Swim exercise turns off in the mid of workout on my Ionic

[JonB]

Has anyone had trouble with the Ionic turning off swim tracking in mid workout? Apparently for no reason it just ends the workout even when I am still swimming. It's happened several times and I am sure I have not inadvertently hit any buttons to stop recording.

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[MarreFitbit]

Hey there @JonB, thanks for stopping by! Since when you started to have this issue? 

In the meantime, I'd recommend restarting your Fitbit Ionic by following these steps. 

Note that heart rate detection is turned off while swimming. In addition to completing only a handful of laps or stopping to rest often, inconsistencies in your swim data may be caused by any of the following:

• Stopping to rest midway across the pool
• Resting for longer than 60 seconds after completing a pool length
• Changing stroke type midway across the pool
• Swimming with a kickboard or not using your hands
• Swimming less than the minimum duration set to be auto-recognized
• The units for the pool length setting don't match the units you use for your Fitbit settings. For example if you measure length in feet and inches, and specify a pool length in meters. For more information, see How do I update my Fitbit settings?

Give this a go and let me know the outcome! 

[JonB]

Thanks Maria but I have tried a restart and none of the "errors" you quote apply. I have focused my swimming so that the Ionic should record accurately. It just ends the workout for no reason once or twice during my swim! I have been in contact with Fitbit and they recommend a 'factory reset" so that's my next step. I am going to try getting rid of my "swimpro" app to see if that might be interfering. I don't use it anyway!

Best, Jon

[mbolsen]

I am having the same exact issues! Love the watch but am tempted to return it.

[JonB]

After chatting with Customer Service I ended up doing a factory reset on my watch which solved the problem. Bit of an inconvenience but worth it!

Best, Jon

[mbolsen]

Thanks so much! Will give it a try!

Sent from my iPad

[JonB]

Hi:  Based on our last conversation I did a factory reset on my Ionic and it seemed to fix my issue with swim tracking stopping for no reason in the middle of a swim. The same problem has now resurfaced. For the last three times in the pool the tracker quit in the middle of my work out. No apparent reason. Now it's a couple of months on from our last conversation have you had any more experience with this issue and, if so, have any other solutions been found? Best, Jon

[mbolsen]

I contacted Fitbit and explained what was occurring and they took me through a few steps that did not remedy the situation. They then proceeded to send me a brand new one! No band, just the watch face. They didn’t even want the old one back! My friend only runs so she uses my old one.

Hope this helps!

Sent from my iPad

[RavItOut]

I have exactly the same issue. Any solution? 

[SunsetRunner]

If you mean the Exercise app is crashing in the middle of the workout and the swimming is not getting registered then there is a problem with the Exercise app and such thing happen to other activities as well. However, another thing may be that when you swim the screen is not locked hence the water interacts with the screen when watch wakes up by a hand gesture. It happened to me to pause swimming that way, it happens under the shower when my Ionic does random things when water touches screen etc. One thing you may want to do is to turn off auto-wake for the time you swimming ( waking up the display would be still possible by pressing the button ). It may improve things a little if what you experience is more related to random touch actions in the water rather than Exercise app crash.

[RavItOut]

Thanks. I have just done a hard reset. I will try switching off auto wake
if it doesn't work with the resetting. Thanks again!

[Jens913]

Mine does the same thing, it's been doing it for 2 months now. It doesn't do it every time, I would say every fourth time I go swimming it randomly shuts off for no good and valid reason. It doesn't in the middle of a lap so it's not that I'm not moving. It's incredibly annoying, particularly when I bought it specifically for swimming and the unit cost $400.

[JonB]

Eventually, after I had reset to factory settings and still had the same problem, Fitbit gave me a replacement. That has fixed the problem, though I always try to reboot my Ionic before I swim just to clear out any problems. 

[SLJ9406]

I'm having the same issue about 20% of the time. I start tracking my swim, and when I finish, no activity logged. At some point in my swim, the activity is cancelled. Really annoying. I'm considering switching to Garmin.

[JonB]

Did you try the factory reset? See my previous response.

[RavItOut]

Mine is ok after hard reset.

[EdsonFitbit]

@mbolsen @RavItOut @SunsetRunner @Jens913 @SLJ9406 Thank you for visiting the Fitbit Community.

I'm sorry to hear that your swim exercise turns off once in a while. If you haven't done it already, please be so kind to restart your device by following these steps. If this doesn't help, you can perform a factory reset: on your device, open the Settings app > About > Factory Reset or Clear User Data. Please keep in mind, your apps and all personal data will be deleted from the device, including credit or debit cards you added.

Hope this helps. If you need further assistance, please let us know.

[Maphysto]

None of the potential reasons you mention apply in my case. It just switches off out of the blue. This makes the watch almost useless for swimming.

[SLJ9406]

Do a factory reset. It's annoying and takes a chunk of time, but since I
did one, no problems.

[EdsonFitbit]

@Maphysto Welcome to the Fitbit Community.

If you are still experiencing difficulties after performing the factory reset please let me know in order to contact Customer Support.

@SLJ9406 I'm glad to hear that you have resolved the problem, thanks for letting us know.

Keep on stepping.