Charge 3 Not Syncing

[methornton78]

Since Christmas Day, my Charge 3 has not synced

It's done this once before, and a week or so later it suddenly started working again, so I have just left it but this time - nothing.

I started to go through the usual routine to kick-start the sync process:

 - rebooted the Charge 3 (both by pressing and holding the button for 8 seconds in the cradle, or selecting 'reboot' from the 'Settings -> About' menu on the handset). I've rebooted it may times.

 - Force stopping the App and restarting on Android - leaving it to sync

Eventually I uninstalled and re-installed the FitBit App. It now gets to the 'Bluetooth Pairing and Linking' screen but says "Bluetooth pairing is taking longer than usual. Please be patient. We're on it!"

And never moves past this screen.

I thought perhaps there might be a firmware update available but having connect the cradle to my PC it cannot find the device (not sure this is supported?). The PC has Bluetooth, it can 'see' the device but  cannot pair to the device (so it looks like a pairing issue?)

From my Android phone (Huawei MAR-LX1B) and OS (EMUI v12) again it can 'see' the Charge 3 device, but when I try to paid from the Bluetooth settings screen it asks me to 'pair with the device app'.

Cue another round of trying to paid through the (now reinstalled) FitBit App - and it gets stuck on the pairing screen.

Is the Charge 3 now broken? The device works fine on my wrist (i.e. went for a run this morning, tracked everything, all seems to be working) but is there anyway I can do a firmware update plugged into my PC or laptop to try to reset things that way?

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[LucioFitbit]

Hi there @methornton78. Welcome to Community Forums.

I appreciate the information shared. I'd recommend you unpair the device from your Fitbit account and from the bluetooth settings on all devices, and then pair it with the new device by following these instructions. Some users find it useful to refresh the performance.

Also you can restart your device and check this article, Why won't my Fitbit device sync?.

And check you are using a compatible device and OS, here is the list.

[methornton78]

Dear Lucio,

Thanks very much for your reply.

I've looked through all the information you sent, and have followed through all the different ways of resetting including:

 - rebooting the Fitbit Charge 3 (both in the charging cradle on on my wrist)

 - Force quitting the app, uninstalling and re-installing the app

 - stopping and restarting Bluetooth (which I know works as I have tested successfully with other Bluetooth devices)

As I am using a Huawei MAR-lx1b (aka P30 Lite) I followed the link in the troubleshooting guide to this page: https://www.fitbit.com/global/us/technology/compatible-devices but there were instructions for the P20 but not the P30. I tried following the P20 advice but it's not a direct match for the interface.

One thing I have noticed on unpairing and (attempting to) pair the Charge 3 is that it can take many tries before it pairs. I wonder if there is an issue with the bluetooth connector on the device that keeps terminating the comms as it tries to sync? If that is the case, is there any other way I can connect and download data from the device through (e.g) connecting with a PC connected to the cradle?

Thanks for your help - Mark  

But it did

[methornton78]

So it's defniitely a P30 Huawei issue probably related to a recent update of the EMUI OS (their version of Android)

I fired up my old Samsung and it synced with that. So the workaround at the moment is:

 - periodically sync with Samsung phone

 - this actually updates the account and the data is viewable through my Huawei as well. So the Samsung is being used as a data relay.

Not ideal but also not something which FitBit can fix for an older device.