Fitbit OS 4.1 - Firmware Release (70.7.14)

[MattFitbit]

Fitbit Update: 12/5

Hi everyone!

We’re excited to announce the release of Fitbit OS 4.1 (Firmware Version: 70.7.14). 

We've begun releasing this new firmware 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 are not distributed based on region or location and can reach anyone no matter where you reside. We do not recommend performing a factory reset to force the update to your device as your data will be lost and you may not get the update. Please be patient and wait until you see the update banner inside of the Fitbit app to begin the firmware download.

WHAT’S NEW AND FIXED

The update includes a variety of new features and enhancements, including: 

• Smart wake: Smart wake will gently begin to wake you with subtle vibrations during the optimal part of your sleep cycle (during light or REM) within a 30-minute window prior to your pre-set alarm. This allows you to wake up feeling refreshed. 

• Clock face switcher: You will now be able to store up to five clock faces right on your device and quickly change from one to the other using the new clock face switcher.

• On-wrist Sleep Score: The score will now be available in the on-device dashboard that can be accessed by swiping up from the clock face. You can still see it alongside your sleep data within the Fitbit app after you sync.

• Exercise app improvements: The redesigned Exercise app will now display all 20 workouts in a new streamlined list on your wrist. 

• Battery notification: When your battery is running low, a new feature will automatically disable notification vibrations

• Agenda app: A new Agenda app allows you to see your calendar right on your wrist. 

For more information on the new features included in Fitbit OS 4.1 check out this article. You can also check out our press release. 

HOW DO I UPDATE?

Step by step instructions for updating your Ionic can be found here. 

If you run into any trouble updating your Ionic, I recommend reviewing these troubleshooting tips. 

We appreciate your patience while we work to roll this out to everyone. 

[SunriseRun435]

So after using Ionic for 6 months and quite happy with performance it went through update last weekend.  Now not syncing with phone, wrist turn does not wake up, does not even show the correct time.  Help desk says my phone not on the approved list, just "get a new phone"!!!  I suspect even this will not sort all the issues. But it worked for past 6 months and nothing in the upgrade I want or need.  Get a new tracker is the most economic answer.  My wife has Huawei and she is happy with the performance, and much cheaper than Ionic.  Fitbit going to loose a lot of followers with this poor upgrade.

[Princess_Ren]

My Fitbit Ionic which was purchased Dec; 2017 was working amazing... Getting at least 8 days with it (I turn out off every night) and I installed the new firmware on Tuesday night, then turned off Fitbit. In the morning, Fitbit would not turn on. Thought it was weird because my battery was only at 50% the night before. I went to go plug it in to charge it normally when I plug it in the Fitbit on it automatically comes on to charge. It didn't. I pressed all three buttons to do hard reset nothing worked. Ionic was completely dead. After 10 minutes of constantly pressing all three buttons it finally turned back on at 50%.

Then during the day coworker told me the same thing happened to her Fitbit ionic and she couldn't get her bionic turn back on and she had no problems until the firmware I turned off my Fitbit and tried to turn it back on it would not come back on. I plugged it in and finally I got it turned back on after 5 minutes of pressing buttons. 

I contacted customer service and because I'm out of the warranty they will do nothing. I spoke to someone else and their Fitbit Versa which was working fine and they've only had it a year two months they did the firmware and it's screwed up their Fitbit Versa and it will not turn back on. 

I believe Fitbit release the firmware and it screwed up Fitbit devices. it's funny how my Fitbit working fine since December 2017 with 8 days of battery life and all the sudden I do an update Fitbit releases and it magically stops working. Fitbit should stand behind their products and if they're going to release firmware it should not destroy the products and if it does and there's problems with the firmware they should honour and stand behind their products and provide customers long paying customers as I've been a long customer since 2015 with a new Fitbit replacement

[Runner8855]

Thank you for the reply, yes you are correct support is working to correct my issue, however being told to try the firmware update the next day then again one more day after before calling back is not tech support. If I was told from the start that the firmware update was causing problems for many customers I would have been more understanding. The way i was treated, and the non disclosure from Fitbit is aggravating. Also regardless of the cause of my device to "Brick" a 30 day turnaround for a (working)replacement device under warranty is simply unacceptable. If there is anything you or I can do to expedite this I would be appreciate it very much.

[Runner8855]

Princess_Ren cant agree more, I also have been a loyal customer. This is the second bad firmware i have experienced. Both times no acknowledgment or ownership from Fitbit. At least my device was under warrantee and is in the LONG process for being replaced. For me it's one more try then i am moving on to another device. I do have hopes Google will save the brand. Hang in there, you're not alone.

[SunsetRunner]

Matt, I updated a few days ago to 70.7.14. My FitBit Ionic is firmware 27.70.7.14. Since the application update which also updated the watch, I can only turn my watch on by doing the reset of pressing and holding all of the buttons.

I have always shutdown at night by going to Settings>About>Shutdown>Yes. Then in the morning, I would turn on the watch with the left button. After the update, the watch does not turn on with the button on the left. I have to do the reset for the watch to turn on. 

Do you have some suggestions for me to restore turning on my watch the proper way?

[IchWeissNicht]

Almost too funny. I get a replacement Fitbit. New update won’t work so it’s unusable. This was gracious on Fitbit’s part because I was out of warranty, which they knew. 

Long story short, to replace the replacement, I get the 25% offer. It would cost me $20 more to use this offer on a Versa 2 than to just buy it at the current sale price!  

Or 40% off Versa Lite!  Total savings of $4 compared to the current sale.  I would save almost $13 on Ionic vs the current sale. 

[IchWeissNicht]

Surely the original software is archived out there somewhere?  Can’t they just push that code out to users and let them choose which firmware to update while this goes back to the shop for reworking?

Clearly I’m no software engineer. 

[WizardofOzzz]

Hello Everyone,

I have been following and reading lots about the updates on forums since OS 3. I will be sharing what I found out about the updates and how it went for me updating my Ionic. For those of you who are nervous to update to the newest 4.1 OS. I just updated my fitbit Ionic from OS 3.0 to the newest 4.1 OS without any issues. I held off for a long time because of the horrible updates bricking/destryoing the tracker and customer service is not helpful if you don't have warrenty. I had my ionic since 2017 so no warrenty for me. I thought now is the right time to update it because if anything goes wrong...at least I could get a new tracker on sale during boxing day. I was ready and prepared to say goodbye to fitbit. But to my surprise everything went smoothly, the device itself after update even seemed faster and more responsive. It also fixed the sync issue I had as well. Only thing that made me nervous was I shut it down to see if it would come back on. It didn't by just pushing the left button like it used to. But when i held left button and bottom right it came back on. The update was only an approx 20 update. The key to successful update from what I read and expereinced is updating thru Wifi is a must. Most of the fail I read was updating from bluetooth, and it took as long as 2-4hrs and some longer. I suspect is the bluetooth connection breaking up during update. So be close to your wifi, connect your ionic to wifi in the app then update. I won't say success rate is 100% as there is still possibility to fail even thru wifi but worth a try. After reading up on it and trying it myself, I would say updating thru Wifi is the way to do it. Hope this helps.

[WizardofOzzz]

Tried to post a detailed post about the update but keep flagging me as spam. So in short, Do Wifi update instead of bluetooth update.  Worked for me. I updated from 3.0 to 4.1 no issues.

[USAF-Larry]

---

@SunsetRunner wrote:

Matt, I updated a few days ago to 70.7.14. My FitBit Ionic is firmware 27.70.7.14. Since the application update which also updated the watch, I can only turn my watch on by doing the reset of pressing and holding all of the buttons.

Do you have some suggestions for me to restore turning on my watch the proper way?

---

@SunsetRunner, I have experienced a similar change, but I need only press & hold the left button and the bottom right button, not all 3 buttons. Have you tried that?

[IchWeissNicht]

@WizardofOzzz I would say you’re a lucky one.  If it works for you, great. I liked mine when it worked too. 

From what I read and experienced, we’ve all started with WiFi. The WiFi update fails (a couple times), then we’re allowed to choose Bluetooth as an alternate. That gets farther, but fails in the end. 

I have a great WiFi connection at home. I work from home most days now. Wouldn’t be possible without a good connection.  Have a new modem and router too. 

[Duc_tran]

Hi, I thing fitbit may be not good at conne ter bluetooth and wifi

[jodygsxr1k]

After this update my battery now dies in less than 24 hours, do you have a resolution for this.  My battery used to last 4 days and the day after the update it has died overnight everynight.  This is BS and needs to be fixed ASAP unless there are settings that now need to be changed.  Please update with resolution ASAP.

[EdwardsWM]

Siliva,

Restarting my watch did not change the behavior w.r.t. starting an
exercise with the button instead of the Start icon. Can you please try
it? All you have to do is select an exercise on an updated Ionic and try
starting it with the button. It doesn't seem to matter what kind of
exercise you select. I would find it odd that this problem happens only
on my watch.

As for the screen blacking out immediately after toggling between start
and pause, I'll keep an eye on it on future rides.

Thanks,

*@EdwardsWM
** It's
nice to see you around. Thanks for sharing your experience with
Ionic and the new firmware update. Regarding the buttons and changes
you've done while you're ridding, please **restart your watch
**and
continue checking how it behaves after this. *

Moderator edit: personal info removed

[Ge_bus]

My Ionic is running on 33.1.30 and has been for a considerable time. My iPhone app is always up to date and I’ve tried all the tips but no update is ever available. What can I do?

[PogoAz]

After loading my fitbit died and is now non-operational.  The Iconic indicated a good upload then the screen went black and now I'm watch less....I hope this is not a Google move.  Any suggestions well be greatly appreciated or maybe it's time to move to Apple or Samsung. 

[abusamisabir]

Please note that if I shutdown my iconic, it will not start easily after the new updates. I have to press and hold power key several times to start it again. It take more than 15 minutes trail's to try press and hold.

Thanks.

[PogoAz]

Thanks for the suggestion but it is still dead.  No screen at all.  I wish I would have never updated the fitbit.. it worked well prior to and no other condition could have attributed to the malfunction. 

[abusamisabir]

Try to connect it to the charger and wait for 5 to 10 minutes.The remove it. Then, try to press all 3 botones together. Do it several times. Then try to press power botton and keep pressing until you see Fitbit logo. Do it several times. It will  eventually turn on. I have spent 30 minutes to turn it ON. I am now afraid if I again shut it down, it will not turn on again. This OS upgrade is a disaster and fitbit OS developer must act quickly before many customers discover this issue when they turned of their iconic.

Please keep up updated 

[Gregc63]

@Ge_bus  Consider yourself lucky, this has been by far the worst update I have seen, and I've been through a few...

Still have a couple things that are screwed up on my Ionic that shouldn't have been screwed up in the first place that are big annoyances.

Truly considering going to another smart watch/tracker if they don't get this squared away soon.