Lost connection to Android phone, Fitbit app

[Stuckyville]

My Inspire 3 has lost connection with my Android phone.  A few days ago it stopped providing sleep and heart info (the only things I look at).  Even after a punishing 45 minute bicycle ride, it had no knowledge of heart rate, zero minutes in zone, no days of activity, etc.  I couldn't find a  setting to restore it, so I deleted the app and Bluetooth connection.  Then I (re)downloaded the app and went through the setup.  When it gets to 'Bluetooth Linking and Pairing"  it just spins for several minutes, then says "There was an error while trying to bluetooth pair your device. Would you like to try again?" 

[Bill_209]

I just had a similar issue when I performed a Factory Reset on my known-good Inspire 3 device so I could give it to my wife to use (long story...).

After restarting her phone, installing the app and starting the app, the app couldn't find the Inspire 3 device to pair with it.  As it turned out, the Inspire 3 device wasn't even showing up on the phone as an available BT device to pair with and I struggled with that for quite some time. 

I finally discovered that Factory Resetting the Inspire 3 device again by putting it in the charging cradle and then pressing/holding the two side buttons for at least 10 seconds at the exact moment that the app indicated that it was attempting to BT pair the device worked to turn on the device BT module in the Inspire 3 for pairing and successfully completed the setup.

Very finicky BT pairing process.

[Stuckyville]

No joy.  After the factory reset, the app woke up and started me through the setup.  Eventually came to a screen that said "Inspire 3 found   Now check you device for the 4-digit pairing code."  But the device is doing nothing but constantly scrolling a message to download the app ... the app that is already downloaded and waiting for a pairing code.  If I go to the phone's 'system'  app to look at BT connected devices, it shows the inspire, with a message "tap to setup this device".  If it tap that, it just re-starts the fitbit at, at the setup entry point.  But the Inspire continues to just scroll the message to download the app.  I find no way to break it out of that.

[Bill_209 · Accepted solution]

To say that this app and the BT pairing process with the Inspire 3 is annoying would be an understatement.

I have also experienced situations where the setup process failed repeatedly, but I just kept starting the entire setup process over again until it magically completed.

• Uninstall the app
• If the phone indicates that the Inspire 3 is BT paired, unpair it
• Turn off the phone
• Factory reset the device
• Turn on the phone
• Reinstall the app
• Try to complete the setup process again

Pathetic, I know, but that's unfortunately the way it is.

If you haven't contacted the CS team for this setup issue yet, that would be worth a try.  I had to do that when I got my first Inspire 3 and that's the one thing that they actually seem to know how to help with.

[Stuckyville]

This finally got it, with these notes/caveats:

Starting point:  FB is fully charged, and scrolling two screens telling me to install the app.  At this point I had already uninstalled the app, so going forward:

1) Unintsall the app.   -- Already done

2 - If the phone indicates that the Inspire 3 is BT paired, unpair it.    -- it was not shown as paired, so "check"

3 - Turn off the phone - "check"

4 - Factory reset the device -- googled how to do that, Found 'hold buttons for 10 seconds".  Did that (again! ) and while it appeared to restart, at the end it came back with the scrolling "install the app" screen.

5 - Turn on the phone.  Check. And when it restarted, checked again that app is NOT installed and Inspire is NOT paired

6 - Reinstall the app.  Check.

7 - Try to complete the setup process again.  Check.  This time the setup went through some steps that I hadn't see since the initial "out of the box" setup.  And this time when it ;asked for the 4-digit code shown on the Fitbit, the FB had actually broken out of the 'iinstall the app' loop and was showing a code. 

So immediate problem solved.  Thanks for the good step-by-step.  The only thing I can think of that I did differently was to restart the phone, so I'm guessing that the cache needed to be cleared.

But for the record,

Immediately upon reconnecting, the app is showing I've already walked 1500 steps, burned 1,044 calories, had two hours of activity, at 9:00 and 10:00 this morning (when I wasn't wearing, and it was still wanting to download the app).   Doesn't exactly inspire faith in the accuracy of it's readings.  But I was losing faith there, as well.  I have a regular workout (a 10-mile blcycle ride)  that I hit almost every day, and am very consistent in effort and time to completion, but I've gotten wildly varying readings on time spent in the heart rate 'cardio' zone.  The ride (same route) consistently takes 45 minutes, and I've gotten "cardio time" varying from 15 minutes to 48 minutes.

[Bill_209]

Glad to hear that you finally got it working.

Regarding the heart rate measurement issue, the manual states that the Inspire 3 should normally be worn about one finger width away from your wrist bone, but it should be worn about two finger widths away from your wrist bone while doing vigorous exercises, presumably because that reduces the probability of having heart rate measurement issues.

It may be worth trying to place an elastic band of some kind over the Inspire 3 on your arm to hold it in place while riding your bike to see if that improves the HR measurement consistency.