Perpetual state of re-starting

[cgoerrissen]

I have had my Blaze for 6 days and it has re-started on its own at least one per day since I got it. Today it's in a perpetual state of restarting and will not respond to any tap or button inputs. I'm about to enchnge it for another one but am wondering if anybody else is having this issue.

[Rich_Laue · Accepted solution]

First thought would be to try a hard reset, amd Charge the battery, but i don't think it will help much. 

This restart is most likely caused by one of 2 things, a battery that is failing,  or a hardware malfunction, neither will be rectified easily without a replacrment unit.

My first thought would be ro return it for a replacement if purchased locally, or contact Fitbit. CS has the ability to view back end info from your device, and this could tell thrm what is going on. 

[cgoerrissen]

I'm still working on this and getting closer to finding the issue. I was able to exchange the first unit at Target on Friday (March 11). The new Blaze started acting the same way on Saturday, just re-starting once or twice during the day. Then on Sunday the restarting became more frequent and was nonstop last night so I had to take the tracker off and put it in another room. The restarting symptom is the watch freezes, then shuts down and gives a short vibration, then the Fitbit logo comes on and it switches to the watch screen; same as doing a hard reset. BUT, the tracker is unresponsive after the restart and it just keeps doing it over and over...

Today (Monday March 14), I went back to Target and exchanged it for yet another new unit. While unlikely, I thought that it might be a coincidence that I got 2 defective units. This one is doing the same thing and I haven’t even put it on my arm yet. Now I know that the issue is on my end. I synced it with my iPhone 6 and put the unit on the charger. It immediately started the re-start cycle. I decided to turn off my phone completely and the re-starting stopped. When I turned the phone back on it started the cycle again.

I just installed the Fitbit app and paired the Blaze with my old iPhone 4s and so far it seems to be working. I have uninstalled the app from my 6 and cut the Bluetooth connection. If it acts normal until the end of the day this way I will reinstall the app on my 6 and try again; I’ll post the results tomorrow.

[cgoerrissen · Accepted solution]

I believe that uninstalling and reinstalling the Fitbit app on my phone did the trick; it’s been 24 hours and no more re-starting issues.

[Baltoscott]

How odd @cgoerrissen. Thanks for detailing the problem and posting what you did to get it to stop.  No doubt it will happen to someone else and your exeperience will help them figure out what to do.

[sjstokes]

That's very interesting @cgoerrissen.

My Blaze has also been intermittently restarting (though not to the extent of yours). I've also got an iPhone 6.

I've deleted and reinstalled the app on my phone and will see how things progress.

[adammiarka]

Expierenced the same exact issue.  What's weird is that it only seemed to happen while I was at home and connected to my local Wifi.   If I was out and about during the day, it would not sporatically restart at all.   Glad you were able to find somewhat of a solution by uninstalling/reinstalling the FitBit app.  Hopefully a new update to the app and firmware for the Blaze will arrive shortly. 

[sjstokes]

Unfortunately deleting & reinstalling the app hasn't worked for me. I had two more connected GPS walks yesterday which closed down early. I'm pretty sure that my Blaze is randomly restarting during these walks.

Something else has occurred to me though after reading another post on here. Is there a possibility that another Bluetooth device connecting to my phone while I'm out walking is interfering with the connection between the Blaze and the phone? I ask this as while I wear the Blaze on my left wrist, I'm also wearing a Garmin Forunner 235 on my right wrist (yes, I'm a gadget victim!) and that is also periodically communicating with my iPhone via Bluetooth.

[Baltoscott]

Hi @sjstokes -- I don't think your Garmin is interferring, but I don't have the technical background to know for sure.  I do have a similar set up to you ... Blaze + iPhone 6.  I also have a Garmin Fenix 3.  I also have an Apple Watch connected.  So you'd think if anyone would experience bluetooth interference I would!  

Anyway, I have not experienced the random restart issue on my Blaze.  I have lost connected GPS once (out of about 10 times).  I think my Blaze and iPhone temporarily lost bluetooth connection during a two hour five mile hike.  (I didn't notice that the connected GPS broke until looking at the map afterwards and comparing it to the Garmin map.  Lost GPS with the Blaze after about a mile and then distance calculation seemed to be derived from my step count.).

Have you tried a hard reset on your Blaze?  (sync first to get your steps transferred to fitbit servers, then hold left button and lower right button until tracker resets).

[sjstokes]

Hi @Baltoscott. Yes, I'm probably clutching at straws thinking that it might be Bluetooth intereference. As it happens I switched Bluetooth off on my Garmin before a couple of tracked walks yesterday and both of them completed as desired. I think I'm going to need a bit more evidence but I'll experiment either way.

The hard reset was one of the first things I tried. I've also tried reinstalling the Fitbit app. Neither of those seemed to help.

Probably the most frustrating thing about it is not knowing that it's happened until often much after the event. At least if I knew it was happening as it was happening I could restart tracking immediately. That wouldn't be ideal but at least I'd have my full activity recorded, albeit in bits!

[Baltoscott]

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@sjstokes wrote:
...

Probably the most frustrating thing about it is not knowing that it's happened until often much after the event. At least if I knew it was happening as it was happening I could restart tracking immediately. That wouldn't be ideal but at least I'd have my full activity recorded, albeit in bits!

---

I agree!  I've seen a few other posts where connected gps seems to break mid-event, and like the time it happened to me, I had no idea the GPS had stopped recording until I was completely done with the hike.  If it is a case of losing bluetooth connection, I am hoping there is a fix that will allow the exercise to continue upon reconnection.

[cgoerrissen]

Hi sjstokes, mine started the re-starting again after the re-install. I was wearing a Garmin Vivosmart on my other wrist too and I'm pretty sure that that was the issue. When I took the Garmin off and un-synced it with my phone the issue stopped. I do think it's a Bluetooth issue but not with all devices; I have been streaming music to a JBL Clip and a JBL Xtreme (both Bluetooth speakers) and have had no issues. So far I'm in over a week without any more random restarts.

Good luck with yours!

[sjstokes]

Hi @cgoerrissen. That's very much like my experience. I've been making sure that Bluetooth is switched off on my Garmin Forerunner 235 whenever I've been using connected GPS on the Blaze recently. It's still early days but I've now had 10 successive successfully completed GPS activities in that time and I've not noticed any random restarting outside of activities either. I'm going to keep the Bluetooth off on the Garmin for a while to see if the sequence continues and then a bit later I'll retry connected GPS while Bluetooth is reenabled on the Garmin to see if the problems come back.

[sjstokes]

... Further to my last post, I've just switched Bluetooth back on on my Garmin Forerunner to sync yesterday's steps and the Blaze restarted literally within seconds! It really is looking like the issue is due to some kind of Bluetooth interference between the devices.

[Baltoscott]

@sjstokes - Good troubleshooting.  If you got it somewhere where you can exchange it, you might want to do that.  If not, contact Fitbit support/help.  Your Blaze has a one year warranty.

[sjstokes]

Hi @Baltoscott. To be honest, if the Blaze only ever resets due to interference from the Garmin then I'm happy to live with it as it's a situation I can control by switching Bluetooth off on the Garmin. I have no real need to leave Bluetooth switched on all day on the Garmin as even with it on, updates to the Garmin app are few and far between. The only thing I'd be losing is notifications but as I'd get them on the phone anyway, that's no great loss. Anyhow, I suspect that the restarting of the Fitbit is probably more of a software glitch than a hardware one. Hopefully Fitbit will iron it out in due course.