Blaze will NOT change timezone

[rkb1990]

I am extremely frustrated. This device is a watch. Sure, it tracks steps, too, but the main feature of this thing that I strap to my wrist is for telling time. I have spent HOURS this afternoon trying to fix something that should be automatic.

I've traveled internationally, several time zones away from home, but only recently with my Fitbit. My iPhone knows exactly what time it is, regardless of whether I manually set the time zone or have it do this automatically. In the Fitbit app on my phone, however, when I attempt to change the timezone -- again, either manually or automatic doesn't matter -- I'll watch as it reverts back to "Chicago" within a few seconds. Sometimes I have to back out of the screen and go back in, but it will always revert to "Chicago" regardless of what I change the timezone to.

I have logged out and logged back in. I've reset my Fitbit. I've removed and added my Fitbit several times. Here's a fun one: after removing and re-adding my Fitbit, I'll go into the web site (https://www.fitbit.com/settings/profile) and try to change the timezone from "Chicago" to "Stockholm." Just for fun I'll also add something to the "About Me" section of my profile. I'll then use my iPhone to sync to my Fitbit. And now when I check settings again on the the website, the text I'd added to "About Me" is gone, and my time zone has reverted back to "Chicago."

It seems that synchronizing 

This is a FUNDAMENTAL expectation when one purchases a WATCH that it works to tell time, even as I travel. Deleting and re-adding doesn't work. Restarting doesn't work. Nothing works.

EXCEPT - I kept trying a few other things. Changing values on my phone profile versus changing them on the web. And suddenly on the phone I received an error message that said "user name has invalid characters." I wanted my full name to appear, including my middle initial, so I'd added that into the last name field. In other words: last name had a period and a space in it and that generated an error message on the iPhone app but nowhere else.

So the solution that actually worked had NOTHING to do with timezones, automatic, manual, whatever. I removed that initial, period, and space so the last name field only contained my last name. Suddenly, magically, the timezone would change. I'd imagine there's some sort of poorly trapped error going on, some kind of validation on the back-end that doesn't provide your users with any notification, but prevents the timezone from changing because of an disallowed value in some completely unrelated field.

[AlejandraFitbit]

It's great to welcome you @rkb1990 and thanks for troubleshooting this inconvenience by yourself.

Is weird to hear that your tracker is not saving the changes that you are making, are you syncing your tracker just with your phone or with another device? About the timezone, some people have tried the following with success:

1. Change your timezone to a complete different one

2. Sync your tracker

3. Put the correct time

4. Sync again

If your tracker is not syncing as it should, follow the instructions provided in the Having trouble syncing? post. Also, check that the device you use to sync your tracker have the timezone that you want. 

Let me know how it goes. 

[rkb1990]

Nope. Only synced my one iPhone to my single Blaze. And in the iPhone app, a few seconds after I would change from one timezone to a completely different one, the app would always revert back to my original timezone. I didn't even have a chance to sync it first.

When I would change the timezone using the web interface, after synchronizing my Fitbit, even the web UI would revert back to my original timezone.

No amount of timezone changing, syncing, restarting my Blaze, deleting and reinstalling the iPhone app made a difference. The time zone would never change.

The only way for any of these changes to "stick" was to modify the last name field so that it didn't include a space or a period. I don't know how/why I could have added those values in the first place, especially if they're not valid, but it was only after cleaning up that data that my Blaze finally showed the correct timezone.

[AlejandraFitbit]

Thanks for the information @rkb1990. Is the automatic timezone option on? If it is, I recommend turning this off. In the advanced settings options you will be able to see this "Automatic time zone" option.

Hope to hear from you soon. 

[rkb1990]

I'd tried it with it both on and off. Neither option made a difference. When I had it set to manual configuration of timezones and attempted to manually change from my home timezone to where I've been traveling, that change would revert back within a few seconds.

The only way that I was able to resolve this -- and it has been resolved -- was to change my name in my FitBit registration so that it didn't include my middle initial.