Fitbit Ionic Dead - Won't Power On

[Waj-A]

After having used a surge for less than a year, I switched to the more versatile (and expensive) Ionic. Less than two months later, it won't switch on: the screen is dead. After having gone through multiple forums, this seems to be a common occurrence. I'd have filed for a refund if this was less than 45 days old. Fitbit is losing a faithful customer today.

[Brantley]

xchatter.......went back and held 3 bottons; pluged in power and Iconic came back to life. I must not have held the buttons in long enough the first couple of times. Thanks for your help.

[xchatter]

@Brantley , good to hear that! 🙂

My device seems to be a goner. I exhausted all possible steps with the support team, but my Ionic didn't resurrect. 😕

However I want to commend the support team, because in the end they offered me a replacement unit without me even asking for it. With other companies such experience is not so painless I would say. Thanks!

[RicardoFitbit]

Thanks for your replies @Brantley and @xchatter, I'm happy to continue providing assistance.

@Brantley I'm glad to know that the restart process suggested by @xchatter  post resolved your Ionic behavior. Don't hesitate to let me know if you need anything else!

@xchatter thank you for helping other users to resolve their concerns, your participation in our Community is appreciated. You're welcome, I'll share your comments with our Support team about your experience to encourage them to keep it up! 

I suggest to visit our discussion forums and participate. There are several users who are interested in fitness, healthy eating, better sleep, etc. and share many tips. They will be happy to meet both of you there.

I'll be around guys!

[RobinGrey]

Mine also mysteriously died 4 days ago, just under 16 months. It had an 87% charge and just went black. Nothing unusual happened. I wore it daily with moderately active use. I called support and it's out of the one year warranty and ran though all of their troubleshooting steps- clean the contacts with rubbing alcohol, charge, reset -which I'd already tried, to no avail. They offered 40% off the same watch or 25% off of a different version through their online store. I loved the watch, but am not overly eager to get another if it's only going to last 15 months. 

I'm very disappointed and hope that the extra Best Buy protection will turn out to be worth it.

[MEbrogdon]

I have heard of this happening to a lot of people... for me they did
replace it, because it was my 2nd one and I 'd only had it one month.My
first one,w went out after a year, and Best Buy did replace it (no reciept
even) they just made me pay the state tax over.
NO help thru Best Buy anymore they do not have an agreement...return policy
within 15 days period.
If you do buy a new one get it to from Fitbit.com

[madgrizzle]

---

@MEbrogdon wrote:
If you do buy a new one get it to from Fitbit.com

---

You say that because of the return policy or are you saying that fitbit will do replacements after the 1-year warranty expires?  If the latter, that hasn't been mine or many other's experience.  We've just been offered a discount off the purchase of a new one.

I hope this post has been helpful.

[MEbrogdon]

my 2nd one was replaced for free because it was only 1 month old...I still don't know what was causing them to malfunction, I ws thinking maybe because I do swim a lot with it? One thing I did learn is make sure you clean the back connector/charger with alcohcol and a q-tip. I don't want to get another product but if this does this again (3rd time) I will have to consider switching. 

[madgrizzle]

How do you charge it?

⁣Sent from BlueMail ​

[MEbrogdon]

I charge it whenever it is below 50%

[WolfofAndals]

I had the same issue, you have to restart it by holding the left and bottom right button down for 15 seconds and once the screen turns on immediately put it on the charger, it is inconvenient but it works

[madgrizzle]

Do you use a low-amperage USB port, such as one from a computer or do you use a wall charger one might use for a cell phone?

[MEbrogdon]

so you are saying turn it off while it's charging?

[MEbrogdon]

it's a wall charger with multi outlets for cell phone, fitbit ipod etc

[RobinGrey]

Mine had no issues with charging at all and simply went dead on my wrist with an 87% charge. Best Buy's replacement coverage, happily, was wonderful and I switched it out with a new one and got money back. Hopefully this one will give me at least another 15 months. 🙂

[MEbrogdon]

yes they used to do that but apparently things have changed

[madgrizzle]

---

@MEbrogdon wrote:
it's a wall charger with multi outlets for cell phone, fitbit ipod etc

---

It could be the charger is providing more than 500ma of current.  My suspicion is that overtime, the power circuitry of the Ionic deteriorates due to the amperage of the charger.. probably capacitors.. that's why they recommended a low power output like a laptop.. i think people that use a higher current charger may see their Ionic's life expectancy drop quicker than those that use a low current charger.

Note, USB 3.0 ports can deliver up to 900ma.. so avoid those...

https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1799/

I hope this post has been helpful.

[RicardoFitbit]

Hello guys! Welcome aboard @RobinGrey, it's nice to see you again posting in our forums @madgrizzle and @WolfofAndals. Also, thanks for your reply and update @MEbrogdon. My apologies for the delay in replying. 

@RobinGrey I'm sorry to see that you felt that way, thank you for your time and patience troubleshooting this situation with our Support team. I appreciate your comments and the experience that was shared with us about your Ionic device and the retailer where you bought it, which in this case was Best Buy, I'm happy to know that they were able to assist you with their internal return policies. Because of the fact that we and they manage different policies, for any inquiry related to ours please refer to: Return Policy and Warranty.  

@MEbrogdon First, let me appreciate your effort troubleshooting this situation. As it turns out, I cannot provide more information nor details about Best Buy return policies because they work with their internal procedures and this information may differ with our policies. I'd like to suggest you to check our help article: How do I charge my Fitbit device? if you have any doubts about how to properly charge your device.  Same for you @madgrizzle, please take in consideration this help article. Also, thanks for your help and suggestions.

@WolfofAndals I'm glad to know that you found a workaround, thanks for sharing this information and for troubleshooting your Ionic prior posting. I'd like to know if you're still having the same difficulties? Meaning if you have to restart your device and immediately put the charger on to be able to use it? If so, this is certainly not a common behavior nor the way we designed our Fitbit Ionic, therefore, I'll be looking to your reply to further assist you. 

Don't hesitate to ask me any additional questions you may have. 

[Negable]

This happened to my ionic also.  Full charge the previous day and during night completely died.  Have contact Fitbit support and for the last 4 days have been persistently asking me to try to restart, reset, change settings but haven’t yet grasped that it is completely dead despite my responses to them.  Thank you for the suggestions in this forum, I have now tried them all and my Fitbit remains dead.  Waiting for next response from support but I unfortunately that this will be an end to my love affair with all things Fitbit.  It seems to me that there may have been an issue with a batch of ionics.  I have only just had mine over 12 months, just outside the warranty period in the UK.  I didn’t buy extra warranty because previous Fitbits are still today working fine!!  I have reverted to my old Alta HR but it is no substitute for my ionic 😞

[RJPBooth]

@RicardoFitbit, simple question and would appreciate a simple answer.

my Fitbit Ionic, like may others, has died (again). Nothing will resuscitate it... so don't need instructions etc.

Is there a design fault causing so many Ionics to die?

[Maplehatch]

Another dead Ionic over here as well.

This is number two for me; this one (died after 9 months of normal use) was a replacement unit sent to me by support because my original died after 4 months of normal use. 

Was fully charged the day before, gone by lunchtime the next day after some very erratic and uncommanded cycling through screen displays and menus.  Basically just blew up.  No amount of charging or button holding is bringing this back to life.

Moderator edit: Word choice.