Fitbit Ionic will not sync

[hublot]

Hello,

I've had my Fitbit Ionic for 3 days now and I've had issues syncing it the whole time. No amount of mobile phone restarts, mobile Bluetooth restarts, reinstallations of Fitbit app, restarts and shutdowns of the Ionic, and reattempts to remove and set up the Ionic on the Fitbit account have worked.

The Fitbit Ionic has managed to sync only once in this time, which was a day and a half ago. At this time I was trying to get it to sync, and it did not have any success. After many attempts I had to leave home, taking the Ionic with me. Some hours later, it turned out that apparently the sync had occurred at this time. No idea how.

At this stage, I am unable to connect to the Ionic to set it up in the Fitbit app as somehow it can't detect it. This process has been very frustrating and the only reason that I don't want to do a factory reset (a last resort?) is because it has been possible to sync before (so why wouldn't it work again?), and I don't want to lose the good data I have on the Ionic waiting to sync.

Please help - thank you.

[nitenurse]

this has been an ongoing problem for years. the only response from fitbit is , we are aware of the problem and working on it. same answer for years , no resolution for years 

[SilviaFitbit]

@hublot A warm welcome to the Community. Thanks for all the details mentioned and the troubleshooting tried prior to posting. 

I'd like you to confirm that you followed this procedure to set it up  your watch once again to your account. If you're still experiencing set up issues, try these steps. 

Also, please double check that your phone operating system is compatible with the Fitbit app: 

• Apple iOS 12.2 or higher
• Android OS 7.0 or higher
• Windows 10 version 1607.0 or higher

Additionally, let me know the phone model that you have and OS installed on it. 

@nitenurse Hey there. If there's any bug that we're aware of, we'll always let our users know and keep them updated. 

Looking forward to hearing back from you. 

[PaulMe]

@hublot,

You don't mention what OS you use.

I'll assume Android. Go into settings>Apps and notifications. Select Fitbit. Go into storage and CLEAR CACHE. Back up a level nd hit FORCE STOP. Back out and back into the app. It may take several (or 20) tries, but swipe down to sync and or go Devices> Ionic in the app and press Sync now. Again this may take several goes. There seems to be no rhyme or reason, but syncing can be quite flakey at times.

If you use iOS there is probably a similar process. I'll leave that to you to experiment/work that out.

If I have to pair my Ionic back to my phone - happens occasionally. In the Ionic I go into settings, scroll down to Bluetooth, hit that and under Restore Music Controls select Pair, before asking my phone to find a new device. The phone usually finds the Ionic fairly quickly. Sometimes it connects as Ionic (Classic). But just Ionic seems to be the correct device you want your phone to connect to.

I get confused with entries for Ionic and Ionic (classic) sometimes in Bluetooth connections.. Perhaps the Mod(s) can explain the difference?

I suspect sync issues are likely due to the number of OS's the app has to work with. Interestingly the most stable OS with the Fitbit app was Windows 10 mobile. Alas, that OS is now dead in the water. NEVER had a sync issue when I had a Windows Phone.

[hublot]

Thank you for your help with this. I have Android OS version 7.1.1 on my Samsung Galaxy J5 so based on the OS requirements, it should be working.

I have tried again to reinstall and this time got stuck at the point where you have to enter the digits which are showing up on the Ionic, so it wasn't even possible to detect it for installation.

After reading your post, I have checked the links you have recommended (although one is intended for Fitbit Charge 4?!) and the process has ended up working. The only difference to what I had done before was that the same charging cable was plugged in to mains power, and not to a laptop.

Thank you again. Hopefully I will not be experiencing any more issues with syncing my device.

[hublot]

I guess I got my hopes up unnecessarily.

It's again not possible to sync my Ionic and I have tried PaulMe's Clear Cache and Force Stop without success also. I've not quite done it 20 times, as I gave up after 12.

Would you have any other ideas?

[PaulMe]

@hublot,

Sorry no more suggestions. 

BTW, I had to Force Stop the app this morning and mess around several times to resync. Lasted maybe a couple of days max - since I had to last quite the app to get a successful sync.

[GboyegaA]

Sorry this response solves nothing!!

[nitenurse]

my fitbit randomly started syncing correctly just like it stopped.

[PaulMe]

Had to Force stop the app to sync again. From what I can tell the connection between the Ionic and Phone goes stale when the Ionic is out of range of the phone. I keep my phone some distance from the Ionic when I'm sleeping. No where near the bedroom.

Most mornings I have to manually resync by stopping the app, as the last sync is often 8 or so hours ago.

Jus now I thought I had a successful sync after about 20 swipe downs on the app. It said it synced, but actually it did not up date battery level or any other data.

FORCE STOPing the app finally fixed it!

It should be OK for the rest of the day as I keep the phone reasonably close.