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Fitbit Connect does not work with MacOS Big Sur

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After upgrading my Mac OS to Big Sur 11.1, Fitbit Connect no longer recognizes Bluetooth. Even when I have bluetooth enabled, it throws the error "Please enable bluetooth to sync your trackers."

 

I'm using the latest available fitbit connect software -- v2.0.2.7241.

 

I've seen a few other posts describing the same problem, but the subjects call out specific devices (Alta, Charge 2).  I'm filing fresh new topic because this is not a fitbit device problem. (I happen to have the Surge.)  It is a problem with Fitbit Connect app for MacOS.

 

I upgraded my Mac about 3 weeks ago, so as of now, I have 3 weeks of data on my Surge that I cannot sync.

 

Please advise when a Fitbit Connect patch will be available to let it work properly with Big Sur. 

 

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60 REPLIES 60

I am having the very same problem.   I upgraded my laptop from an eight year old MAC to MacOS Big Sur 11.1,  tried to run Fitbit Connect and get a message telling me to turn on Bluetooth when it is already on.  I have a Fitbit ONE for my tracker.  I can at this point continue to use my account on my old MAC but that is not optimum.

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See Nov. 23rd thread "Alta not syncing..." Essentially everyone in various posts are saying the same thing about the incompatibility problems they are having.

Solution: Fitbit needs to get its act together and upgrade at their end i.e., it has nothing to do with our devices nor the Mac OS.

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I am having precisely the same problem with the newly installed Big Sur OS. The Fitbit App will not acknowledge bluetooth is "on". After

trying every possible remedy with Fitbit, I spoke with Apple Support. They kicked it back to a problem with the Fitbit App. I do not use a

smartphone, so my computer is my base for tracking exercise data.

 

I am awaiting a return contact from Fitbit regarding the problem. No one, to date, has an answer. Many of the support techs are unaware of the

problem. It renders impossible any means of tracking one's data.

 

Dlee60 2/20/21

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apparently,fitbit is joining the ranks of "we've moved on from you"...so what every big company does now is sell you something and then change the system with no support plan other than  "buy a new device"...see> "apple phones" and "laptops "'...fitbit has partnered with big brother google so I guess we are casualties in the big tech wars!

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Such seems to be the case. Rather than even acknowledging the problem or a desire to fix it, Fitbit offered me a 35% discount on a device to replace my Charge 2.

But the simplicity of the Charge 2 is all I want…..The Inspire seems to have a lot of issues.

As of this writing, I await a reply to my question as to whether a new device will have the same problem with the iMac "Big Sur" OS - that the
App will say “Bluetooth not connected”. Unless I hear differently, a new device could be a fool’s errand.

This is an issue that has to affect a substantial number of users.
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I suspect that you correct: "It is a problem with Fitbit Connect for MacOS' [Big Sur]." Neither any conversation with Fitbit tech support folks,

nor emails from the company suggests a desire to look seriously at the problem; to explain it. (I await reply to a second query on the matter.)

 

Absent any interest from the company, I may - after five years of exercise tracking on Fitbit - move on to another company. This would seem a pretty

simple fix on the part of the Fitbit Co., one that should not be ignored.

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Same response as above - Fitbit offered me a 35% discount too to buy a new device - excuse me?!? Talk about throwing good money after bad if Fitbit is neither responding their consumer inquiries on this nor, it seems, attempting to resolve the incompatibility issue. Why should we trust them? 

 

But rather than switching to another company as dlee60 suggests (although always an option) I would prefer to keep the Fitbit device I have been using for years if at all possible.  Perhaps another route would be to bring more "public" attention to the issue, via other social media avenues, and there must be someone in the community who knows or can make contact with a news station or consumer affairs show e.g., here in Canada we have a weekly half-hour CBC program called "Marketplace" that does investigations into consumer complaints... a little bit of bad press might light a fire under Fitbit's butt to not only communicate with their users but also to resolve the problem. (The lack of communication is especially unacceptable in my view.)

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Well, go for it! (I would prefer not to switch companies, as well.) I am sending a second email query today on the matter. They never got back to me yesterday.

Again, this cannot be an insubstantial issue in terms of numbers of
Fitbit/iMac Big Sur users.

One might hope the company would have someone, as well, monitoring these exchanges…...
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I feel the same...I will reluctantly download the fitbit app on my phone but I will never buy another....google,apple,fitbit ,cable companies and phones are a scourge on this country..they are so irresponsible when it comes to customer satisfaction, remember apple slowing down phone data to get people to buy another over priced phone..and google is a spam behive!   you would think they would send a bulk email saying their update might potentially interrupt service...I have nothing but contempt for these tech hogs!

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Amazing that my old Charge 2 still works, but a bummer that FB has apparently decided on planned obsolescence.

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dlee60 -- as I explained in my original post, this is a problem with the Fitbit Connect app for MacOS BigSur. No fitbit device will work, old or new, if the Fitbit Connect app won't work properly with the Bluetooth connection. Period.

 

I got a Charge 4 to replace my old Surge, but I cannot even *activate* my new Charge 4 because of the Fitbit Connect app not working with Big Sur. And I can't use a Fitbit mobile app because I have a Blackberry -- the last model that was made that runs the Blackberry 10 O/S. Fitbit mobile app does not run on Blackberry O/S. Nor does the desktop app run on MacOS Big Sur. So I'm SOL unless I commit to buying a new smart phone.

 

Based on the responses, it appears Fitbit isn't going to fix the problem anytime soon, if ever, so I have decided that, sadly, I have to return my new Fitbit Charge 4. As I said, it is unusable for me -- I can't even activate it -- since Fitbit fails to fix the Fitbit Connect app to work with MacOS Big Sur.

 

 

 

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@ewjake wrote:

I feel the same...I will reluctantly download the fitbit app on my phone but I will never buy another....

Unfortunately, I don't have that option -- my smart phone runs Blackberry O/S.

 

 


@ewjake wrote:

google,apple,fitbit ,cable companies and phones are a scourge on this country..they are so irresponsible when it comes to customer satisfaction, remember apple slowing down phone data to get people to buy another over priced phone..and google is a spam behive!   you would think they would send a bulk email saying their update might potentially interrupt service...I have nothing but contempt for these tech hogs!


Agree -- exactly why I don't want to get a new iPhone or Android phone. I'm trying to stay with my Blackberry for as long as I can.

 

But that means I'm now completely shut out of being able to use any Fitbit device, since my only previous path to success was the Fitbit desktop app for MacOS, which no longer works since I upgraded to Big Sur! (Hmm, i wonder if I can get an android o/s emulator running on my mac, maybe via VirtualBox or Docker or some such. Even then, will the emulator work properly with my Macbook's hardware (bluetooth) ?

 

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@cbare , I'm wondering what you mean by "amazing that my old Charge 2 still works".

 

Do you mean in the same way that my old Surge still works? My surge works fine except for the major fact that I can't sync it to the fitbit cloud ever since I upgraded my MacOS to Big Sur. So I now have about 2 months worth of unsync'd data sitting on my Fitbit.

 

This community topic is specifically about the problem of the Fitbit Connect desktop app not working with MacOS Big Sur. Anyone like me, who had been relying on the Fitbit Connect desktop app to sync their trackers to the cloud, won't be able to anymore after upgrading MacOS to Big Sur.

 

For me, this means an Aria scale, a Surge tracker, and a recently purchased Charge 4 tracker. So, I am going to have to return my Charge 4, because I can't even activate it without a working Fitbit Connect desktop app.

 

 

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I mean, it's 4 years old and been through a lot of banging around, so I am surprised the watch itself still works. Counter to the trend of getting the newest gadget every 6 months, I like to keep things around as long as I can rather then dumping them in a landfill and getting a new one. The device makers work against that with a planned obsolescence strategy, annoyingly.

 

FWIW, I got my old charge 2 to sync by digging an old iPhone out of a drawer.

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So, it may be fair to assume that, even if one gets a new device at a 35% discount (as Fitbit has offered some frustrated users), it still will not work [track] with iMac’s Big Sur OS.

This is the question I posed to the company. No one has replied.

Moreover, I referred their “team” to this forum subject heading. Is anyone at Fitbit interested? …….not so far.
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Hi everyone!

 

Thanks for reporting this issue and for the details provided. I've escalated it to further investigate. 

 

I appreciate your patience. 

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AnaFit - please also see Nov 23rd thread "Alta not working..." which, if I recall, began back in 2019 when Catalina was the most recent Mac OS upgrade. I could get my device to still work but Fitbit still had bugs to work around that a host of other customers were frustrated with too. This incompatibility problem has now repeated itself with the Big Sur OS in that thread starting 2020-21 except there are no workarounds this time (nor should consumers have to try to figure them out in the first instance.)

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Good information. Is anyone at Fitbit listening? No response to my third
inquiry by email. I shall try another tack by phone. No one at the company,
to date, has been willing to acknowledge the issue in a forthright manner.
Asking customers to shell out more money at a discount doesn’t cut it.
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Apple just sent upgrade today for my MacBook Air for Mac OS BigSur Version 11.2.1

   My Fitbit Charge 2 still will not synch with Bluetooth - very frustrating !!!!!!

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