Ionic heart rate stopped working

[RobertoNC]

I just bought a new Ionic last week, while on a trip to the US.

Initially it was not showing the heart rate but after resetting the device (as recommended) it worked fine (I did not check the accuracy of the readings though).

In any case, I wore it while sleeping last night and when I woke up it was showing the heart rate just fine. 

After I took it off to recharge and put it back after some minutes, the heart rate reading stopped working and I have already tried all that is said to work (reset, shut it down, sync, etc) and the heart rate still does not show. 

I chatted with the users support but the support person, while attentive and willing to help, could not solve the issue. 

Has anyone had this issue before and, if so, how was it solved?

I just hope I do not have to replace the device.

Thanks.

[DramaQueenDiva]

Have you logged into the app and made sure that the Heart Rate was set to "Auto"? This can be done in the tracker settings. Just be warned that this will drain the battery a little. Mine is set to "Auto" because if something were to happen to me I'd much rather be able to give this info out and help save my life than save a little battery.

[RobertoNC]

Hello and thanks for your message. 

I did not see any option for turning the heart rate to "auto" for Ionic.

Directly in the device, the setting options are only "on" or "off" and using the app I did not see any heart rate setting option.

Are you sure there is such option (auto) for the Ionic?

If there is, could you give more details on how to access it?

Looking at the app, I really could not find it.

Many thanks

[lopezfma]

Hi there,

on your pc dashboard got to the little whirle on the right

-(View Settings) click on it,

-click on your tracker

-click personal info and scroll down

and voila.

Hope this was of help

[Natan90]

Mine actually stopped reading  HR since today.. also last night during sleep no HR reading. 

Now its -- all time. Also in gym it misread compared to the gym device handles... 

Tried restarting and turning off on hr in settings. 

[brody59]

Mine also stopped reading HR today. After reading this post I am going to exchange it today. Hopefully it does not happen to the new one.

[RobertoNC]

Many thanks to all who replied trying to help or sharing their ordeals.

A quick update...

Towards the end of the day, yesterday, heart rate reading restarted (I did not do anything), although a "bit" out of context (80 BPM after climbing 5 floors!) but all the rest stopped working. No steps counting, no floors counting. Just showing the time, like the cheap 9 dolars watch I brought for my child.

Steps counting restarted briefly today by mid day but soon stopped again.  IT managed to record a total of 146 steps for a day in which I surely walked more than 5 KM!

I lost count of how many times today I restarted the device, how many times I turned it off and on again and again. Heart rated seemed to work after each restart but soon went "crazy" again.

Steps and floors counting never got back.

I am indeed very disappointed with this device. 

It is 10:47 PM and my heart rate is stuck in 70 for about 2 hours now. It changes every time I restart the device, not everytime my heart beats faster or slower!

The 146 steps are there, as I reminder that FITBIT IONIC does not work.

Does the support team ever read any of these posts?

I really hope someone will show me that I am doing something wrong and that I have a wonderdul product in my hands.

[brody59]

It is clear there is a major bug inside some Ionic devices. I really hope Fitbit sees this and looks to fix it before this happens to my replacement device.

[RobertoNC]

Another update  regarding HR and other countings  problems.

After interacting with FITBIT support I was instructed to perform a factory reset, which in fact I had done just before receiving the e-mail, and the problematic functions started working again.

However, after having to recharge the tracker again, all the problems reappeared, which confirmed my suspicion that recharging was causing the problems. 

After a second factory reset (and all the configuration and updates that comes with it) the problematic functions resumed. 

After detailing all that to the support people, they instructed me to charge the device using a low energy USB, like the USB ports on my computer, which I actually had done in all previous recharges.

Last night, having spent 3 days with all functions working (although not very well, specially regarding the HR reading, which has been erratic and not working well during my spleep time and, therefore, not recording my spleeping pattern) I had to recharge the tracker again (always using a USB port on my computer) and guess what?! 

After recharging, HR reading stopped again and did not resume yet.

I am waiting for the support team to instruct me what to do next (not another factory reset, please!).

I suspect FITBIT did not design this device to have to be "factory reset" after every time it is recharged.

I am afraid I will add to the statistics of forever disapointed and never again FITBIT users.

Have a good day.

[RuslanM]

I had the same problem.

What worked for me was shutting down the device for 10 minutes, and then restarting it. You need to wait before restarting, otherwise, it does not work.

I only charge it with my iPhone charger. 

[Rieshal]

I've had this issue as well.  After charging the Ionic to 100%, the HR sensor stopped working and the green light on the sensor itself does not come on either.  I spent the day doing numerous resets, powering the watch off and on, and even did a factory reset to try to restore functionality.

As a last ditch effort, I plugged the Ionic back into the charger and after 10-15 minutes, the HR sensor started working again on its own.  I'm wondering if this issue somehow has to do with the sensor calibration, which apparently happens while the watch is plugged into the charger.

[RobertoNC]

Thank you all for the tips above.

None of them, unfortunately, worked.

If I need my heart rate back I will have to factory reset again.

In the meantime, I am still a "dead" man walking. No heart rate reading but counting steps.

I will wait for an official instructuion from the support team.

Best regards and thanks again.

[Nadian]

Return it where u bought it. If its fitbit store then the service will ask u to sent it back.

Returned mine on advice of service. Now i have a new one (bought another). So far works fine 

[BadBadams]

I purchased the Fitbit Ionic last week. The heart rate monitor (though showing a higher resting heart rate than my Charge HR, similar to what other users are experiencing in other threads) was working perfectly until I gave it a recharge while I was transferring music. I left it few a few days to see if the heart rate would starting working again by itself, but it didn't.

I attempted to: - restarting the Ionic

                        - shutting down and turning on

                        - sync'ing

                        - and then lastly a factory reset.

Now I need to re-sync all my music, and I'm at work without the ability to do this, and was planning on going to the gym straight after work.

Apart from my old Charge HR dying after a firmware update, the main reason I purchased the Ionic, is so I could listen to music while I exercised. I'm hoping the heart rate doesn't stop working again, because having to reload music every time is major waste of time.

I'll update this thread if it happens again, but surely Fitbit can fix this issue via a firmware update, because if a factory reset fixes the issue, then it must be software/firmware related.

I never had any issues with the heart rate monitor on the Fitbit HR, and considering this the Ionic is a lot more expensive, this has been a disappointing initial experience.

[Venkats]

@DramaQueenDiva

Perhaps you may already know this. IONIC is not a clinical device approved for a clinical use case and any information you give to your doc is useless. If the doc relies on the heart rate data from IONIC then that alone is a medical malpractice right there.

Please don't think you can give your doc improper heart readings. This sort of understanding is just not right.

[DramaQueenDiva]

---

@Venkats wrote:

@DramaQueenDiva

Perhaps you may already know this. IONIC is not a clinical device approved for a clinical use case and any information you give to your doc is useless. If the doc relies on the heart rate data from IONIC then that alone is a medical malpractice right there.

Please don't think you can give your doc improper heart readings. This sort of understanding is just not right.

---

I understand that, and I'm not suggesting that they rely on it, but it may give them a better idea of what is going on.

[Dewittej]

Same problemen with heart rate. Worked for a day and a half and then stopped.

I also can not get the ionic to syncs with my Samsung S8+ Syncs fine with iPad. Bummer

[Dewittej]

I think I found the solution. In the settings by scrolling down I noticed Heart Rate was flagged as Off. Tapped and it turned to On. Now the heat rate tracking seems to werk again.

This will probably not solve the problems mentioned in thsi post as you guys will certainly have thought of this solution.

[PCastilla]

Yes I had same problem Just went to setting on the Fitbit Watch scrolled down and noticed it was off also, flipped it on and wala it worked.

[Jgalloway18]

Hello,

So I have been without my hr monitor since I bought this ionic. I have been trying and trying to locate this mystery Heart Rate on/off switch in the settings of the app. It was not there or in the fitbit.com dashboard. I located it on the actual device under settings. My hr monitor is working fine now. I hope this helps you.