Ionic suddenly stopped working and will not turn on.

[Darcella]

My ionic was working after i just charged it.  It and my phone saif full battery.  I looked at the time yesterday and nothing!! It's  black!   This was maybe 90  min after i put it on

Came home plugged it in and tried to restart it still nothing! 

Now what! Ive had it for 14 months,  no big issues.  Now i have a doorstop?

[sh211]

15 months and..... dead. 

[Darison]

I got mine as a 2018 Christmas present.... and the same thing happened to me a few days ago... 

[SSJeffries]

That’s ridiculous. Obviously they aren’t concerned about their customers or their reputation. They should do right by their customers and replace them. Personally, I will not be purchasing another Fitbit product. I will gladly purchase an Apple product next. I’ve never had any problems with my Apple products and they stand behind their products.

[lew67]

Got my Ionic December 2017.  About 3-4 days ago it stopped syncing properly.  Every once in a while I can manually get it to sync.  But it's hit of miss, and increasingly miss over the course of this week.

I have tried resetting, factory resetting, unpairing and pairing, restarting my phone, updating to the latest Android version, deleting the app and re-installing it.  The list goes on.

The fact is, the app no longer can find my Ionic via bluetooth on any sort of a consistent basis.  Period.  

to make it even better, during the periods when it's not syncing the time on the watch loses a few minutes every hour.  So my Ionic cannot even function as a watch any more!   I have not been able to sync for the past 2 hours, so my watch is now 4 minutes slow.  Useless.  And so frustrating

Moderator Edit: Format.

[Darcella]

You got this right...  i do believe i will be switching to the samsung galaxy  watch.

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @CrawFather, @MGMoraM, @Darison and @SSJeffries, have a warm welcome to the Fitbit Community. It's nice to see you too @Darcella, @lew67, @sh211, @SunsetRunner, @Pattirose, @cnichols82, @johneric8, @Vickytom9, @Sbsocha, @zeweis and @jess1971. 

I appreciate your participation in the Forums and for providing your feedback about the Fitbit Ionic. We really appreciate our members's input and feedback and I would like to thank you for yours. Our team is always looking to improve the Fitbit experience and I appreciate you have shared your experience with us. I sincerely apologize for the inconveniences this issue has caused you, please remember that we do not expect manufacturing issues to to affect our trackers but that's why every Fitbit tracker comes a limited product warranty and in case you have inquiries or doubts about what it covers, you can check it on this article: Return Policy & Warranty.

If your device is not turning on or the screen has turned off suddenly, please try to reset it by pressing and holding the Back and Select buttons (left and bottom right) until you see the Fitbit logo on the screen. It is also possible that if you have plug it in to charge and it's not charging, that the contacts are obstructed, use a piece of cloth or tissue with rubbing alcohol and clean the contacts in the back and in the charging cable. Additionally, please try to charge the Ionic through another USB port. 

I've noticed some of you have mentioned your posts have been removed, please keep in mind that when we remove your posts is because they have violated our Community Guidelines and we always send you a private message indicating why exactly the post was removed. So please remember to adhere to our Community Guidelines to prevent this from happening in the future.

Thanks for your patience and understanding, have a great day. 

[Darcella]

Did you happen to read the posts? All of us have already tried everything.  And called/ emailed etc. into the company. And yes our devices may have been out of a warranty  by  a month or less. But on a nearly 300.00 item we were compensated  with only a tiny portion  of our cost.  I'm sorry but i believe a 300.00 item should last more than 1 year.Then fix the ionic or replace our devices, so many others have reported the same issue as i  obviously the last firm wear or update  made the item defective, or so many items would not have diedSent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

[dde33]

Same thing on my Ionic - bought it when it first came out (as developer) - no real issues - was charged, (although not fully) - went to bed woke up with non-working watch.  Tried charging, resetting (press bottom left right buttons 15+ seconds)(many times), different charger, cables, etc. - no current being drawn on charge (I have USB monitor of V & I).  Totally dead.  Been trying resurrecting it a few days - Nada.   Back to using my Sam. Gear Fit2 

I just came to this forum to see if others have similar issue and totally surprised on number - too coincidental as to similar time frame for so many sharing same dead issue to be random failure. 

Very disappointing, especially in that it has been working well for over a year and no indication of any issues.  I've spent a lot of time creating a custom watch face that I really like and was getting ready to post once I finish my latest configuration.   Seems like many that have this purchased around the same time.  Built in (programmed) failure?  

I have not yet checked to see if there is a repair possibility - other comments on this thread seem to indicate only repair is to purchase a new one at a discount that is a joke.

Moderator Edit: Format

[sharenslz]

Hi,

bought my first Ionic Dec 2017, in June 2018 it would not update, rang Fitbit in US , no help at all. So spoke to Amazon UK, they replaced - fantastic service. Dec 2018 the replacement would not charge - rang Fitbit - same lack of service - goodness knows why I stuck with it but ,back to Amazon UK - the second device still under guarantee - so do I want refund or replacement - stupid me went for replacement - making watch no. 3. And today it was reading 7% battery, so charged it and the screen is now mostly black with pale yellow ,pale blue band running down one side of the screen. It will not reset by pressing buttons - it is useless.

I notice several mentions of a Samsung watch - does anyone know model and can it be worn in the pool?

It pains me to replace the Fitbit as when its working it is an excellent tool - but 3 watches in 13 months - crazy !

[Sbsocha]

Thanks for the tips, Marco, but we have all tried these without success. There seems to have been a number of Ionic units that all died within a very short period of one another which seems to be based on their age (somewhere around 13-14 months).  Some believe the failure was designed in and others believe there was a fatal flaw in the unit that under certain conditions (time in use? # of activities performed? other?) caused a number of units to fail. It could also be that a particular component in the watch fails after a certain period of time making the Ionic a very expensive bracelet. The fact that Fitbit's answer is, "Sorry, out of warranty, have a nice day," is frustrating as it is clear to all of us that there is something else going on here. Either Fitbit already knows about it or they are purposely now trying to ignore it. Neither approach is good for your customers and eventually will not be good for Fitbit. I am still holding out hope that Fitbit will change their mind and realize they need to make this right. I requested my situation be escalated and I am told it has been and I should be hearing back soon. I will let you know how it turns out.

[JasmineTG]

Roughly 3 weeks or so ago I started to have issues with my Fitbit. The same issue everyone else on here is describing. I went through the trouble shooting suggestions as on the website. The only one I didn’t do was the factory reset. None of them worked. I called customer support and after about 2 hours of trouble shooting I was told to do a factory reset which put my tracker back on track. 

Ten days after that I noticed that my tracker want tracking my sleep. When I looked back my stats was gone from the previous days. Each day for 7 days I tried different trouble shooting efforts following the suggestions on their website. I called customer support and was told that it’s not syncing because the Bluetooth wasn’t connected. Bluetooth was on but my iPhone wasn’t detecting the ionic. After more efforts I got it to detect the Bluetooth but it still wasn’t syncing or tracking my sleep. 

Today as a last effort I uninstalled the app and attempted to do a factory reset. As the tracker was updating it suddenly died and it was on the charger. Now it won’t even turn on.  

They wont replace my ionic as they told me that it’s out of warranty. I got it for Christmas 2017. Keep in mind that I’ve been having issues for at least 3 weeks and have called twice now. 

My thought is that there must be a bug with this latest update. It’s too much of a coincidence that after the update a lot of us suddenly have the same issue. They need to recall this product. 

[Darcella]

Exactly, offered a discount.  Frustrating. Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

[rfjouben]

Just had the same issue. Full charge and working at 9:00 this morning and then suddenly a black screen with none of the fixes working. I purchased the watch on pre-order so I have had it since October 2017 but really expected more than 15 months service.

Customer service essential said yep, stopped working and although your tracker is outside the scope of Fitbit's warranty terms, we want to offer you the following: 25% discount on a new Fitbit tracker. I have spent thousands on various Fitbit products for myself and family but customer support does not care and for $161 you can just get a new watch every year.

I am very disappointed as I have had few issue with the Ionic and now although several customers are reporting an issue no fair resolution to be seen. I hate to admit it but maybe it is time to start looking at other products.

[johneric8]

Time to move on for sure! I'm sorry you guys are suffering, I know the feeling.

[Deepak_dhami]

same issue here... bought in nov 2017 ... was working fine till yesterday and boom... it died suddenly. 

from above discussion i have no hope now from fitbit... 

[johneric8]

The main issue that all of us are having is too many ionics are failing either insider the 12 month warranty or right outside. Most products will far surpass their warranty with normal use, but the ionic needs to be sold with a disclaimer ....

[Woodloper]

My Ionic (purchased October 2017) also gave up the ghost totally unexpectedly today. Charged it about 24h earlier, all worked well, it synced today at around 1:15pm (checked the FitBit App) and then when I checked the time at what must have been 2:00 or 2:30 - black, blank screen. And nothing I can do (and I've tried all the regular things: plug in, charge, hard reset, one button at a time, two buttons, three buttons, 15 seconds, 30 seconds...) can revive it. HELP!

[sharenslz]

Ref my useless 3rd Ionic, spoke to Amazon UK, they immed said - we have loads of problems with this - sent me refund and return prepaid paperwork, on receipt they are issuing full refund. Asked me if I wanted replacement - but I've had enough - would be stupid to get another one with these issues which are all unresolved - or of no interest to Fitbit.

I'm now buying the Samsung Galaxy - and if any interest to those of you not covered by Amazon return policy or just over the 12 months hopeless Fitbit warranty  - Samsung are giving £75.00 exchange against the Fitbit if you buy from their web shop.

[Woodloper]

It's not a disaster. You only read about the failures, not successes. Give them a break.

[johneric8]

Yes,  I lived with about 4 failures including my wife's two watches that failed...  I know one thing you don't,  most of these Ionic will fail within 15 months,  it's a fact.. If you don't believe me just watch these forums over the next 6 months,  it's going to be chaos..

The problem I think you fail to realize is we all like the Ionic when it's working,  it's worth the money, but the problem is most 12 year warranties are more than enough to get you past the hump.  Most products with one year warranties make it several years at a high percentage.  Our problem is we don't believe these watches generally even make it to the warranty and we speak from experience.  I can give you examples of about 7 or 8 Ionics owned my me,  my family and some friends and none of them made it longer than 14 months..  That is bad odds wouldn't you say?  All 8 of these watches failed around the warranty..  This is sad and why we all have such issues..  Trust me the people that say they've been using the same watch for 14 months will be on here complaining in a week to a couple of months from now once it mysteriously croaks or the screen face is dangling by wire.

Moderator Edit: Format