New to charge 6 from charge 4 .. and a few questions/niggles

[Entwood]

OK.. so I'm used to fitbit/google making life difficult on the charge 4 .. had hoped it would not be the same on the charge 6.. but seems I'm wrong ...... any ideas on the following glitches please ...

1. "Do Not Disturb" is ON, all "push notifications" are off - especially "goals" - yet the **ahem** thing still buzzes and flashes when it reaches steps goal - what part of "do not disturb" does fitbit/google not understand ?? PLEASE just let me turn vibrations off - permanently !! 

2. Reorder the screens.. as I don't use "Notifications" at all- they are all turned off, I don't need the screen and would like to go straight to exercises, anyone know how to reorder/remove a screen ??

3. "Breathing rate" only seems to register every 3rd day or so.. all other parameters have data, so I guess all the sensors are working.... any ideas why this is erratic??

4. Sync doesn't want to work first thing in the morning, or after its not been used for around 6 hours, only way to get a synch is to restart the phone .. which is very annoying and a tad OTT !!

5. I cannot use it as a payment method simply because I cannot enter the PIN code ... the screen is so sensitive that attempting to scroll to the next digit is - 90% of the time - taken as "enter" so resulting in the wrong PIN... is there any way of reducing the "tap" sensititvity ??

That's it for now, although somehow I expect there is little chance of any "fixes" as much "googling" hasfound none so far .. 😞

Ta muchly for any help/advice 🙂

[KatherineNY]

@Entwood Wow that's a lot of issues you got going on =).  I can maybe shed some light or commiserate with some of them. 

First to stop getting notifications, specifically referring to step goals, I think it's meant to be "encouragement" where if you completed x number of steps within a certain time frame, You get a "pat in the back".  Not sure it's possible to stop those notifications buzzing through your device but you can quickly swipe right to get rid of it if you're in the middle of a workout.  The only thing I can think to stop all step notifications might be to set a step goal that is very high where you would never reach it in a day.

Not sure you can re-order the screens.  But you might be able to delete some.  Within the app, if you click to your device (upper left corner), you can open up the menu that refers to Apps and it does present an option to uninstall it.  I haven't tried this so it might or might not allow you to uninstall/delete.   

For the breathing rate, I think the health metrics glitches sometimes.  From personal experience a few times, it was the SpO2; it would have a delay in updating after sync.  It will say "No Data" but then a few minutes later or a few hours later it will refresh and be there.  This was brought up by someone else on this forum as well. 

I always manual sync first thing in the morning.  Turn on Bluetooth, open app, sync app.  If the app just "spins", as it sometimes happens, I force stop the app and re-sync, no issues.  I keep the Bluetooth off on my phone.  I find that keeping it on all the time, when I go and try to manual sync the app, app won't recognize Bluetooth is already on. 

I don't use the Charge 6 for payment so can't add my 2 cents here.

[Entwood]

Hi, thanks for your efforts.. unfortunately all you've done is confirm that google/fitbit are simply not interested in customer satisfaction. I now have a further "problem" in that 5/6 times aday i'm getting pop up messages "ready to hit your target today" .. and  searching the forum it seems there is no way to stop these permanently .. as google/fitbit seem to think they know better than anyone what is wanted .. shame they don't actually listen ....

I now realise my big mistake ... replacing the Charge 4 with the Charge 6 ..when the 4 died - another "known" problem if the screen getting dimmer and dimmer ... controlled failure by google/fitbit ?? ... I should have gone elsewhere for a tracker that actually allows ME to do what I want .. I was so hopeful they had started to listen to their client base .. but how wrong can you be ....

So my present options .... 1) live with this objectionable lump until it fails (knowing google/fitbit thats probably not that long).... 2) try and send it back as "not fit for purpose .. 3) Give it away and get something that actually works ..........

[KatherineNY]

@Entwood You're not the only one who has complained about the hit your target reminders.  I just ignore it.  There is a feedback to Google you can add your comment to about that.  As to whether they will listen....

I'm not familiar with how it was before Google took over Fitbit, my experience started with Charge 5 back in 2022 helping my mom use hers.  It seems the more "hi-tech" each version of the Charge becomes, the more fragile it seems to function.  My current Charge 6 is from December 2024.  Fingers crossed no issues.