Charge 6 showing a phone disconnected icon

[RebelReynolds]

I keep getting an icon appear at the top of my watch screen on the charge 6 it’s a phone with a slash through it. Any ideas what this means and how do I get rid of it please ? Only recently started to happen and no ideas why ?

[kerrydubs]

I turned off “status tray” under settings > display settings and it went away. Apparently “Status indicators are now available. When you turn on your device's screen, icons at the top of the clock face appear and display settings, such as if "Do Not Disturb" mode is turned on.”

[RebelReynolds]

IOS 18.4

[Dawny59]

I have iOS 18.3.2

[EV782]

On the watch, go into settings > display settings> and toggle off "status tray"

[Cydette]

Thank you that fixed it

[Adoniskeris]

I tried the above and the phone icon with the line disappeared, but it keeps restarting every now and then. This started happening after the latest update, and my iPhone is running iOS 18.8.1.

[EstuardoFitbit]

Hey everyone, thanks a lot for keeping us posted.

I really appreciate you sharing this workaround with us; it can be really helpful. In any case, our specialist team is looking into getting this feature to work properly.

Please continue to share any updates with me. That would help us a lot.

[EV782]

Thank you - in my case the "phone disconnected" status indicator on the watch face blocks my data display (heart rate) that is in that same spot on the watch face that I had selected. I also don't always have my app open on my phone, nor am I always standing by the phone. So every time the app closed or I would walk away, the status indicator would cover up my heart rate on the watch over and over. After spending 30 minutes on a Fitbit customer service chat (who told me to clear user data on my watch, delete the app, reinstall the app, reconnect the watch, etc), I found a google article saying that you can turn off "status tray" in the watch settings. I had to tell the fitbit agent the solution. It would've taken him 1 minute to troubleshoot, had he known about it.

[EstuardoFitbit]

Thanks @EV782, for clarifying this to me! 

Basically, this feature notifies you every time your device disconnects from your phone, specifically when the connection is lost. If you're seeing this notification when you move away from your phone, it's expected behavior for the connection to drop, and the icon will appear. If you want to prevent this from happening, the solution is quite simple, you just need to turn the feature off.

However, in my understanding of your comments, you're seeing this icon appear even when your device is still connected. Is that correct? 

[EV782]

No, I'm not seeing it now thankfully.  I contacted Fitbit support, and they couldn't help me so I googled and eventually found the answer myself. I wasn't even sure what the feature was called so it was hard to know what to search for and took awhile. Then afterward I saw someone in this thread here also commented the solution. I do think Fitbit needs to fix this, as it looks like a glitch. It covers up stuff we need to see on our watches. (see photo below). With my Charge 5, this was never an issue so I found it odd when I switched to a Charge 6. Maybe I just don't see the benefit of constantly keeping the watch linked to the app on my phone all day, or the need for my watch to remind me my phone is not nearby. The watch works fine without the app being open; it still tracks me. But I do open the app and sync my watch maybe once or twice a day if I need to see trends.

 

[Julie4mc]

Hi! I am still seeing this icon when my phone is connected to the Fitbit 

[CathyO2]

I am seeing it many times a day, and my phone is always connected. I wonder if connectivity is really that much of an issue. It may be, since the Find My Phone feature works less than 50% of the time.

[ClaudiaJK]

Android 14

[GC00018]

Unable to connect to the phone (Android 11) and sync. Removed my Charge from the app and now it can't find it there is no connection since the firmware was updated for me on Apr 17.

[JEGregory]

iOS 18.4.1 - same issue after Fitbit watch update

[KennyMcC]

Android 13. Firmware update downloaded automatically last night and my Fitbit lost connectivity. I restarted it and the new firmware installed. It reconnected but the App said to reconnect to get the new Bluetooth security. It connected once, worked for about 5 minutes and now is showing the not connected status, and not receiving notifications. The app is showing the wrong battery life, and when I sync it says 'looking...' The Charge 6 can't 'Find My Phone' a metre away from me. The status notification is working as expected, your update has broken connectivity and it's telling us all we're no longer connected. So the Fitbit is essentially now an unattractive timekeeper. I also tried to clear the app cache and clear my Charge data, but the results are the same. It connects, notifies to use the new secure Bluetooth connection and then drops the connection and stops synching. The Bluetooth is secure alright - it won't connect Charge and app.   

[Trilgal]

My crossed out phone status icon appears with putting my phone in airplane mode and taking it out of airplane mode it stays there.  The Fitbit is actually connected to the phone even though the status shows it isn’t.  It also remained on the phone as disconnected after reboot of phone.  But it was connected.  I am on IOS 18.4.  Status is useless if if is not accurate.  

[EstuardoFitbit]

Hello everyone, thanks a lot for keeping me posted!

All the comments shared in this thread and the feedback provided are quite amazing. I'm going to make sure the right team gets all this information as soon as possible. From now on, if I get any important updates, I'll let you know.

Please do not hesitate to keep sharing information with me; every single comment can be truly helpful!

[KennyMcC]

I think I may have found the issue, and 'resolved' it. I force-stopped the app, and cleared storage, and cleared data on the Charge 6 and started again. As I went through the settings, when it got to location permission, it showed an alert because I had set permission to allow only when the app was in use. I changed it to always having permission. Since then, I've not lost connectivity (or saw the new status alert!). I'm not sure why the app needs permission to always know my location - after all, the weather app is not available for Charge 6, but since I gave it permission I've not lost connectivity today. It's not a great solution as I now need to reset all my personal settings on the Charge 6 and I don't want Google able to access my location all the time, but at least it works again.

If someone having the same issue can go into App settings, then Location and give full permission to access Location data always, then test if connectivity works, you might not need to delete the storage or reset the Charge data.

[Estramel]

I had this same issue and I think i may have figured it out. The Charge 6 recently didn’t an update and I started seeing this phone error. And what I’ve found is, the Fitbit app now has to be always running in the background of the phone for the Charge 6 to stay connected. If I fully close the app, then the Charge 6 now constantly shows the phone disconnect screen.

It didn’t used to do that prior to the update, but ever since then, you can’t close the Fitbit app or your Charge 6 will read as disconnected.