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. 

[M.O.M]

While I am extremely aggravated with the current situation of the time
being incorrect on my watch unless I sync it, which requires me to know
that the time is incorrect, which is usually at an inopportune time, I
am heartened to hear that someone else explicitly mentioned that the
time is off on their ionic as well. I am incredibly flummoxed by the
fact that the update had made something as simple, at least in my mind,
as a watch being able to keep time to be incorrect on an ongoing basis. 
While I am essentially unable to get my Ionic to sync with my phone I have been
able to do it through my computer as long as I give it enough time and
shutdown my phone and reboot it at least once to get the sync to take
place.  The update really seemed to have caused a great deal of problems
and I truly wonder when if ever Fitbit is going to get the situation
rectified.   I know that I have been late for
several things and have pretty much have had to train myself to stop
looking at my watch for the time.  Doesn't that sound absurd.

[SilviaFitbit]

Hey everyone! Thanks for taking the time to share your experience with Ionic and its latest firmware version. 

@tluke Thanks for getting back. In this case, I've shared your post with our Support team and they've mentioned you already have a case with them, please continue the communication through email. If you have any question about the option you were given, reply back to the case that you already have. 

@Truegrit Hey there. Thanks for the details mentioned. Sorry to hear that you're experiencing this. In this case, I've shared your post with our Support team and they will continue assisting you through email. 

@Jonno34 Hey there. I would like you to confirm you've tried the procedure mentioned in this article: Why can't I update my Fitbit device? 

@LynseyNeill Thanks for participating in the forums. I've shared your post with our Support team and they've mentioned you already have a case with them, please continue the communication through email. 

@M.O.M It's nice to see you on the Community. I truly appreciate the time you took to share your experience with us. Sorry to hear that you didn't have a good encounter with our Support team. In this case, I would like you to restart your watch and then make sure your timezone is properly set. Could you confirm if this started happening after you updated it?

I'll be around if you have any additional questions. 

[SunsetRunner]

I'm a part-time programmer and web geek. I've released my own commercial software, and I do web development on the side, and I understand how to deal with customers finding bugs. It's pretty clear to me that the following problems are directly related:

1) When the watch is shut down, the battery drains

2) Restarting the watch requires the multi-button long press

3) The clock is stuck at the moment the user powered it off

The multi-button long press is essentially the hardware reset/reboot command, like pressing the RESET button on your PC. It effectively physically interrupts the power supply to the the internal processor, forcing it to reboot from scratch.

It's pretty clear that the watch software does NOT in fact shut down when it's told to do so by the users. Instead, it's going into a high-powered infinite loop, from which the software cannot extricate itself. In fact, it's such a deep loop that the clock even stops updating. While the screen appears to have shut down, the watch is actually not powered off, but instead is burning the battery in this inescapable loop. In the morning, the user pushes the power button, but the software is totally stuck and ignores the button press. The three-button combo is necessary to interrupt the loop and force a hard reboot, so the watch is truly restarting from scratch. Along with this, the clock features are still stuck at the last moment the watch was doing any real processing.

This should be a ridiculously easy problem to find, looking at the shutdown routine and finding any places where the software could loop (failing to update a counter or a logic path in a DO...WHILE loop). Furthermore, there are plenty of examples of the failure. Fitbit should be asking any affected customers to return the watch so that they can run diagnostics and see what's going on - which clock face is in use, for example, and determine if it's some situation where their new firmware is allowing the clock face itself to cause a loop.

Since the clock faces are fairly simple Javascript, HTML and SVG language, the problem is NOT with the clock faces, even if they pin it on a specific clock face; if so, the HTML/JS/SVG interpreter is broken and allowing the clock face code to completely lock up the system. Bad code should not be allowed to do that, no matter how broken the code is.

By simply telling the affected customers to shut up and wait, Fitbit are shooting themselves in the foot in multiple different ways: losing chances to see and analyze failed configurations, having increasingly mad customers who are bailing out to buy other brands, and losing potential new customers who see these hundreds of deeply serious problem reports and decide to avoid Fitbit.

If they had any common sense, they'd pull the buggy software and revert back to a known-stable version, and stop updating features until they had these very fundamental issues resolved. And they'd instantly replace any watch that failed with the current buggy firmware installed.

I'm hoping that my post gives them some useful ideas to troubleshoot, but given the "We're aware, and we take full responsibility, but you just have to wait" answers we keep getting, I don't have much hope that they're really listening.

[santich]

My Ionic died today.
The problem I mentioned in previous post persists. I tried to change a cellphone to use Ionic to see if something can change. I made a factory reset to the watch and recieved an erro message on the screen of Ionic: Data not cleared Sync & try again. And it just died. I tried a lot of things to get it back to live. Nothing so far has worked.

This is previously what I posted :
12-24-2019 14:21
I’m having the following two problems with this update (currently using Ionic with a Samsung S9 Plus running Android 9):
1- Not being able to turn the watch on in a normal way, which is made by pressing the left button with previous firmwares. As many mentioned, holding the left button and one of the right one is the temporary fix.
2- Battery drains considerably after I shut the watch down (about 40% per night). I think it’s related to the first problem, as the watch might not be turned off completely and might be stuck in an endless loop, which causes the battery consumption and the failure to power on normally. Actually, having the watch on my wrist through the night only consumes about 5% of the battery. I’m forced to do so every night to avoid having a dead watch every morning.
Hope a new update with the two problems solved coming soon.

[TomDuke]

As far as Fitbit rolling back a flawed firmware update, they don't do it for whatever reason and seem unwilling to even entertain the notion.  I've got an 2 year old Ionic and a 1+ year old Charge 2.  By refusing firmware updates for the Charge 2 I've managed to avoid the many documented problems experienced by others.  With the Ionic I've had my watch bricked once only to be resurrected by tech support and had other issues post updates with notifications and such that eventually got worked out.  My approach now whenever I'm prompted by the Fitbit app to update is to visit this owner forum and see how others are doing with their new firmware and proceed with caution.  This issue with firmware that bricks or degrades previous functioning features is not limited to Fitbit; I'm familiar with the same complaints with drones and headphones for example.  Why can't they just leave well enough alone?

[santich]

Update:

The once dead watch is alive again. Many thanks to the support team. However, it seems like the new problem with the Firmware Release (70.7.14) is still there after the risky factory reset I did. The main issue I have with this firmware is I can't turn the watch on in a normal way (pushing left button) after I turn it off. I need to hold all the 3 buttons to turn it on. And according to my observation, the battery of the watch drains much faster when it is supposedly turned off.

I've just contacted the support team. They suggested me to do the following:

1. Open your Fitbit app, please press the profile icon on the top left.
2. Press "set up the device" and choose "Ionic" and press "replacem Fitbit Ionic".
3. Just follow the onscreen instruction.

I'm doing so, looks like the watch is responding, but it might take a while.
I'll post the result here later

[renosue]

I did what santich is doing a couple of days ago... still can't connect via Bluetooth as my phone doesn't even see it.  Also the clock is also losing 2 -3 minutes per hour.  I have been documenting my experiences for the "support team", 

[youhippy]

My replacement Ionic in December is already showing signs of awful battery hold. I have had to do two tests for Fitbit support and they are sending a replacement pebble to me. I cannot beleive a month after a new one had been sent out to me and it's having the same issues. 

I think when it comes to the device being out of warranty I shall step away from Fitbit. Been using them since the Charge and there are now so many options to choose from. 

[SilviaFitbit]

Hey everyone! 

Thanks for sharing your feedback and experience with Ionic and the latest firmware version. 

If you already have a case with our Support team, please continue the communication through email, our team will be glad to continue assisting you. Rest assure that each case is reviewed individually and the option given is based in the Fitbit Warranty. 

@SunsetRunner Thanks for sharing your insights about what you've noticed. Your feedback is always appreciated, we strive to improve our services offered and watches/trackers. Moderators review this thread and escalate issues to be investigated, as soon as there's information about them, it will be posted. 

@renosue It's nice to see you on the Community. Thanks for sharing what you're experiencing with your Ionic. Since you already have a case with them, please continue the communication through email, they will continue assisting you. 

I'll be around if you have any additional questions. 

[RoxieMuzic]

My solution, DO NOT UPDATE, results in doom and destruction to the Iconic.  So, even though the app reflects that my update is available, sorry Charlie I will not be updating (reference in homage to Charlie the Tuna). 

I have to ask, why must new and improved always result in worse and degraded?  Seems to be the story these days for just about everything.

[BradMcCormick]

@RoxieMuzic because developers in dark rooms without natural light think they know better than users in the sunlight who actually know what is better? Just a thought!

[sean12]

I have had my Ionic since Sept 2018. I love it. However, on the 20th December 2019 the heart rate monitor stopped working and there was a request to update the tracker. The tracker won't update with my phone, my computer or my tablet and still the heart rate monitor won't work. I have restarted it and tried many times on my iPhone which was the only place I used it. I removed it from the phone and put it through my computer downloading the app for the first time and restarting the watch. That didn't work. I then did the same with my tablet and that didn't work. I am really fed up. I have tried contacting customer services UK but I am not really sure they exist, the phone number provided when called replies that there are problems with the number.

[renosue]

@SilviaFitbit   I am considering letting the news media know about this issue.  I keep getting suggestions to try what I've already tried. I'm fed up that fitbit can't admit they screwed up and create a rollback to the firmware update.  

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @renosue @sean12 @BradMcCormick and @RoxieMuzic thanks for posting your feedback about what you've experienced with your Fitbit Ionic.

Sorry you feel that way about the recent updates for Fitbit Ionic. Thanks for sharing your comments, it's very important to us to have your thoughts in regards to your customer support interactions.

We don't want to create frustration in our customers. Fitbit has been designed to provide motivation and help you to reach your daily goals to success. Please know that we provide feedback to our team based on community posts and we are always working on improving our devices and overall environment based on what you share here.

Thank you for your understanding. 

[TDGernot]

@YojanaFitbit You don’t want to create frustration in your customers?! Then release an update or give the chance to go back to a working version of the firmware and not give us that empty corporate answers. I’m by now so fed up with Fitbit that I also consider letting everybody who does and does not want to know about the way this company handles customer complaints. It’s a disgrace I have to say. This is my second Fitbit device, my whole family is set up with devices of your company but we most definitely will change to a brand where customer service is a priority not a nuisance. 

[samsunite00]

I've already moved on to a Garmin (vivoactive 3 since they were on sale), but since I've commented on this thread, I still get updates. The majority of updates aren't positive and fitbit's response has been canned responses with no real action. The more complaints I see the more I think about why didn't fitbit have a plan for rollback? In IT, when a major change is implemented, we write up a change and one of the fields is "what is the rollback plan?" And it appears fitbit didn't think ahead for a rollback plan.

I wanted to believe fitbit would get things right since the charge HR, charge 2, and ionic. I've owned them all, and they failed miserably in terms of quality, software updates, and customer service. That's a lot of money I gave to fitbit and I see many have spent even more. For those with issues, please save yourself the stress and get a Garmin. I'll continue my journey to let others know there are many more options out there besides fitbit. Sadly, fitbit is no longer the leader of fitness trackers and competitors have stepped up their game.

[Bartimus]

Thanks. I too have owned Fitbit from the beginning. Charge, Ionic I’ll
check out other brand.

Moderator edit: Word choice.

[sean12]

Yes thanks but is anyone going to fix my ionic watch?

Sent from my iPhone

[youhippy]

@EdwardsWM I took part in the beta test for this firmware update and the issues that everyone is having with the battery is something that happened with me during the tests. I've said it before in here and I'll leep on saying it. I have no idea how or why this was pushed to general release when the issues are still present. 

What bugs have you noticed?

The replacement device they sent to me in December is already suffering with only 3 day battery and all I have been using it for is step and sleep tracking. Using it for any exercise depletes the battery even faster. 

New pebble coming next week. I really hope I don't have to upgrade it to the current firmware.

[samsunite00]

@youhippy and @SuperDave78 . Yes! The always on display! I don't have to shake my wrist like I did with the ionic to turn on the display. If it's bright out, the screen is already displaying the info. And if it's dark, I set the vivoactive 3 to light up with the tap of the screen. I conserve battery during the day and I still can see the display in the dark.