Factory reset Charge 2

[torhelginho]

Greetings,

my wife wants a different Fitbit and I am taking her brand new Charge 2. How do I reset to factory settings so that I can use it?

Thanks\

Tor

[Donna6]

I removed my charge 2 from my account but it hasnt returned it to factory settings, now i'm stuck as it wont pair up to anything

[Rich_Laue]

@Donna6 you say that you removed it from you're account. Did you also remove it from your phone, if the phone is nearby and turned on? 

It needs to be removed from the phones Bluetooth. 

[Donna6]

Yes, it's removed from all Bluetooth devices, my phone won't pick it up now
anyway, so it was just my laptop, it had been disconnected for about 10
minutes and still hadn't reset itself

[ShaeTuma]

How do you take the charging thing off the Fitbit while holding the button???

[Donna6]

Hi I don't know as I couldn't manage to do it either

[Rich_Laue]

@Donna6 and @ShaeTuma if your following the instructions to do a factory restart of the Charge and Charge HR, please remember that ace a Charge 2 this reset will. It work for you, 

Why is it that you want to do a factory reset, of which their is set procedure, of your tracker. A few people find that removing the unit as @PureEvil states does work, however this is not a procedure setup by Fitbit. Yours like mine may not reset. 

I'll ask again, why is factory reset needed.. I can not think of a reason. 

[Donna6]

I have tried removing the device from my account and any Bluetooth devices
and still an hour later it is still showing up with steps I had done before
I tried to reset it, it didn't return to the setup screen, plus I have
noticed that it is not right with my steps and also puts steps on when I
have been using my arms for other things like rolling dough out, so ended
up with about 200 extra steps on it when they weren't steps

[ShaeTuma]

I bought a used Fitbit from someone for my husband to try. Just assumed it needed a factory reset? I have no clue.

Sent from my iPhone

[Rich_Laue]

Restarting the tracker is just that a restart, it will not remove steps from the tracker. Now if these steps have been synced to the Fitbit website a factory reset would remove them from the tracker, but as soon as the tracker is setup the steps be placed into the tracker. 

Your tracker is mounted on your arm, therefore it is looking at atm motions not the movement of feet. This is the way every arm based tracker works. 

Yes there will be a few steps added and a few steps missed. Most don't complain about the added steps but don't like the steps missed while at the supermarket pushing the cart. 

Fitbit tries to give credit for any type of work/movement. My tests show the pluses and minuses cancel themselves out. 

[Rich_Laue]

@ShaeTuma the only things in the used Fitbit are a few settings, these will get replaced when the tracker is setup to your husband's account. 

As for steps, the tracker will only hold 30 days of temporary data since the last sync. 

[ShaeTuma]

Ok awesome thanks!

Sent from my iPhone

[Pink_Lily]

The reasons we need/want/desire a factory reset are many. I myself am looking for a factory reset before I send my fitbit back for warranty replacement.

Some people are having technical problems and wish to reset the software/hardware and reapply the updates which may be corrupted for too many reasons to list here.  A simple "restart" does NOT do this because if it did, you would be asked to reapply updates every-time your battery dies or your tracker becomes unsynced.  

Unsyncing your device may not remove your personal data from the device.  The reason this is suspect is because I can unsync or delete the device from my account, resync it to the same account and the "stored" data is synced to my account (verified this because my device wouldn't sync anymore and only noticed it after several weeks, deleted and resynced and it "added" several days of information that was not on my account before because the device stopped syncing).  So this proves that the device continues to store data that is personal to you and your account so that if the same account is re-paired with the device, it recognizes that person, and adds the info to your account.  If this PII is stored on the device, people might want to ensure it is removed prior to sale/return/repair to ensure control of their own PII.  Simply showing me a screen that says www.fitbit.com/setup after no steps have been taken to actually prove that the data stored on the device has been removed, is not safe and secure.

I understand that there is not a manufacturer built-in factory reset, but in this digital age of hackers selling PII on the dark-web, it would be beneficial for them to push out a software based factory reset capability.  Whether or not it is on the dashboard or a button press combination, something should be done to ensure the customer that they have complete control over what information is given to anyone outside their personal sphere of influence.  The fact that fitbit refuses to give a reset function and only a soft "restart" is given even when pairing with a new device, should have customers curious and a bit uncomfortable.  If i send my device back for a warranty claim or even just return it for any reason, what assurance do I have that these devices (which do have GPS integration and coordinate storage as well as who-knows-what else) will NOT have information that fitbit is selling to advertisers/law enforcement or whoever, stored on them for them to download back at the factory.  

There are many stories I have been told by friends in the tech repair industry of people who send devices back for repair or being reconditioned for resale that the technicians had access to personal data like credit card info, SSN's, (personal-private) photos, classified business info, etc.  While I'm sure these don't have that type of info, there is much that can be stored in non-volitile memory to be downloaded later which we have zero access to as consumers.

So yeah, there are many reasons why "unsyncing" and "restarting" is not going far enough.  A factory reset is needed and necessary.

[Rich_Laue]

As for personal settings.. At most the age weight height and gender and stride is stored.. I very much doubt most of this is stored on the tracker.. It would be more likely that a single number representing most is what is stored. 

As at you see after adding a tracker. It will sync the steps have been already synced to your account onto the tracker. 

Updates are placed into nonvolitable memory and are not lost when power fails. If this wasn't the case see would have to set it up any time battery failed. 

Are you really worried about someone knowing that somebody might have taken X steps? 

There also is no direct identification as to whose account the tracker belongs to, this is identified by the tracker a Bluetooth MAC address and requires access to the table on the Fitbit servers. 

[agnete]

I have tried to factory reset my Fitbit Charge 2 for days. I unpaired it from my account and unconnected it from Bluetooth on my phone. I tried to restart it by plugging in the charging cable and holding down the button.  It then showed numbers. I would have thought that the link to the Fitbit page would pop up as your picture showed. It doesn´t. It shows everything as normal. I have not used Fitbit Connect. I would rather not install it. Can you try to see if the method I used works for your Fitbit Charge 2?

Thanks 😉

[Donna6]

I also disconnected my fitbit from my account and left it over night and by
morning it was still how I left it, when it gets plugged to charge and you
press and hold the button it does come up with numbers but I think that's
something to do with what update is on it, but I still have not been able
to get the fitbit back to how it is when it first came out the box

[Rich_Laue]

@Donna6 there is no fitbit set procedure to do a factory reset on the Charge 2. 

[Pink_Lily]

Do you have any reference that shows what is and is not stored on the tracker?  I know it interfaces with your GPS on your phone and there is (for lack of a better term) real-time exchange of information between the tracker and your GPS connected device.  Do you know for certain that there is no storage on the device?  "I doubt" and "it would be more likely" are not assurances.  On other devices you can see the information stored on the device, on these trackers not-so-much.

[coolsngamer1234]

my fitbit is not syncing with my phone and i removed it from my account and trying to re add it but won't let me so i want to reset it to the start screen

[coolsngamer1234]

this is the screen to look like

[coolsngamer1234]

and thats what i want it to look like