Inspire 3 doesn't work for 14-year-olds?

[Citabria]

My daughter got an Inspire 3 for her 14th birthday.  She was very excited.  Opened the box, and tried to set it up with her Pixel 5a phone.  Installed the app.  It required a parental authorization to install and sign in (using her Gmail account), fine.  Worked through that.  Tried to pair the device and...

The app refuses to pair with her Inspire 3.  Doesn't even list that as an option.  Only wants to pair with Fitbit ACE devices (which wouldn't work for her anyways, she's 14)!

What.  The.  Heck.

My daughter recalls that a year ago Google sent her an email about "upgrading" her account to an adult account.  So she digs out that email, and goes through the workflow to "upgrade" her account.  Fine.

Go back to the Fitbit app.  It still only wants to pair with ACE devices.

So I figure the app has gotten itself into a funny state with cached data.  So I clear app data on her phone for the app, and try again.

Now the Fitbit app refuses to let her sign in with her gmail account at all.  It claims her gmail account is now a Google Workspace or school account (which it clearly is not -- it is a gmail account!).

Is there any way of letting my daughter use her new watch?

(Happy to follow any instructions if you have any pointers.  I can follow instructions, I've worked as a Google SWE/manager for 10+ years, it is embarrassing how badly this setup workflow has failed in this case...)

[Citabria]

This is getting more hilarious (in a bad way) by the minute.

I got my daughter to try and log into the Fitbit forums on her computer, instead of logging in using the Fitbit app on her phone.  And it gave a more useful error message, saying that her account couldn't log in because it was either a Google Workspace account *or a supervised account*.

Ok.  That I can work with.  Some Googling reveals that you might be able to get a Fitbit to work if you temporarily disable parental supervision.  So I do that -- go through the workflow to disable supervision on her account.

And it works!  Now I can log into the Fitbit app with her account.  Progress!

So I go to add her Inspire 3.  And...  no dice.  My 14-year-old daughter now has an "adult" account, and it is no longer "supervised", but the app still only shows me the Fitbit Ace line of watches as options to set up.

I'm quickly reaching the end of my rope.  Any hints?  I didn't know that I was purchasing a puzzle hunt for my child...

[Julia_G]

Hi, @Citabria , I am not sure that I can help, but I am assuming that you have seen this info from the Fitbit help articles:

How does my child upgrade their account?

If you sign in with a Google Account

Your child must take control of their Google Account, then upgrade in the Fitbit app. Have your child complete these steps:

1. Open the email message in their inbox with the subject line "Ready to take charge of your Google Account?"
2. Follow the instructions in the email message to take control of their account. For more information, see the Google help article How Google Account work when children turn 13 (or the applicable age in your country).
3. Open the Fitbit app, tap Upgrade, and follow the on-screen instructions.

If you sign in with a Fitbit login

Have your child complete these steps under kid view in the Fitbit app:

1. On the Today tab , tap the message at the top Upgrade.
2. Follow the on-screen instructions to review Fitbit’s Terms of Service and data and privacy policies.
3. Enter their email address.
4. When prompted, verify their email address, and return to the Fitbit app.
5. Continue to follow the on-screen instructions to enter their account details.
6. Review Fitbit’s Privacy Policy, and tap I agree.
7. On the Congratulations screen, tap Got It to see their new Today tab.

Also, if it still isn’t working, it might be worth trying to log into Fitbit on your phone using her gmail address (you’ll need to log out of your account, if you have one, first), and seeing if her email log in works and if you can then set up the Inspire 3 on your phone.  Then once the Inspire 3 is associated with her email address try to log into the Fitbit account on her phone.  If that works then the app should prompt her to pair her new Fitbit with her phone.

Will be interested to see what the solution is!  Welcome to the forums.

[Citabria]

Thank you @Julia_G!

I had not seen that article.  Sadly, I can't get those instructions to work either.  😞

In particular:  my daughter has taken control of her account.  I then (afterwards) disabled parental supervision.  And these instructions then say that the Fitbit app will present her with an option to "Upgrade".

As far as I can tell, that option is not presented.  I can't find an option to "Upgrade" anywhere in the Fitbit app.  Sigh.  So I guess this workflow doesn't work (or, I'm blind).

So I tried adding my daughter's account to my phone, and using the app there.  It works on my phone!  Got the Fitbit set up when paired with my phone (a Pixel 7), using my daughter's gmail account.

But I don't want it paired with my phone.  I want it paired with my daughter's phone.

So I went back to my daughter's phone.  No dice.  Try force-stopping the app, clearing app data, and starting again.  Still doesn't work.

Current state:

• Watch is working.  It is paired to the Fitbit app on my phone.
• When I launch the app on my daughter's phone, it lets her log in.  Once she is logged into the app, it does not seem to show an "Upgrade" option anywhere.  If I click on the "connect to Fitbit" icon in the top left, and click on "Add device", only the four Ace products are listed.  No Inspire 3.
• If I swipe down on the screen, it briefly announces "Syncing your data", but nothing changes.
• If I click on her account icon in the top right, and go to "Fitbit settings", I see no "Upgrade" option.
• If I click on "You" at the bottom of the screen, I see no "Upgrade" option.
• If I click on "Today" at the bottom of the screen, I see no "Upgrade" option.
• If I click on "Notifications" at the top of the screen, there are no messages or notifications.
• If I click on her account icon in the top right, and go to "Your data in Fitbit":
  • The first thing presented says "Move on up.  Open the Fitbit app to complete your in-app graduation, which moves you to Fitbit for teens or adults".  So *something* thinks she is in an in-between state.  But I can't figure out any way of getting this graduation workflow to happen.  Clicking on this message does nothing.
  • If I click on "Managed paired devices", it brings me to a web browser pointing to accounts.fitbit.com with a Google log in screen.  Logging into Google with my daughter's gmail account returns me to the same log in screen with no error message.  Trying again confirms it is an infinite loop.
  • I notice there is also the option to "Delete Fitbit".  Poking into that, it seems that the deletion process takes 30 days, and so I do not initiate this process at this time.

[Citabria]

Ok, I just looked at it further -- and apparently, in spite of me signing into my phone as my daughter, it added the Fitbit to my gmail account and not hers.  So that explains why it worked on my phone.  If I explicitly select her account and try to add another device on my phone, I get the same experience as I do on her phone -- no ability to add the Fitbit to the phone, as the only options are kids options.

[Citabria]

Reached out to Fitbit support.  They pointed me at this forum thread, which says you need to wait 24 hours after disabling parental supervision before Fitbit realizes the Google account has changed.

So I'm going to wait a while and see if the problem fixes itself.