Syncing Issues

[mrmath3]

My problem: I cannot connect my Fitbit Ionic to my phone nor my laptop

Specs:

• I have an Android device. It is a Samsung Galaxy S8 and there are no new updates. It runs on Nougat (Version 7.0)
• I have a MacBook Air running on High Sierra Version 10.15.1

History:

• I have owned my Ionic for 27 days (as of Wednesday December 27th, 2017). I had no issues setting up my device by connecting it with my S8, but I was never able to connect it to my laptop to add music to it. Workouts, runs, and the watch feature always worked until 2 days ago. I noticed my sleep was not getting updated on my phone and tried to manually sync. It failed. Within 12 hours the watch was 49 minutes off of Satellite time and stayed like that.
• I had a watch that couldn't tell time nor connect to any device for about a day. I could still do a workout or run, but it wouldn't sync.
• I went through MANY steps to see if it would fix the issue, and my latest step was a factory reset. I currently have a watch that is stuck on the "Setup" face without the ability to set-up again because it cannot connect to any device.

Things I HAVE tried (Android - Ionic Connectivity):

• Verifying my phone is supported
• Making sure bluetooth is on
• Making sure software is up to date
• Making sure the app on my phone has permission to access my location
• Isolating device from laptop
• I only have 1 FitBit device, so I don't have another device nearby
• Making sure my phone is not connected to any other bluetooth device
• Making sure my phone is not on a list of phones with known issues
• Making sure my Ionic is fully charged
• Turning on the "Always Connected" option on my app
• Turning on the "All-Day Sync" option on my app
• Force quitting my app on my phone and re-open it
• Turning bluetooth on my phone off and on again
• Restarting my Ionic by holding down the bottom left and right buttons
• Turning off my Ionic in the settings and then turning it on again
• Uninstalling the FitBit app on my phone and re-installing it
• Installing the FitBit app on my wifes iPhone 8 (with no updates) and trying to connect to it (yes bluetooth was enabled)
• Trying to connect to my MacBook Air with FitBit Connect app
• Unpairing my Ionic from bluetooth settings on my S8
• Removing all FitBit trackers from my account
• Leaving FitBit plugged in to charge
• Removing credit card from FitBit Pay
• and Finally . . . a factory reset on my Ionic

Sources: Help Article to sync w/ Android & Ionic Setup Checklist thread

Things I have NOT tried (Android - Ionic Connectivity):

• Making sure the firmware on my phone is up to date
  • I cannot connect my watch to any device. I have tried my MacBook Air, my Samsung Galaxy S8, and my wife's iPhone 8. It never connects to anything.
  • I believe that my Ionic was on the latest firmware before I did a factory reset, but there is no way to verify that now
• Contacting FitBit Customer Support
  • I will eventually do this, but I want to see if anyone else found a fix for what I am experiencing before I bug them about it

Things I have tried (Mac - Ionic Connectivity):

Note: This isn't really a sync issue. It is a pairing issue. I also appologize if I should have made a new thread for this. I just want you to know that using my only laptop was not an option for me.

Note 2: The following information happened before my syncing issues.

• Made sure FitBit Connect is installed
• Made sure bluetooth is on

MacBook Air History:

I installed High Sierra before I recieved my Ionic. After installing Fitbit Connect, I tried to pair with my Ionic. I am pretty sure that the Ionic is not supported on High Sierra which would cause the following to happen. (The reason I think this is because when downloading Fitbit Connect I have the choice of "Download for Mac" and "Download for Mac 10.5". The "10.5" option says it only supports Flex, One, and Zip")

Fitbit Connect for Mac:

When I hit "Set Up a New Fitbit Device", log in, update my profile (I don't change anything here because it already has my information), and then select Ionic, It tells me to download an app for a phone instead of setting it up with my computer.

When I hit "Sync Now" it just tells me it cannot find my device.

When I hit "Manage my Music" I get the following error after logging in: Sorry, this feature is only available when you have an Ionic paired to your Fitbit account. To pair, please use the Fitbit mobile app. screenshot

Fitbit Connect for Mac 10.5:

When setting up a new device, there is no option for the Ionic.

Summary:

I cannot connect my Ionic after trying (basically) everything and now I am stuck on the "set up" screen as it won't connect to any device.

I cannot connect to my Samsung Galaxy S8, my MacBook Air (running on High Sierra), nor my wife's iPhone 8.

[USAF-Larry]

@mrmath3, the one thing I did not see mentioned in your excellent troubleshooting synopsis was if you tried opening the phone's Bluetooth setting, select the Fitbit device, tell Bluetooth to Forget the Device, close the phone's settings, and then re-opening the Fitbit device and try to connect to the tracker.  Have you tried that?

[mrmath3 · Accepted solution]

I ended up contacting customer service before I saw your suggestion. Thank you for responding!

They were able to successfully sync my Ionic to my phone and it is currently going through a firmware update. The way they got my Ionic to pair was specific to the order and timing of the steps (don't do these out of order!)

Here are the steps we went through to get my watch to sync again:

Round 1:

1. Log out of Fitbit app on phone
2. Turn bluetooth off
3. Restart Ionic (hold down bottom left and right buttons)
4. Turn bluetooth on
5. Pair with Ionic
6. Unpair with Ionic
7. Log in to app on phone
8. Go through the set up process (this was a first for me in ALL the things I tried!)
   1. Top right card icon
   2. + new device
   3. go through steps
   4. enter 4 digit code
9. The process stalled here and the Ionic technician told me it failed.

Round 2:

1. Turn bluetooth off
2. Restart phone and Ionic AT THE SAME TIME
3. Turn bluetooth on
4. Do the set up process again
5. It seemed to work

I will update this thread if there are any new developments. Thank you for reading.

[multiverse]

You went above and beyond your duties as a customer.  Thank you for posting the details of all your findings.  After reading all of the things you tried and all of the steps you must perform, my feeling is "Screw that!"   My Ionic stops syncing with my Samsung Note 8 every few days.  If I have to do all this crap everytime this happens, then what's the point?  I basically have a $300 bracelet, and I'm not fond of jewelry.

FitBit really needs to get fix this thing.  I am disappointed in my Ionic so far.

[Crazy-Fritter]

---

@multiverse wrote:

You went above and beyond your duties as a customer.  Thank you for posting the details of all your findings.  After reading all of the things you tried and all of the steps you must perform, my feeling is "Screw that!"   My Ionic stops syncing with my Samsung Note 8 every few days.  If I have to do all this crap everytime this happens, then what's the point?  I basically have a $300 bracelet, and I'm not fond of jewelry.

FitBit really needs to get fix this thing.  I am disappointed in my Ionic so far.

---

I agree...... that's absolutely ridiculous!!!

I might own another Fitbit device, but it will never be an Ionic.

[NurseNik108]

Have you had to repeat these steps often since the last post?.. I just purchased my Ionic yesterday and am considering taking it back. For $300, this is not acceptable. 

[multiverse]

Hello Nurse,

My Ionic has been syncing alright.  It's not quick, and it doesn't always do it when I want it to, but my workouts eventually do show up on my FitBit dashboard.  Also, notifications from my SMS app seem to be working most of the time.  I can't remember all the settings I had to use, but I didn't do this ridiculous sequence ever more than once.  I just fiddled with the settings myself.  

I will try to post exactly what I've done later, but for now I can recall that I have enabled that "Notification drawer" or whatever it's called, which is supposed to help when you aren't receiving notifications.

Also, I made sure that my phone doesn't try to put the FitBit app to sleep.  Newer Samsung phones have aggressive battery-extending functionality, but you can control it to disallow it from putting certain apps to sleep.

Also, one should note that enabling notifications must be done not only in the app, but on the watch as well.  There is a setting inside the watch's Settings section for this.

Finally, when the darn thing REALLY just won't sync, I use the Shutdown function in the About section within the watch.  This seems to be what one would consider a "reboot".  Then I restart my phone, too.

Another thing, I've found that the watch doesn't sync very well when I'm holding it right next to my phone.  A little bit of distance may help reduce interference from all the RF your phone is spraying all the time.

Also, make sure you've updated to the latest firmware.  The FitBit app just informed me that a newer firmware is available for the watch, and I haven't done it yet.  Maybe it'll fix some other issues, like how it navigates its own menus randomly when underwater.  I think I may have inadvertently paid the guy swimming next to me $20 from the Wallet app.

[Jeannemj]

Thank you for all the hard work you put into this.  My S8+ won’t even recognize my Ionic when scanning via Bluetooth.  I have tried all the steps you mentioned in your previous message including turning off/on bluetooth, resetting Ionic, turning phone off and on.  I have spent two days off and on trying to load the update with no success, using my S8+, my IPad Pro, and my AirMac.  I beginning to think there is something wrong with my Ionic.  Using my iPad it tries to look for my WiFi and says to get right next to it, but the app/update still says it can’t find it my WiFi even though works with all other apps/websites on both iPad and AirBook.  Ugh  

[NurseNik108]

I returned my and got a new one. It's been a few weeks and I haven't had
any issues. Works great so far..

[mattroberts]

This worked for me with one addition. If you've had a failed "pairing" (issues with "All-day Sync"). 

After Step 1 - Delete any failed pairing in Settings:Bluetooth:MyDevices:Ionic:(i)Forget_This_Device

After that follow the list. You should be good.

[sonyalynn1017]

After working with a Fitbit rep (thanks Natalie), I was finally able to get the Ionic to sync and everything working again  Here is what she sent me:

****
Since your Ionic is not updating, we'd like to you try a factory reset for your Fitbit. To do so, please follow the next instructions: 

1. Remove the Ionic from you account. 
2. Remove the Ionic from Bluetooth setting and turn off the Bluetooth.
3. On the watch, go to Settings > About > Factory reset > Reset
4. Wait a few seconds until the Fitbit logo appears and you see www.fitbit.com/setup
5. Go back to your phone and turn on Bluetooth, open the Fitbit app and setup the device again.

This factory reset will re calibrate the watch and will allow you to update it successfully. 

****

Hope it may help someone else as well!

Sonya

[MrtLA]

Same here, except i havent had a day when it actually syncs thw whole day witjoit giving me a message to restart my phone 😞 i had flex for years and it worked way better then my ionic even though it had leas features but whats the use of those if it doesnt sync anyway. 

[AKSowka]

I bought mine 2 months ago, and am filled with buyers remorse. I'm more and more frustrated and disappointed by the day. Not impressed with this device at all. Like you said, I just bought an expensive bracelet.

[Bahappy1]

This helped me to get the all day sync on , on my IPhone 7Plus.