Charge 6 Stopped Syncing

[Ghost78]

My Charge 6 stopped syncing this morning.  It has always synced just fine and I had no problems until this morning.  (As a note, I do not keep my Bluetooth on all the time.  I usually turn it on and sync about three times a day.)  I always sync first thing in the morning, and it just would not sync this morning.  I went through all the troubleshooting steps multiple times, and still it would not sync.  Finally decided to uninstall and reinstall the Fitbit app (which I really didn't want to do, knowing it would require re-pairing).  To no great surprise, after reinstalling, it now won't pair either.  When trying to get it to pair after the reinstall, it continues to give the same message: "There was an error while trying to bluetooth pair your device.  Would you like to try again?"   
I contacted support via chat, and the rep said that it's a known issue that the app is having difficulties with syncing data, etc. right now, and that they are working on it.  But I feel like if it was really a widespread issue and no one could sync/pair today, then this forum would already have a lot more people complaining that they can't sync and the Fitbit Reddit sub would be blowing up as well.  So I don't know what to think.  Is anyone else having issues syncing today?
For reference, I have an Android phone... not sure if that matters. 

[Ghost78]

@Bit10  Yes, they told me the exact same thing... that there's a new release that's slowly rolling out to customers.  The problem is that I worry the "new" release they're talking about is actually the recently-released 4.28 version that's problematic for many of us.  I could tell the people I chatted with weren't really knowledgeable and were just using the scripts they'd been given.  We'll see in the coming days if an actual newer version gets released. 

And yes, there are risks involved with sideloading apps from third parties, which is why I won't give instructions how to do it. If people already know or figure it out, that's up to them.  I'm not a fan of doing it myself, but I'm also an extremely impatient person... I'm just not patient enough to have a non-working app while Google fiddles around for a fix. 

[Bit10]

I think they are actually rolling out a patch, as they kept trying to ask me for more info before I checked-out of wanting to do any more troubleshooting for them & they signed-off with:

    "We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. I have raised your case with our designated team and will continue to coordinate with you via email once the update is available."

I'm less upset about this individual issue & more that it's part of a longer chain that doesn't seem to have a lot of accountability. I suspect that individual employees are probably trying their best & that it's bad process + management that's screwing things up, which I hope they actually do some kind of a post-mortem on. I'm willing to put up with a few days of outage if there's clear communication & a desire to improve whatever led to it happening so it doesn't recur. I don't think we'll hear much about whatever got done on their end other than a new update on the Play Store.

[Bit10]

Still no update so I asked the rep if there was any estimate on the timing of the rollout, mentioning that I didn't feel great about paying for a service that I couldn't access, and they stopped responding. I then attempted to talk to another rep who refused to speak with me, instead rudely closing the conversation. I've yet to review their refund policy for Premium so I don't know what kind of outcome to expect if it comes to that, but something to think about for others who may be considering signing up or renewing.

I can make do without Premium but I'm salty that I'm:

• missing calls because I'm used to feeling my wrist vibrate
• unable to check my heartrate so I'm holding off on working out
• unable to track my sleep (I have some serious health issues that radically alter my schedule & this is very important for)
• have to wear a different watch altogether just to be able to use any timekeeping features

It seems a pretty serious design flaw that the device can't at least be used in a watch mode while it's unpaired, and instead gets effectively bricked (even if temporarily) whenever Google screws up & doesn't immediately rollback to fix it. imo they should either change that limitation for future instances or adopt a policy of rolling back their own update when this happens, rather than forcing people to wait for days while they code a non-broken patch. I also have a Charge 5 that's also effectively been a paperweight for the past year because they don't allow you to have more than one tracker at a time paired. I think it's really egregiously problematic if they think that's an okay business practice.

It's bad enough to lose out on the cost of the watches. I got a Charge 5 (~$200 CAD) that I was very satisfied with but only had for a few months before Google acquired the company then revamped the ecosystem. The 5 then got a lot of bugs, bad ones breaking a lot of features I was using. I thought if I got the Charge 6 (~$157 CAD, while it was on sale) when it newly released that that might fix some of the issues, but it did not. I also got their sports wristband (~$37 CAD) because I think the stock band is uncomfortable, also a Premium subscription (~$110 CAD) that I had previously cancelled, but was auto-billed for because of the new Charge 6 renewing me on a 'free trial.' These are not trivial costs for me, as I cannot work due to disability and have a very low income. Their parent company has a market cap of nearly $3 trillion CAD. That their support reps now won't even respond is pretty tough for me to forgive. Their customer service has not tried to make any of this right & I don't feel I can trust the company any further.

[POS2024]

One can hardly blame you for your criticism of Fitbit.  You've paid money for Premium, and they don't seem to offer you any decent response.  You've been around the block with them over the years.  

[JJOL123]

Got the new 4.28.1 update, still not pairing, tried everything. Been on
with them for an hour but didn't have time to keep on so had to go. They
say there are aware if my issue and should recipe another update in a few
days. I'll just have to wait but very disappointed with all this.

[StaciGirten]

I even did the fitbit update this morning and it still won't pair. 

[POS2024]

I also saw there was an "update" from the Play Store and installed that.  Like you, no pairing.  

[Gelm]

Same. It started yesterday for me.

[JimC_99]

It is unfortunate that the Store doesn't keep the previous version online for a few weeks when a new version is posted....

Odd that the only app I need to revert versions seems to be the Fitbit app.  Thought Google coders we more competent.

[JJOL123]

The clocks go back in the UK tonight so no doubt every fitbit users in the UK will have the wrong time. I am writing to a consumer rights program on national TV called watchdog in the UK. Not sure what good it will do other than bad publicity for fitbit/google.

[Bit10]

4.28.1 (which was only ~100 kB) didn't work for me, either. I did not receive an e-mail about it as they claimed they would send, and have instead still just been getting ignored by multiple reps. I wish they wouldn't lead people on & would've tested whether *this* update fixed anything before publicly releasing it. They don't seem to be learning from their mistakes.

[POS2024]

It is truly pitiful that they don't have the decency to contact all of those who have purchased their devices that there was a problem with the app.  It's not that hard in this age of mass communication.  It goes to show you how deplorably Google is treating this.  

[Richardminn]

Same here I've done everything to try to resolve it that I found online and nothing I usually get 15,000+ steps a day

[Odeta]

I'm still having issues. Not syncing with the app. I have contacted customer service and after going through all the steps to reset, restart uninstall etc he said apologies it's not working and it might fix by itself in the next few weeks. Very disappointment with the service. It has been 6 days now since the issue started. Not sure what to do next

[stellow]

I am not happy with the service after google taking over. Let's hope that this problem gets sorted out very soon. As doing a walk for Cancer and not getting the correct amount of steps.

Sent from Outlook for Android<>

[RiekoC]

Hello @Ghost78 , @stellow , @Odeta , @Richardminn , @POS2024 and all

Please see the Moderator's post from today (29 Oct 2024) on this thread (<-- click link). She states that the fix is rolling out in app version 4.28.2.

The app updates usually roll out in waves. Keep checking the Play Store for the update and install it when it's available for you.

If you're still seeing the syncing issue after installing the update, please let us know.

[Ghost78]

If anyone installs the most recent update and begins syncing successfully, please update here.  It's available for me, but I'm going to wait it out a bit. 

[POS2024]

After I read RiekoC's posting, I looked at Google Play Store and there it was "update".  I did the update.  No dice.  I uninstalled the update, and then I went to download the app again.  I restarted my phone, and restarted my Charge 6.  I knew it wasn't good news when I went to Bluetooth pair my Charge 6 with the phone, it again flashed the message I need an app to pair Charge 6 to the phone.  If Fitbit believed this fix it, the version 4.28.2 did not work for me.  I think we'll have to wait for another week for Fitbit to respond.  I'm seriously contemplating getting my refund.  

[Richardminn]

Failed to work for me to..

Get Outlook for Android<>

[Bit10]

Yup, just more "Something went wrong. An error occurred. Please try again."

We already know we have to wait for the 'fix,' but what is missing from this response is any kind of indication as to when it's coming, or to at least rollback & save these broken updates for when they're stable.