Charge 3 exercises stopped on its own

[SunsetRunner]

Yesterday, during a Weights exercise, the tracker "stopped" the exercise on its own. (?!)

One moment it was working, the next time I flicked my wrist to check my HR, it was back to the regular clock face without me ever ending the exercise explicitly.

I immediately started the exercise again and continued working out. When I checked the Fitbit app afterwards, it had logged my first exercise as if I had ended it myself, and the second one (again a Weights exercise), as if it was a run / bike exercise, since it shows a pace and distance. (?!?!)

Screenshot from the Fitbit app after the issue with my Weight exercises

This issue, couple with a myriad more I encountered over the last few days, made me put the tracker in the drawer. I'm now back on my trusted Charge 2. I will wait for a week or two, and if these issues are not fixed in a software update, I'm shipping this half-baked product back. This is unacceptable from a major brand like Fitbit. Embarrassing.

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[MarreFitbit]

Hey there @SunsetRunner, thanks for stopping by! I'd recommend restarting your Charge 3 by following these steps:

If restarting the device doesn’t resolve the issue, please perform a factory reset, which erases your data. Please erase the data through the Settings app on Charge 3 unless you can’t access the Settings app.

To erase the data on a device:

1. Sync their device.
2. Open the Settings app on their device > About > Clear User Data. 

Hope this helps, keep me posted! 

[Mac42]

Same happened to me.  I just bought the fitbit and downloaded/installed it yesterday.  Factory reset makes no sense in my case.  We need a setting that tells the fitbit to not ever stop an exercise on its own.

[nmattam]

This happened to me today. I bought it only yesterday.

[ato.wots]

Yes, this happened to me also, couple of times now.

During walk exercise it stopped by itself in the middle. First time it happened, I thought maybe it auto-stopped the exercise because I took few minutes break in-between, but it happened again couple of times without any interrupt during the exercise. This is really getting annoying!

Actually in my case I figured out that the Walk/Hike exercises were stopping by itself only when I had GPS setting on and my fitbit app does not have permission to access my location. I am not sure whether this is an expected behavior, at least it works fine without interrupt on my friend's Versa with same settings.

I don't want any GPS co-ordinates for my exercises and so I have disabled GPS. It is working fine now.

Moderator edit: merged reply

[Rosaritab]

I’ve had the same problem of the exercise mode stopping by itself 3 times in the last week.  I tried to clear data as you suggested (twice) but it doesn’t look like the data cleared.  It’s still shoeimg my step count from earlier today.  Any ideas?

[magic_mushy]

I've also experienced this issue several times over December. Haven't noticed it in the last 2 weeks. I'll post if it happens again.

[JonCaspell]

I have had the same problem, and have been in discussions with moderator @DavideFitbit on another thread here. 

@MarreFitbit any updates?

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Charge-3/Charge-3-stopped-tracking-during-exercise/m-p/3185377#M2920...

It it seems to be a widespread issue, my guess is a firmware bug. 

[Outsidecenter]

Hi, mine resets multiple times whenever I do a CrossFit workout. But, it never happens during a run or on an elliptical.I changed the position of the tracker on my arm to see if perhaps I was bumping the button somehow. That was not it. It continues to reset on its own.

[YojanaFitbit]

Hey @Rosaritab and @Outsidecenter, welcome to the Forums. @magic_mushy and @JonCaspell thanks for posting your comments. 

@magic_mushy Thanks for the update, let me know if this happens again.

@Rosaritab Thanks for trying the suggested steps. What type of exercise you were doing when this happen? Make sure that you're not accidentally finishing of pausing the activity. Restart your tracker, we're currently investigating what is happening with the Charge 3 to confirm that we can fix it from the software.

@JonCaspell We don't have more updates, we're checking each case individually to confirm if all users are having same issues and if this is a software or hardware issue. Have you tried different exercises? Have you noticed any similitud each time you noticed that this happened? BTW, thanks for posting that information and link!

Thanks for your help, while we're investigating this issue.

[gabeparra]

I’m having the same issue. Very annoying. It seems to be worse during my Orange Theory workouts. I’ve tried starting as treadmill and as “workout” but same result. 

[Rosaritab]

A reset seems to do the trick but it does continue to happen after a while.

[magic_mushy]

I've been skiing for the last 2months. I'm running the Charge 3 in workout mode while skiing. So most days it's running for 7 hours straight. On Tuesday the 28th it lasted 46mins on workout mode before stopping. Which I found out at the end of a 7hr session. The rest of the time is been fine. I haven't reset the device and it's impossible for me to have "finished" the exercise session. 

[Mslovecats]

My FitBit Charge 3 (purchased in December 2018) also suddenly stops tracking exercise. This has happened on a number of occasions and now is happening with greater frequency. On Saturday during my aerobics class it stopped tracking three times. Today it stopped tracking in the middle of my yoga class. In all cases, I was not wearing any sleeves, and nothing else came into contact with my tracker. I have tried resetting the tracker but the problem is not predictably reproducible so it's hard to say whether the reset fixes anything.

I'm very disappointed in the Charge 3! It's far less reliable than the Charge 2 and overall more cumbersome to use. The screen is dimmer and the vibration is barely perceptible during interval workouts. The only reason why I got it is because of the thinner profile for my small wrist.

[ou2c3]

I have the same issue. Tried the reboot method a few times but the issue keeps occurring.

[Rosaritab]

Happens daily now.  Is anyone from Fitbit going to chime in??

[Heardc]

The Charge 3 flat out doesn't work in excercise mode, the heart rate starts way too high, then ends up reading "--", so you're not getting credit for the workout.  Good thing I rely on MyFitnessPal anyway, I just enter the excercise in that app instead.  The only thing that works from what I can tell is Running.  Biking is a joke, the tracker says I've climbed 200 flights of stairs and have traveled 0 miles after 1 hour of biking.  The bugs just keep rolling in, syncing is flaky, sleep tracking requires that you rotate the tracker to the other side of your wrist.  I want to get rid of the Charge 3 as much as I want to keep it.

[Antiquarius]

This happened to me today as well with my charge 3. I did 30 minutes jog on the treadmill, then about an 1:15 of weight training. It stopped 21 minutes into my treadmill, and then it kicked in again for the last 26 minutes of my weights (which it dubbed "sport"). Not happy about nearly an hour of this workout not being recorded. This is in addition to major issues recently with getting the tracker to sync up. At least that seems to be solved. Considering what others above say, this product seems to have reliability issues. 

[Mslovecats]

Yes the FitBit Charge 3 HR is not reliable and the user interface is a step
backwards from the Charge 2. I gave my 3 to my daughter and went back to
the 2. I considered buying an Inspire, but the reviews on that are also bad
— doesn’t sync, stops working, is flimsy and cheap. It’s a shame because
I’d much rather wear a single purpose FitBit than a feature-bloated Apple
Watch but FitBit is not making it an easy choice.

Is anyone from their customer care team even reading this and escalating
the quality issues inside the company???
--
Sent from Gmail Mobile, please excuse typos and brevity

[miturtle]

I've had this issue with my Charge 3 for months now, I have contacted customer support, done all of the resets and restarts and other recommended solutions, but nothing has resolved this issue. The vast majority of my workouts are dropped, I'd estimate 70-80% of the time it stops tracking. Sometimes it continues tracking in the background and I get absurd exercises in the dashboard like 300 min Treadmill (when I was only on it for 30 min). Other times it just loses all the data altogether. Very discouraging when you're trying to use the  app to track running pace or improvements over time. Not satisfied in the least with the customer support response.