Ionic functional lifespan?

[David_S.]

My warranty replacement Ionic recently died.  The problem started with it flashing the fitbit logo (I had not started any upgrades).  I tried the restart, that did not work.  I did the factory reset, now it shows no signs of life.

The Ionic I originally purchased lasted about 8 months, the warranty replacement about 9 months.

The Canadian warranty is 1 year, so I am out of warranty.  I like the Ionic compared to the competition, but wonder if it is worth risking another Ionic purchase.

Questions:

Is my experience common?

Are a lot of users getting better lifespan (web info has release date Oct 1, 2017)?

Have there been hardware upgrades to improve reliability?

[PopeGrover]

I'd like to know this as well.  I had almost identical lifespans on mine.

I don't swim in mine, I don't exercise in the rain.  I recharge it on my nightstand while I shower.  Use a dry cloth to clean sweat off of it.  I have no idea what I could be doing to shorten its lifespan.

I need it to last more than nine months.

[PrybarIN]

I got one of the 1st Ionics, so I've had it since May 2017. To date (June 2019). I've had no issues until the last two weeks.  Lately, I can't read it in the bright sunlight, it does not respond well to my taps e.g. showing alarms instead of exercise and the new app change has befuddled me.  I'm unable to find where to change my watch face or change my weather preferences in my App on my Galaxy S8+.  
Will/would I purchase another Ionic?  You betcha!  Until lately it has worked flawlessly and you can't beat the GPS. I bike a lot and couldn't do without it.

[Harvman11]

My Ionic recently died, after less than 1.5 years of use, and this seems to be common based on my discussions with other Ionic owners. Fitbit has offered nothing except the chance for a discount, and so I will be moving to a different company for my fitness watch needs, and that is the recommendation I would give you. While I really liked the Ionic, unfortunately the poor customer service and unreliable hardware aren’t something I am willing to invest more money in.

[diane-france]

I too had my Ionic recently died, after less than 1.5 years of use....and I  am really upset of the unreliable hardware and  aren’t something I am willing to invest more money in.

Was hoping to get at least 3 years....

So will be looking for other watches...

[monionic]

Mine lasted 16 months. 

[Phs1057]

Sadly I have also just experienced what appears to be a common Ionic catastrophic software failure. Purchased my device in December 2017. Have just written to the Fitbit support team re a solution but based on the other posts here, not hopeful. To my mind a device that suffers such a failure after such a relatively short space of time is not Fit to be on the market. 

[David_S.]

I phone fitbit customer service yesterday and explained that my warranty replacement Ionic will not show any signs of life.  The best she could do is offer a discount coupon for a purchase at the fitbit web store.

I also asked her if there were any Ionic hardware chances since the original Ionic release.  She said no.

I also told her that I still had my original failed Ionic and explained this:

The Ionic's battery eventually died while the Ionic was in an endless loop.  I attached it to the charge cable to see if it would verify that the cable was not defective.  The display came on and showed 0% charge.  I let the unit charge.  The display would show the setup info.

I asked her if I could try setting up my original failed Ionic again.  She said yes.

Yesterday evening (July 2, 2019) I set up my original failed Ionic without problem.  It still appears to be working properly.  Hopefully it keeps working.

Maybe the failure problem was caused by a software bug.  The only solution to this problem appeared to have been letting the battery run down.

[Phs1057]

Cheers David. Will try that when battery discharges.

[David_S.]

Phs1057:  I hope recharging & restarting your unit the battery discharges is successful.  Please let us know the results.

[Bsunrise]

I have had mine right at that 8mo mark now and it’s crashing every time I run. Customer service has been so unhelpful I’m ready to Chuck It In The F*ck It Bucket!!

[AlissaF]

My first one lasted 7 months and my replacement lasted 8 months. Like you, I don't swim with mine, I take it off when I shower, and I clean it regularly.   I just saw your reply about having the original one still... How did you manage that? They made me send my original back before they would replace it. I plan to stay with fitbit- only because I have over 6 years of data, but I will not be getting another Ionic. I am looking at the Versa instead.  I agree with everyone- there is obviously a known issue and Fitbit needs to do something about this AND take care of their customers that were committed enough to spend the money on their most expensive device.

[David_S.]

AlissaF:  I asked about returning my original failed Ionic when the staff member told me that fitbit would replace it.  The staff member told me to keep the failed Ionic.  It was on my desk by the computer monitor until I recently connected it to the charge cable after the warranty replacement failed.  I was not expecting it to work, but just hoping it would indicate that the charge cable was not faulty.

I still have not been able to get the warranty replacement Ionic working again.  I was finally able to get it to show 0% battery charge after a few days of letting it lie around.  After a battery recharge attempt, I could not get any response from it.  Now, a few days later I can again get it to show 0% battery charge.  I think I will let the warranty replacement Ionic lie around for another month or so before trying to recharge it again.

Meanwhile, the Ionic that failed 10 months ago still appears to be working properly after resurrecting it 5 days ago.

[Phs1057]

Jus by way of an update. Received a replacement ionic today as help desk team were unable to resolve the problem with my original. As it turned out it was still within the warranty period so was replaced without charge. Was not asked to return the original. Despite my frustration at the sudden demise of my original device, my experience with the help desk team was positive as we moved quickly from trying to remedy the problem to replacement. Will come back if at any point the original springs back into life or this new one suffers a similar fate. 

[David_S.]

The Ionic that I resurrected 2 months ago started losing time again, it also has bluetooth communication problems & will not do a factory reset.

I do like the Ionic compared to other options from the competition.  Ionics were just on sale so I took the risk of buying another Ionic.  Maybe when the Ionic that I just bought fails (notice my pessimism) the competition will have new models that I like better.

[Chattycat.CB]

Yep add me to the list.  I just spent over an hour chatting with a specialist on live chat.  She went through all the troubleshooting I had already completed.  Clean contact points between charger and watch, change power supply for charger, check the back to see if it lit, check for charging vibrations.

Still after doing all this it seems like the person behind the chat wanted to be gone.  They didn't even initiate a request to even review for a warranty into well into the chat.  That was after several minutes if dead air.

They were not able to provide life expectancy of the Ionic.  I got mine in April 2018, so I guess I am doing better than others.  But for wait I paid, I was expecting at least 2-3 years.

In the end I was offered a discount of 40% off the watch and 25% of a device.  It sounds like this is the standard.  I agreed to the discount, but someone how I still feel cheated and don't know if I will be buying another smart watch.  Especially if they cannot provide a life expectancy on the device.  That is just money down the drain.

UPDATE (This discount link they send you is a sham!!!!  It's really only 40% for the Versa Lite.  You "allegedly save 25% on the Ionic, however it's marked up to full price when you use their "discount link.  In the end you are really only saving $12.53 (6.25%) because you can buy the same produce without their discount link for $199.95.

[HeathersS]

I happy you found a solution. My Fitbit worked perfectly until the update. I have not been able to use it for weeks. I tried everything. 

[Chattycat.CB]

Hello everyone.  If you still cannot get your device on try doing a factory reset.  Apparently if you hold down the back button (left button) and two buttons on the right at the same time  for about 10-12 seconds it will do some type of reset.  (I performed mine while not charging, then charged it after it was powered on.)

My fitbit was not working and would NOT come on.  After spending almost two hours with Fitbit just for them to provide troubleshoot options that didn't work along with a coupon (for $13.00 off a replacement) I went to Google and started reading what others were suggesting. I performed a factory reset on my own.

Allegedly the reset should make it act as if it just came out of the box.  But all my settings remained.  I am not sure what happened or why none of the troubleshooting that the experts suggested didnt work.  I am just happy my watch is working again.  Hopefully I can get another year or so out of it.  Basically if you can avoid it, try not to let your smart watch die completely. I hope his helps.

[Chattycat.CB]

@HeathersS trying doing the factory reset like I just posted.  It requires that you hold all three buttons at the same time for about 10-12 seconds.  You will need to have a little juice.  When mine came back on it read 2%.  But I had just enough to get it to come on.

[CeTroo]

Same thing here, David. I wrote Fitbit support and even though I got a kind service with all the reset instructions and all, at the end of the day my Ionic has a hardware problem and it’s out of warranty. 

Even worse: this is my second Fitbit. The first one was a Blaze and had to be replaced after less than a year of regular, careful use. And my Ionic, the high-end range of Fitbit watches then, didn’t make it to the third year (Jan 2018 / Dec 2020). This makes me suspect Fitbits are short-life, almost disposable devices (by comparison my wife’s Garmin watch is almost 4 years old and working perfectly).

Sure, you don’t expect a smartwatch to live forever, but less than three years it’s almost laughable. I’d understand it if I had bought a cheap Chinese smartwatch, but Fitbit’s marketing, positioning, pricing and design is definitely not the case.

Looks like it’s time to move to another brand. No wonder why their churn is increasing... not even Google’s acquisition can save a short lifespan product.