Charge 6 cannot be set up with existing Fitbit or existing Google account...

[jabbasoft]

I'm a long time Fitbit user (since 2014) and was lucky enough to receive a new Charge 6 for a gift this Christmas.

The Charge 6 required syncing to my phone app (iOS), not a problem as I have this set up for my Charge 5.  But now there is a forced requirement to move my account across to Google.  I 100% do not want to do this but as I want to have a usable Charge 6 I went through the process only to get a "this email is used with a different Fitbit account" error.

I do not want to set up a brand new Google account to make my Charge 6 usable, I have long term Fitbit and Google accounts already.  As an end user, I shouldn't need to understand any internal nuances around Google Workspace or an inactive earlier association between the platforms.

1 - has anyone worked out how to unassociate/unregister their Google account from Fitbit so that they can successfully perform the "move to Google" process?

2 - has anyone managed to register a Charge 6 with just a Fitbit account as it was stated a Google account would not be mandatory until 2025?

3 - is it possible to use the Charge 6 without syncing/linking to a phone?  If not, and if the above cannot be resolved then I have an expensive plastic wristband.

I don't think I've ever had a worse onboarding process for a >£100 product.  Fitbit should cater for and support existing customers not just the "happy path" scenarios for new users.

Mini-rant over - enjoy the rest of the holidays folks 🙂

[jboogie · Accepted solution]

I had this exact same problem. You need to log into your Fitbit account on fitbit.com using your Google which you think you don't have, but in fact you do. Maybe you sent one up all the time ago quickly? Or if I remember the app, I actually logged in with my Google account which created and Google account. Anyways, once you log in with your Google account then you need to select delete account. The delete account process takes 7 days. You won't be able to use your Fitbit charge 6 until you migrate to Google, but you won't be able to do that until you're old. Google account has been delete it with Fitbit. Again. You're just deleting your Fitbit account that is associated to your Google account which has no data. Anyway, I'm sorry you can't use your Fitbit I really hated that too. But you have to wait 6 days because that's pretty much all you can do customer service. Can't do it. Dang thing

[indresh88]

I exacly got in to same problem. I accidently created 2 account when i had charge 2 in 2016 onw with google and one with the fitbit email id. Now when i bought charge 6 i cant connect main fitbit email to google account as i accidently created in 2016. So i requested to close the account, now it says 7 days to close the account. So in short wait for 7 days to use new fitbit.

[Rich_Laue]

@jabbasoft if you are getting tge message tgat this email is connected to another account you are trying to switch email addresses. You will need to switch to a login through  you're Google account, and not a Gmail address

What should I know about moving Fitbit to my Google Account?

I wouldnt worry to much, since if you are an ios user, you are already using google services 

[indresh88]

Finally done it. I login using my fitbit account created with gmail long ago, and changed email id of gmail to other. Now other fitbit account migrated to google.

[PerfectBlue]

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@jabbasoft wrote:

 But now there is a forced requirement to move my account across to Google.  I 100% do not want to do this

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At the risk of taking the thread off topic, why not, I moved mine over a couple of months ago and notice no differences. They're eventually going to turn the old accounts off.

[jabbasoft]

Thanks a lot for this jboogie.  Have tried a few different sequences with incognito browsers etc, I get stuck in the opposite loop where Fitbit complains I already have a different google account associated (doesn’t tell me which, maybe I have an old dev one from 201x) and says sign out of Fitbit (session wasn’t signed in..).  Similar confusion on the native app after signing out of my Fitbit account, successfully signing in with my long term google account, prompted to migrate/associate with a Fitbit account and says Fitbit account associated to a different google id.

i know, this looks like a spaghetti of my own making but it’s a real mess of an end user experience.  Will see if someone nice at Fitbit support can action the unassociation so I can migrate to the correct google account and actually start using their product 😟.

but thanks for describing how you got this resolved, shame it didn’t work out for me. +thanks indresh88 for confirming this to be the steps needed to sort this out for most cases.

[jabbasoft]

OT - please see above answers for the account association problem.

I love using google for social sso and app auth so I don’t need to set up username/password for 100s of sites and apps, that’s great.  That’s not my concern.

A Fitbit device costs money and collects very personal data about me.  Accepting the “Fitbit” terms and conditions is reasonable for them to collect, store and analyse my data for the purpose of providing a good quality service for me as a Fitbit user.  Accepting a “Google” terms and conditions is more complicated imo.  I know and accept (some of) the data I already allow Google to collect about my google account.  But at some point I might decide enough is enough and either not accept the next wave of intrusive Ts and Cs and just ditch the account/service or start afresh with no history.  By forcing my use of Fitbit products to use google not just for signin but subsequently for health data collection (maybe I’m misunderstanding this, but this is more than just for auth otherwise why would I be ‘moving’/‘migrating’ my Fitbit account and data to google?) means the moment I am not comfortable with the Google Ts and Cs means I immediately forfeit the use of a Fitbit device as it’s no longer usable,

I am not paranoid but I am data cautious.  I find the lack of clarity on the ownership of my health data and the account migration process concerning and shambolic.  I had full control of which platforms and apps to share my data with before from within the Fitbit ringfenced platform, I think I’m losing that control and privacy choices.

If anyone from FB is reading, this would be a great FAQ or topic for open discussion to alleviate the concerns of anyone like me.

[jabbasoft]

Unfortunately despite providing detailed info and a link to this thread, Fitbit support said create a new google account or take it up with google.  With an invalid link, Google don’t do direct support and I did ask what would I ask Google Support to do when it’s clearly an association with a Fitbit account _to_ a google id?  I have 7 3rd party apps associated with my google account, none are Fitbit.  Fitbit know my account and (non-google) email but “don’t have the tools to fix this”.  Sorry but I’ve worked 1st-4th line support and this was just palming me off as it’s not a quick fix.  Getting closer to leaving the Fitbit family.. ☹️

[jabbasoft]

Sorry you're having the same problems.  Despite multiple support chats I was unable to clear any unknown/unintended link between my 10+ year old Fitbit account and my 10+ year old Google account from either end.  After looking at my Charge 6 sitting on my desk for a month I finally managed to create a new Google account purely for the use of my Fitbit device which is so frustrating - now all my health/fitness data is sitting in the 'wrong' Google account but I can finally start using my Charge 6...

Really shouldnt have been this hard to use a fitness tracker, the forced Fitbit account migration should cater for these scenarios not make customers do silly workarounds.  I could have just used the Charge 6 with my existing Fitbit account until the actual cutover date but someone thought it was a clever idea to enforce the Google account aspect when setting up this device type vs leaving it to the discretion of the customer when to migrate...

Lets hope I like the Charge 6 after all the frustration 😄 .