid good money for this and it's not working properly. It is their job to fix it. Period

---

While that would be nice, they won't. That's not how capitalism works.

If they really cared, they would have stopped selling the charge HR  to fix after so many people have repeated issues with the bands falling apart. Go to the reddit fitbit page. It's litterally littered with these complaints.

My new blaze comes in this week, if I am not in love with it, it's going back and I am getting a pebble 2. 

The amount of apps on the blaze that all do the same things is baffling. I know people are centered on fitness, but did we really need wirelessly connected waterbottle before being able to read an email? Looking at the suggestion page, the first page is all "implimented" and everything else is "thanks for the suggestion we will let you know about any updates". There do not appear to be many updates.

The lack of longevity, 3rd party app variety, innacurate measurements, and the blaze only has a handful of faces after 6 months?

There really needs to be more people on this before pushing out two new products in the same year.

To quote the fitbit's own sales page "A fitness watch that’s as stylish as it is smart".  I will admit its very stylish, but right now, it's honestly not coming off as very smart for this high pricetag.

I want it to work, I really do, but all that I am reading is making it seem like its a stylish fitness band that currently doesn't do that accurately.

I honestly think if the pebble 2 sensors end up being accurate and reliable, fitbit will really have to worry about the competition should they continue down this path.

[wardrich]

Check out "Fit Notifications" for Android. It fills that void really well. I get all my updates on my Blaze. I'm actually surprised that Fitbit somehow managed to forget to have their own messages flow through to the watch.