Ionic Unusable (GPS crashes everytime, loses steps after restart, not syncing with phone)

[BillN26.2]

Since yesterday afternoon my Ionic has gradually become unusable.

- Yesterday it stopped syncing. I went through all of the guides on the site and reinstalled the app on my phone few times. I eventually got a partial sync last night and again once this morning.

- This morning I went for a run and noticed GPS crashed the watch when I tried to find a signal. After it restarted, I was able to get it to connect and complete a 3 mile run.

- Over lunch today I went for a second run but now GPS will not connect and crashes the watch every time after ~15 seconds (tried 10 times). Also, when it did come back up, I decided to track my run with the Strava app on my phone and my Ionic didn't record a single step over the 5 miles.

- When I returned, I restarted my watch again and charged it. It now counts steps again, however, if I try to start the GPS at all, it crashes and loses any steps that I had taken since the previous restart.

Not sure what to do at this point. Is there any sort of factory reset for the watch that might clear this up? I uninstalled the fitbit app and had my bluetooth forget the Ionic but it still is having the same issues so I don't think it can be attributed to my phone (Pixel 2).

[dazza5622]

I had similar issues and a factory reset has so far been an improvement. You could try the following steps

1. Plugin your Ionic to the charging cable and into a USB port. Do no use a USB hub.
2. Press the three buttons of the Ionic at the same time for 15 seconds. You'll see a static Fitbit logo in the display.
3. Only after the Fitbit logo disappears, we will release only the bottom right button. We will keep pressing the other two.
4. After 20-30 seconds after you'll feel a vibration confirming that the Factory reset has been successful. Once you feel the vibration, we will release the remaining two buttons. The Ionic will now proceed to erase its memory and restart. After the process is complete you may receive a "Data not cleared" message or the initial setup screen with different languages. We can continue with the process either way.
5. Unpair the Ionic from your account and forget the device from your Bluetooth settings before setting it up once more 

Once you have done that you need to set up again as if it was a new device.

Instructions can be found here

https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1873

Hope this helps.

[BillN26.2]

Thanks for the recommendation.So far, after the vibration in step 4, it started flashing the Fitbit logo. It's been doing so for about 15 minutes. Not sure how long this restart part takes. Will reply back with the results.

[dazza5622]

Took me about 30 minutes in total 

[BillN26.2]

Just following up - it's been flashing for about 2.5 hours now. Is it possible to hard reset it again or do you think I should wait a few more hours?

[BillN26.2]

Did a factory reset again at about the 4 hours mark and waited another 2 hours now. It looks like it's stuck on the fitbit logo flashing. Will let it site overnight and probably have to contact customer support in the morning.