Blaze trackers won't sync when traveling

[RHLCO]

We have two blaze trackers with us in Europe. I want to change the time. Neither will sync. I've set the new time zone in the app (latest version of iOS) and both trackers have the latest firmware. When I try to sync the progress bar gets about half way and then disappears. Nothing is synced (steps, sleep, time, etc). Frustratingly, the Fitbit app doesn't provide any information on why it failed. Bluetooth on the iPhones shows Blaze and Blaze (classic) both connected. (Fitbit app also doesn't tell you that Blaze classic is just for music control and doesn't have anything to do with the sync process.)

For one of our iPhone/Blaze pairs I have tried rebooting both the tracker and the iPhone with no change to the problem. I then deleted and reinstalled the Fitbit app. But now the app won't even let me login to my Fitbit account!  And it doesn't fail with a nice error message; it just sits there trying with no response of any kind. All this is happening over a fast wifi connection that has no other problems. And I CAN login to my Fitbit account via a browser. 

Conclusion: the Fitbit app has some serious problems and provides very little help to the user when things go wrong. Our two Blaze trackers are almost useless in another time zone because we can't change the watch time and can't capture tracker data. 

Fitbit please help. 

[Rich_Laue]

As for syncing @RHLCO, as fitbit states, this requires the phone to have access to the internet. 

As for help fitbit provides several sources, the comunity forums is one of them, but should not be tour first choice.

Look at the bottom of this or any page on fotbit, you will see a link to their help.fitbit.com  site. This is Fitbits online interactive ans searchable help manual. From here you may also download your printable user guide for your specific tracker model. https://staticcs.fitbit.com/content/assets/help/manuals/manual_blaze_en_US.pdf

[RHLCO]

I always appreciate users trying to help one another so thank you for your reply. Unfortunately your suggestions don't help. 

I am connected to the internet (which is how I can post in this forum). (Aside to Fitbit: syncing should not require connection to the internet, especially for something as simple as changing the time zone on the tracker. Plus, the phone has a lot more storage than the tracker and should be able to keep data until it connects to the internet.)

The Fitbit user guide doesn't cover this problem. 

The fitbit help pages don't cover this problem. 

The basic problem appears to me to be that neither iPhone/Blaze combo can connect to our accounts at Fitbit. The first issue to solve is on the phone where I deleted and reinstalled the Fitbit app. When I try to login the app sits there with the little spinning circle indefinitely. No login. No error message. I know my account is ok because I can login with a browser (which is how I can post this). (This may be what happened when I tried to sync but I can't tell because Fitbit doesn't provide any error message when sync fails.)

Its clear ear to me that there is a problem with the app and I would appreciate suggestions from Fitbit on how to resolve the issue. 

[RHLCO · Accepted solution]

The solution is obscure, frustrating, and unnecessary:

Fitbit please listen -

To get the reinstalled app to login you have to set your iPhone to set the time "automatically", I.e., using the phone's GPS. this also allows the tracker to sync. 

Its obscure because I had to search forum entries for the suggestion.

its frustrating because many people don't want to use set time zone automatically on the iPhone because it shifts all the calendar entries. 

Its unnecessary because the iPhone has a valid time set even if you aren't set to automatic. Fitbit should accept any valid iPhone settings and work with them. 

I don't understand why Fitbit can't make their app more useful and user friendly. 

[Rich_Laue]

Normally a phone will automatically set its time by the phone network and not tye GPS. I do know that Fitbit expects tye phone time to be correct, based on the local timezone it is set for. People who set the phone 10 minutes ahead find they are unable to sync. I'm  not sure how far off the time can be and it still sync, is it seconds are minutes.