Fitbit OS 4.1.3 Firmware Update (70.80.0)

[MattFitbit]

Hello Ionic family!

We’re excited to announce the release of Fitbit OS 4.1.3.

We started releasing this new update to customers. This is a progressive rollout which means everyone will receive it at different stages until it has been completely released to all users. We roll out releases in phases as a cautionary measure so that we can monitor performance closely and make adjustments if needed. 

*Firmware releases aren’t distributed based on region or location and can reach anyone no matter where you reside.

WHAT’S NEW AND FIXED

Read our help article for the latest updates.

HOW DO I UPDATE?

Find step-by-step instructions for updating Ionic here. 

If you run into any trouble updating Ionic, review these troubleshooting tips.

We appreciate your patience while we work to roll this out to everyone. Looking forward to hearing everyone's feedback in the comments below. 🤖

[Admanus]

Updated my ionic to v70.8.0 last week and it no longer reads my HR on a consistent basis. It will go hours without reading it now. Worked perfectly fine before without issue for over a year. What gives?

[DahBairz]

No thanks. Due to the poor decision making and that you broken my watch with little to no care,I’ve already bought an Apple Watch and have moved to that. Unfortunately I will ensure to steer people away from Fitbit products because of this experience. 25% off because Fitbit broke my watch with their upgrade? No thanks. 

[ragerber]

Hi,

I'll try to summarize what I think we the key things that happened and what I did to recover my Ionic after the failed update.

1. Reset your Ionic. This is the trickiest part. My Ionic was showing the logo and then would go blank, then show the logo again over and over. The web and customer support said to turn it off using the left button and bottom right button, or do a hard reset by holding all 3 buttons until the logo appeared, then release the bottom right button while holding the left and top right button down until the watch buzzed. I couldn't get the watch to respond to any of these actions.  I got to thinking that maybe the pulsing logo was making it impossible to tell when to release the bottom right button and customer support had said the timing of the release was extremely important. So I kept trying and *finally* was successful one time when I grabbed the Ionic during a brief time the display was dark and performed the hard reset actions. For the first time, the watch buzzed, which gave me hope.

2. After the buzz, the watch tried to reset itself, but I gave me error messages to the effect of (I don't recall exactly), "Could not remove data. Please sync." Which of course I couldn't. In any case, I tried to do the hard reset again, but I couldn't repeat and was about to give after probably 50 attempts,  when I got it to buzz again. Unfortunately, it just showed me the same error screen.

3. As a last desperate attempt, I went into the Fitbit app and removed the device (thinking that maybe that allusion to "Sync again" on the device hinted to the possibility that it was communicating with the app at some level). Then I tried adding a new device, and the app said "New Device Recognized"! Unfortunately, the app got stuck at that step forever and I had to kill the app. I tried this 3 times with the same result.

4. Finally, I went to Setting on my iPhone and told bluetooth to forget the device. Then I tried adding a new device again in the Fitbit app, and *tada* it worked!

[Runner3344]

@ragerber Can you confirm please that "everything is working as it did before" after you've done through all these steps (not that you should have had to...)?

Is HR tracking, GPS, step counting, etc. all fine now?

I'm still waiting to update mine...but if the update fails, I won't spend hours trying to resurrect it...I'll just buy an Apple Watch.

[ragerber]

I should add that after the Ionic recovered, installed its software, and restarted, it started to go through an intro sequence where it had me set a shortcut button and then tried to show off other features like scrolling, etc. It froze at the "how to scroll" screen, but I was able to rest the watch and it has been working OK as far as I can tell since.

[ragerber]

My Ionic recovered itself automatically to version 27.70.8.0 and things like GPS, tracking, etc. all seem to be working correctly. I haven't reconfigured everything, but it seemed to know about my watch faces, but not other things like my weather settings.

[Runner3344]

Anybody know of a way to "backup" all your Ionic settings and app configurations so if and when you have to reset the entire device, you can restore all these easily?

[ragerber]

Hi @Runner3344 I have an Apple Watch as well (got it free through some deal a few years ago!) and the problem is that, at least IMHO, the Fitbit is a much better exercise tracker. The apps you need on Apple watch don't talk to each other that  well and each one has some features you want but not all, and the battery lifetime with GPS is super short (maybe it's gotten better). Steps don't update in real time, etc. It's actually a nice watch; I just wish it did exercise tracking better.

[Runner3344]

@ragerber I fully agree - been using Ionics for three years.

But I'm on my third one now, and if this update doesn't go smooth (or dies) I won't just be accepting a 25% discount to keep going down this road.

[Necoara]

I have same version 27.70.8.0 and my Ionic. I run now 5km and after 500m watch restart himself 2 time's and from 5 km track only 3.46 and no HR. Now my Ionic is kid toy. Ionic without HR senzor is useless 

[TAChapman]

I wish I'd read this before, but thanks to everyones feedback. I, too, can confirm the 70.8.0 firmware update has affected my Ionic's performance. It appears the HR and GPS are correct, but battery performance effectively makes it useless. I was running to 0% by the end of the day, charged in the morning (after no alarm to wake me up! #2 reason I bought this thing). I did a full factory reset, and am now seeing 15% per hour discharge with no apps, no notifications, and no changes from default. So.... I guess less than a year in, it's not a viable product. 

[SunsetRunner]

Please look into this, after the update my battery life has reduced extremely. Is there something in this update that puts a strain on the battery? I noticed yesterday morning that it had gone from 50% to 15% in merely a day. I had to do a quick charge again before going out so it was back to 50% bit this morning it was empty. It should take at least between 5-7 days so something is wrong. And this all started after I updated

[PaulMe]

Hi QuantumRed,

I'm wondering whether a Factory Reset is worth trying a couple of times to see if battery life improves? Don't have a battery issue on my fairly new Ionic. I did update it straight away when I first set it up. Not sure which version it was on before the update though. I get 3-4 days battery life. Similar to a Versa. Perhaps I should get a bit more as a few have mentioned 5+ days.

[SunsetRunner]

That’s a good point, I will look into it. You should get 5-7 with regular use little less if you use gps or training capabilities. But still for me I maybe had 2 days last time. Also mine is 2+ years old. I am slowly getting a loss of interest in fitbit due to functionality getting less and less streamlined 

[Hans2vt]

Ok. So I have 5 more GPS activities done and zero problem with GPS it HRM. No drops on GPS at all since the first 2 issues I had. So basically my ionic is acting ok now but obviously not sure if issue will come back. 

[Hebrews12-1]

I wish I could say the same.  After power cycling my Ionic I had a brief glimmer of hope but it quickly faded.

The first day after the power cycle I had no GPS issues.  The second day I saw the "connecting" message about a half dozen times during my run but the map looked good.

The third day the "connecting" message came and went but was on the screen for longer periods of time.  You can see in the 5 mile run that the path jumps in straight lines whenever the GPS was lost.  I ran along the roads so my path should always follow the road.

The fourth day I decided to power cycle the Ionic again.  This did appear to help again as I didn't have any real issues for the first 7 miles but as you can see, in the 10 mile run, that after 7 miles it completely stopped tracking.

It appears the update introduced a memory leak or some other issues that builds up over time and causes the GPS issue.

5 mile run10 mile run

[rebock]

Been reading everyone's bad experience with the upgrade and wasn't sure if I should do it. Finally bit the bullet and did it a week ago. 

Didn't have any issues with the upgrade and watch is performing fine. No sudden battery drains or GPS or HR issues. 

I am under the impression that most the issues reported here seem to be from iOS users. I could be wrong. I'm an Android user. Just wondering if the issues are related to Fitbit and iOS?

Hope you all get your issues sorted out.

[erdly]

Nope, Android user here. I had left my Ionic alone for a few days and this morning, I noticed it was working, and had about 33% battery life, so I paired it to my Fitbit account. It was working for a couple hours (all my normal apps and notifications)! Then, after a couple hours, I noticed the touchscreen stopped working and it showed the battery was at 0%. I restarted it and synced to my app where it showed the battery was at "medium" charge, but the Ionic itself showed 0%. I attached it to the charging cable and it immediately showed the battery life at 28%, but again, the touchscreen no longer works and it doesn't show all my apps. This update seems to "only" mess with my Ionic's battery life and touchscreen. I feel like they are connected, but am waiting to hear back on my support case. Fingers crossed!

[PLEON]

I cashed in on my extended warranty from an outside company and sent my ionic in and today received a new ionic. The Firmware 70.80.0 updated notification showed up during setup so I did the update. No porblem so far. Amazing what the update did to so many Ionic trackers. Not good for the Fitbit brand.

[Iain_K]

@PLEON For others, remember that if you bought with a credit card and are able to track down your receipt online or on paper, you automatically get an extra years warranty coverage through the card provider over and above the Fitbit default period, so all is maybe not lost if you are denied by Fitbit.

None of which excuses Fitbits dreadful attitude to their customers through this, going back years now, but at least you might get your money back to spend elsewhere.

I just cant excuse them making the same mistakes over and over, its incomprehensible to me.