Ionic screen went black

[Sroper]

Hi all

Long time FitBit user got the Ionic at Christmas to replace a Garmin for running and training.  Have had a great experience with it until yesterday at the start line for my first half marathon.  Battery in the 90s.   Went to exercise app and initiated a run to get the GPS started. The gun fires and i go to start the run app, the screen is black and nothing will work.  I tried a hard reset (yes I googled while running) to attempt to fix it.  Nothing.  BUT the HR monitor light is flashing.  Essentially it was a brick on my wrist.  The last sync on my phone before it failed shows a full battery that morning.

Finish the race and get back to hotel, tried to charge it just in case that was the issue.  No response to the charger.  Still essentially a brick - but green light still flashing.  

Toss it in my bag and continue with my day.  Get home several hours later and try to charge it again.  Finally something appears on the screen  0% battery.  Charges up and works fine two hours later.  

Anyone else deal with this??   Worst timing ever for a failure.  I had started to run without my phone in some scenarios.  Now I don't trust the Ionic.  This type of issue moved me away from the Garmin too. Help!!

 Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[Jayendra1008]

My Fitbit never came back on after charging 

[AndreaFitbit]

Hi everybody!  I apologize for the delayed response and will be glad to continue assisting you with your Ionic black screen issue. 

Thank you for sharing your advise and for your patience on this matter.

@Sroper, I'm glad to hear that you were able to turn on your device after following @MarreFitbit advise tips. 

How's it going with your replacement @Lullabug?

@ChantellB and @ToniT75, thank you for sharing what happened with your device and I'm glad that you received a new one.

Welcome to the forums @Town! Were you able to resolve your issue?

@doggmommy, it's not an ongoing issue. Are you still experiencing it?

@TatumU, Welcome! How did it go with support?

@Jayendra1008, were you able to charge your device?

Let me know if you have more questions!

[TatumU]

Got my replacement,  great support!

[AndreaFitbit]

Thank you for sharing your experience with support and I'm glad to hear that you got a replacement device @TatumU.

Catch you later! 

[JOHNNYBlaze]

I am done with fit bit. I have spent over a $1,000 on them and it's nuts -especially my latest dud - the ionic - which features I loved before the watch failed after many month.

I started with the SURGE and really liked it, but the band ate my wrist up at times and it eventually broke off. I got the blaze was really excited with the color screen, but no GPS unless linked to phone and still not water proof. After a few months the buttons didn't work so I bought another one - which I am wearing now since my Ionic technically died and they sent me 2 duds back -see story below

The ionic was my watch for life huge beautiful screen, water proof - GPS - loved it to death.

6 months in, the screen was unresponsive  so that I could track my exercise or scroll through screens. Contacted customer service and after a long hassle and return process they sent me back the SAME unit, it lasted 6 days worked perfectly until I charged it, then no display and no pulse tracker but it was still feeding info to my phone even though I wasn't wearing it. The return and replacement took three weeks, so I opted to try it again and they sent me another replacement and exact same issue.

So I wrote them a very angry email and they asked me to return it again. No dice.

I should have bought an iwatch but I hate apple, but looks like I'd be ahead right now instead of being sour on this company and it's service by sending refurbished defective units back instead on new watches. I have probably read 2,000 posts on these problems with watches so I guess it wasn't profitable to replace the ionics. Good luck with those who still go down that trail...no more for me..no versa either or any other new model they come up with.

[AndreaFitbit]

Thanks for getting back to us and for your feedback @JOHNNYBlaze. I apologize for the delay on my response and really appreciate all your comments. 

They will help us to improve our products and services. You can check our Return Policy and Warranty.

Thank you for visiting the forums. 

[JOHNNYBlaze]

Thank you for your time,  but I will pass on the warranty and all that, the process has failed me twice, so anything short of a full refund or credit for a new ionic would be futile at this point.

Good luck with your company and future products.

[AndreaFitbit]

Thank you for getting back to us @JOHNNYBlaze. I appreciate that you have taken the time to express what you think about our products.  

Please let me know if you have more questions. 

[Vast00]

Im going through it. It happen to me today and is still not working😩 this is the 3rd issue i have with it and only had it for 3 months. 

[doggmommy]

Talk to support. Get a replacement.

[JOHNNYBlaze]

They only send refurbished devices that don't work...hope you can fix your issue..really loved the watch..deeply saddened it's scrap metal every time I  look at it once in awhile I will hook it to the charger and go through all the rest options praying it will come back to life..sadly it never does. 

[Vast00]

I hope it does and i don't have to get a refurbished. 😖 I put it to charch to see if the screen comes back and it didn't. 😞I'm really worry, is been like this almost all day. 😩

[Lullabug]

Just for those watching the thread, I know there are a lot of horror
stories about the refurbs or whatever, but I can confirm that when I got my
second device, it was perfectly fine. It did have a small scratch on the
screen, which I think was due to the refurb, but other than that it has
worked perfectly for the last year. It was replaced in January and hasn't
had a single issue since that time. I'm sorry to hear others didn't have
that same experience, though.

[Vast00]

Mine is only 3 months old and i don't think i should have to get a
refurbished one. They are not that cheap. But I will see what happens.
Thank you.

[Lullabug]

So was mine. When they sent the free replacement, it was clearly refurb. But since it works perfectly,  I didn't care. 

Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

[AndreaFitbit]

Thank you for getting back to us. I´ll be glad to continue assisting you. 

@Vast00, could you please tell me the steps you have followed in order to resolve this issue? You can check our Warranty.

@doggmommy, thank you for the suggestion!

@JOHNNYBlaze, are you experiencing issues with your replacement Ionic.

@Lullabug, I'm glad to hear that your refurbished device works perfectly. 

Keep on visiting the forums! 

[RHARDY_TX]

Thanks LULLABUG. Your fix worked for me.

My screen was black and unresponsive with the green heart rate monitor on constantly

I had tried connecting to charger, no luck.

Tried to reset from phone but it would not connect.

Tried the 2 right buttons with no luck.

Tried your 3 button method and after 15 seconds it rebooted and is working normally.

Thanks!

[AndreaFitbit]

Thanks for stopping by @RHARDY_TX. I´m glad to hear that @Lullabug advise worked for you. 

Keep on visiting the forums! 

[AbdulAzB]

Well I just have encountered same issue and talked to Jose at Live Chat. I didn't only get my device on but I hope I have resolved it permanently. It turned on by hard restart (Holding left and right bottom button for 15 Sec) and it was caused because new OS update was available and hadn't noticed. So I just have updated the OS by using Fitbit Mobile App, connected with Fitbit Ionic. Now Issue seems to be resolved permanently.

[AndreaFitbit]

Welcome to the forums @AbdulAzB! Thank you for sharing your experience with support and I´m glad to hear that your issue was resolved with the hard reset. 

Keep on visiting the forums and let me know if you have questions.