Fitbit Charge 6 with a Google Managed Account

[thege]

My son received a Fitbit Charge 6 for Christmas and is trying to set it up. He has a Fitbit account from a previous device but Fitbit is requiring him to move to a Google account to use the Charge 6.

The problem is, when he uses his Google account, Fitbit says he can't use it because it is a supervised or Workspace account. He has a kids Google account which is managed by us.

I also tried to create a new Gmail address but his phone won't let him add a second Gmail account because it's a managed account. Is there any workaround for this problem?

[Cora1234]

Nope! Both Fitbit and Google tech supports say that only an ACE watch will work under family supervision. I reminded Fitbit that the ACE is designed for ages 6+ and that my 13-yr-old thinks it looks like a  "baby watch." None of the "adult" watches (Inspire, Charge, etc) will work as long as the child is under Family Link account supervision. Even after Fitbit and Google told us that, we still spent about 5 hours trying to find ourselves a work-around. Nothing worked, so now we hope we can return the watch. I refuse to stop supervising my child just so she can use a Fitbit. 

[Bjour]

Here is how to get it all to work. 

1. Go into the family link app and scroll to your child. 

2. Choose controls and scroll down to account settings, then choose account info. 

3. Change the birthday of your child to make them turn 13 tomorrow (you can't make them 13 until tomorrow, the app won't let you). 

4. Wait until tomorrow. 

5. On your child's device that is supervised (not yours), open chrome and go to: https://families.google.com/graduation

6. Have the child remove supervision at this site when it prompts you. 

7. Wait a few minutes for the family link app to update. Your child will still be part of the family but showing as a member only. 

8. Now setup the Fitbit watch as normal on your child's device. 

9. The next day, on your child's device, go to settings, Digital Well-being and Parental Controls. In this area, on the device, they can consent to being supervised again. Go through the prompts. They will change from a member on the family link app back to supervised. All will be back to normal with a working watch and full parental controls on their device. 

10. The day after they turn 13, have them go into their Google account and update their birthday. 

[PeterJ563]

Same problem here, but not for a child account, for my own Google Workspace account. Just bought a new Charge 6, but can't add it to my account unless I convert my account to a Google account (which is fine), but then won't let me use my Google Workspace account (which I use for everything else in my life). I see workarounds in the forum about creating a separate, dummy, Google account just for the Fitbit app, but this seems like total madness to me: Google bought Fitbit, forces customers to use a Google account (I can live with that), but then does not support all Google accounts?

To be clear: Parental Controsl etc is not the issue here, it's not a child account, it's my own Google Workspace account, so I don't think that any of the comments I read about having to comply with California regulations applies here. I can convert my existing Fitbit account to a new dummy Google account (which actually makes no sense to me at all), and it'll probably retain all my history etc, but then in the future when Google Workspace accounts are supported and I want to switch back to my Google Workspace account, will I lose all history then?

[JamesNeedsName]

It obviously is. A smartphone has all the same features for the most part and kids can still use those. Apple Watch works just fine for kids. It's absolutely maddening that Google is too lazy and cares so little about their customers that they just turn off functionality entirely instead of properly implementing the necessary features. 

---

Yes it absolutely is. Google can't be bothered to properly implement the software to conform so they just shut off functionality altogether. And that still doesn't explain why a 13 year old with a family link account can't use any of the watches.

I've had nothing but Google phones since the Nexus days but between this purchase (getting refunded) and how poor my experience has been with Pixel Watch I'm done with any Google hardware.

[tippytopstups]

Caveat: You can only stop supervising if your child is 13+ years old. 

[Danimal777]

Can you confirm it still works after putting supervision back on?

Thank you in advance 

[Bjour]

Works just fine still. 

[ExmouthSteve]

My son is 13 and has spent his savings on a Charge 6 as he lives running. We, his parents, fully agree with his use but the Fitbit app still only wants to let him connect "baby watches"! I have read all the helpful work around here and tried to follow them but in Family Link there is not currently even an option to remove supervision. It seems near impossible to connect with a human being at Fitbit / Google to get good advice on this and I fear they are about to lose a potential lifelong customer! It also looks like I may be stuck supervising my son's account for the rest of our lives! We live in the UK where 13 is the age where he should be able to use the Charge 6. Like many others here, I want my son to be able to use the Charge 6 whilst remaining under a supervised account. It seems counterproductive and less safe to have to remove all supervision just so he can track his runs. Any other brands of sorts tracker out there that don't have this issue? Thanks all. 

[CK1000]

Hi. We've just hit the same problem - bought my sport loving daughter an inspire 3 for her 12th birthday and now can't set it up. Did you solve this or can you recommend an alternative brand? Thanks. 

[ExmouthSteve]

Hello,

We did solve this. I had to remove my son's account supervision
temporarily. We then had to wait about 24 hours with no supervision in
place but then (with patience) his Charge 6 then appeared in the fitbit
app. We were then able to connect pair it with his fitbit account.

Finally, perhaps another 24 hours later, we applied the account supervision
again and all was well.

The only glitch is that sometimes he has to restart his phone to get his
Charge 6 to sync with his account but that may be an issue with his phone
(a Nokia).

I hope you manage to sort your daughter's watch out. They are great
motivators when they work and it really shouldn't be this difficult!

Best wishes,

Steve

[akfalk]

@Carlosb78   How did you remove supervision?  My son is 16 and the only option it gave me was to delete his account all together or move it to another family.  Even Google support couldn't figure that out.  

[RiekoC]

Hello @akfalk 

This help page has the instructions to stop supervision for a child (<-- click link). Basically, your son has to take control of his Google account.

[akfalk]

Thanks for the link. But, my account doesn't list 'ACCOUNT SUPERVISION' as an option. I've told Google that too, and they have no clue. All I have listed are: acct info, controls for signing in, controls for 3rd party apps, location settings, privacy settings, & highlights settings. It makes no sense.

[ExmouthSteve]

Hello,

I can remember is that sometimes I logged in and the "remove supervision"
option was there and other times it wasn't an option.

I did this through Family Link:


- Select child's account
- Select Account Settings
- Select Account Supervision
- Follow instructions

Good luck!

Steve

[Cora1234]

I'm trying to remember, but it's been a while. I think we had to disable
her Fitbit Account which took them 30 days to delete. Ugh! We then created
a new one where we increased her age, but I'm not sure that whole part was
necessary. We then removed Family Link temporarily from her phone while we
set up her Fitbit. If I recall, we had to make her 13 yrs old in Google
Family Link so it wasn't an automatic supervision on our part; she had to
tell Google that she wanted to be supervised by us--in other words, she had
to INVITE us to supervise her again. (We were worried about that at first,
but if she ever tried to remove our supervision, Google would alert us via
email.) So, once the Fitbit app was successfully installed and connected to
her Samsung phone for tracking and notifications, THEN she requested from
us to be supervised via Family Link again. That process somehow worked. We
can't see if she's messaging anyone through the Fitbit app unless we look
on her phone. But, she's happy that her watch tracks her sleep and steps
and even alerts her to phone notifications. We think Family Link wouldn't
work as long as she was under 13 and supervised automatically by us; as
long as she was "older " and requested supervision of her own will, it
worked.

[chicagorado]

So you had to wait 30 days to create a new account? 

[CK1000]

No, we didn't have to wait 30 days- read and follow the instructions from ExmouthSteve - works perfectly.  The only delay I remember was when I updated the age on the child's Google account, then it refreshed overnight.  We've had to repeat this a few times now when my daughter's fitbit had to be reset and the app reinstalled and it worked every time. 

Good luck 

[ExmouthSteve]

No, I don't think I did have to create a new account at all. I just removed
supervision through Family Link, set up the Charge 6, waited perhaps 24
hours then re-applied supervision through Family Link.

Don't get me wrong, it was a very glitchy and, in my opinion, a completely
unnecessary process!

Thanks.

[chicagorado]

Thanks, I did eventually get this process to work. The key is lots of patience, after each step it took at least a day before I could proceed to the next step. 

[akfalk]

Hey all!

So, I reached out to Google again and actually got someone who escalated my case this time. The next day I was then able to see the supervision option on my account and was able to remove him from supervision. They obviously did something on the back side to make that happen. Granted, they are not willing to update his birthdate to his correct birthdate but at least we've been able to get the new Fitbit connected and operating for him. Also, it may help if you do it from a computer as I tried doing it on my phone the first time and evidently didn't work. The link I used was families.google.com/graduation. They had me use this link on an incognito tab. Hope this helps anyone else who has this same issue.