Disable iPhone pop up for Location access

[elmyrnvbo]

Hi all

I was wondering if anybody encountered this issue:

I am using an iPhone, I have GPS disabled on the Fitbit Charge 5 (when through the settings on the mobile app).

And then on my iPhone in the Privacy > Location settings, I have Fitbit setup to "While Using the App" to allow location access:

But when I am opening the Fitbit app on my iPhone, I keep getting this popup:

Does anybody have any idea how to disable this popup?

Do I have to keep the settings to "Always"? 

I am asking as I have the GPS disabled, and only want to use it when biking, thus I don't need the GPS on all the time.

Thank you!

[Heather-S · Accepted solution]

@elmyrnvbo The GPS doesn't work all the time or else the device would be dead very quickly.  Only if you choose an activity like biking, walk, run, or hike does the GPS get used if you set it that way on the device.  Other than that, the GPS isn't running in the background. 

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe if you don't want to see this message again, you just need to keep it set to "Always".  That's what mine is set to and I never see this message.

[elmyrnvbo]

Thanks a lot @Heather-S ! 

The issue that I had is that I actually did not choose any activity, and it was still showing that popup.

FYI I managed to disable the GPS by going through the mobile iOs app and disable it through there.

So I'll try what you said and set it to "Always"; when I've done that in the past, it did work fine and I had no popup, so I think this should be enough to fix my issue.

Thank you once again!

[elmyrnvbo]

By the way @Heather-S I've tried something else as well:

I did this from another Fitbit forum post:

iOS device settings > privacy> location services > Fitbit > select never

This worked fine for me and I am not getting the popup anymore.

Also I turned off GPS for all my exercises from the device itself; I understand Fitbit only asks for location if the GPS is set to ON on the device, so I might end up leaving the setting back to "Always" (so I don't have to change it all the time)

Thank you!

[elmyrnvbo]

Just wanted to followup on this if other users are interested:

I did setup the iOs settings > privacy > location services > Fitbit > Never, 

initially it did not have the popup, but a few minutes later the Popup appeared again.

Thus, I've set this setting to "Always", and I only turn on GPS (from the device) per whatever exercise I need. 

GPS is set to Phone now, but might change it to Dynamic in the future.

I think leaving the setting to "Always" is the right one, and having the GPS off is a quick fix (for me at least it seemed that it saved on the battery).

Thank you once again a lot for the help @Heather-S !

[NamaMama]

I have the same issue. I do not want to change my setting from Never and I do not want to be forced into choosing another option. “No Thanks” once should be enough. This is very irritating and should be fixed from FitBit’s end. 

[meljohnson]

I am having the same issue. I’ve turned off the location services for Fitbit, updated the app, updated iOS and restarted a dozen time. The incessant pop up continues. I’ve been waiting for an email response from Fitbit for 3 weeks. If they can’t resolve this issue, I want a refund on this tracker and I will buy some other fitness watch. Other threads have reported this issue over the past 2 years and it still hasn’t been resolved. 

[SunsetRunner]

Heather-M is correct.  Select "always" and the pop-up message will stop.  The way to look at it is: the fitbit device and fitbit app will "always" have access to using the phone's GPS, but will only use it when needed (like for an outdoor activity).

[bed]

Setting it to "always" is not the solution.  The solution is after you click "No Thanks", it shouldn't ever prompt you again.  This is obviously Google wanting to track your phones location 100% of the time. 

[SunsetRunner]

OP wanted to be able to use GPS while biking; selected "never" or "no thanks" will prevent them from having GPS for their outdoor activities. Additionally, selecting "No thanks" will only close the window for that request, but will keep asking on future requests from the app.

The pop-up privacy alert is an Apple iOS feature and not necessarily about tracking 100% of the time.  However iOS allows you to have a GPS icon display at the status bar whenever something is using GPS in the background and from there you can identify what app is actively using GPS. To do this go to  (on the iPhone): settings > privacy > location services > and scroll through the list of apps.  Anything marked with a purple outline or solid icon (vs greyed out) designates current activity. At the bottom of the list will be a key to clarify the meaning of the icons.

[Wibby]

Hello everyone.

I just updated the App to Fitbit 3.54 and the pop-up seems to have vanished again!  It might be worth checking out to see if it works for you too...