Ionic experience

[b-mike]

Quite a few issues with my ionic, I think I've seen many raised on here before, and non resolved. I came from a Surge, and that had it's own problems (syncing, notifications sporadic or not working at all). It seems the ionic has that same problem to some extent. Keep having to restart bluetooth on my phone to get the Ionic to talk to it again. Clearly terrible software either on the app side or the device itself. I know, I know, I don't have one of the phones listed for compatibility. But that's not a good enough excuse these days - how many other manufacturers are selling bluetooth connected hardware that is only officially compatible with a handful of obsolete Android devices? The whole point is that they share the same O/S and you'd expect compatibility with 99% of phones. There must be hundreds, if not thousands of  model of Android phones out there, and Fitbit only talks to a handful of them properly? I doubt even the approved devices behave much better with Fitbit comms?

Fitbit's bluetooth comms code is clearly so flaky that it's constantly falling over. On the more basic trackers, it seems to be much more reliable, but the top end ones with more features (multiple notifications etc) are where it all seems to fall apart. I'll likely be changing my phone to a Pixel 3 when it comes out, when will Google's flagship new phone be added to Fitbit compatibility list?

Next problem - GPS tracking. The ionic really seems to struggle to find and keep a GPS lock, never hand anything like this much trouble with the Surge. Last week I did a 16 mile bike ride, Fitbit clocked it as under 10 miles! I rode back exactly the same route but in the opposite direction and it kept a GPS lock pretty much all the way, which is how I know it was 16 miles.

Random battery drain. Every now and again, my ionic completely drains it's battery really quickly (like in about 8 hours from fully charged to zero). No exercise activities logged, or GPS use, just basic background tracking. Most of the time it lasts 3 or 4 days without any trouble. But once in a while this will happen. Seems like a software bug?

I'm not expecting any of this to get resolved any time soon (or indeed ever), which is pretty poor really. Way back when, I joined the beta testing group, and submitted endless logs of the syncing problems on my Surge. I get the impression they weren't even looked at, no one provided any feedback or any improvements in new releases.

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[MarreFitbit]

Hi @b-mike! Sorry to hear about the inconveniences you've been having with your Ionic. Thanks you for the thorough feedback for the Fitbit environment, customer service and devices. This has not gone unnoticed and be sure that I will pass this along.

We don't want to create frustration in our customers. 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.

I totally understand your point. Note that the devices on this list have been confirmed as fully compatible with all features of Fitbit devices and the Fitbit app. While a phone or tablet may not be verified as fully compatible, the Fitbit app may still work with your device. 

Our team routinely test new devices to ensure full compatibility with Fitbit devices and the Fitbit app, and are constantly working to confirm compatibility with new phone models. Be sure to verify that your phone meets the minimum operating system requirements. Note that the majority of Android phones running version 4.4 or higher will work with our products. 

If your phone supports Bluetooth 4.0, I'd recommend giving the setup flow a try to see if you can successfully connect your tracker. 

Please keep in mind that when a device is not supported we cannot guarantee its functionality with the Fitbit app. It might work at a certain time and then it can stop working out of nowhere after an update. This is because the app is not optimized to that device and any change could impact the performance. 

In regards to GPS, the GPS requires a direct path to the satellites in order to receive their radio transmissions, and there are several reasons why GPS data could be negatively affected.  The accuracy depends on both your environment and the weather; the GPS signal could be affected because you're underground, near many tall buildings, or as a result of atmospheric effects. 

I'm aware that you probably already tried all the basic troubleshooting steps, however, it won't harm to take a look at all the information here about the requirements, error messages and troubleshooting steps that could help to improve GPS accuracy.

For the battery inconveniences you're having, please see:

• Can I improve my Fitbit device's battery life?
• Why isn't my battery charging?

If there's any questions present, let me know.

[Colinm39]

@b-mikeI had the sudden battery drain on my Ionic.  If I detected it during the quick discharge and restarted I would get another 2 days..

It occurred at about 4 days and I documented it through Support emails and they replaced my Ionic.

This Ionic has now been working successfully for 2 months and without using the GPS I'm getting just on 7 days between charges..  A discharge rate of about 0.47%/hour

Here is the Support link.. In Australia I can email..