Need help with setup

[BJ2013]

I have just received a new Blaze directly from Fitbit.  This follows owning a defective Charge, receiving another Charge directly from Fitbit and that not working either.  Eventually they decided to send me a Blaze to try.

Straight out of the box and it doesn't work either!  Reading through the posts on here it would seem that I am not alone.

I removed the old Charge from my account and reinstalled Fitbit Connect on my Apple Macbook Air running OSX 10.11.3.  After doing this the Fitbit Connect App still showed the Charge as being connected.  After uninstalling the app, restarting the computer and reinstalling the app THREE times it finally recognised that the Charge was no longer registered to my account.

I then setup the Blaze as a new device.  After hanging on the second installation page for 15 minutes I started the process again.  Finally I got the pairing code.  My device was successfully paired and I could see it on my account.  

However,  my Blaze will not show anything but the setup screen.  I have restarted it multiple times and the screen will not change.  It seems that many people have encountered the same issue.

So after owning two Fitbit One's which had no issues, I have now had two Charge HR's and a Blaze and they are all faulty.  I guess I'll now have to wait another two days for someone at customer service to respond to my emails just to tell me to carry out all the steps that I have already told them I have carried out.

I am so frustrated by this.  I'm going to buy an Apple Watch instead, at least then if I have any problems I can go to a store and speak to someone face to face.  How a company can sell so many defective products and remain in business is beyond me.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[The_Lion]

You have to setup your Blaze. Start the app and follow the instructions. It takes a while. My replacement had to be restarted und put into the charger but then it worked.

[BJ2013]

I have set up my Blaze.  It is successfully linked to my account.  I can see it when I go to the Dashboard on my computer.  However the device itself does not work and won;t show anything other then the setup screen.

[The_Lion]

There must have been a firmware update during setup.

[BJ2013]

I have reinstalled the software and linked the Blaze several times.  I have had feedback from customer services to restart the device.  It is still stuck on the setup screen.  This is the third defective Fitbit product that I have had in as many months.  Reading through the posts on here it seems that I am not the only one.  I am loathed to move to another brand of product as I have three years worth of stats saved but I am just about out of patience now!

[Rich_Laue · Accepted solution]

Did you do the firmware update that is needed? 

Until the update is done the blaze will show the setup screen. 

There also was no reason to remove the Charge. 

[BJ2013]

Thanks for the advice about the Firmware.  I tried to link the Blaze to my account four times without success and it would only link once the Charge was removed. 

After three months of dealing with members of the Fitbit support team I have never once been told to update the Firmware.  The most recent advice I received  from them was to restart the device.  Not very helpful!

After more searching I found out how to update the Firmware.  I may be old-fashioned or naive but when I receive a brand new product directly from Fitbit I kind of expect it to either work out of the box or update itself to the latest version during installation!  I will definitely be going back to Apple products in future - so much more intuitive.

[Rich_Laue]

That would be nice wouldn't it, but your Blaze probably was either shipped from the factory or the Fitbit warehouse, I'm any case it was put together before the last few firmware updates where availible. 

Normally it does update to the latest version during setup, what version is the tracker at? 

[BJ2013]

That makes sense.  It's now at version 17.8.200.3.

[Colinm39]

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@BJ2013 wrote:

That makes sense.  It's now at version 17.8.200.3.

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@BJ2013 That's the version I have in Australia and waiting patiently for the firmware upgrade.. My Android App updated yesterday to version 2.34

[Driver8666]

@Rich_Laue 

When I got mine, when I put it in the charger, it told me I had to set it up. Since I already had an Alta, this was easy. I got to add the other device onto my Fitbit app. When I initally set my Blaze up, I was told there was a firmware update for it available. That took about 15 minutes but to avoid screwing things up, I kept my phone right beside the Blaze. My Alta has been through 2 firmware updates, one when I bought it, the other a couple of weeks ago. 

I also found out that if I put my Blaze in the charger, and use my Alta, Fitbit says all the steps are counted separately. That's not true. When I sync my Blaze one final time before charging to my phone, my phone is updated to relect those steps taken before I put my Alta on. Any steps I took on the Blaze for the day, is transferred to the Alta. It all counts as one, not 2. When I put the Blaze back on, any steps added with the Alta are transferred to the Blaze. It's all seamless. As in, if I took 6500 steps with the Blaze and took only 900 with the Alta, while my Blaze is being synced after I take it out of the charger it'll show up on both devices and the app as 7400, provided however both are within range of my phone. 

By the way my Blaze is still on the 17.8.200.3 firmware. No signs of new clock faces, although on that thread that one got out of hand. 

@Colinm39

I updated mine when it was released. My phone is set not to auto update apps. I have to check and update it. 

@BJ2013

I had a phone that bricked after 3 days of using it. Went back to the retailer. Gave me a new one. 5 months in the screen screws up. That went to the manufacturer under warranty and a week later, comes back with the screen replaced. As for Fitbits, I haven't had any of the issues with the Alta and Blaze as people report. 

[Colinm39]

@BJ2013 

I wear my Blaze 24/7 and my One 16/7 in multi mode on a Sony XP Android running 6.0.1...Also the Ultra 16/7. Both of the clipons are tucked into my jeans coin pocket without coins....

I do all of the household shopping, and in that environment, if I'm not careful I can lose upwards of 1,500 steps on a shopping trip. Because the One has recorded the extra steps and the Blaze lags because of the shopping trolley. The syncing can get out of sequence and the One is overwritten by the Blaze's lower steps.

In that scenario I will turn the Blaze off for a few minutes, sync the One, turn the Blaze back on and perform another sync.  Perfect result.

I do that because the Blaze will finish up with the One's steps. If that was about an hour I normally lose the "250 steps active in an hour", because the One does cannot record that.

Why do I use the One ?..... because it is the most accurate in my armoury of Fitbit's for the activities I perform.

I still use my Ultra to keep the One honest, and in January 2017 it will be 5 years old.and still functions accurately, even with 3 doses of Super Glue..and... holds the charge for about a fortnight...

These are the things a 76 year retired Engineer/IT person does.. Compares baselines etc, walking and keeping the brain active.

[Rich_Laue]

I still have my One on a second account, and have the two accounts friended.. This way I can watch the two units switch places on the leaderboard.
Now since we know the arm based tracker canoise steps throughout the day, and we all feel the One is more accurate. How is it that the arm based tracker and the. one stay so close on the leaderboard?

[Colinm39]

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@Rich_Laue wrote:
I still have my One on a second account, and have the two accounts friended.. This way I can watch the two units switch places on the leaderboard.
Now since we know the arm based tracker canoise steps throughout the day, and we all feel the One is more accurate. How is it that the arm based tracker and the. one stay so close on the leaderboard?

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@Rich_Laue The following is my experience prior to Multi mode.

When I was comparing my wrist based devices against the clipons I noticed a similar pattern and put it down to domestic activities. Loading a dishwasher, hanging out washing and typical garden activities accelerate the wrist based trackers and that was nullified by me pushing a shopping trolley and my daughter's wheelchair every day and when I used the stationary bike.

Just before I typed this post we had a cleanup in the kichen area, unloading the dishwasher, reloading it, scrubbing and drying pots and pans, putting groceries away in the pantry... result 1,100 more steps than the One.

Walking with my Blaze on my LH and putting my hand in my jeans pocket I always had a step count within 1% of the One

It is always a fine balance, and like many others I have tried different walking actions, setting the Blaze to dominant and non dominant so in my case I have a balance using the Multi that I'm happy with.  If it is borderline..... should the Blaze get the benefit, I use my guidelines of Perceived Effort for my "honesty" test.

[bbarrera]

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@Rich_Laue wrote:
I still have my One on a second account, and have the two accounts friended.. This way I can watch the two units switch places on the leaderboard.
Now since we know the arm based tracker canoise steps throughout the day, and we all feel the One is more accurate. How is it that the arm based tracker and the. one stay so close on the leaderboard?

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I'm sure you recall posts where people have picked up many thousands of steps on Blaze while driving. Driving a long distance and then attending an event is a good example of a day where the leaderboard would be quite different for your two trackers. 

Averages are ok for some things, and not for other things, like predicting tomorrow's temperature. The average high temperature for today is 85 degrees, but today it will be 100 degrees. 

If you want an accurate step count then hoping the Blaze "averages out by end of day" is not acceptable. Personally I'm not interested in an accurate step count, because most of my calorie burn is from non-step activities like cycling, weight lifting, and swimming. However if you want an accurate step count, I wouldn't be happy knowing my step counter overcounts some things and undercounts other things. For it to average out at the end of the day means I need to have an equal number of overcounting and undercounting activities, which isn't guaranteed.

[Rich_Laue]

Isn't it silly to by a device that only has the ability to monitor arm motions when you want an accurate leg motion. I'm fact it is just a silly as trying to monitor leg motions when just tapping a foot could also give false steps. In both cases a car drive may add in walked steps.

[bbarrera]

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@Rich_Laue wrote:
Isn't it silly to by a device that only has the ability to monitor arm motions when you want an accurate leg motion. I'm fact it is just a silly as trying to monitor leg motions when just tapping a foot could also give false steps. In both cases a car drive may add in walked steps.

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If Fitbit Blaze "only has the ability to monitor arm motions" then its a Fitbit decision. For example I can put Blaze into pocket or wear on ankle and its clearly not counting arm motions 🙂

To your point, Texas Instruments has a patent and details on how they improved accuracy of step counting for wrist based devices:

https://www.google.com/patents/US20130191069

Its a nice story that wrist based devices can only count arm movement. But in fact wrist devices can count both steps, and if you aren't moving, either arm movements or road vibrations while driving a car.

[Rich_Laue]

And that's exactly my point, while it is very well known that the arm moves in a particular way while walking. Iis very possible for the arm not to move correctly, like holding a hand rail while walking up steps, or move the arm in a way that steps may count even when the feet are not moving.. To expect a perfect step count from any tracker is just silly.

[bbarrera]

You didn't even read the patent, did you?

The bottom line is that the 3-axis accelerometer "sees" motion, with major contributions from both arm and leg motions when walking.

Therefore the Blaze isn't only monitoring arm motions, except in the case where you are sitting and moving your arm, or arms are vibrating while driving on a rough road. Only then is the Blaze only monitoring arm motion (and giving false steps).  

Its far more believable and factual to say "wrist based trackers are challenged by interference from arms swinging and legs moving, and every tracker deals with it differently" than to say the tracker only monitors arm movement. And it also doesn't always balance out by the end of the day, really depends on what you did that day and how your wrist based pedometer interprets it.

[danettew]

I am living your nightmare.  I just received a new replacement that doesn't work either, why would they say it synced fine for them...assuming I am an idot.  Can you tell me how you did the update in case that is it?