Fitbit Ionic Bluetooth headphone problems?

[Tunah85]

I just purchased a set of HBQ-i7s Bluetooth earbuds (knock off air pods).  They work great with my phone's bluetooth, and the sound quality is fine, but when I sync them with my Fitbit IONIC I get horribly crackly music, and the earbuds are out of sync - even playing at different rates!

I know it isn't the earbuds themselves as they play fine on every other device I connect to.

Is this a common problem with Fitbit Ionic's Bluetooth?

[uksglory]

Hi i am having the same problem with sound dipping in and out.

How did you get on with the Bluetooth 4.1.headphones?

Regards

Nick

[YojanaFitbit]

Hello @dyzzle, @Jillccc, @Lord_Hebron and @uksglory! Thanks for the steps that you have already tried.

By any chance, have you tried removing your Bluetooth headphones from your phone's Bluetooth list Once you have done this, try unpairing your headphones from Ionic, restarting it, and then pairing them back. Make sure your headphones are not paired to your phone as well.

If this is not helping please let me know so I can request a case on your behalf to check your options with our support team. 

See you around.

[Jillccc]

I've tried everything under the sun. It does NOT work. It is NOT
tolerable to listen. As mentioned (here or elsewhere ) 2 different
ionics. 4 different wireless headsets

[Dazzzzbo]

I have finally gave up.  The reason I bought the ionic was for the music.   I had a surge before that which I liked and worked well for me but didn’t want to carry my phone when running.   

I have tried a different fitness watch from a competitor today and the music was great with the same earbuds. 

I’m on my second ionic now and going to have to contact customer support again.  

[Shazbot75]

I have finally given up too. I waited a year, in good faith, for Fitbit to fix the music issue. Its a total shambles. I've just bought a samsung galaxy smartwatch. Does all the things the Ionic did, and so much more! 

[Dazzzzbo]

Hi I went with the vivoactive 3. Much the same features as the fenix just cheaper and lighter and probs not as robust.   I had a VA hr but went to Fitbit and love the app and the challenges but shame the hardware doesn’t work as advertised.  My ionic keeps cutting off on bike rides aswell.  It sometimes records the full ride on the map but stops recording miles and distance.  I still want it to work as I will pass it on to my son. 

[Naomijoy83]

I'm thinking of going with Samsung Galaxy watch. Does it have all the
functionality as Iconic including being waterproof?

[Climbcovey]

I thought about the galaxy, but really want music and tracking without my phone.... and dont want to pay for an additional wireless line.Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

[Shazbot75]

Yep, it sure does. It has a lap counter for swimming, which I used my Ionic for quite a bit. You can download your music to it as well. I should mention that I am waiting for it to arrive, so I haven't put it to the test myself yet, but all the info/YouTube reviews etc tell me it does everything I need it to. Plus I bought the cellular one, so I can even make calls and text from it without my phone nearby 🙂 Yay!

[dyzzle]

I unpaired, paired again, then went a bought a brand new set of headphones by a different manufacturer.  I got choppy audio after each step in the process! 

I'm about to give up like everyone else and move on to another watch. Or heck, even back to carrying the phone with me when I go for runs. 

[SilviaFitbit]

Thank you for getting back @Jillccc! I appreciate all the details that you've shared. Sorry to hear that it still hasn't worked for you. Sorry for any trouble. We appreciate your patience and look forward to getting you back on track. Please let us know if there's anything we can do to assist you in the meantime. 

Hey @Dazzzzbo. Thanks for being a loyal customer. Fitbit is continuously working to implement features based on your feedback. I've shared your case with our Support team and they've mentioned that you already have a case with them. 

@Shazbot75, sorry to see you go. Your feedback is appreciated and we're always working to provide you with the best customer service and improving our trackers based on your comments. 

@dyzzle, thank you for the troubleshooting that you've tried. Sorry for any trouble. We appreciate your patience and look forward to getting you back on track. Please let us know if there's anything we can do to assist you in the meantime. 

I'll be around if you need further assistance. 

[Lord_Hebron]

UPDATE:  I finally caved and bought a pair of JBL Endurance Sprint earbuds.  Not too expensive, I was just being stubborn and not wanting to spend more money to make the Ionic work. They work perfectly with my watch.  It sucks I had to buy a second pair of earbuds, but hell....at least I can run without my phone now! This is just a theory, but I feel it has something to do with earbuds that aren't connected with a behind-the-neck wire - both sets of standalone earbuds I tried didn't work worth a **ahem**.  I really wanted to like my Ionic and now I can.  Good luck to those still fighting theirs!

[Jillccc]

You might be lucky, or maybe it's that particular model. I've used the
behind the neck - a Shadow and another JBL model than the one you mention
and 2 versions of a third set (not sure the brand, but that one is more
akin to earbuds, the neck wire is just a wire). I have the skipping with
all of them.

My solution is to run with the Palm. Not a smart watch, nor does it have
heart monitoring capability. But It's small and I xan use Nike Run, which
I prefer to Strava. I picked it up during Black Friday for a couple diff
reasons and use it for running-- clip it on a strap.

Fingers crossed that it continues to work. Thanks for sharing.

[Ryansnipes]

Hi

I have the Ionic Adidas edition paired with Bose SoundSport Free

I found when issues occur has something to do either with sweat and/or heartbeat on battery connection on watch

When sound issue happening i lift watch off skin which seems to help

Obviously this is not convenient 

Thought i would give my 5 cents worth

[Jimifireblade]

Hi I've bought the ionic for the the features it has i.e. the GPS and the music storage and I'm having the same problem as everyone else,.I'm listening to it now while typing this and it is very irritating, I've tried every single piece of advise and nothing works, I don't want to revert back to carrying my phone while running that's the reasons for buying this watch, but I can't listen to the music if it's putting me in bad form while running so the watch is basically useless to me, very annoying, is there some sort of update that can sort this or are we all to look for refunds? 

[Veritas6]

Another fake "Solved".  That doesn't solve it at all.  The bluetooth tranceiver in the Ionic is simply underpowered to save battery, is my guess.

[Jillccc]

This is marked as having been solved????

That's crazy. The issue is most definitely not solved.

[Jimifireblade]

It's solved for me because I'm going to try a pair of Bluetooth 4.2 earbuds instead of my 5.0 and if that doesn't solve it BYE BYE ionic, pity because it's such a nice watch with great features, 

[Jillccc]

Sure the "resolution" is that we are using another device or giving up on
using the ionic for music. These are individual resolutions to the problem


But the overall problem is not SOLVED and should not be marked as such.

Unless, of course, "solved" means "Fitbit officially notes that there is no
resolution"

[scarr44]

This is definitely not resolved and should not be marked as such!  The sound is still cutting out.  Fix the software if possible (which I doubt is the cause), or simply tell us what many of us suspect is the truth, that the product's hardware is defective.  i.e. the bluetooth capability is too weak to work effectively.