Allow offline syncing

[SunsetRunner]

My Ionic is not syncing. Again. This is a recurrent issue and I believe it's a design fault. It seems that in order for the Ionic to sync locally that it needs to do so via the internet (and fitbit servers). So the constant sync issues are probably related to this. It's very bad design, in my opinion, that syncing locally requires internet.

Why can't the Ionic sync locally over bluetooth or local intranet (WiFi) without having the internet? It's not because the technology would not support this more sane approach, it's because the software (and firmware in the tracker) seems to be programmed to "phone home" before it will do a local sync. This is a silly way to do things. The better way would be:  fitbit  --> (sync locally) --> (internet/sync fitbit server). But the path seems to be fitbit --> (internet/fitbit server) --> (sync locally) which means that if for any reason the internet in the middle is not there, or the servers cannot handle the load, that a local sync will not happen. And this seems to be the scenario for most of the time. It's breaking things.

I suspect that even when the internet is available (which I concede is 99.9% of the time for me) the Ionic cannot sync locally probably because the fitbit servers have insufficient capacity to handle all these devices unnecessarily syncing with fitbit servers to do local syncs.

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[Rich_Laue]

The Fitbit tracker a are not designed to sync locally. A sync is only successful when the tracker a data has been sent to the server .

Then the server processes the data .At this time the app or web will have access to the data. 

[SunsetRunner]

Yes, and that's why it's broken. 🙂

Edit: The data is stored locally (one way to easily prove this is by disconnecting from the internet and looking at all your data from the app) so there is no reason why it should not sync locally when the internet is not available or the fitbit servers are broken. My Ionic has not synced for 2 days now and I can only assume it's because fitbit's servers are once again not working properly. What happens when fitbit goes out of business? We all have watches that will be useless (they can't seem to keep time if they don't sync regularly, so, yeah, useless because they won't be able to even keep the time because they can't sync)

[Rich_Laue]

If the servers was that overloaded. these boards will be flooded with complaints. 

In what way is it broken. and why do you think Fitbit will shortly be going out of business .

[MarreFitbit]

Hi @SunsetRunner. It's nice to see you around! Thank you for the thorough feedback for the Fitbit devices. Fitbit has been designed to provide motivation and help you to reach your daily goals to success. Please know that we provide feedback to our team based on community posts and we are always working on improving our devices and overall environment based on that feedback.

If you have a suggestion about the design of your tracker, I encourage you to post this in the Feature Suggestion board. I was making some research and was able to find this idea asking for the same:

• Allow Offline syncing / Store data locally

Even though this feature suggestion is marked as "No currently planned" it's still open for votes, so please cast a vote for this idea to show your support for it.

For anything else you would like to see implemented in the future, consider visiting our Feature Suggestions board. This is a space where Community users can post features, ideas, and suggestions that they'd like to see in future Fitbit products, accessories, and software and top-voted suggestions get relayed to our product team for review. 

If you're having syncing issues, please check the article: Why won't my Fitbit device sync?

Let @Rich_Laue or me know if there's anything else I may assist you with. 

[SunsetRunner]

I didn't suggest that fitbit was going out of business 😕 I asked what happens *if* fitbit goes out of business, because if they did it seems that we would no longer be able to use our devices.

[ModelD]

Once in a while, I would just like to point out: this nonsense is exactly why I no longer have a Fitbit.  If your response is "Sorry, we have no plans to ever let you control your own data, we plan to just hold on to every step you take (and every beat of your heart), forever", well ... that's a deal-breaker for me.  I'm tracking my steps with another device, now.  I thought Fitbit was a great, elegant little device, but that cloud-only storage is unacceptable.  

Just throwing that out there in case one day it makes Fitbit reconsider ...

[OldRattler]

Having this issue with my Versa 2. About three days a week I'm off at our cabin in the woods, with no internet and in a dead zone for most cell services. I'd have to set up a smart phone on U.S. Cellular to get internet there. Likewise, if on a cruise I usually don't have internet access for a week or two. It is at the very least irritating not to be able to download data, and I seem to lose some. Even my old Garmin Viviosmart 3 could sync and download data to the app without internet access, tho' it was unable to do any significant data processing.

That means you've designed this watch to be a City Watch, useless to country boys. Useless, for example, to someone doing a major trek overseas, such as the Camino de Santiago. That's absurd. If I were grading this software for Computer Science 201, I'd give it an F.

[LMAOUDFB]

I have proposed this as well, but they will never do it, Maybe Google will when they take over once the approval occurs. But there is a definite design flaw, but no one will admit it. Personally I dont care if its in the cloud or not. What I DO care about is that the fitbit not syncing with the phone because its trying to sync with the servers first. 

What they NEED to do is have the devices sync with the DEVICE to download the info, and THEN upload it from the phone to the cloud. This way we are not hitting the sync button 50 times just to sync up.

Like today, I havent synced my ionic with my phone in almost 3 weeks (I try not to keep it connected to the app since they keep messing up the ionic with firmwares), and I had to hit sync 50 times just about for 2 hours just for it to sync and download all the data that was stored on the watch. This is where instead of syncing with the cloud it should be sync-ed to the phone and then upped to the cloud, it would be way faster and less sync issues. But what do I know, I've only been a Computer, network & security consultant for 21+ yrs.

[Rich_Laue]

Why would a user need to hit the button 50 times to sync? People want the offline ability to sync to save cellular.

If a user doesnt want to sync through cellular, simply turn off bluetooth or force close the Fitbit app.

Your data, 7 days of detail and up to 30 days of counts will be stored locally on the tracker.

You are right in that Fitbit never promised to implement every suggestion.

[OldRattler]

Well, finally, a little info on how these things work! This certainly was not in any information provided with the Versa 2 in the box or in primary on-line material that I could see! At least it has more memory than the Garmin Viviosmart 3, which only stored for about a day. It will still lose detailed data on a 2-week cruise or other long vacation.

And it still, for no apparent reason, with wi-fi running great on my tablet, will fail to sync when I get up in the morning and want to see my sleep score and RHR. The message is typically that pairing was rejected by the Versa2, even when internet access is working fine. I've also had it declare that no device is connected even though the heartrate channel is running on the tablet!

The only reasons I can come up with for denying connection of the watch with the app on the tablet without an internet connection would be A) programmers to lazy to write an Android app with any computational capacity whatsoever, B) mainly want to use the app to market crap every time we turn it on, or C) are doing intrusive tracking of us as a big part of your business model.

I'm still in my first 30 days with this thing, and I have the option of returning it for a refund. I'm thinking really hard about it. I like the watch but the app stinks.

[Psyclopps]

So interesting side bar… I found out the Fitbit Sense if used offline for a few days will lose time sync. It will start drifting forward or back in time until it is unreliable. The only fix is to get online to sync it up again. So in addition to not being able to store detailed data locally in the app, the Fitbit Sense can not function as a reliable Watch if you are offline for a few days for remote workers. Yay. 

[LMAOUDFB]

Actually this is not true, I have a fitbit Ionic, and when it isnt getting screwed up by whatever they devs are doing, it runs perfect, the last 4 months its been running perfect and I was syncing about once a month, then all of sudden in the last 2 weeks they have done something with the software or their servers which now cant keep time if its life depended on it or mine for that matter. And apparently they admit to it in one of the posts, but yet they cant fix it because I dont think they have a clue what they broke. This idea of a universal app for all devices needs to stop because it seems when they fix something for one device they break it for another. The saddest part is Fitbit has the best battery life (7 days for me) and features, but they cant get their watches to sync correctly and blame other things or send you on a wild goose chase, where other companies battery last maybe 3 days and dont have the same features and yet none of these issues time or syncing issues exist.

Just boggles my mind.

[Psyclopps]

Sorry, just checking but what specifically is not true? If referring to my
post the Fitbit Sense does indeed lose time sync after a few days of
offline use... after about a week of camping or remote work offline, my
clock will be a few minutes fast or slow.

I have no issue getting time correct when synced online to the app.

[Rich_Laue]

Maybe the Sense and Versa 3 keep time when not syncing, but we have a few models that have been reported not to keep time. It may be nice to have a way to at least sync time, if not data. 

 All fitbit's have 7 days of detail data and a days for general data. Right now a sync is only successful if the data is saved in the cloud storage. 

[LMAOUDFB]

Psyclopps,

I was referring to the watch needing to sync in order for it to keep time, I'm sorry if that wasnt clear, but I would sync mine once a month and had no issue with it keeping times correctly. So there is something else that has been done by fitbit that is causing you this issue, and in my personal opinion, its not you or what you have done, its them. As I said I havent had this issue for at least 4 months (I did before for 2 months when they messed something up again). This is one of the reasons why I wish Google gets rid of these wannabes and always making you jump through hoops to fix this and put in real devs and people that know what they are doing.