Charge 3: Crashes during most of the Exercises

[sapiah]

I usually use my FITBIT CHARGE 3 for the exercises - Running, Biking, Treadmill and Weight training.

For a few months now, its been intermittently crashing when i begin these exercises. It is intermittent as mentioned but still frequent enough to notice the regularity. 

Steps to reproduce (Intermittent)

Click on exercise -> Pick an exercise (for me it was usually Treadmill/weights) -> Start the exercise -> Click on the "Let's Go" icon -> CRASH! = Black screen for a few seconds -> Then the clock face (main screen) will be displayed.

note: I would retry the same process of initiating an exercise after dealing with the first crash and it would go through properly without a second crash and I wouldn't have an issue then. Also, this crash might be evident through the hardware logs. 

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[MarreFitbit]

Welcome on board @sapiah, it's nice to see you around here! Thank you for sharing this information about the Charge 3 crashing during some exercise modes, if you haven't done so already, could you please confirm if you've tried to manually restart your Charge 3 device following these steps. Let me know if you continue to experience the same problem after this procedure. 

Keep me posted. 

[sapiah]

@MarreFitbit  Thank you for that!

I've restarted the device by following the given instructions. 

I shall use it for a few days and update this thread on the progress.

[MarreFitbit]

Sure thing @sapiah! I'm always around, so don't hesitate to keep me in the loop! 

[sapiah]

@MarreFitbit 

As you had instructed I had restarted the Charge 3 and I was hoping to use the device during my workouts if the issue still persisted.

The first time i worked out post that point, I used the treadmill and weights option and didn't have an issue at all.

Second time i use the treadmill, the app CRASHED once again. And this time it was a bit different. As always, it would crash when i started the workout through the device and i would see a black screen. But this time the black screen lasted for a while instead of showing me the clock face after half a minute or so. Furthermore, the button on the left still seemed to be working but screen was black for a good amount of time. 15-20 min

Unfortunately I could not track my actual workout today because of that. As I was leaving the gym i tried it again and it seemed to work fine.

[MarreFitbit]

Thanks for getting back @sapiah! This is an unexpected behavior, thanks for bringing it to my attention. 

Can you please try using a different exercise that is not treadmill or weights? Let me know if your Charge 3 keeps crashing. 

If so, I'd recommend going to the Bluetooth settings on your phone and remove the tracker. In the list of Bluetooth devices you'll see the Charge 3 and next to it, this symbol "!". Hit the symbol and it will take you to the next step, once you're there select the option that says "Forget this device".

Once you've made sure about that, go back to the Fitbit app, go to the "Account" option in the upper right corner and select "Set up a Device". This should start the setup process for your device. 

On a side note, I've seen that you called to our Customer Support Team in regards to this issue. If your tracker keeps crashing despite the steps you've done so far, I'd appreciate if you can get back to them. They will be more than glad to further assist.

Hope this helps!

[sapiah]

@MarreFitbit 

Thank you for those instructions. 

1 - I have restarted the charge 3 device once again

2 - I removed the device from my account and phone and re added it.

3 - I shall try using the charge 3 device for other exercises apart from treadmill and weights and see what the outcomes are. I started swimming and bike right now and it seemed to work fine. But like I mentioned in the top of my post. this occurrence is intermittent. Hence, I  would have to try it a few times to see if it has been fixed.

And yes I had put in a call to deal with this through the customer support team before I noticed I can figure things out through the community.  

[MarreFitbit]

Sure thing @sapiah! Keep me posted with the outcome. 

[SarahPea]

Hi @MarreFitbit 

I'm having an identical problem to @sapiah. It only just started this week. When I tap to 'start' in Running, it freezes while attempting to connect to GPS. Screen then goes blank and is unresponsive for a short period and then wakes up and is on clock face. 

I've tried rebooting and disconnecting and reconnecting connection to phone. Still not working. Any further ideas?  

Many thanks 

[SarahPea]

I've solved it and rather than just deleting my original reply I'll tell you how. But please feel free to move/delete if not appropriate. 

Removed Fitbit app from phone and found fitbit no longer froze (it just did the 'connecting' forward and backward moving image -this was freezing previously- obviously didn't connect as no app to connect to). So identified app as the problem.

Reinstalled Fitbit app and it asked if I wanted to allow it to use 'location services'. I said yes and that solved the problem. Something had clearly updated (phone (android) or app) and I hadn't been asked to alter settings accordingly. Hence the mysterious issue.

[SarahPea]

Spoke too soon. Not working again soon after posted.