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Ionic Running Exercise Hangs/Terminates prematurely

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I am on the latest firmware, 32.10.20.

 

I am a long-time user of Fitbit, having had a Charge HR, then a Surge and now an Ionic.  I haven't had ANY issues until the Ionic.  First, it was the music, which I eventually sorted out by doing a complete watch reset and starting from scratch.

Now, it seems, I am having a problem with my Ionic freezing during a running exercise.  Today was the last straw after my watch locked up at mile 5.72.  I eventually was able to wake it up, but the run data up to that point was lost and I was left to start a separate running activity for the last mile and a half.

The steps WERE counted, but not the entire exercise.  SOMETHING is causing the Ionic's OS to freeze and/or reset in the middle of an exercise and I HOPE this gets sorted out by Fitbit soon.  I know I have read in other threads that people have been having similar issues that I am having, so it's NOT just me.  There is a bug in the OS that needs to be fixed.  And fixed pronto.

 

Because for the first time in my three years using a Fitbit product, I am thinking of dumping it for Garmin.

 

I am training for a full marathon and accurate data means everything to me in the weeks before as I train up for the big event.  So I would like to see Fitbit issue a correction in the next firmware update.  I >HAD< hoped it was fixed in the latest firmware update, but, alas....no......it wasn't.

PLEASE FIX THIS ASAP!!!!

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Hi,

I had the same issue with mine on 3 rides, after 2 hours it lost all the data! After contact with support I carried out a full factory reset and it is working fine now.

 

 

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Hi,

I had the same issue with mine on 3 rides, after 2 hours it lost all the data! After contact with support I carried out a full factory reset and it is working fine now.

 

 

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Gahhhhhh I'd HATE to have to do a Factory Reset again.  I just went through that to get Music to transfer to the **ahem** thing and now to have to do it to get rid of this issue would be highly annoying.

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For half an hours wait whilst it does it's thing......Got to be worth it!
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Well today (Father's Day) is the day for another Factory Reset.  We shall see if that resolves my issue.  On my 21-mile bike ride today, the exercise self-terminated at mile 11.  Last week during an official running event, it crapped out one mile in.

 

So I'm going with no significant changes after the reset except adding music and see how I do for the next week.

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It's been nearly a full week since my factory reset (again), and the Ionic has NOT prematurely terminated an exercise since.  I am cautiously optimistic now.

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Good news. Mine has been fine too since I did the reset. Let's hope!!!!
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Gahhhh I spoke to soon.


On Saturday I was 3 miles in to a Half-Marathon distance and the Ionic terminated the Run Exercise.  So frustrating.  I am searching my brain trying to find something that may be involved in this happening, and right now the only thing I can come up with is that there may be a link to playing a huge 2.5 hour playlist I have and this issue.  Perhaps a memory issue?  I don't know.  I'm not even sure if that playlist is involved.  I will have to do more Run Exercises with that same playlist, and then others to see if the issue happens with the same playlist or is just random and not associated.

In any case, I may wind up calling Fitbit direct and discussing but I want to run more tests.  Yesterday did a Bike exercise (13 miles) with a much smaller playlist and the exercise made it through to the end.  Today I have a lunchtime run planned so I'll try it again with another shorter playlist and see how I fare.

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Do you use exercise cues (Ionic pings you every few minutes or miles) or auto-pause?   There's a known issue where exercises crash when the cue pops up or after an auto-pause.  I was told by support about a month ago that the engineers are working on it and that factory reset won't solve this. My temporary fix is to turn off exercise cues and auto-pause.   

 

Unfortunately, I need the run cues to let me know when to take walk breaks since I'm also training for a marathon using the Galloway method.  

 

Fitbit has been silent regarding when we will see a fix even though this has been a problem since early this year.  

 

fyi, I've never had an issue with a large playlist while running.

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I use auto pause on the bike tracking and since the initial problem and
reset a few weeks ago I have had no issues. I don't use cues or have music
on it though.
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Ok folks, on my Half Marathon run this morning, the Ionic terminated the Run exercise at the 2 mile and 7 mile marks.  Very frustrating.

 

So I called Fitbit early Sunday morning (I was amazed they had a 24/7 support line!).  Explained my issue to the tech, she put me on hold for awhile, then came back and quizzed me about notifications or phone calls occurring during my run.  I get the feeling there is an issue with notifications interfering with running exercises.

I ruled out a playlist issue during the past week.  It turns out that my long playlist isn't the issue.  I get the feeling it has something to do with the notifications now.

Fitbit wants me to send the watch back and they will ship me a new one, however I'm not sure if that will solve the problem.  Wondering if I should try turning off all notifications to the phone for now to see if that gets me through until a fix is implemented or if I should go ahead and send the device back for a replacement.

They've already sent me a shipping label.  Maybe I should wait a few days and see how the watch behaves with notifications turned off?

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No question in my opinion, they have offered a replacement so take it. Then
you start afresh, set it up how you want and see what happens.
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Just shipped it back this morning.  Thank heavens I still have my Surge as a backup.

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At least you got a replacement.  They told me it's a known software issue and are refusing to replace it.  Several ruined workouts in the last few weeks and several wasted calls to their customer service. I'm guessing they just pick who gets replacements at random? 

Either way, take the replacement. Not everyone is reporting this or we would have thousands of people on here saying it. Some people get watches that actually work.

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@Ryan13 wrote:

At least you got a replacement.  They told me it's a known software issue and are refusing to replace it.  Several ruined workouts in the last few weeks and several wasted calls to their customer service. I'm guessing they just pick who gets replacements at random? 

Either way, take the replacement. Not everyone is reporting this or we would have thousands of people on here saying it. Some people get watches that actually work.


That sucks man.  Guess it just depends on who you get on the other end of the phone.  In any event I'll be sure to post here again once the replacement arrives and I've ran with it a few days.  I'm going to leave notifications on for the first few days to see if the bug reoccurs.

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@NavyDP1 wrote:

Just shipped it back this morning.  Thank heavens I still have my Surge as a backup.


Just received the replacement after a 19 day turnaround.  In the process of setting it up now.  Time will tell if they made any changes that solves this issue.

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Make sure the option: always on display is turn on for the exercise, haven't found a single issue since

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I am SO ANGRY right now I am ready to just use every cuss word in my Sailor vocabulary.

 

My REPLACEMENT Fitbit Ionic just terminated a run exercise at around mile 14.5 of a 15 mile run. I have lost ALL that workout and GPS data from that run.  And I even had notifications turned off this time.

 

Bright side, I finished the 15 miles. I am SO done with Fitbits now. Time to move to Garmin.  Fitbit, I hope you learn from this.

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I have made the switch to Garmin.  So long Fitbit.  You had reliable devices in the Charge HR and the Surge, but the Ionic was the breaking point for me.

 

As a semi-serious runner, I rely on accurate data for my training workouts and the Ionic failed miserably with it's inconsistent ability to complete "Run" exercises.

 

I grew tired of losing all that run and GPS data.

 

I believed in your product, Fitbit, I really did.  And I felt I gave you a more than adequate chance to fix the problem.  I hope you do fix it, for the sake of your existing customer base.

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Me eighter, Last week i gave back the Fitbit Ionic.
I own now the garmin forerunner 645M.
The Design ist noch that good but all ist working finde.
Music runs without cutting Off.
The Connection to the App Work very Well and stable.


Good Bye around.
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