I have access to 3 Ionic devices, two in my household, 1 from a friend. Two of them are bricked after the firmware update and the other now cannot make it 24 hours without draining the battery.
1. One bricked from the 27.70.7.27 was purchased late 2018. Out of warranty as determined by Fitbit support. Only offered the 25% discount.
2. One that was bricked 2 weeks after 27.70.8.0 released.
3. The other was factory reset and ended up on 27.6.11. Then successfully updated to 27.70.8.0 but immediately started draining battery and 3-4x faster than before. I used to be able to charge it for 20-25 minutes each morning and only run low on battery if I skipped 4-5 days or used GPS on a 8-10 mile run. Even then, wouldn't totally drain, just get the alert to charge it. Seemingly normal for a device like this. However, now I charge to 100% and even without being on my normal exercise routine I now get low battery alert in 20-24 hours, depending on number of notifications that day. And BTW, I have followed the steps by Fitbit to reduce notifications, turn off auto-detection of exercise, use simple watch faces, brightness, duration of face staying active, etc. In other words, shut off some of the features the markets as the value of the product.
It seems from the posts that there a multiple manifestations of the issues ensuing from firmware updates.
- Completely bricked. Nothing on screen. Some started as stop syncing. Then unable to charge. Then draining completely, factory resetting or other in order to get it chargeable again and maybe even keeps some stats. But, totally unusable at this point. I do not know of anyone posting yet that has recovered from this.
- Stuck in a reboot loop with the Fitbit logo on the screen. Some seem to find the right sequence of factory resetting and setting up as a new device on the phone / app. Apparently doesn't work for all.
- There may be others in the hundreds of posts in this particular message thread and many others that seem to describe significant loss of use or feature reduction / flakiness for the Ionic.
Fitbit product team: This seems serious. It's hard to understand what the engineering teams know and what they are working on to stabilize the Ionic. Communications have been poor in content. Support had me run through resets and asked me to do things I could not since the screen is dead. What can be said for the % of Ionic owners who still have a working or semi-working device but need it back to full functionality? And is there recourse for those who have lost devices very clearly linked to performing the firmware upgrade?
There may be a technical legal standing to tell people they are out of warranty but there are many examples of companies managing a serious product defect linked back to manufacturing or software who make a choice to help people who paid money for their products through the issues. It is very common to offer extended warranties or at least something more substantial that a small reduction in price on a new device that seems like a token "we tried to help, but not very hard" gesture.
Do right by the hundreds who have posted with issues. Please acknowledge what is happening so we as Ionic wearers can either be frustrated and move on for good or have a path for this to be remedied.
Signed,
Fitbit user / family since 2015
5 devices (fortunately only 2 Ionic) on both IOS and Android.
Community Moderator Alumni are previous members of the Moderation Team, which ensures conversations are friendly, factual, and on-topic. Moderators are here to answer questions, escalate bugs, and make sure your voice is heard by the larger Fitbit team. Learn more
Best Answer
