Ionic crashing during exercise

[thehappychappie]

I've now experienced several failures of the Ionic watch during key races that I've taken part in.  It seems to have a habit of randomly crashing during the race.  It first happened last year at the start of the Great North Run - luckily I was able to get the thing reset before I actually crossed the start line.

Then it failed a few weeks ago - 4.2 miles through a 5.4 mile race and it crashed so my stats weren't tracked properly.

Then today during a Park Run - it crashed and reset 2.8 miles into the 3.1 mile course.

I was using the 'Run' exercise on the screen and had Deezer playing music (downloaded to the Watch) through Bluetooth Headphones.  Is there a known issue with this combination?  And if so, is anyone from FitBit working on a fix?

This is getting frustrating - FitBit was designed as a Fitness Tracker primarily.  If it can't do this basic function, then I am strongly considering buying a Garmin as they seem to be more reliable (and have a very similar, or better, feature set to the Ionic.)

[RicardoFitbit]

Hello @thehappychappie thanks for bringing this to my attention, I'm happy to help you today. It's nice to see you again participating in our Community Forums.

I appreciate all the information and details that were shared on your post, I totally understand how frustrating this matter can be for you and even more when you were in the middle of races. If you were not credited by all the races in which your Ionic crashed, I recommend you to manually log the activity in your Fitbit account to be credited. To do so, please check our help article: How do I manually log exercises in the Fitbit app?. To better assist you with this situation, can you please let me know when was the first time you experienced this and how many times since then? Are you still experiencing this situation during your runs?

Looking forward to your reply, let me know if you have any additional questions.

[thehappychappie]

Although the watch has crashed a number of times since we purchased it (almost as soon as it came out in the UK), the first time there was a major failure was last September.  Luckily it was before the race so managed to get it sorted out.

Then it happened 9th June this year - the watch reset itself after about 4 miles of a 5.4 mile race.

Finally, it happened Saturday just gone.

In all three occasions, I had bluetooth headphones linked to the watch and playing downloaded music using Deezer, at the same time as tracking exercise.

Hope this information is sufficient to help diagnose things - it's looking like an issue with Deezer and exercise (maybe GPS?) working together.  But sadly I can offer no more information - until it happens again (if it does!).

Any firmware updates on the horizon?

[SunsetRunner]

@thehappychappie search the forum and you will find out they know about issue but there have not been any development for ages. If you want to stay with Fitbit then for your own good have always a backup device. For me the last straw in regard with crashes was when I lost 15km run due to the issue. It was long time ago 😉

[thehappychappie]

Fitbit have a chance to resolve this issue.  It sounds like it's not unique to me.  Garmin is a tempting option because I've never heard their devices failing like this.

Come on FitBit - get things sorted.

You bought Pebble software and their watches never crashed. 

[RicardoFitbit]

Hello guys! I'm happy to continue providing assistance, my apologies for the delay in responding. Thanks for your reply and update @thehappychappie, your informative post is appreciated @SunsetRunner. 

Thanks for letting me know about this issue. Let me share with you that Fitbit is aware of it but may not be able to provide a fix in the immediate future. We'll continue to monitor the situation, and keep our team informed of the impact to you and other customers. We understand that this isn't the resolution you're hoping for, but rest assured we're always working to improve our products.

Let me know if both of you need anything else. 

[b-mike]

I think your Deezer connection is a red herring unfortunately. Mine crashes occasionally during GPS exercises too, and I don't use Deezer or have any music on my watch. Fixing bugs isn't a focus for Fitbit unfortunately.

[Dante3D]

I have had the same problem many times recently during long runs.  It most often happens after the 1st  half mile - the watch buzzes - I look down to see my pace - and the watch has reset to the clock screen.   I then have to restart the exercise tracking.   Curious that after that first crash it seems to work fine the rest of the run.   No headphones linked during these runs.   Sounds like the problem is known but they don't plan on fixing it any time soon.  After being a fitbit user for many years looks like I'm going to have to break down and get a Garmin.

[RicardoFitbit]

Hello again, it's a pleasure to continue providing assistance, sorry for the delayed reply. It's nice to see you again participating here in the Community Forums @b-mike and @Dante3D.

@b-mike Thanks for the feedback that was shared in your post, we're always striving to improve the Fitbit experience, therefore, the information that was posted is helpful for us. Take in consideration that we are always working to fix bugs with our updates, I recommend you to keep your Fitbit app. mobile device and Fitbit firmware version up to date. Let me know if I can do anything else for you.

@Dante3D  I appreciate the details that were shared in your post, I appreciate the troubleshooting steps that were tried prior posting. Please refer to my previous post to manually log the exercise. As per previously mentioned, we are aware of this situation and working towards a resolution as soon as possible, please keep your Fitbit app, Fitbit device firmware version and mobile device software up to date.

I'll be around. Let me know if you have any additional questions.