Time zone keeps changing on Ionic

[Lerber3]

I bought and set up my Fitbit in Vancouver.  I am now in Puerto Vallarta, where the time is two hours later.

Since I arrived about two weeks ago, every night at about 8, my Fitbit switches to Vancouver time.

For a while, I spent a while each night messing with Auto timezone on/off... disabling/enabling auto timezone on my iPad (the only device synced with the watch)... I set the timezone by hand and disabled auto... I rebooted the watch...  I basically tried every ‘solved’ solution to questions about time and time zone changing for any Fitbit product.  The time on the watch never changed, but in the morning the time would be corrected... until around 8 pm.

I changed the ‘location’ field in the advanced settings from Canada to Mexico (which immediately changed my timezone from Vancouver to Mexico City... close enough) and the time on my watch corrected itself... I thought I’d figured it out.  Yay!

Next day around 8, the watch switches to Vancouver time, and I see that my ‘location’ in the advanced settings is reset to Canada.  I gave up and decided to just use the watch on Vancouver time.  

No such luck... the watch corrects to Mexico time some time during the morning and resets to Vancouver time in the evening.

I see a few people have returned their Fitbits due to time zone problems, but not enough to suggest an bvious bug.

Is it possible that my Mac in Canada, with the Fitbit dashboard running, is stomping some values that cause my time zone to change?

Please advise.  The product is fantastic, but the time zone problem is taking some of the fun out of it.

Moderator Edit: Updated Subject for Clarity

[SantiR]

@Lerber3 Welcome to the Fitbit Community! Thanks for taking the time to share all of those details regarding the time zone settings on Ionic. This is very strange! 

Do you have locations services on on your phone? This should be on for the app to know where you are. 

Please make sure you are using the latest version of the Fitbit app (version 2.85 released on January 7th. 2019). Update the app and check if the problems with time zone keep happening. 

Also, by any chance, can you check the Weather app and see which city shows you have as your main one? 

Keep me posted! 

[Lerber3]

Wow... let me tell you what happened.

I’m not using an iPhone here in Mexico...
I’m using iPad, so location services advice is n/a.

I don’t have a weather app.

I updated the app from 2.84 to 2.85... now my workouts seem to be all mixed up.  They show up on the wrong days.  I wore the watch for about two weeks in Canada... run, bike, paddle, and/or
walked every day.  I wore the  watch for 10 days in Mexico, same mix of exercises.

Now the Canada and Mexico workouts are mixed together as if I had traveled
back and forth about 6 times over 3 weeks... not a big deal to me, but probably a pretty nasty bug. 

Yesterday, I apparently did a 17 hour weight session... wrong.  This strange workout showed up after I loaded the latest version of app... also on fitbit.com<http://fitbit.com> dashboard.  I know that the watch was not left in workout mode as I was messing with it all evening trying to get the time problem solved.  I did accidentally set the time past midnight, which screwed up my stats (no midnight reset)... then set back to Vancouver time (before midnight).

When I click on the bike ride in the above screenshot, which shows a map of my walk route in Canada, I get this map, which is my bike route in Mexico.

I’m not sure why it says 8.5 avg km/h below and 16.1 km/h at the top... but whatever.

The ‘walk’ from 2 days ago (the map shows my walk route in
Canada is at 16 kmh... a typical biking speed)... I have been in Mexico for 10 days.  On closer examination, the list of activities in the app is wrong (wrong maps, wrong activities, etc), but if I select a workout, it shows the correct map and activity.

On the Fitbit.com dashboard, I also see the 17 hour weight workout...

The following two screen shots are the same workout...

The Fitbit App shows only unpaused track while the fitbit.com dashboard shows what I was doing while the watch was paused.  This seems like an invasion of privacy.  

[Lerber3]

Update: I am still in Mexico.  The computer running the Fitbit dashboard in a different time zone has been turned off.  Today my watch erroneously switched from Mexico time to Vancouver time  at around 5 pm (instead of 8 pm)... 

Still love the Fitbit... I just have to manually reset the time zone every day.

[Ronnie20019]

This has been a known issue for years. Select manual time zone and change it when you arrive. Crossing time zones configured Fitbit software. 

I have communicated with Fitbit support but they don’t seem interested in fixing it. 

[Lerber3 · Accepted solution]

Actually, I solved the problem.

When I traveled to Mexico, I left my Mac running at home in Canada with the Fitbit dashboard app running... I think would periodically check in and diddle my time zone setting.  It didn’t matter whether I had auto time zone on or off... my solution back then was to quickly open advanced settings while my iPad was syncing with the watch and toggle auto timezone on and off.  Apparently, the last thing that happens during a sync is to reset the time on the watch.

Last time I was in Canada, I powered the Mac down.  I have had no time zone problems in Mexico or Panama or Colombia (where I am now).  The watch switches zones correctly as soon as my iPad realizes where it is.

I’m not sure if this is the solution for everyone with timezone problems, but if you have Fitbit apps running in more than one time zone try shutting down the one at home.

[Ronnie20019]

My app and Fitbit are always together. A complicated solution shouldn’t be required.

[Lerber3]

I agree... I’m just describing how I solved the problem I reported in the OP before and after shutting down my home computer while traveling.

YMMV