Frustrated with Fitbit Ionic

[rbrydia]

I am exceptionally frustrated with the Fitbit Ionic.  Would like to see if the community has any suggestions or workarounds.

1) Inconsistencies - My wife and I bought our ionics from the same location on the same day at the same time.  They are (were) both up to date with the same OS level (2). 

1a)  Her's won't sync to her phone.  Demands an update to 2.1 before it will sync.  Mine has synced repeatedly with no problems.

1b) Her's shows a completely different update process than mine to get to 2.1.  Her's isn't working at all.  Have reset to factory defaults, erased and installed FitBit app new, etc.  App can't find WiFi.  My app on my PC on the same network, does.  Her Ionic never finishes the new initialization process after resetting to factory default.

2)  These things are absolutely USELESS while traveling.  Was overseas and due to cell phone charges, normal people keep their phone in flight mode, mobile data off, etc.  Well, Ionic will never update to the right time zone then.  So I can turn on global access for $10 a day so my watch shows the right time zone.  It's a watch--shouldn't there be a function on it to actually change the time and the time zone when you can't sync.

2a) So the whole time traveling (14 days), our watches were useless.  Even when I turned global access on and paid the $10 a day, if you don't have cell access (like maybe you're on a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean??), your watch is useless.  We missed dinner one night because the ship changed time and the watch never updated because we weren't in a port.  

2c) I can pick up any watch in the world and change the time on it manually...even those controlled by radio waves or satellite or whatever else...  EXCEPT the ionic.  So the only thing this $300 watch did for me while traveling was track my ever increasing heart rate due to frustration at it's ridiculous lack of basic functionality.

I've had it.  I'm going back to my Citizen Eco Drive.  Maybe I'll switch out while I'm at the gym in my hometown because it does seem to work well for that purpose.  Anything else is just oodles of frustration.

Back to trying to get my wife's Ionic to setup since it wouldn't sync without updating to 2.1 and wouldn't update to 2.1 because it claimed (through multiple tries across multiple days and multiple locations and multiple phones and computers and multiple resets/restarts that the BT connection was busy).

FitBit needs to hire some real programmers.  These are not problems that should be occurring.

[IonicSyncink]

@rbrydia my phone also have sync issue same like the issue you highlighted for your wife.. today I have seen at Help section and found $ 300 watch is not supported to my one plus 2 and to get it working I need to buy a phone which support its OS 

[rbrydia]

Lots of similar experiences expressed all throughout the forums.

I can't get hers to even set up on the PC much less a phone.

[IonicSyncink]

Today experience:

At morning default had 40-50 steps like yesterday (day before yesterday i did not wore watch while sleeping while yesterday I did) it did not start with 0.

Staircase: yesterday i climbed only 1 floor while watch was showing 7 floor. Today I did not climbed any floor while watch is showing 4 floor.

Even if you dont wear this watch Calorie burn keeps on increasing automatically.

Steps count varies very much than actual steps walked

In short the reason for which product have bought is not fulfilled.

Personal recommendation: Dont buy this   till all the software problem get fixed

[Colinm39]

@IonicSyncinkI feel for your frustration as many of us have with any new electronic device and understanding how it works.. The industry expects us to find the manuals and understand them.. Here is the Ionic manual at this link

Firstly all Fitbit trackers increase your Calories Burned from midnight and start again the next midnight. They start with the baseline of your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR). This can be about 50% of your daily calorie burn for a typical 10,000 steps/day.. See this link. That is why you see the increased  calories when you're not wearing your watch.. See this link to calculate your BMR which uses the same equations that Fitbit use.  This 24 hour calculation is only 5 calories from my Fitbit sleep derived calculation.

Secondly, any wrist tracker is a movement detector and you will get some steps recorded while asleep.. I can get about 30 to 200, depending on how many bathroom trips I do during the night..  In the scheme of things, I don't worry about that because I can lose up to 1,000 using a shopping trolley.

Thirdly, the floors climbed is controlled by the built in Altimeter.. It gets affected by air pressure, storms and wind.. Over the year I find the exaggerated floors get evened out by the lost floors.. The altimeter is always trying to measure 10' (3m) rises in height and some are marginal so you miss out.. Also if you pause it could realign itself and start again..  Also moving between air conditioned offices and stairwells has the same affect..

Don't hesitate to be involved in the Forums because there are many of us out there willing to help..

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@IonicSyncink wrote:

Today experience:

At morning default had 40-50 steps like yesterday (day before yesterday i did not wore watch while sleeping while yesterday I did) it did not start with 0.

Staircase: yesterday i climbed only 1 floor while watch was showing 7 floor. Today I did not climbed any floor while watch is showing 4 floor.

Even if you dont wear this watch Calorie burn keeps on increasing automatically.

Steps count varies very much than actual steps walked

In short the reason for which product have bought is not fulfilled.

Personal recommendation: Dont buy this   till all the software problem get fixed

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