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

[go1109]

I just had a similar experience with my first IONIC.   When I bought it I thought it was going to be just the right device for me: waterproof for swimming; Large visible screen; Sleep monitor, Music for workouts.  And for the first year, it was great.  Then 14 months after I got the device(about 60 days after the warranty ran out) the Ionic turned into Brick!!  Customer Service tried all of the restart suggestions and finally said that this unit was just dead and I would need to buy another one.  They did offer me a discount on the second device which I have now reluctantly used, but the financial savings were absorbed by the warranty extension insurance I need to feel confident that this new device would last longer than a year!  I wrote a cordial email to the CEO of Fitbit asking him about the quality assurance that was done on these expensive devices and of course my email was ignored.  So my only recourse is to write a negative review of this product, not from the features point of view but from the quality view.  Expensive products should be better quality checked and have longer warranty programs to ensure the consumer of a positive experience.  This consumer did not!  The jury is still out on the second Iconic.

[joelcot]

Same issue. 14 months after purchase.  Screen goes black.  Customer Support had me try to reset it,  I can see the screen come on, but the fitbit logo never appears... before customer support had me reset it,  the watch was still syncing to my phone,  now nothing.  Support actually made the situation worse. 

[Vast00]

That's not good. Mine stoped doing that. I just turn it off, turn the
Bluetooth off or try to charge it. I try not to use the costumer service.

[SunsetRunner]

Curious what happened, did they fix it, replace it or offer discount on New Ionic or Versa?

[doggmommy]

I was told how to fix it by turning it off , when it came back on it was OK. The watched bricked a day before its one year anniversary and they replaced it.

[Pfahy]

Hi, can you please help, my Fitbit ionic screen is displaing a black lit screen.

I have tried to reset the device but this did not work.

I have tried charging and turning it off and on again( but the Fitbit logo never appears)

The alarm still works but I am unable to see any information/data on the screen

Can anybody help, I really liked the watch

Thanks

[doggmommy]

Contact Support. If they can’t help you fix it and it is still under warrantee they may send you another one to get you to the end of your warrantee. If your warrantee (1 year) is finished they MIGHT give you a discount on purchasing another one.

[Vast00]

Give it some time. 1 day or so, then try to charge it and see if it helps.

[lenzstuff]

I went for a walk this afternoon. The watch had enough battery life. I started the timer. But it never located the satalite.

The watch went dead. I walked 5 miles and never did the watch light up with no half mile splits.

I got home connected the watch to the charger ...the watch recorded non of my walk but other than that it worked fine.

No idea what happened but i am not happy with what happened. Btw the watch is a little over one year old

[techswabbie]

I bought my Ionic last November.  Went to research a simpler FitBit for my kids and found that these Ionics start to die around the 1 year mark.  Felt a little unsettled about that.  Low and behold, last night, my screen went black.  Still syncs with my phone, but the watch is visually on my wrist.  It shows a 98% charge and currently connected to my phone.  I did the reset with the left button and down button, but no change.  I'm taking this up with Amazon first since I bought it and it was fulfilled by Amazon.  I've also read that FitBit's customer service is sketch.  Hoping I don't have to go that far to get this thing fixed or replaced.

[nelcorp6]

My 18 mo old Ionic just totally died.  After a chat with support and multiple troubleshooting steps tried which failed.   Was this a consequence of the update or that it had reached its usefulness? I was offered a discount towards a new product on their web store.  I think not, I've been hesitating in getting an Apple watch perhaps it's time to make the switch.

[Tommmmy]

Mine is a replacement and did the same thing. Unfortunately it's been black for over a week now. Fitbit has done nothing to fix this problem. They think offering 25% off a new watch is an accepted solution. Honestly I've never seen a company with so many complaints that there is a need for a community because of all the problems these sub par fitness trackers have. 

[Tommmmy]

My wife has the apple watch. By far a superior product 

[techswabbie]

Apple watches don't even make the top 10 lists for fitness trackers.

[Vast00]

Something similar happened to me. I would live it alone about a day, then
try to turn it completelly off, the Bluetooth on the phone off as well.
After that put it to charge and see if ot turns on. When mine went off, I
believe that the battery drained some how and was completely dead. See if
that helps.

[techswabbie]

I got online with FitBit support today.  They confirmed my Ionic was beyond repair.  They offered me a replacement unit or 50% off a new unit.  I'm guessing the replacement unit is going to be refurbished.  Also, I don't think it comes with a "refreshed" one year warranty like the new ones do.  So, based on other posts on here, I'm expecting it to fail in a few months and be a complete loss with no FitBit support.  Not sure what I'm going to do at this point.  I know based on online research, Garmin, Samsung and FitBit all are close to each other in quality with their own respective flaws.  Garmin's GPS on their wearables seems to be inconsistent from one device to the next.  Samsung has a horrid battery life and FitBit now takes the cake on dying off right around the 1 year warranty mark.  Seen several disappointed customers on other sites and several posts here suggesting they had to throw theirs away without any help from FitBit.  Alternately, if I want a trendy smart watch that /aslo/ happens to do fitness stuff, I could go for a super exensive Apple Watch.  However, given how their mapping has driven people into lakes, I don't know if they take fitness or navigation seriously enough.  They are too busy selling $1k hand computers (aka cell phones).

[Lullabug]

Honestly, I have to say that even if what I got was a refurbed unit, I have
not had a single problems with it since my original post. So I'm not sure
if some units just have issues, or what, but seeing as the current one is
going strong, I just wanted to add my two cents that getting a refurb isn't
too bad.

We did try the Samsung and weren't happy with it (inconsistent HR and
calorie burn data). I haven't tried Garmin so I can't speak to that, and
yeah, Apple Watch is out of our price range.

[JOHNNYBlaze]

Long story short have had 2 Fitbit Ionic the first worked great for 8 months, the it wouldn't swipe between screens so I  could not log my workouts. If I knew now what I knew then I wouldn't have sent it in for a replacement under warranty. I recieved a refurbished watch that worked until it needed a charge. Screen went black, went through the process of getting another replacement which lasted until it had to be recharged...blank again.  I gave up.

Last year for xmas I got another ionic,  it died 4 weeks ago,  I was in car accident and took the watch off at the hospital,  I was okay from the accident but the watch had to be recharged.  Charged for 6 hours black screen tried every tip and trick but no deal.

Not even going to bother sending it in.

I do love the ionic was going to buy one off Amazon and get that square trade for 2 years, as they will pay for a new watch as I learned reading these forums.

[Town]

Yeah, I went with Apple Watch, fit bit is ridiculous to think I’ll buy another watch from them, although I really like the Fitbit community . If they give you a warranty replacement they should warranty that as well and because they don’t it tells me that it won’t last so I’m done with them:/

Moderator edit: personal info removed

[Town]

Mine too, she’s had it for 3 years. I bought one now too.

Moderator edit: personal info removed