Crashes during exercise

[BMCG]

10/3 morning run, tracking with GPS, looked at watch at mile 2,

checked a couple minutes later and it was the workout screen where you scroll to choose exercise. So I restarted “run” and went home. Synced to phone, 2+mile run is not there, was never recorded, didn’t sync. This is a MAJOR  reason for buying a gps tracker, it must work every time.  

Other problems-

finally got pandora stations to show up when I forced sync for 15th time on work WiFi, got Home put watch on charger, Home WiFi, pandora station and disappeared!!!! Fitbit Please fix software! Will Ben returning off not fixed in next couple weeks for refund. 

I was excited aboit Ionic becuase I like fitbit, battery life vs Apple Watch, and combined the function of my old gps running watch and all day tracker. But it was released with too many problems.  Please post update on firmware fixes that may be in the future. 

Moderator edit: edited title for clarity & format

[fkimura]

I think it's nothing about auto-cue. Last wednesday my ionic crashed during a pilates class, and my phone was away. So, no GPS, no autocue, no phone, no music, no notifications, no bluetooth... Next step is no watch? no exercise?

I'm very disappointed...

[wil455]

My Garmin arrives today. Fitbit, I loved your app... Surge was great minus
a sub par wristband. The Ionic is great on paper, but these issues lead me
to purchase the Garmin Fenix 5 X. I'm done with the Ionic.

[sfringer]

I think, as I mentioned in my latest update, there are different issues occurring.

[Issue 1]

If I do not perform the pre-cue voodoo, my Ionic will crash at the 1 mile point (my auto-cue) on every run. If I perform the pre-cue voodoo, my Ionic will not crash at the 1 mile point.

[Issue 2]

The crash I reported earlier this week occurred not at the 1 mile point (it was significantly earlier in the run), and is likely related to the crash you encountered in a non-running (pilates) exercise. I've only seen a crash at this point one other time over the course of running exercises with my Ionic. (Yes, I  annotate my crash occurrences)

I think there are separate catalysts to these crashes.

[CLA200]

Yeah. Seems totaly random at this point.

Im trying a restart before exercise in the future. Se how long that will
work.

[Wizegeezer]

Today, I forgot to interact with the exercise app once I started my run and sure enough the tracking crashed at the first auto-cue point at 2 minutes.  I discovered this about a mile later, restarted the tracking, swiped left and right for two seconds and the remainder of the tracking was fine.  My two minute checkpoints worked fine too.  The work-around seems to be helping me, if I remember to use it.  Let's hope this gets fixed soon.

[Hebrews12-1]

I have been having luck with interacting with mine prior to the first auto-cue point as well.  Since I started doing that the app has only crashed twice at the auto-cue distance and both times I had forgotten to interact with it.

This morning I felt the vibration of the auto-cue as I hit my first mile and I quickly remembered I had forgotten to interact with it.  I looked at the Ionic expecting to see that the app had crashed but to my surprise it didn't.  I tried to think about what was different today and the only thing I can come up with is that I powered the Ionic down and restarted it about 15 minutes prior to starting my run.

I agree with @Wizegeezer, let's hope they get this fixed soon.

[PaulHaines]

Hi All

I have the same issue - during Bike activities - it will randomly just drop out of tracking mode and lose the activity.  I take a look at the watch and it is in the clock face, not the activity tracking screen.  

I'm not sure if it is a result of a restart or not, I don't really feel it whilst mountain biking.

It is truly frustrating, and means the while point of the device is wasted (as is my money)

Does anybody know if notifications are really a contributing factor to this? (Though I do want notifications when I am exercising)

[CLA200]

Notifications does'nt seem to have anything to do with it. I don't use it
and crashes happen any way. 🙂

[BenBenson]

My ionic doesn't crash during 5 to 10 mile bike rides. These are my
settings.
>From the Exercise app: Bike
Show laps Off
Auto pause On.
GPS On.
Customize Stats
Top stat Distance
Bottom stat Elapsed time
Always -on Screen Off

Android Fitbit app:
All-day Sync Enabled
Always Sync Enabled
Keep-alive Widget Disabled
Notifications All Allowed

Clock face Stats by Fitbit

[classg1]

After having numerous crashes with the ionic while running and walking, I did a factory reset. During the first run after the reset I had no crashes. I did no fancy stuff at one mile to make it not happen. My second run I added everything I had taken out to make it work previously (notifications etc) before the reset to see if it would fail..again did no voodoo, and had no failure. Since there have been no real updates from FitBit on the cause or a fix for this crash issue I feel very insecure that the problem has been fixed simply by doing a factory reset. And who wants to do one of those every time the problem starts again. I'm switching to a Garmin 645m because reliability past about 10 months of use of a fitbit does not exist in my experience, and I have had a few fitbit devices. 

[fkimura]

I did a bike exercise last week in my ionic that did not crashed, yet my strava did not recognized it as a bike exercise.

So, not only my ionic is crashing, but also, it is producing corrupted data on the exercise..

I see there's no more response from fitbit... it seems we are on our own...

As I don't live in the USA, $300 throwed in the trash...

[Dinobean]

I am also at the point where I am switching to Garmin 645m!

This is such a critical issue, I haven't been able to use the watch to its full potential, eg having notifations off etc, with no resolution forthcoming.

I feel like the £ spent have been a waste!

[cbstanford]

I switched to a Garmin 645 also.  Between the sync issues and crashing during an activity with the Ionic, I gave up. I am very happy with the 645.  I dont use the music, so I didnt pay extra for that version.

[Qbaas]

I feel the " Switch to Garmin 645" should be official Fitbit troubleshooting reply here 😉 It's sad that they cannot fix it really.

[lachellesays]

I bought a used Garmin for fairly cheap to see if I would like the switch (since I’ve exclusively used fitbit products in the past). 

Pros:

- It doesn’t crash when I use it for runs

- Garmin Connect gives me way more data than the Fitbit app

- The GPS connects way faster than my fitbit

- The battery on this thing lasts like a week

Cons:

- This particular model doesn’t come with a built in HR monitor but that’s my fault for being stingy and buying a cheap used model

Overall? Sorry Fitbit... I tried. I really did. But Garmin is getting my money from now on. Fitbit is just not the device for even a casual athlete. 

Moderator Edit: Format

[SantiR]

Hello everyone! Thanks for your continuous participation on this thread regarding this topic.

Thanks for letting us know about this issue. Fitbit is aware of the problem and are working to resolve it as quickly as possible. 

I'm sorry for any inconvenience it's caused. I appreciate your patience and look forward to getting you back on track. 

In the meantime, you can manually log your activities for you to not loose any credit.

Keep me posted! 

[wil455]

I appreciate that we have a moderator observing the issues from the Ionic.
I did need to return my Garmin Fenix 5X because I thought it had music
storage. Turns out I need the 5X Plus. I had the Garmin for 2 weeks. I can
say it dominates Fitbit. The initial prices are outrageous, although in
doing the math, I've gone through 3 Fitbit Surges in 18 months, 1 that
Fitbit replaced for me. And now an Ionic that will eventually collect dust.
The Garmin is an investment, sure, but the quality supersedes Fitbit, and
while I've used 5 Fitbit devices in 36 months, 3 that've broken, I'm 100%
certain that the Fenix 5X Plus will last at least that long. I can't
believe it took me so long to find what runners really love. Sorry, Fitbit.

Moderator Edit: Format

[runnerboi418]

I don’t know what’s more frustrating: the continuing problems with the ionic that go unsolved, or the meaningless posts from the moderators. I’ve seen this same response (verbatim) on at least 3 different threads on this same topic (repeated several times within those threads, to boot). 

BEK

[fkimura]

I'm starting to get annoyed by these automatic answers by the moderators. To manually enter my records is hard when you simply dont know the mileage because you were tracking it using the f watch! More, I use the heartbit app that gives me points only if tracked by gps, not manually entered. Will fitbit talk to hearbit so they give me the points I lost because my US$300 watch crashed? I dont think so!

[PaulHaines]

@SantiR  It seems there are many threads and hundreds of postings on the same problem, namely that it crashes during activity, exits the exercise app unexpectedly.

Seems the problem has been raised with Fitbit since the device came out, and as it has not been solved, many people have returned their Ionics and switched to Garmins. 

The workarounds of turning notifications off or lap counters or not having your phone connected simply do not work.  I have none of those settings in place, and my activities are constantly discarded by this flawed product.

As it is so fundamental to what this device was designed to do - can the moderators please keep us updated for a timeline for a fix, as you can see many owners are regretting their purchase (including me)