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! 

---

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

---

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. 

[craisin]

May I ask which brand you changed to? I returned my Ionic and am still using
FB Surge,

But would be interested in what other brand is popular.



Cheers..

Chris




---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

[Gryzor]

Windows 10 has its own collection of bugs, some of them affecting the BT function... Sometimes it won't communicate with my BT devices here as well, so I have to switch airplane on and off and sometimes remove the bt device and pair it again.

[Prasad1337]

When will this update be released for the Versa?

[Shastaski]

---

@LarryQW wrote:

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.

I know from reading the threads that similar issues appeard after the February Firmware update, whether it is firmware or some other issue, mine had battery issues right after the June update.  I received it as a gift for Christmas, so either 6 months of use killed it or the firmware update had something to do with it.  At any rate, I worked through it here and received a replacement easily from FitBit after jumpling through the normal hoops which is fine.

   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.

How do you get 5 days battery life?  What I have found through actual testing,  the only way to get 5 days is to use it only as a Step Counter which no notifications, no Auto Wake, no Exercise monitoring, Manually syncing, no Music, and definitely no GPS usage.  When I use those items the normal battery usage increases from the 1% or less per hour to an additional 1 to 2% for exercise and 10% for music or GPS usage.  I am able to use my the way I want with a balance of these and get around 3 days out of it, which is fine by my book

     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.

Understanding your numbers as I work in finance, but that does not matter to the handful of customers here that are complaing.  Having worked in Retail Management, one unhappy customer will tell a dozen where as one happy one will tell nobody.  Fixing  it will cost money, but more money the longer they wait in lost future sales.

    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.

---

[LarryQW]

@Shastaski  Hardware failures appear to be occurring in months after purchase. There might be a spike during firmware updates. Fitbit would know. Firmware updates may require higher voltage to program and exercise weak memory - lots of things could be stressed. So not surprised if firmware updates can cause issues.

As for battery life, my Ionic drops just under 20% per day. I indeed get email and text notifications, typically several per hour. I also get phone notifications and answer my phone directly into my earbuds that way, with my phone in the pocket. I turn off All-Day Sync, as I find the phone app will sync automatically when I open it, which is the only time I care anyway. I don't stream music as I find it easier to stream from my PC or phone which I always have with me. So I get 5 days without using GPS. However, I do use the GPS on 1-2 hour bike rides a few times per week, and indeed the charge drops 10%/hour on those rides. However, I find the Ionic charges fast at about 1% per minute, so I charge while in the shower and changing, to recover that 10%/hour drop from the GPS, and even more to top it off.

Fitbit says they've sold 1 Million Versa watches. So the Ionic sales must be some fraction of this. On this thread, there's only been a dozen or so very unhappy and vocal customers. So it would indeed seem easy for Fitbit to just replace those few watches that are clearly broken, at such a low percentage. I suspect of more concern to Fitbit is the 15% of Ionic users on Amazon with 1-star ratings. They simply can't afford to replace all those Ionics if the 15% failures is across all users, beyond just those 512 angry customers posting reviews.  They may be in a hard place with quality and reputation, and trying to dig themselves out right now. Their only saving grace is the Ionic is indeed an innovative watch with features and battery life not available on other watches. I like it enough to deal with the potential fail rate.

[bitstone]

Over the course of three years I've had three Surges and this Ionic. The
first Surge had a bezel leak within the first six months. The second one
had a band failure, also within six months. The final surge lasted almost
a year before the battery life failed on it. By this point FB would not
replace my Surge (they were not being made any longer) so they offered me a
discount on the Ionic. It's lasted about six months (see a pattern here?)
and now it too is flaking out, but at least this time FB has admitted,
albeit in private, that their latest update is "glitchy". I'd call it
fatally buggy since the issues makes the device next to worthless for its
intended functions. I'm happy that your device is working well. Can't
tell if that puts you in the minority or not, but my experience with FB has
been their devices are not designed well and their QA process is "glitchy".

--
-B-

"People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing
it"
- George Bernard Shaw

[Shastaski]

---

@LarryQW wrote:

@Shastaski  Hardware failures appear to be occurring in months after purchase. There might be a spike during firmware updates. Fitbit would know. Firmware updates may require higher voltage to program and exercise weak memory - lots of things could be stressed. So not surprised if firmware updates can cause issues.

As for battery life, my Ionic drops just under 20% per day. I indeed get email and text notifications, typically several per hour. I also get phone notifications and answer my phone directly into my earbuds that way, with my phone in the pocket. I turn off All-Day Sync, as I find the phone app will sync automatically when I open it, which is the only time I care anyway. I don't stream music as I find it easier to stream from my PC or phone which I always have with me. So I get 5 days without using GPS. However, I do use the GPS on 1-2 hour bike rides a few times per week, and indeed the charge drops 10%/hour on those rides. However, I find the Ionic charges fast at about 1% per minute, so I charge while in the shower and changing, to recover that 10%/hour drop from the GPS, and even more to top it off.

Thanks for your feedback on the charge life, I have found it loses 25% with the 3 sync settings active and 20% with them off.  The huge battery suckers are Music and GPS.  I manage my battery life by turning off the sync, Notifications and Auto Wake at night when I really don't need them.  It seems with the Phone App updates, that the battery life can become an issue.  Mine is a replacement and I am really watching it carefully so I can manage the battery life on it.  One thing I have noticed, it seems the last 25% of life drops faster.

Fitbit says they've sold 1 Million Versa watches. So the Ionic sales must be some fraction of this. On this thread, there's only been a dozen or so very unhappy and vocal customers. So it would indeed seem easy for Fitbit to just replace those few watches that are clearly broken, at such a low percentage. I suspect of more concern to Fitbit is the 15% of Ionic users on Amazon with 1-star ratings. They simply can't afford to replace all those Ionics if the 15% failures is across all users, beyond just those 512 angry customers posting reviews.  They may be in a hard place with quality and reputation, and trying to dig themselves out right now. Their only saving grace is the Ionic is indeed an innovative watch with features and battery life not available on other watches. I like it enough to deal with the potential fail rate.

I really rely on the Amazon reviews, but read them carefully as many are just a load of bull, but they can be helpful.  BTW, I like my Ionic which is why I have gone to so much trouble analyzing the battery life, and spending time here trying to help some frustrated people.

---

[FiZ1point5]

This past weekend I: 
- unpaired my Ionic from my fitbit account

- unpaired it from my phone's bluetooth

- factory reset the Ionic

- cleared the cache + data from my mobile app in Android app mangement

- uninstalled the app

- reset the phone, twice

- installed the app, and logged in

- paired my Ionic with the phone/app

- updated the firmware (this failed more than half a dozen times despite having no wifi issues in my apartment with any other device)

I got frequent activity sync, and notifications for less than a day. 

Two days later, in order to get the Ionic to sync at all, I have to: 

- swipe the app to close
- force close the app in android app management

- turn off bluetooth

- reset the phone 

- reset the Ionic

- open the app after the phone reboots

Anything less than that, and it won't sync, still. It may sync another 1-3 times for the next hour or so, until everything fails again. And I've not received more than 2 notifications in the last day and a half, even from the fitbit app. 

I don't even care about notifications anymore. I just want a fitness tracker that'll work more than a day at a time. Bring back the old clip-style trackers and I'll just live without the heart rate monitoring, too. It's obvious that any more advancements in fitness tracking are impossible for fitbit.

[ruriimasu]

Amazefit Stratos 2. Lots of detailed workout information as well. Music is available too

[LarryQW]

@FiZ1point5: I've found that Bluetooth sync technology is a bit flaky, not just with the Ionic, but also equally bad when connecting with my car, earbuds, and other devices, and gets worse the more devices I have connected. Bluetooth was bad on my last Motorola Droid Maxx. So I upgraded to a Moto Force Z2  a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, the Bluetooth reliability is even worse with this new phone.  

   Nevertheless, I'm still able to use Bluetooth to sync fine with the Ionic by some quick tricks. Usually, I can just open the Bluetooth settings and tap on the Ionic connection. Sometimes I need to turn the Bluetooth on and off on my phone. And rarely, like once a month, reboot my Ionic (not the factory reset) with the quick three-button hold that only takes half a minute without loosing settings or data. 

   I have a watch face that has a "Bluetooth" icon that checks for a connection all the way through the phone to the weather web site and shows red with any problem. So I know when the Bluetooth is acting up. Normally I turn off "All-Day Sync" and the Fitbit App will sync automatically whenever I open it up, which is all I need. My notifications and call info come through fine all the time with this setting. I rarely have problems with this. Sometimes the Bluetooth icon on my watch face will show red, but the sync with the phone works fine anyway. I suspect in that case it's indicating perhaps a web site connection fail rather than Bluetooth fail.

[FiZ1point5]

Do you know the name of the clock face with the bluetooth icon? I'd be happy to give that a spin. 

As for the rest, I'm glad that the Ionic works for you, but for me, as I've already explained, just recycling bluetooth, or only restarting the Ionic doesn't restore syncing. I have meticulously tried dozens of variations of processes like (restart Ionic, restart Ionic and phone, force close app and restart Ionic, etc) and almost never do any of them fix syncing for me. And this is the only bluetooth device I own that has these problems. Trust me when I say that the Ionic is a horrendously broken product that happens to work in a very small percentage of cases. It looks like yours is one of those Ionics, and I'm happy for you. But the rest of us paid hundreds of dollars for an absolute lemon. 

[Username103]

I hear You, however if I have to have a strategy buying a product, maybe they need to do more R&D or just fail and save us all a lot time and money. 

Imagine if every product You own went through this process!!!

[FacialTissue]

Is fitbit planning on fixing the terrible music quality issue? Personally I'll never buy another one. The internet is littered with used ones I'm assuming for that reason. Someone over there dropped a big egg. 

[YFG]

One of the reasons I picked Ionic-music feature....what a joke. The first iTunes years ago was simpler.
Also, not sure if I got pushed an update-beginning yesterday I cannot get to my home screen with a push of left button. I have to push left and bottom right.

8 months in and Ionic continues to disappoint...with every release.

[jfa002]

I don't have that issue. I raise my left hand and the watch face and stats appear. At night it's almost too much. I'm assuming you have checked your settings for notifications.

Sent from my iPhone

[LarryQW]

---

@FiZ1point5 wrote:

Do you know the name of the clock face with the bluetooth icon? I'd be happy to give that a spin. 

---

I use the ASK Farin watch face which has a "Bluetooth Good" icon on the front face, among weather and other stats. I believe I saw many others with this feature. The "Bluetooth Good" means the connection to the phone weather website is good. So I've had Sync to my phone work fine even with this indicator is Red (bad) instead of Blue (good). I also like the ASK Farin because I've found the DarkSky weather used by most faces is off by as much as 10F in my area, in spite of their hyper-localization. DarkSky admitted that to me when I wrote them. ASK Farin allows use of Yahoo Weather which is within a couple degrees, even though it doesn't update as often. 

I'm not sure where you get your stats, but my impression is that the watch works well for the majority of users, based on the stats reasoning I've provided before. Basically, out of a fraction of a million users, there's only a few failures from some very vocal users on this thread. So it's hard to project your statement from this data. 

[MarreFitbit]

Good morning everyone! I do appreciate the time you've taken to share your personal experience with Fitbit Ionic. While reading every single post, I totally understand your point of view and I know where all of your concerns are coming from. 

As part of the Moderator team, I just wanted to say that we and the Support Team are doing everything possible to efficiently work through a backlog of inquiries, providing each customer with helpful, personalized assistance. I really appreciate your feedback in regards to improve the quality of our Fitbit Ionic and the rest of our trackers. Everything that has been posted in this thread has been forwarded to the specif department. Our team is aware of the issues you're experiencing and they are working to solve them individually very soon. 

I don't want to sound repetitive because I know that makes things worse. I felt identify with some of you, not because of my Fitbit, but because of so many products that I have purchased and they have failed at some point. However, I try to see both sides, my side and the company's. Hope you can understand what I'm trying to say with that. 

I know you have tried all the possible solutions to fix the issues you've been experienced with your tracker. I don't want to say the same about by providing the same steps you've seen posted in this thread. However, I do would like to share this link https://help.fitbit.com/?p=ionic where you can find all the helpful categories for Fitbit Ionic. I'm doing this because sometimes due to the frustration we have or depending how mad we are, we skip or miss a single step that turns out fixing our issue (that has happened to me). 

If the issues persist, I recommend getting in touch with our Support Team by choosing your preferred channel:  https://help.fitbit.com/?l=en_US&cu=1&fs=ContactUs

Let me know if there are more questions present. 

[mr_manager]

^--- The best response from a mod so far. Thank you for not just pasting a template into a response. 

[Gryzor]

Indeed, at last a non-boilerplate reply. It'll be even better if and when we get an actual acknowledgment of the problems...

I bit the bullet and upgraded my second Ionic to the latest FW. Let's see how it goes - but oh my, it looks so sweet that the battery was at 98% when I woke up and not at 75% 😄

[bitstone]

There's a later FW release than 32.10.20?

--
-B-

"People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing
it"
- George Bernard Shaw