Charge 2 bluetooth incorrect passkey/pincode

[madjo80]

I recently got a new Android phone, and ever since then I've had nothing but trouble with the connection between it and my Fitbit Charge 2, to the point that I'm seriously considering getting a new smartwatch/fitness tracker.

The issue is the following:

With my old phone I was able to set it up with the Fitbit software and afterwards also add the device to the bluetooth settings in order to use Smart Unlock (for instance).

With my new phone I am able to add the device to the Fitbit software, but I can't add the device to the Bluetooth settings, usually it doesn't give any errors, it just fails silently.

However sometimes I do get a toast message saying that the pairing failed because of an incorrect passkey or pincode.

I'm tearing my hair out over here, because the Charge 2 does not have a full factory reset (for some unfathomable reason) so I'm stuck. Brand new phone and an partially uncooperative Charge 2.

One of the things that doesn't work, other than the smart unlock, is also notifications. When my old phone rang, my Charge would tell me who was calling. With my new phone (same Android version btw) it just doesn't. It never notifies me, even though I have enabled this in the settings.

What I've tried so far is:

- Restarting the Charge 2 (using the charge cable and pressing the button for 4 seconds)

- Removing the Charge 2 from my fitbit account and adding it again.

- Removing the Charge 2 from within the app and adding it again.

- I've even tried it with a third party bluetooth app called nRF Connect to 'bond' the Charge 2, which also fails.

A factory reset option would've been nice, Fitbit.

Does anyone out there have a suggestion that might work for me?

[madjo80]

To be clear, my Charge 2 does sync with my phone, but that's about it, and other (smart) features don't work.

[Rich_Laue]

With your old phone, you where not able to add the device to the phones Bluetooth. This is a job for the Fitbit app. 

Do you have notifications setup? I don't think the app will pair the tracker until a notification is sent. 

BTW you don't need to setup a tracker when switching phones. A tracker gets setup to your Fitbit account, not the phone. 

[madjo80]

@Rich_Laue 

With my old phone I had set up the tracker using the Fitbit-app, but then also added it to the bluetooth devices in order to make us of Smart Unlock among other things.

My issue is not with adding trackers to my account, that works just fine. As I said, I've done it several times now in order to try and fix this problem.

My issue is with features like Smart Unlock that don't work if you can't add the band to your bluetooth device settings and my current inability to be notified through my smartwatch of messages and calls.

[madjo80]

With regards to your question if I have notifications set up, I refer you to my initial post:

> It never notifies me, even though I have enabled this in the settings.

[Rich_Laue]

If I'm reading you correctly. The Charge 2 does not show in your Bluetooth trusted devices. The user will not be able to directly add this. 

Has the app asked you for permission to link the Charge 2. You could try logging out/in if you now the login details. 

You also say notifications so not work. 

Have you held in the button on the Charge 2 and check to see if notifications are turned on, on the Charge 2. 

If so then the phone app is not sending notifications. 

Do you get the test notification? 

Go into the phone settings, apps, Fitbit, notifications need to be enabled. 

Check permissions. 

When the phone is locked, does notifications still pop up on the phones lock screen? If the answer is no then they will not lol up on the wrist. 

Let's go to the help docs. 

How do I get notifications from my phone on my Fitbit device?

My Fitbit device isn't receiving notifications from my phone

[madjo80]

When the app tried to link the Charge 2, after I re-added the Charge 2 to my account it showed a message about incorrect passkey or pincode.

The Notifications-option on my Charge 2 is turned on.

The "Send a test call notification" does not make any notification appear on my Charge 2, even with "Always Connected" turned on.

When the phone is locked, notifications still appear on the screen.

I've dug a bit deeper, what I think happened is the following:

When I got my new phone and logged in to my Google account, it synchronised a lot of settings (Wifi, accounts, etc) and I suspect it also synchronised the bluetooth settings of my old phone, at least partially. And that somehow it has remembered a passkey that the old phone used for my Charge 2, even though it doesn't have that connection in its trusted Bluetooth settings.

Normally when you pair a new device it does a handshake with both devices, and that's when there's a passkey-check.

Sometimes the end-user has to check a 6 digit code, for instance with carkits, this process isn't always visible to end-users, but it always happens when pairing devices for the first time.

Somehow this got corrupted on my Google-account, I suspect. (Because the device was not in the trusted Bluetooth devices overview when I had just reinstalled everything)

And yet, the connection cannot be established, because clearly the Charge 2 expects a different passkey than my Nokia 9 sends out.

I could try to factory reset my phone, but chances are great the same will happen, because as soon as I log in with my Google account, the sync-process happens. Also, this feels like taking down the barn because there's been a small burn spot on the side of the wall.

Unless it's somehow possible to factory reset a Charge 2, I'll have to muddle along, I guess.

[Rich_Laue]

With the old phone, you setup the tracker with the app. The app connected the tracker to the phones Bluetooth. The tracker then was added to smart lock through the smart lock setting

When changing phones the tracker is all ready setup and all the user needs to do is log into their account and accept permissions added. 

If your not getting notifications it is because the app has not connected the tracker to the phone. 

[madjo80]

All of my steps that my Fitbit registered are synced with the app though, and the app syncs my alarms just fine. Battery status is also read correctly. Sleep data is collected correctly. Heart rate is synced, though it can't do live monitoring, it only shows the resting BPM in the app. Exercises are tracked as well, again not live, but sync'ed afterwards.

And before you ask, my old phone has been completely turned off, so it's not like it's somehow still connected to my old phone.

So far, it's only unable to send any notifications to my Charge, and I am unable to set up Smart Unlock with the device. They're not the most important parts of the device, but they are an annoyance because they are/were important to me.

All the things that can be done with Bluetooth Low Energy, are done, it's only the things that need a full bluetooth connection that fail (live tracking, notifications, smart unlock) because neither the Fitbit app nor any other tool that I have managed to try were able to bond my Fitbit Charge 2 to my new Nokia 9 phone. With the only useful error message I have managed to extract being: "Incorrect passkey or pincode", and this latter is the problem I want to fix.

[Rich_Laue]

The live tracking issue has been brought to the attention of the moderators. It doesn't seem to work in the latest Android Fitbit app update. 

Smart unlock would be setup through the Smart Unlock settings, but it is only going to show a list of trusted devices and only let you setup a connected device. It doesn't seem to be working correctly in my phone, but neither is the location unlock. 

As for things that can be done through the BT Low Energy, there is absolutely nothing a Fitbit user is able to do but remove the Charge 2. You say something about managing it trying to bond the Charge 2 to the Nokia Phone? This should impossible for the user to do, if the user has managed to do this, instead of letting the Fitbit App, the user will need to remove the Charge 2 from the list of trusted BT devices. 

BTW this bond is a BTLE connection. 

I find that the app will ask permission to connect the tracker to the phone cutting the setting up of notification. 

[madjo80]

I wish you would read what I say instead of assuming things that I may or may not have done.

On my old phone I did the following to get it to work:

- I charged the Charge 2 after I took it after its packaging

- I installed the Fitbit app

- Went through the wizard and it added the Charge 2 to my account

- And then the Fitbit-app added it to my trusted Bluetooth settings so that I could use notifications and smart unlock.

Which worked perfectly.

On my new phone I tried the following first to get it to work:

- Make sure the Charge 2 was fully charged

- Set up my new phone

- Installed the Fitbit app

- Went through the wizard to set up the Charge 2, which started syncing its data on my new phone.

- Then it tried to add the device to the trusted bluetooth settings. That's when it showed the message: "Incorrect passkey or pincode", which is why I started this thread. This is the problem I'm trying to solve. All using the official method with the official Fitbit-app.

When I encountered that error about a week or so ago, I first decided to dig a bit deeper, because I like to figure out how stuff works, also I have dealt with many different Bluetooth devices for many years now, I figured I could figure this particular issue out the same way I figured out an issue I encountered with an incorrectly functioning Xiaomi MiBand fitness band I had a few years ago.

I tried adding it through the Android system itself, just to cross that one off the list.

The Charge 2 does show up in the search (not always, but sometimes it does) but it doesn't want to pair, because of the same issue of incorrect passkey/pincode (again this toast message only appears once every few times)

Then I decided to use a different method in order to troubleshoot the connection, using the third party bluetooth management app nRF Connect.

This also didn't work.

It did provide me with two error codes though, but a Google search of either of them resulted in nothing much of value that I could use to further investigate. The bond always fails with error code 22 and sometimes also with error code 26.

After a week of frustration and headache I decided, you know what, let's try support for this. Initially through other channels, which suggested I restart my Charge 2 (connect it to the charger and then pressing the button for 4 seconds), which I tried, and it did nothing other than restart the Charge 2.

Then it was suggested that I "factory reset" the device (which is only a soft reset), by completely removing the device from my account and then re-adding it. Which also didn't solve my problem.

That's when I ended up here.

Smart Unlock only works if the device is in your trusted list, but that's the whole thing, my Charge 2 is not showing up as trusted on my Nokia 9 (because of the symptom of "incorrect passkey/pincode"), unlike how it was on my Nokia 7Plus (my old phone).

[Rich_Laue]

@madjo80 your post confirms exactly what I have been telling. 

You say this is what you did with the old phone. 

On my old phone I did the following to get it to work:

- I charged the Charge 2 after I took it after its packaging

- I installed the Fitbit app

- Went through the wizard and it added the Charge 2 to my account

- And then the Fitbit-app added it to my trusted Bluetooth settings so that I could use notifications and smart unlock.

Which worked perfectly.

Notice what I put in bold. Where does it say that you went into the old phones Bluetooth and added the Charge as a trusted device? 

If a user tries and add a Fitbit tracker through the phones Bluetooth they are suppose to get an error. Some phones will say "Incorrect passkey or pincode" while other phones will say "Pairing rejected by Charge 2"

On no phone should a user use the phones Bluetooth to pair a Fitbit tracker. If they do manage to pair it, the Fitbit app will not be able to communicate with the tracker. 

What I've been trying to get you to look into why the following did not work. 

And then the Fitbit-app added it to my trusted Bluetooth

[Rich_Laue]

In the top right corner is a slide out menu, you will find a link to contact Fitbit.