Ionic repeatedly stops delivering notifications.

[theaardvark]

My Ionic repeatedly stops showing notifications.

I've reset and repaired my device on average every 3 or 4 days. At first notifications would work for that long. Then a few weeks ago it was a maximum of 2 days.

Now I can't get them to work at all.

If I can't get them working then it's going back under warranty. I was prepared to put up with some teething problems this early in its product life. Like the Pebble, which went on to get better with each firmware update.

But if it won't do notifications then that's a deal breaker.

Version: 27.25.16.7

Phone: Samsung Galaxy S8+

Paul

[MarreFitbit]

Hey there @theaardvark, thanks for stopping by! Thanks for already troubleshooting this issue, nice way to go! 

Notifications skip or stop occasionally for several reasons that don't suggest a problem with your device or the Fitbit app. 

• Your phone was too far away. It must be within 30 feet of your Fitbit device to transmit the notification.
  For texts, you have the conversation open on your phone. Your Fitbit device shows new texts you haven't already read.
  You changed a related setting on your phone, such as turning on Do Not Disturb, Quiet hours, or Driving mode. 
• You're using another Bluetooth product. If you have Bluetooth products like speakers, headsets, or car stereos paired to your phone along with your Fitbit device, you may have trouble using more than one at the same time. 
• The connection between your phone and Fitbit device is unstable. Bluetooth signals are susceptible to disconnecting or dropping occasionally. If you have an Android phone, check the following:
  • Make sure Enable Notification Widget is on. You can find this with the other notification settings in the Fitbit app.
  • Make sure Always Connected is on. This improves your Bluetooth connection but also drains your Fitbit device's battery more quickly. Turn it off and on as you prefer.
• The app that should send the notification can't do so. 
• Your device was syncing. Syncing can sometimes prevent or delay a notification. 
• You just updated the Fitbit app. Restart your phone and try setting up notifications again.

If you've reviewed the list above and can't get notifications to work, force quit the Fitbit app and reopen it to sync your Fitbit device.

Notifications should work as expected after your device syncs. If they don't, continue with the following steps:

1. From the Fitbit app dashboard, tap the Account icon >  your device image.
2. Tap Notifications.
3. Turn off all notifications
4. Turn off Bluetooth on your phone.
5. Restart your phone.
6. Restart your Ionic. 
7. Open the Fitbit app and turn notifications back on.
8. Sync your phone 

If after following these steps they still don't work, let move on with the following:

1. Tell your phone to "forget" your device, removing the connection between the phone and the Fitbit device. 
   1. On your phone, go to Settings > Bluetooth and find your Fitbit device in the list.
   2. Find an option to forget the device.
2. Open the Fitbit app and set up notifications again.

Give this a shot and let me know the outcome! 

[LPKA]

Tried it a few times, NO LUCK. 

Version: 27.25.16.7

Phone: Samsung Galaxy S8

Tried different phones with Nexus 5X and still no notifications.

It worked after I formated the Ionic, but after half a day still went to NO notifications.

This one is all over the place, I see  a lot of pepole having this kind of trouble. THIS IS NOT a SMARTwatch anymore.

Please FIX IT!!! ASAP!

[ruriimasu]

I'm trying my best at not being nasty here. Everytime someone mentioned notifications or sync wouldn't work, they were told to follow a specific set of restarts, unpair/re-pair, etc, etc. Never for once has fitbit acknowledge there is a problem. Do you seriously think we have so much time coming to this forum just to talk bad about a product if that wasn't the case? Come on, each one of us spent a few hundred dollars on this watch. Can you blame us for complaining about these basic stuffs which should work for this premium price? The ionic isn't anywhere near to an expensive watch, if you compare it to a.. watch. But among smartwatches, it is one of the most expensive. That's why fitbit staffs have to at least acknowledge publicly these bugs and let us know you are trying to fix them. Everybody is now waiting for a new firmware, which honestly I don't know if these bugs are even part of the agenda .

I've been using smartbands for almost 2 years and stuck to a cheap $15 iwown i5 for almost that long because it syncs data and pushes notification as it should. I never had to reboot my phone. With ionic, I had to pull up all kinds of voodoo to hopefully get it to function what my $15 smartband could do! Before i had the ionic, i had never rebooted my 7 month old phone, after getting ionic i must have rebooted it once every 2 days, 4 times a day on those bad days!

[theaardvark]

I've tried every one of these several times. (And some of those suggestions are a touch patronising if I'm honest. Too far away? Please tell me you give your users more credit than that.)

Different things work at different times. Last time it was the app that needed stopping and restarting. But each time, it's a maximum of a couple of days before notifications stop again.

I've never encountered repeated problems like this with any other smartwatch. Not my Pebble, not my Moto 360, etc.

As the previous response says, if Fitbit would at least acknowledge there's a problem and tell us what they're doing to rectify it, I might be prepared to wait. The Ionic has the potential to be a superb smartwatch/fitness tracker crossover. But if the problem isn't even acknowledged then I have to assume it's not going to get better.

Paul

[meresydotes]

@theaardvark @ruriimasu @LPKA I can tell you from LONG experience that Fitbit is NEVER going to admit there's a bug. In fact, just recently, there was a problem syncing the weather app. After making me do all sorts of troubleshooting multiple times (that's another thing they do, they have their list of troubleshooting steps or reasons something might not work; when you get through the list, they just start at the top again, instead of actually trying to work on the problem), they actually tried to trick me into upgrading the app on my phone, rather than admitting that there was a bug that they'd fixed, by asking me to uninstall the app and reinstall it. When I pushed back because I'd already done that multiple times, they FINALLY told me there was a new release that fixed the problem.

[ruriimasu]

@meresydotes I will be glad if there is a fix to address these issues. What I am worried about is the constant denial of problems may be an indication that these problems will not be fixed in new app or firmware release.. simply because they aren't registered as problems. So on their records, no problem means no code changes to these modules.

[ruriimasu]

So when app updated from 2.61 to 2.62, these problems weren't fixed. Then again, I don't have a clue whether the update addressed these sync and notification issues at all.

I can say for sure if these issues aren't fixed in the next 2 months, i am never ever trusting this brand again.

[meresydotes]

@ruriimasu Well, they did actually fix this problem, which is unusual and a good sign. If you read the Blaze forums, you will see that Blaze would notify that the 250 steps/ hour goal had been met, when it actually required a few more steps. Despite the fact that I'm sure all they had to do was copy the working code from a different device to the Blaze, I don't believe they've fixed the problem. I'm hoping that the hype surrounding the Ionic will have them continuing to fix bugs, even if they never actually admit that there is a bug. I really do find that Ionic is less buggy than previous trackers. I do find that I have Notifications stop periodically, too, and I sometimes have problems syncing. But I'm one of the rare people who actually doesn't keep my phone attached to my body, so. 

[AWalker85]

I literally just got my fitbit Iconic less then 24 hours ago. I'm an android user and I'm quiet disappointed that you can not answer or reject calls or read text like it showed in the commercial for it.  I've seen post about those features being compatible with iPhone users only. I think that horse crap. For as expensive it is. I'm not impress. I bought 2 for me and the hubby.  And I'm thinking about returning them. 

[meresydotes]

@AWalker85 I don't believe you can reject calls, but I can receive texts and such. You might want to make sure that you have the notifications enabled for the correct app. Android has both Hangouts and Messages built in, so you need to enable the correct one.

[Handysnack]

I don't know why fitbit keeps ignoring the customers that are going to end up being EXTREMELY vocal about the quality of service they are receiving from their company. There is no realistic way to say that the lack of response is anything but them just being lazy. Do they not have the resources to address these bugs? yes, yes they do. Do they care enough to do it? No, no they don't. Will it come back to bite them in the arse? Yes. Oh it definitely will. 

[Kellyshaughn]

These techniques work, however I feel the work involved in having to reset everything as above member mentioned every 2 to 3 days is extreme and should be rectified.  My phone is always with me yes I do use bluetooth for phone in car and for streaming movies and to have to reset my devices every time really is inconvenient 

[Ashraf_ali]

My Ionic stop displaying notification every couple of hours without getting far from mobile or connecting to any other device, I bought it roughly a month from now, I had replaced my mobile thinking the issue is related to my old HTC M9+, now it is even worse with Huawei Mate 20 Pro. 

No way I should reset my mobile or reinstall everything every couple of hours, FITBIT they are no way NEAR Apple Watch or Samsung Gear standards with no development and still they sell their product so expensive compared to the mentioned earlier watches with no support or proper warranty.

We should start a campaign against them, just fix the Bluetooth issue that has been last with since 2017.

[RazvanO]

That canned response is not helping anyone. 

I have to restart my Ionic first thing in the morning, then again at around 2 pm, then at 6 - 7 pm to get the notifications coming in. For those who don't know, to restart the watch go to Settings -> About -> Shutdown. After the shutdown, press any buttons to power back on... unless there is a better way. I'm assuming it's a Bluetooth glitch since even the sync is successful every 5th time.

Still waiting for that good update 😞

[JaySafa]

So... Just installed the latest update & still had to restart app, phone, watch, etc... Only had this a few days to move to a fitness watch from my 3year old Huawei watch which seems to cope with notifications just fine despite its age. Can someone from Fitbit please comment cos this is a little ridiculous & don't really want to have to return this watch, I actually like it when it works!

[Suzeg7]

I have tried all. Of the above but still having problems with notifications dropping out. Only had the device a year and as it was a xmas present I can't return it under warranty eother. 

How can I resolve this issue 

[JaySafa]

Stick with it, mine settled in and doesn't do it anymore. Haven't had to
mess about with it since a couple days after posting in this group.

[Suzeg7]

Mine has been doing this for months now 

[1pig]

Like some of the previous issues by the users,my ionic constantly loses its notification..this thing cost too much money to not work as it should. Is there a resolution to this problem?