Sorry, I am very cross - but please forgive my rant

[Jrby]

I have had a Fitbit One since the fall of 2015.  I lost it on a sedentary  3 hour drive, only to re-discover it months later in the bowels of my car.  I purchased a second One immediately, since I was attached (or not) to the first One, and, wary of the possibility of seatbelts snatching it from my pocket (my first experience), resolved to henceforth wear it in the waistband of whatever shorts or slacks I had on, cinched in by a tight belt.  The new One lasted only a month.  How could I lose it, on another slack day going to a wedding and reception, with no way for a seatbelt to uproot it from an inside pocket in my suit?

And how could I lose yet another One today (the first), with an equally benign journey by car to a funeral and reception, after this experience of a month ago and redoubled efforts at securing it for a second time?  It's annoying - it is never lost when I am active, only when I am sitting somewhere....  I have a free Kellogg's Special K pedometer, with no clip or wrist band, that has never been dislodged from me and it keeps accurate steps -  I think it is more reliable.

PS

The second Fitbit I lost had synced with my phone for 1963 steps before I "misplaced" it and could not make contact (lost tracker).  What I can't explain is that the following two days when I drove from Ontario to New Brunswick (over 1000 kilometres), and my phone (when I eventually reached Nova Scotia) was claiming to have synced with my lost Fitbit for an additional 7129 steps the day I lost it, 8354 steps the day after that, and 2063 steps on the third day.  Believe me when I say that the Fitbit was not in my luggage, car, clothing etc. anyhewre near my phone and since I was not waearing it any longer, how could it count steps?  Very mysterious and also vexing.

[PureEvil]

@Jrby,

So the answer to your question lies in how Fitbits behave.  Yes, if you have it paired to your account and you run the Fitbit App it syncs through your phone.

However, if your Fitbit is near a computer running Fitbit Connect and the USB dongle it'll sync as well.  It doesn't matter if it's your computer or not.  Fitbit Connect syncs any nearby Fitbit.

That said, I have two suggestions.  Label your Fitbit.  Most people will return it if it has contact information.  Mine looks like this:

Among my friends and I, we have had four happy returns.

I wear mine with a watch fob and a holder that I got from shapeways.com.  It looks like this:

It stays on pretty securely.

I hope this helps.

[Jrby]

These are good ideas and if I ever decide to take the plunge again, I will probably implement them for myself.  But I still don't understand how, if someone found my Fitbit and synced it with his computer (are dongles universal, or tied to a specifiic tracker?), my phone would display the results of this syncing half a continent away...

[Julia_G]

@Jrby, the dongle is universal, and will sync any Fitbit.  If a computer is syncing your Fitbit, it does not need to be near to your phone.  The dongle "talks" to the Fitbit servers, your phone "talks" to the Fitbit servers, and receives the information -- does that make sense?  That will be true as long as the One is still linked to your account.  If someone finds it, and links it to their account, it will no longer sync to yours.

However, my personal view is that the most likely explanation is that your One is again somewhere in your car, and it is picking up steps from driving and syncing them to your account.  I would take my phone to the car, open the app and check to see if the One syncs.  If it does, you know it is there.

[Jrby]

Hi Julia,

Thanks for your wisdom.  But would a motionless Fitbit (in the sense of no longer being worn) continue to record steps as it is being carried in a car (assuming it was lost there)? 

By now I would assume that the missing One would have no battery life (it was lost on Oct. 9th) and would not respond to my attempts to sync with the phone in the car.

[PureEvil]

Hello @Jrby,

Based on what you're saying, it sounds like someone may have simply picked it up and started using it.  Maybe their spouse also has a Fitbit One and they have access to a charging cable and Fitbit Connect.

If you want to rule out the fact that it's nearby, then log out of the Fitbit App (or disable bluetooth on your phone) and jot down the time.  If it syncs after that, then it's not syncing through your phone.

That said, here's something you could try...  Go to your device settings and change your greeting to a message by which they can contact you, perhaps your phone number.  You only have 8 characters to work with so you'll need to figure out what you'll want to change it to.  The next time it syncs, the display will change and with any luck the finder will understand and contact you.

I hope this helps.