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Feedback about Fitbit Ionic

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I've never owned a Fitbit product.  I recently began using the Fitbit app as a way to log water, food and steps and I am enjoying it and finding it motivating.

I'm thinking about making the plunge and purchasing the Fitbit Ionic.  (I also was looking at the Blaze.)

So question, would you buy the Fitbit Ionic again?  Do you regret it?  Love it?  Think it's worth it or not?

Any feedback is appreciated.   Thank you in advance!  

 

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

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463 REPLIES 463

After 2 years of issues with the surge I am afraid to buy another fitbit product so time to hang up my community access and say goodbye. The build quality was just too poor. I never got it to synch continuously with my Samsung s4. I will go to another brand with better build but same features. All I expect is that the watch lasts 2 years.

I walk away happy as fitbit appreciated my custom and came to a satisfactory outcome. Good luck all.

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Sent from Mail for Windows 10
I had the same problem with an iconic, wouldn’t sync with my windows 10 and Samsung je, fitbit said it wouldn’t work with my Samsung phone, however it did originally probly spent 40 hours with the tech’s with no luck, then they asked where I purchased the watch and I told them EBAY, and they wouldn’t replace it because EBAY isn’t an authorized dealer. The watch was only 2 months old. BEWARE if you buy a fitbit from EBAY !
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Hello, Sorry for the long post but...I must say that i REALLY want to love my Ionic but so far, can't say that I do.  This is mainly due to technical issues with the device itself and buggy, clumsy and poorly executed applications and connectivity support.  I've had my Ionic for several months now and waited to write this to see if some of the issues were just early release issues.  It seems, at this point, they're not and that some are fundamental oversights - again - on the part of Fitbit design/engineering - it's a shame, really, since you have a very loyal customer-base that wants nothing more from you than a solid, fully functional - as marketed, easy-to-use product.  To this point, my Ionic has been anything but.  Specific, major pain points (leaving out various annoying but manageable issues) are:

1) Music transfer:  Honestly - this is a MESS.  First, having to use a computer based media application (like Media Player) is just silly.  Beyond that, the transfer process itself is clumsy, not intuitive and user-friendly at all and only works some of the time - not every time.  My 1st music upload was 1 playlist with 150 songs on it - it took 4 hours and that was after an hour of restarting the device to get connected, restarting the computer app to find the device to do the transfer and various other technical actions I had to do just to get it to finally work.  Using music after it was loaded is ez enough but the playlist 'shuffle' almost always plays the same set of song in the same order randomly selects from a small group of songs near the alphabetical beginning of the playlist.  I lover AC/DC but since if have 17 other artists in my playlist, it would be great if the app could properly randomize from the full 150+ songs.  Since my runs typically last 45-75 minutes, i rarely hear more than a coupe of the same songs each time out.  I guess if I were to run a marathon it might eventually hear more-the bottom line is Shuffle does not shuffle and needs help.  Going back to an earlier call-out - did you hear 4 hours???  Seriously, what on earth takes 4 hours to transfer 150 songs over a very fast wi-fi network.  This is unreal and just poor execution and design.  Why not just make the storage available to directly copy audio files to it vs. having to go through some 3rd party platform nonsense. Anyhow - the other issue is that beyond the initial upload, making changes to my playlist required me to completely remove all media from the device and then reinstall (this time it took overnight, literally) before it would work due to 'Device Full' messages coming up constantly when the watch reported 1.4GB available.  Sigh...come on folks, please think of a better way to do what you promised this device could do.  If you say it can play music, I shouldn't have to juggle chipmunks in the forest, while facing true North-standing on one foot and wait 4 days just to get music on the device.  Please help...

 

2) Bluetooth connectivity:  Alerts and call notifications work most of the time but will fail eventually and stop sending notices - which is just awesome since I don't know when it's decided to stop working until I've already missed messages or calls, that i seen when I finally look at my phone.  Restart resolves but it would be good for it to just work or maybe alert me that its' lost contact and can't send alerts...   For music listening, I paired up with the Flyers (which work issue free with my iPhone, using GPS-tracking and playing music while running) and find that much of the time during my runs, the GPS tracking interferes with the Bluetooth connection or device resources to the point of cutting out the music temporarily or sometimes permanently.  I have to stop and reset everything in those cases, which completely RUINS my workout/run.  If i run with my wrist next to my ear (or the Bluetooth receiver) it's OK (or gets better) but unfortunately, that's just not my running style.  This feels like a power or resource management issue with the Ionic, which I hope is solvable/improvable with future OS updates but if it's an engineering/design miss, I fear that my $300 device will continue to upset me with every run that I take.

 

Apologies again for the rant but these are real issues that affect my confidence in your ability to design, produce and support rock solid products and more importantly for you, affect my decision to buy your products again.  I had band issues with my Surge for years, which to me, was a fundamental design issue with that product/band and hoped that the same lack of foresight and design planning wouldn't impact the Ionic but so far, it seems to be the case (at least in the areas called out above). Any improvements you can make would be extremely appreciated as I really do want to love my Ionic.

 

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No **ahem**in way, not after their horrible support and how they **ahem**ed my excercies. No thanks!!

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I’m replying to my own post for an answer from Fitbit mod.  Why was my post moved under this one as a reply?  I did not reply to this discussion, I started my own to get responses from other users not to have it buried into an older thread that has nothing to do with the issues I wrote about.  Why did you move it?

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Hell, no. While it is a great product when it works, it works far too rarely (since the last OS upgrade I cannot use all day connection or notifications anymore, because 95% of the time, sync attempts with my phone result in an endless Ionic reboot loop; no known solution).

I refuse to buy any other FitBit products, and I am actively dissuading my family and peers from doing so, either. Everyone I know has sync problems, with all of the FitBit products they have. It baffles the mind how this got through QA.

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I went to an Apple Watch and never looked back.

Sent from my iPhone
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Censorship is alive and well!

 

Removing standalone posts is not cool Fitbit, and is an admission that you are seeing too many negative posts - dont run from it, fix the dang thing! FBRick wrote a well thought out piece and you have chosen to deliberately bury it?!

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I had my negative review pulled from Amazon - so Fitbit must also be working hard to censor on other websites as well. I am definitely going away from Fitbit after owning five different Fitbit devices.

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@Thx1158 wrote:
I went to an Apple Watch and never looked back.

Sent from my iPhone

So why do you post here? Honestly you are not adding much to the conversation.

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I think that's a fair answer.  And probably where I am going too.

 

I bought my Ionic from Best Buy last week after reading countless reviews.  The big thing for me was music and being able to leave my iPhone at home when exercising.  Several days later, I still can't get any music loaded on this watch.  I've read and reviewed the steps outlined in the manual, the steps that some have used, even the steps that moderators suggested.  And, yet, no music.

Couple sync issues with things getting dropped, but no big deal.  However, the music is a big deal.

So, since Apple Health writes to Fitbit's tracking software, which is excellent by the way, I'll just let Apple do it's thing and tracking AND have seamless music to listen too.

 

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I still own my ionic (along with my surge and a couple other trackers made by fitbit). I preordered the ionic and waited....ended up with a substandard product, buggy software and lack of support.

I solved all that by moving to another product. Reading these posts and the frustration I and others have had and continue to have is why I post here. If fitbit can’t or won’t solve the issues it has, then I will share my solution of moving to a more fully developed solution. If it works for you then great..



Sent from my iPhone
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YES!  Not only would I, but I did. I purchased my First Ionic, via pre-order last September and purchased my second Ionic, the Adidas Edition, via pre-order last month (March).  So I believe that conferres a resounding YES!

 

I posted my initial Ionic review here:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Ionic/Month-One-Review-With-UPDATE/m-p/2383367#M22905

 

IMO, this is a great product with outstanding potential!

 

Thanks and keep on STEPPING!

Community Council Member

Gunny | Richmond, VA (USA)

Ionic Adidas Edition, Versa Special Edition, Aria 2 & Flyer | iPhone & Windows 10

Take a look at the Fitbit Help site for further Assistance & Information.

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Yes, I liked mine for a month or so until it stopped syncing. I have an aria 2 also. I've tried to factory reset the ionic twice. The first time it told me all applications were not installed. The watch worked but no syncing with my Mac or Samsung cellphone. I reset everything again uninstalled and reinstalled all apps again. Now I can't get past the initial setup as there is no choice to setup an Ionic. i see the charge and other watches. I'm glad yours is working. I hope you don't run into issues and end up in an endless loop of trying to set it up again. I've emailed fitbit. Their response so far is they have a high volume of emails and it will be a few days before they respond.

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The potential (unrealized) is the source of the frustration. Here's this thing, on my wrist, and it could be truly great if it could do the things it was supposed to do out of the box. But it can't, and the longer I wait, the more it seems FB is not going to get around to delivering on the promise. Meanwhile, they're developing other products. This is worse than vaporware.
I want to love it. I really do. 
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Absolutely not. In fact I won't buy another Fitbit period. 

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First off, I don't work for Fitbit, I'm a consumer like everyone else here.  With that  being said, I get the frustration, but every company that rolls out new tech has issues.  People may not remember, but when Apple rolled out the Apple Watch in 2015, it had a host of problems and Apple persevered and now has the series 4.  The Ionic is now with Firmware 2.0 (acronym) and is doing much better.  We have over 450 Clock Faces and a host of great Apps, with many more of both on the way.  2018 should be a very good year for the Ionic, as new features are in the pipeline. 

 

Hopefully, folks will continue to support the Ionic and IMO, it is a great product.  I am a techie type person and see the potential of Fitbit and the Ionic.  This is the first smartwatch that I actually enjoy and use daily/nightly.

 

Stay healthy and keep on STEPPING!

Community Council Member

Gunny | Richmond, VA (USA)

Ionic Adidas Edition, Versa Special Edition, Aria 2 & Flyer | iPhone & Windows 10

Take a look at the Fitbit Help site for further Assistance & Information.

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Apple is only on series 3..... and series 1 was better than the fitbit ionic when first was released... 

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@Rdubmu wrote:

Apple is only on series 3..... and series 1 was better than the fitbit ionic when first was released... 


The day I will be able to sync my Google Pixel with Apple Watch I might agree with you.

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@GySgt_Seidell wrote:

but when Apple rolled out the Apple Watch in 2015, it had a host of problems and Apple persevered and now has the series 4.

...

...

2018 should be a very good year for the Ionic, as new features are in the pipeline. 

 


Not going to agree on the first one. I got my Apple Watch about 6 weeks after it started shipping, in early June 2015. I still have a series 0 (original) Watch on my wrist. It just worked back then, just like tonight when I went to cook a tri-tip on the BBQ and I used the watch to set a timer, started stopwatch, and track a quick workout. Three things running at same time, plus able to view/reply to notifications, start music playing in garage, answer a call from my wife, etc. My phone was upstairs, out of BT range, not connected to watch, but I still received a text from my wife and daughter because my watch was connected to WiFi.  Then I went to the gym and tracked sets/reps/weight. With Fitbit if the HRM is not accurate, there is no plan B. With other wearable including Watch you can pair an external BT HRM. With a cheap pair of BT headsets I can ask to have my text messages read to me, and reply. The Ionic doesn't have a microphone, so it can't be used for voice control to reply to text messages. Thats right, it would be possible to Hey Siri / Ok Google reply to texts with Ionic if it had a microphone/speaker and acted as BT headset.

 

Here is a simple challenge -- find an Ionic review on a major blog/media website that highlights the Ionic doesn't have general purpose multi-tasking. If Apple had released the Ionic, the lack of multi-tasking alone would have been front page news. Another challenge -- find a major media outlet that reveals Fitbit's supposedly 'open' ecosystem/platform can't export activities without GPS, or import GPS activities tracked with another device, or import HR activities tracked with a chest strap. 

 

Completely agree that Fitbit will continue investing in fitbitOS and it will get better and better.

Aria, Fitbit MobileTrack on iOS. Previous: Flex, Force, Surge, Blaze

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