Ionic seems to be in endless loop after firmware upgrade

[AnonymousSquirr]

In an attempt to install whatever this latest firmware upgrade was (I really need to learn to let well enough alone, and NEVER upgrade an essentially working device: it seems far too dangerous to allow updates to these), and things went from bad to worse to dead on arrival.

At first I had an intermittent connectivity issue where the watch's bluetooth would just turn off (verified several different ways: I was so frustrated that I actually borrowed legit test gear, along with it's owner to operate the monstrosity machine).  After I don't know how many "hard resets" (the three buttons/12 seconds/let go of bottom right/buzz), I got the watch back, but it died again in the middle of an update, and now it won't do *anything* except flash the blue logo on and off, on and off...

Hard reset doesn't help.  I allowed it to fully discharge the battery in the hopes that something might shake loose without any juice, but no love there either. I'm about ready to smash this thing into a thousand pieces and call it a piece of modern art.  The thing is around six months old - how is it possible for so much to go south for so many people on a THREE HUNDRED DOLLAR "smartwatch"?  There MUST be some kind of truly hard "Master Reset"  This soft, button based "hard reset" that is just a soft reset with the wrong name has got to be fixed!

Do I throw this thing out and try another brand, or is there some way to get it to come out from it's coma?

[AnonymousSquirr]

I'm at the end of my rope here.

Somewhere around the beginning of the month my Ionic started misbehaving: sync became a never ending ordeal.  While I was unable to make it sync manually, it somehow managed to sync on it's own a few times a day, so I left it alone (after what I went through with the update at the end of last year, I wasn't going to do anything, like update, to make it worse).

By the second week, it wasn't syncing at all, manually or otherwise - I even gave it a few days to see if it would "spontaneously" resolve, but no such luck.

Since then I have tried EVERYTHING to fix this, from just trying to apply the "Tracker Firmware Update" it says is due, to wiping everything and trying from scratch. I can't even recall all of the permutations I've tried, but the broad strokes outline comes down to this:

(1) Wiping everything and starting from scratch takes DAYS to get anywhere.  The app/watch refuse to recognize the WiFi connection, and the bluetooth connection works for reloading the watch maybe one out of ten tries.

(2) IF the watch reloads (which always comes back with a message saying it failed, and to try again, despite the watch appearing fully functional except for refusing to talk to bluetooth after the initial pairing for reload), it never talks to the phone/app again.  I can unpair, but I will never again see the Ionic unless I do a hard reset on the watch and try, AGAIN, to completely reload it.

(3) Despite the watch successfully loading, the app says it failed.  If I ignore the "fail" message, I'll get an "Update Tracker Software" banner in red on the app's Ionic page, and a grey window on the app's main page saying "Ionic Update Available" with an "Update Tracker" button at the bottom of the box.  Whether I choose to do the update or not is irrelevant, as the watch will not talk to the bluetooth. I know it's bluetooth because if I unpair, itr is never seen again (short a hard reset, etc.).

(4) I have tried deleting the cache, and not deleting the cache - it makes no difference.

I don't know what's going on here, but I know it's the update because my wife's Ionic went through a very similar routine and it started on the exact same day.  She managed to get hers back somehow (doing the same as me), but it took DOZENS of tries over the course of a week. She's so mad she's selling the **ahem** thing and buying Garmin, and I'm about  --->  <---  this close to doing the same.  This watch was purchased in September (as my account will show if you guys look), and it was fine up until "updates" got released. Every "update" seems to turn into a horror show.  

Anyone with thoughts on how to correct this without another two weeks of work, I'm all ears.

Thanks in advance.

[SilviaFitbit]

@AnonymousSquirr Thanks for participating in the Community. Sorry for the delayed reply. 

I've merged your posts here in order to keep the forums organized. Thank you for the troubleshooting performed. 

I truly appreciate the time you took to share your experience with Ionic after installing the latest firmware version. In this case, I've shared your post with our Support team and they will continue assisting you through email. 

Your patience is appreciated, while you receive a reply from them. I'll be around if you have any additional questions.