Ionic screen won't turn on

[SaturdaySteve]

Reset my screen using left and bottom buttons as my data wasn’t showing. Screen came back on but mo change. Tried another reset and now my screen won’t come on at all. Still syncing with my iPhone but screen completely off

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[Ginger17]

I'm in the same boat. Yesterday, driving home from work, I noticed it was dead. It had a full charge from Sunday morning. I tried going through all the steps. I cannot go into my Settings because I cannot get it to stay on long enough. When I press the buttons, I get logo. Last night, I also got my screen, but then it quickly went blank. It's still reading things, because I checked by changing the clock face - it worked. I could see it on one of the occasions when the face came on briefly.

This morning. I cannot even get the face. However, on the app, it says that it synced about 40 minutes ago. I think it is charging, but there are no flickering lights on the back. Something is not firing inside the Fitbit. The gosh-darn thing works, it just won't display or respond to my request to display.

[MelzyMel]

Exact same thing happened to me yesterday. I tried all of the stuff in the solution about four times yesterday. didn't work at all! 

today I plugged it into a wall charger and let it sit for an hour. tried it all over again. didn't work.

went and took a shower came back decided to try it one more last time, before I called customer service, and boom! it's working fine.

[Ginger17]

I've had it plugged in the an outlet, plugged into my computer, unplugged.... all since last night. It is getting worse rather than better. I went through this with three different original Flexes. Didn't expect it with the Ionic. I wish now I had gone with the Apple, tbh.

Thanks for the info, though.

[Guitman]

I had my Ionic since Dec. 2017 and it worked perfectly until a couple of weeks ago when it sometimes went blank, stopped syncing and was rebooting itself constantly.  I tried doing a hard restart several times and logging in and out of the app, but nothing seemed to work.  This morning I did a completely factory reset and it is now back to normal and working perfectly again.  It's a bit of a pain because you have to completely reinstall the firmware again from scratch, but mine connected right away to my home wifi and it only took about 30-40 minutes to complete.  All of the apps updated on their own throughout the day, so in the end it wasn't much of a hassle.  You might want to try this if you haven't done so already.  You need to go into the settings app on your Ionic and scroll down to the bottom and click on About.  Then it gives you the option to do a factory reset.  Good Luck!

[Ginger17]

I've seen that instruction to go to the Settings App on your Ionic to reset. I don't see it on my desktop Dashboard. I don't see it on my iOS device app. Do you mean on the Ionic itself? I cannot get to my Settings app on the Ionic; it won't turn on.

Can you clarify for me, please?

Thanks.

[Kjdacanay]

I was not even offered any percentage off another product.

I was told I was over the 365 day warranty.
Which I already knew.

Sent from my iPhone

[WisdomWolf]

Not only have they been unwilling to be helpful, but I just got notified that my earlier post was removed because it implied something that was against the terms. I won't say what it was in order to prevent them from doing it again, so here is my original post minus the offending bits:

"So I did finally hear from support and, similar to others here, they offered me a discount if I want to buy another one. This was my response:

"I was pretty sure I knew exactly where this would end up. I suspect that your company will realize that this is a larger issue affecting quite a few people and do what is right at some point, but it will be too late for me. I already purchased a Galaxy Watch based on the testimony of other users in the forums who stated that they were offered this same discount. I have no interest in paying any more money for products from a company that doesn't stand by their products and their mistakes beyond an arbitrary warranty period. "With the number of people affected at this point I think I'm going to contact some news organizations like Engadget and Lifehacker, perhaps shedding more light on this situation will help to motivate Fitbit to do the right thing." 

[denverstreetcar]

That’s a good line. I have had a couple of posts taken down for similarly bizarre reasons. I did talk to customer supper a second time and was offered standard 25%. I was able to reach a supervisor who said it could be a bad charging cable. I doubt it, but willing to give it a try. I told them there is NO WAY I’m going to pay $300 for a watch that only lasts 14 months. So I guess that’s progress?

[SunsetRunner]

Same boat, Sunday March 31 on the treadmill it was working then it was dead next time I went to look at it. 16 months old $400 after taxes and got the same as all the rest... Would you like to spend another couple of hundred? On a poorly manufactured watch, hummm let me think...no thank you! How the heck did you get to talk to a supervisor I have been trying to get some esculation but am told no chance buddy you're not worth it. Well that's how it feels anyway. Also had posts removed because it violated something or other. And I actually loved my Ionic when it worked but $400 for 16 months not good Fitbit.

[anj10]

I have the same problem like everyone else. My Ionic just over a year old was working all good until day before. My ionic screen was a bit shaky and yesterday I had about 25% of battery left which usually last for a day but to my surprise it ran out within an hour or so. after it went off it never came back, tried restarting it several times as suggested and tried resetting it. My fingers really got tired trying it but nothing worked. Seems like everyone had the same problem with ionic. basically what can be said is Ionic has a defect, so is there any support available? 

[Cucurucho]

This amount of Ionics going bad is nuts. More so when lots of them are doing so roughly at the same age. You can read this too at the European forums although in Europe the guaranty lasts for two years so the watches are being replaced. 

Would this his be a bad early batch or is this still an issue with the newer Ionics? Did it happened after the same software update?

the weird think after so many identical issues is not having any word from Fitbit. Maybe even if there are a lot of faulty Ionics, the numbers are not legally enough to force them to deal with the issue differently so, they are managing the claims as individual cases.

At this point it’s not nice to think your Ionic is doomed with an embedded time bomb.

[WIUpnorth]

Now that the weather is getting warm I went to make sure my Ionic was charged as I don't use that one during winter. I use my Versa instead since I don't need the GPS. I make sure it is charged even though I am not using it. Came to plug it in and it is completely dead. This is actually the same thing that happened a few months ago with my versa. My versa was within the year but this one is not. I got my Ionic when it first came out. My husband's is working great. I tried his charging cable and mine and nothing. Something is going on. Will call customer service.

[BopperXIII]

I'm putting my name on the list, too.  Same thing happened to me.  Went to bed with the power about 86%, woke up to a dead Ionic.  I tried to charge it in many different ways, but nothing.  It seems futile to try anything else after spending the morning reading these comments.  It sounds like to only way out is to spend the 1.5 hours with Fitbit support only beg them to send me a full replacement.  My Ionic follows the same script...bought around Feb/Mar 2018 only to crap out in April 2019.  I thought it was due to me connecting the Snapchat/Bitmoji to the watch, but I don't think that's it.

[Ginger17]

UPDATE: So... I've been a customer of Fitbit for years. I started with the Flex. Product would drop off in syncing and die out over time - usually a year or so. I had purchased three of them over the course of three years. I finally decided to take fitness more seriously, and I wanted something with more monitoring and feedback. I went back and forth between the Ionic, the Versa, and the Apple Watch. There were such good reviews, I decided to go with the Ionic. It had everything I needed. I've been thrilled with it since I bought it back in - go figure - the fall of 2017. I raved about it in FB fitness groups, recommended it to others. Thought AW owners silly for having paid so much.

Ten minutes ago, I ordered an AW S3 at a great price, discounted with cc points. I'm DONE with Fitbit. I have been too loyal. Not only will I no longer recommend them, I will actively return to the sites on which I recommended them and declare myself disillusioned and converted to the AW. It's been a rollercoaster; now, I'm a little too nauseated to stay on the ride.

[WX_Hockey]

Hi @SilviaFitbit ,

This is a large deviation of people who are currently reporting this exact same issue over the last week or so. 

I would say this is definitely a pattern with the number of people worldwide who are reporting this issue. 

This trend appears to be increasing as well - we all seem to have FitBits that were purchased around the same time. 

Is there any way you could engage someone to look at these Ionics which are failing?  We see the total number of instances increasing, and this could cause some pretty bad press for FitBit just due to the number of people reporting it with no response other than "Sorry, you need to buy a new one."

Thank you! 

[Saundraj]

Mine is not even coming on most of us have a blank screen and can't get it to work.Sent via the Samsung Galaxy Note5, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone

[WIUpnorth]

Mine also is blank . No lights, no nothing. Just died. 28 months old. $300 for what??? They did this with the Versa also. They know something. Notice they will never say what is going on because they know replacement would be the only solution.

[MelzyMel]

Yeah! Come to think of it, mine happened after the bitmoji update too.

M

[WIUpnorth]

I never tried the bitmoji and it went blank .I think Fitbit was doing something and messed things up.

[WIUpnorth]

Why would they want to fix it when all they want you to do is have you buy a new one. Same problem just another one of their devices.