Ionic Firmware Release - 32.10.20

[CarlosCFitbit]

Fitbit Update 08/23/2018: Hi everyone! 

Just wanted to thank you all for your participation in this thread. 

Since the majority of Ionic users have successfully updated to OS 2.1.1 (v32.10.20) I have decided to close this topic to further posts. 

If you still have not updated your Ionic to OS 2.1.1, check out this post for some best practices on how to update your device. 

If you are experiencing an issue with your Ionic unrelated to the firmware-up process, I invite you to start a new topic on the community or find a related topic. 

Thanks again to all the great feedback we have received on this firmware. Looking forward to the next Fitbit OS update! 

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Fitbit Update - 6/7/18: Fitbit OS 2.1.1 has been released to 100% of Ionic users!

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Hi, everyone! 

I am excited to announce the release of Fitbit OS 2.1.1! (Firmware Version: 32.10.20)

We've started to roll out this update to 30% of Ionic users. This is a progressive rollout, and all Ionic users can expect to have it within a few weeks. We roll out releases in phases as a cautionary measure so that we can monitor performance closely and make adjustments if needed. 

You can find the release notes for this new OS version by following the link, here.  

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

As a reminder, I recommend updating your Ionic over a home Wi-Fi network as this can greatly reduce the time it can take to get set up. For more information on connecting your Ionic to Wi-Fi, check out this article. 

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

Looking forward to hearing everyone's feedback on the latest release. If you have any questions, feel free to post them in this thread. 

[jfa002]

Well I was on a walk to my local library and while in the library shortly before your reply I was able to switch my watch face. Not sure what the issue was but it's corrected at least for now. First time I've really had an issue since I bought day one of release. In happy!

Sent from my iPhone

[MarreFitbit]

Hi everyone! I'd like to begin by saying that I understand that this is an important topic to the everyone in this thread. Thanks for taking the time to troubleshoot these inconveniences with your Fitbit Ionic, nice way to go! 

Thank you for the thorough feedback for the Fitbit platform and devices. 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 that feedback.

As I went through your post and comments, I could see that the majority of you have posted that the issues with your Ionic have been solved. This is awesome!  Thanks also for sharing the steps that have worked for you, I'm sure that will help others. 

I'm aware that you already tried all the basic troubleshooting steps, however, it won't harm to take a look at all the information here about each specific area of the Ionic:

• Tracker not syncing
• Battery draining 
• GPS troubleshoots 
• Firmware update troubleshoots 
• Music transfer 

For Deezer users, there's something I'd like to add to my post. If you’re noticing a difference in download speeds for your Deezer playlists is due to we recently added an additional layer of security to Fitbit OS (the software that your watch runs on) so you may notice a slight difference in download speeds.

Also, as you mentioned here, Community members had reported an increase of mobile data by the Fitbit app on Android devices.This issue was already resolved, please ensure you are on the latest app (2.75). 

If you have exhausted all the recommendations provided in this thread, I'd recommend either to keep your support case open and continue to work with the support team or getting in touch with them if you haven't done this yet by clicking here and selecting your preferred channel. 

If there's any additional questions, please let me know. 

[Gryzor]

"THE MAJORITY OF YOU ARE BACK ON TRACK"?

Seriously, FitBit? More salt to the wound? Where on earth did you get that?

[disgustipated]

I got a giggle from that too...

I've given up with the app for my issues, I think that is primarily the problem with sync. I only sync now by turning on the music transfer, which seems to kick on the wifi and it seems like it forces a sync (which completely bypasses the cell phone app) so i can at least grab the tcx file for my runs without having to screw around with a broken app. At this point if i turn on the keep alive widget in android it makes the ionic continually reboot.

[Gryzor]

This response is really so typical of FitBit - closing our eyes and ears and singing "LALALA" hoping the problem goes away...

No wonder they removed my post saying we should call them out in social media as "inflamatory"...

[MarreFitbit]

Hi @Gryzor! As I've said above, we know and understand that this is an important topic for each of you, but I'll remind you that our Community asks for civil discourse on the forums. If one of your post were removed, please check our Community Guidelines. 

Sorry to hear you're still having syncing issues @disgustipated. Please make sure your watch and computer are connected to the same network. To see which network your computer is on, click the Wi-Fi symbol on your screen. If your watch and computer are connected to different networks, manually connect your watch to the same network as your computer. Return to the Wi-Fi settings screen in the Fitbit app, tap the network name, and tap Connect. 

If the issue persists, please take a look at the article: Why won't my Fitbit device sync? to get a complete troubleshooting guide on how to solve this issue. 

Hope it helps! 

[Gryzor]

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@MarreFitbit wrote:

Hi @Gryzor! As I've said above, we know and understand that this is an important topic for each of you, but I'll remind you that our Community asks for civil discourse on the forums. If one of your post were removed, please check our Community Guidelines. 

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And yet, I fail to see how my post was not part of a 'civil discourse'. Did I cuss? Did I flame? All I did was propose that we call FitBit out on Social media because the standard response is 'we're looking into it' while ignoring the issue.

[disgustipated]

Its not a wifi sync issue, its the app doesnt work properly and has a red !. I have tried multiple things that have been suggested and beyond that. I had posted a logcat of the issue but i think that post got removed somehow it was pretty detailed in the issue. I havent had time to post a logcat for when I turn on the keep alive widget and it just makes the ionic continuously reboot.

The reason i trigger the transfer music is because it connects over wifi perfectly fine and pushes things to website completely bypassing the phone.

[Gryzor]

No, it's not a wifi issue.

-It's not a wifi issue when my devices, which worked perfectly up to the latest update, stopped syncing.

-It's not a wifi issue, that my battery life is lower than 50% of what it used to be all of a sudden

-It's not a wifi issue, the GPS losing connection and not reconnecting.

-It's not a wifi issue, that my exercise app has started crashing when I work out.

-etc, etc, etc.

Otherwise yes, it's a wifi issue. 😄

[Rbiker68]

Agreed the last update killed the battery

[FiZ1point5]

=Using Ionic with a Google Pixel on the latest version of Android=

There was a period of time, several months after the Ionic launched, where it seemed to work mostly-okay for one or two firmware versions. But for the last month or two, it's gone back to absolute garbage. I can only get it to sync once a day, at best. I have to try the same old steps like turning off bluetooth, closing the app, using Force Stop in the android app management, restarting the phone, opening fitbit, using its prompt to turn bluetooth back on. And even when the Ionic syncs its steps to my phone's app, half the time, the app can't sync with fitbit's servers with absolutely no indication as to what went wrong. I'll just have to tap on the Ionic icon to see that it still hasn't synced in a day or more. 

And the ONLY help I've EVER seen from customer support at this point is the same stupid list of unpair, delete the ionic, factory reset, delete the app, reinstall, reactivate. And when it fails to sync less than a day later? DO IT AGAIN. 

I've gone from being a die-hard fan since the first fitbit to absolutely hating the company and its recent products. I can't find the words for how angry I am at the situation, other than to recommend anyone stay as far away from fitbit as possible. I wear the Ionic just so people ask about it, so I can recommend looking at literally any other tracker. If I've gone through the entire warranty period without having the device work okay-ish for even half a year, what then fitbit? Will you promise to replace my device with another one that won't work? And I know they won't work, I'll bet absolutely anything on it.

This is unacceptable, full stop. 

[FiZ1point5]

Thanks for deleting my earlier post /s

tl;dr - I have followed every single setup/troubleshooting guide on getting my Ionic to work with my Pixel, and I can never get it to go one full day without it completely failing to sync (either can't sync from Ionic to phone, or from phone to server, no notifications in either case). And this has been going on for months, now. If my device goes through its entire warranty period without having worked any better than "okay-ish" for a few months, what then? 

[Username103]

 It would appear that the community guidelines were created for bots without "investment" in a product!

If Your car brakes stop working do You try restarting the car, syncing to "wifi" or do You take it back to the manufacturer and say fix it after the accident?

If Your roof leaks are You going to try opening a window to stop the leak?

If You put out flawed firmware, show the people Your truth and put out a rollback, if the problems go away...hmmmmm!

By deleting posts that are passionate and then turn around with a comment that all of sudden the issues are resolved is futile. 

You do realize that we receive all posts by email before You get to delete them, I'm getting at least 30 a day just about Your firmware update....

I will be returning my fitbit.

Thank You for these shared moments, I want to play a different game now!

[SunsetRunner]

I’ve only had this ionic for 2 days, 2 painful days of trying to do something simple ... copy music to it. This product is a complete and total disaster! I can’t tell you how upset and pissed off I am. Don’t even think of posting your canned “troubleshooting”, I’ve tried them all and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. How hard can it be to make a product that can hold music?

I install the software, it connects both BT and then WiFi, then I add go to add music and it says I need WiFi (WTF), then I try to connect again and it says cant find the WiFi, the same WiFi it just connected to. Then I go back one screen, to to add WiFi again and it says it can’t find the watch with BT. I have been at this for hours! What a complete and total waste of money and time. Even when I put a clock face on it, as soon as I’m away from WiFi or it’s recharging, the colors all go away.

I bought this brand new from eBay and now I’m stuck with this **ahem** that looks like it was designed in 1992 except at least in 92 I could transfer music to my Zune. Shame on you Fitbit for this truly horrible customer experience.

I should have looked at the forums first, all you do is blame your beta quality, overpriced digital watch issues on your customers. 

[Gryzor]

Basically, I truly believe the only inflammatory posts here are the ones by the mods...

[jfa002]

I disagree and I really like my Ionic. I'm looking forward to adding CGM to my insulin pump and being able to watch results on Ionic.

Get Outlook for iOS

[swimpmeister]

I am putting together a press release and submitting it to all of the tech
companies and have included many of the user struggles with their high
dollar products. I will let you know if I see any of them pick up the story
and may post the content (got to check to see if it breaks any forum rules-
all user names or identifying info has been redacted from comments).

I have also made sure to leave reviews for the product at all the usual
online platforms (Amazon, Best Buy, etc.) and you may wish to do the same
to warn people as well. Best of luck.

Moderator edit: removed personal information

[LarryQW]

I started following this thread for a couple weeks before buying my Ionic in June, which gave me concern. What I noted is that this thread, perhaps from being at the top of the forum, has been a catch all for everyone's problems. However, the wide variety of problems that appear in different combinations for different users make a firmware cause unlikely. Users report all sorts of issues here, but few of us without any issues using this firmware bother to make make posts here, adding to the impression that firmware is causing issues for all users, which isn't true.

   Furthermore, after installing the this version 32.10.20 of the software, I had none of the issues cited by others, as I reported in great detail above. My sync works well. I get 5 day battery life. My Ionic GPS outperforms my two top Garmin units. My HR is within a couple BPM of my Garmin chest strap.  My Fitbit pay works great, is very fast, and accepted by 80% of stores. I have only used the Bike fitness app, but it works fine. I haven't done any music downloads.

     Of course, many users do have serious problems with the Ionic, including those often posted here. Looking carefully here and in the Amazon reviews, most all of the 10-20% low  ratings reporting issues look to be either user operation or more often hardware related, with similar issues to those here. On Amazon, over 50% give 5-star ratings, including recent purchases with this firmware. And those with problems are more likely to review, so the positive fraction could be very much over 50%.

    @Gryzor, how can you say your troubles are firmware when others do not have these issues with this same firmware? By coincidence of the timing with the update? Some hardware failures can possibly be caused by just the update process itself. Maybe you have a bad power supply or bad memory that is causing so many errors simultaneously, and any update can hit those hardware problems?

    Now if a lot of the problems listed here are NOT firmware, then the unfortunate consequence is that a new firmware will also NOT fix those issues. This means that a return will be necessary. From comments here, I see that Fitbit is trying very hard to not have returns, which are a major loss item. And they're slow on replacements for hardware failures, which is what I see as the real problem here. Looking at their finances, Fitbit lost $118M last quarter on revenue of $299M. That hurts! They are trying to get profitable by next quarter, and reserves for warranty replacement are a big item on their expenses. So they are fine letting people believe that a new firmware will someday fix their watch and slow down the replacement rate.

    Many of the users on Amazon initially reporting great performance with the watch often see it fail months later, not related to a firmware update. For that reason, I purchased my watch from Amazon, and also bought a three-year warranty from Asurion, which have been very responsive on several cell phone returns. With rapid technical progress, I suspect 3 years is about as long as the technical life of a smart watch.

   I don't think Fitbit is laughing at anyone. They're losing piles of money and being squeezed by Apple on the high end and the Chinese on the low end. They're more likely trying to address all the issues in quality as rapidly as possible, so that they can recover profitability and retain reputation.

I bought my Fitbit Ionic knowing all the above, and did it anyway. I love my Ionic and, like others, would be very upset if it fails. It's one of the few watches that gets 5-day battery life. How can any other watch monitor sleep when it has to be charged at night? I also like that it's waterproof, monitors all my activities, gives me email and text notifications, lets me answer my phone while still in my pocket, syncs with other software like Fitness Pal, and so on. If or when the Ionic fails, I'll likely just buy another and work with Fitbit's deliberately slow warranty system for my spare.

   I'm sure that Fitbit is working very hard now improve their quality - their survival depends on it. They have an excellent product that can do well if they improve reliability.  The best thing they can do now for their long term business and reputation is to work with customers to more rapidly recognize and fix the Ionic hardware errors and speed up replacements, even if it causes more near term financial losses.

[Gryzor]

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@jfa002 wrote:
I disagree and I really like my Ionic. I'm looking forward to adding CGM to my insulin pump and being able to watch results on Ionic.

Get Outlook for iOS

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Good for you. Perhaps you could add that comment to a more relevant thread.

[Gryzor]

@LarryQW : Despite posting in the FW thread, because this appears to be the biggest culprit, I'm not saying it's all down to the FW. Around the same time the FW was released  pushed down our throats, FitBit changed things on their back end side and also updated their app. Between these updates, several things broke, though of course not for everyone.

Our biggest issue with FitBit, if you haven't gathered (probably not), is not that things have gone wrong for many people, but with their communication attitude. Instead of trying to work with us to figure things out all they do is parrot the same old 'advice' in an ever-condescending tone ("Let's work together on this!" "Let's work as a team!"). Or flat-out refuse there's a problem (calling my devices, which always worked perfectly for instance, "incompatible" all of a sudden).

Ugh.