Unable to pair after factory reset

[ArthurNL]

Hi,

Had a Fitbit Charge2 which worked flawless. Next gave the watch away (unfortunately) and upgraded to Ionic as I was (and still am) enthusiastic about the Fitbit concept and was willing to invest in more advanced functionality, as it helped me greatly improving my health (lowering weight and improving bloodpressure condition).

Although I had regular problems syncing  the Ionic with my iPhone app, it always worked eventually. Until last week. No syncing possible. Out of frustration I did a factory reset, but now my problems are even worse. I have the Fitbit app on iPhone, iPad and iPadPro. Most of the time none of the iOS devices even see the Ionic, but rarely the iPad and iPadPro do contact and I get the 4 digit pairing code. Usually the paring fails, except once. Than the process stranded because Wifi pairing didn't succeed. The watch is only a few months old and I am rather frustrated, spending a lot of time trying to pair in vain. All I see is the blinking green Fitbit logo and multilingual text messages, encouraging me to do the setup of the device. Aaaargh!

Any help would be appreciated.

[DorifitoX]

I am having the same issue. Though after my factory reset, I was unable to get it to show the proper factory reset. It shows a large X and says that it didn't remove all data properly, then it asks to sync. When I have my phone out near it, it starts to sync, then once it gets to the point where it is pairing, it goes back to the "go to fitbit.com/setup" 

[DorifitoX]

Hey Arthur,

I got mine to work again after going through some rather inane steps. Basically, I got it to the point where it was showing me the red X again, and then tried to pair it with my Windows PC. Before pairing it with your PC though, you should remove the Ionic from your Fitbit app, otherwise you'll see two. I used a Fitbit dongle that I had from my older Fitbits, but I assume any bluetooth should work. After I did this, it recognized it needed to be updated, so it SLOWLY (About 95 minutes or so) updated from my PC over Bluetooth. It got to about 66% complete, which was where it had the Firmware update downloaded, but never installed. (I let it sit here at this screen for about an hour.) 

So once it hit that point, I did a hard reset (Not factory, just a reset with the lower button and the back button). Then I brought up my phone, which now had the newly added Ionic. When I tried to Sync, it said it wasn't finished with some setup, and asked me to add my WiFi info again. After adding the WiFi info, I let it finish, at this point it had already downloaded the firmware, so it jumped to being 2/3rds done. Then it slowly finished installing. After this it also had to go through another install round, but it finally works, and in the about I am able to see it is the current version. 

It's a lot of hassle to go through, but it seems to have fixed an otherwise bricked Ionic, good luck, update here if you can do these steps and they work. 

[Rich_Laue]

Doing aa factor reset does remove the tracker from your account. You will be forced to use the replace option since two of the same tracker can not be added.

You will also need to remove the Ionic from the phones Bluetooth saved devices.

Make sure that the Fitbit app is up to date.

You will also want to try one device to setup the tracker and turn off the other devices iPad and iPad pro if using the iphone.

Please remember if a Bluetooth device such as a speaker, keyboard, or Fitbit is connected to one device, a second device will not be able to connect. 

[ArthurNL]

Yesterday I had a 2nd Ionic-iPhone pairing success in two weeks of trying, but again a failure to connect to WIFI and get the software installed. If I agree to update the watch via (slow) bluetooth, after some time the connection breaks off.

If I see depressing reports like these...

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Ionic/Syncing-Issues/m-p/2372715#M21975

...I am really tempted to trash the Ionic and (resentfully) buy me a Charge2 again, that essentially does the same, minus the GPS tracking and automatic paying, that I never got to work anyway, c.q. doesn't work yet in the Netherlands. The Charge2 at least does the things I am most interested in: did I achieve my recommended 10,000 steps today and get a measure of the quality of my sleep, so I can begin to attempt to improve it.

@Rich_Laue - I did all the things you mention, to no avail.

[ArthurNL]

Did buy a Charge-3, with resentment in my heart, after having written off my expensive Ionic.

The Ionic gets a 3.2/5 review on Amazon.de and no less than 21% 1-star reviews and 25% 2-3 star reviews. The Fitbit concept is great, that's why I bought the Charge-3, but the quality of the Ionic is insufficient, not reliable enough.