Charge 2 not displaying heart rate

[Julie2719]

My heart rate stopped tracking this morning. Has not shown a number since about 8 am today ( now 8:50 pm). I have tried charging it, wiping the back with a lens cloth, turning heart rate off on the app and syncing and then back to auto and sync again. Nothing. I called customer support and had a rude and incompetent individual and eventually gave up on the call. I have never had bad customer support before and have been a Fitbit user for years. I am very frustrated right now. I will have to call again but I am frustrated. Maybe it is time to try a different brand of tracker. 

Moderator edit: subject for clarity 

[Zamzung_x]

You are very right.
Even a 25% discount offered by the Customer Service for buying a new FITBIT
won't convince me to buy one again.
I am very disappointed.

[botson]

My Charge 2 had lasted longer than 3 years. It has a couple scratches on the screen, but that's it. Still works perfectly fine. I don't know why others have quit working. Maybe they're defective or something.

[Zamzung_x]

You prove to have been very fortunate with tour FITBIT after 3 years.
My device looks like new after 3 years, but just is not working and SUPPORT
confirms it to be totally defective after it stopped displaying HR and more
malfunctions. And SUPPORT would only give me a 25% discount acquiring a new
device instead of replacing it for a new one.
So no more FITBIT for me !

[JasonG88]

I am having the same issue. It has not displayed nor tracked my heartrate since Tuesday even. Heartrate is not showing on device and is greyed out in the app. Steps are still being counted and syncing though

[AdvisorK]

Well, it looks like some users get their issues escalated to priority support by the moderators while others in the same situation get their problems ignored and their questions unanswered.

[ctaishah]

I just had my fitbit charge 2 for 3 days. Never had a green light and my bpm is always --.

Had try restart and change the setting but nothing happen. Any other ideas in getting this to work?

[Luccalass]

I had this issue.  Called Customer Service, they had me go through the same troubleshooting I had already done twice per the instructions here.  Then I got this email:

"We'll be happy to continue assisting you with your Charge 3 that isn't tracking your heart rate.

We are part of the Escalations team and upon checking here, we saw that your Charge 3's last sync time was on December 31, 2019 at 10:16 AM with the heart rate set to "Auto".

Aside from the troubleshooting steps provided over the phone, we also recommend to do the steps provided on our help article Why don't I see my heart rate on my Fitbit device?. 

Please make sure that you did the restart correctly by plugging the Charge 3 into the charging cable and holding the button for 8 seconds until you see a smile icon. If issue persists, please perform a long restart as well by doing the steps below:

1. Connect the device to the charging cable. 
2. While the device is plugged into the charging cable, press and hold the button down for 15 seconds. 
3. The device turns on and shows a battery icon. Two vibrations occur: first a short vibration, then a medium vibration. 
4. The device turns off.
5. The device turns on and shows a progress bar and short vibrations occur. The progress bar completes. Note: A total of 7 short vibrations occur. 
6. Remove the device from the charging cable. The device shuts down.
7. Important: Plug the device into the charging cable again. 

We look forward to getting you back on track. If none of these worked or if you have any questions, please let us know."

And what do you know?  This long reset, per the steps given, solved the issue.  75 BPM, pulsing away.

[Sam0101]

Charge 2 app is not showing Resting Hear Rate and Sleep Tracking 

[Chrisdean]

Hi. 

this is also occurring for me. 
it re-started itself 2 days ago whilst it was on my wrist and I was cycling. Since then ‘—‘ on the fit bit device for heart rate. Please help. The device is useless as it is. 

[AdvisorK]

I posted on Oct 19 that my Charge 2 was not detecting my heart rate.  It showed the same "--" that everyone else has reported.  This lasted for about two weeks.  I can see from my heart rate history that it would sporadically detect my heart rate, sometimes for only 10 minutes in a day, sometimes for 2 or 3 minutes, every 15 minutes for 2 hours.  But overall, it was reflecting my heart rate for only about 1-3% of the time.  By Oct 27, it was recording my heart rate for a combined 8 hours (with the longest consecutive stretch being about 2 hours).  The next day around 9 AM, it resumed detecting my heart rate normally and it worked normally from that point on...

… Up to Dec 25...

… when my Charge 2 died.

I synched it in the late morning of the 25th with 60% battery.  By dinner time, it was giving me the "critically low" battery sign.  I charged it for less than 5 minutes and it was showing a 30% charge (which seemed odd).  Within an hour it was completely dead.

Nothing I've tried since then (including the standard plugged-in restart) has worked.  I contacted support via the live chat function and they simply walked me through the same plugged-in restart procedure I had tried dozens of times.  They had no other suggestions and merely offered me a 25% discount to buy a replacement.

I've only had my Charge 2 for 2.5 years, so if that's all I can expect to get out of a new purchase, I will pass.

[acala4]

My Fitbit Charge 2  heart rate tracking was not working for 2 week.  Here is what worked for me:

1. I let the battery drain until the battery and exclamation mark showed on the screen

2.  I plugged it  and immediately did a reset by holding the side button until the Fitbit logo appeared.

3. I immediately unplugged it, and left it overnight with a drained battery.

4. I plugged it in the next morning and did another rest and let it charge for 20-30 minutes and viola, the heart rate monitor is working again. 

It has been working for the past day, I hope it continues workingf or the long term.

[JimmyTDC]

I tried all the solutions on this board as well and went through the help online with a representative before it was escalated and still no result last week. I finally noticed that the day that my heart rate stopped working, a new version of the app was available in the apple store as well as the android play store and I believe when the new firmware was installed on the device (i have two different devices, an iPad and my phone is a 'droid to sync with). Updating, then restting the fitbit made it work. 

I'm disappointed that the hour of troubleshotting with the rep didn't yield this solution, but I'm glad it works now.

[Decemberfrank]

I followed all the steps you said.  The icon came on and it vibrated, but the heart rate has not yet displayed.  That was minutes ago.  

[Michmach]

My fitbit tracker started having the same problem yesterday, displaying "--" instead of HR.  I tried restarting as recommending above by plugging in and holding 4 seconds.  The first time I did this the HR came back online for a few minutes then went away again.  I have done this 3 more times with no effect the HR does not come back online.  The green dots are on, the HR tracking is on in the app.

[Chrisdean]

I sent mine back to Fitbit in the end. They acknowledged a problem with it and sent me a new one for free 🙂

[Decemberfrank]

Thanks but mine stopped altogether about 2 weeks later and I threw it away about three days ago.

[SunsetRunner]

Posted by Lucalass on 12-31-2019 13:06

"I had this issue.  Called Customer Service, they had me go through the same troubleshooting I had already done twice per the instructions here.  Then I got this email:

"We'll be happy to continue assisting you with your Charge 3 that isn't tracking your heart rate.

We are part of the Escalations team and upon checking here, we saw that your Charge 3's last sync time was on December 31, 2019 at 10:16 AM with the heart rate set to "Auto".

Aside from the troubleshooting steps provided over the phone, we also recommend to do the steps provided on our help article Why don't I see my heart rate on my Fitbit device?. 

Please make sure that you did the restart correctly by plugging the Charge 3 into the charging cable and holding the button for 8 seconds until you see a smile icon. If issue persists, please perform a long restart as well by doing the steps below:

1. Connect the device to the charging cable. 
2. While the device is plugged into the charging cable, press and hold the button down for 15 seconds. 
3. The device turns on and shows a battery icon. Two vibrations occur: first a short vibration, then a medium vibration. 
4. The device turns off.
5. The device turns on and shows a progress bar and short vibrations occur. The progress bar completes. Note: A total of 7 short vibrations occur. 
6. Remove the device from the charging cable. The device shuts down.
7. Important: Plug the device into the charging cable again. 

We look forward to getting you back on track. If none of these worked or if you have any questions, please let us know."

And what do you know?  This long reset, per the steps given, solved the issue.  75 BPM, pulsing away."

I attempted the above steps but my Charge 2 performed  the usual reset after 5 seconds and did not proceed to steps 3-7

[SunsetRunner]

"I had this issue.  Called Customer Service, they had me go through the same troubleshooting I had already done twice per the instructions here.  Then I got this email:

"We'll be happy to continue assisting you with your Charge 3 that isn't tracking your heart rate.

We are part of the Escalations team and upon checking here, we saw that your Charge 3's last sync time was on December 31, 2019 at 10:16 AM with the heart rate set to "Auto".

Aside from the troubleshooting steps provided over the phone, we also recommend to do the steps provided on our help article Why don't I see my heart rate on my Fitbit device?. 

Please make sure that you did the restart correctly by plugging the Charge 3 into the charging cable and holding the button for 8 seconds until you see a smile icon. If issue persists, please perform a long restart as well by doing the steps below:

1. Connect the device to the charging cable. 
2. While the device is plugged into the charging cable, press and hold the button down for 15 seconds. 
3. The device turns on and shows a battery icon. Two vibrations occur: first a short vibration, then a medium vibration. 
4. The device turns off.
5. The device turns on and shows a progress bar and short vibrations occur. The progress bar completes. Note: A total of 7 short vibrations occur. 
6. Remove the device from the charging cable. The device shuts down.
7. Important: Plug the device into the charging cable again. 

We look forward to getting you back on track. If none of these worked or if you have any questions, please let us know."

And what do you know?  This long reset, per the steps given, solved the issue.  75 BPM, pulsing away."

I attempted the above steps but my Charge 2 performed  the usual reset after 5 seconds and did not proceed to steps 3-7

[SunsetRunner]

Just got a response from the latest escalation to yet another "special" support group. They pointed me to the generic HR monitoring support doc!!!! It was the 4th or 5th time that I got the same instruction. This time I couldn't help myself, I replied that they should consider adding a brainwave monitor to their

devices. I'm both fascinated and disgusted by the lack of effort displayed by FitBit support.

Time to move on to Apple or Garmin.

[Michmach]

They offered me a discount to buy a new Fitbit, but I decided not to go that route if the watch doesn't last more than 2 years.   I bought a Garmin and I'm loving it so far, the step tracking and activity tracking are similar to Fitbit experience.  The sleep tracking is pretty awful in Garmin but that's the only negative.

[Decemberfrank]

I’ve already done that. Now wear Apple 5 watch. A little complicated at first but seems very accurate and does so much more that is helpful.