Heart rate on Charge 3 not working properly

[SunsetRunner]

I am having the same problem a lot of others are having with my heart rate monitor not working during exercise. I never had these problems with my Charge 2. I upgraded to a Charge 3 and I love it EXCEPT for the heart rate monitor. It works all the time when I am not exercising, but when I am exercising it usually shows a blank display 75 percent of the time. Once in a while it will show my heart rate, but soon after it is blank again. Lately it has been registering a much lower heart rate than it actually is and will spike up and down when it is actually displayed on my watch. Today for the first time it NEVER showed my heart rate while I was in exercise mode. I turned off the exercise mode and my heart rate displays so I know it was working so I turned it back on exercise mode and it showed a blank display. It is very ANNOYING! I use my heart rate to monitor how I am exercising so this is very important to me. I have read that I am supposed to reset my Fitbit if this happens. I have reset it many times and it still doesn't work correctly. I have also read that sweat may hinder the display, but I am not sweating on my wrist when it doesn't work and I am not wearing it too loose or too tight. It works any other time of the day so I know it is the watch and not me! PLEASE FIND A SOLUTION!!!! I am not the only one with this problem!  

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[MarreFitbit]

Hey there @SunsetRunner, it's nice to see you here! Sorry to hear that you're having inconveniences with the heart rate readings on your Charge 3. Thanks for following some tips and recommendations, nice way to! 

I'd like to give thanks for the feedback you've provided towards our product. Rest assured that our engineers and product development team use this information to further improve our products and services. 

Please know that we provide feedback to our team based on community posts and we are always working on improving our devices and overall environment based on that feedback. 

Our heart-rate tracking technology, known as PurePulse, is specially designed to give you a more complete picture of your health and fitness. As with all heart-rate tracking technology, whether a chest strap or a wrist-based sensor, accuracy is affected by personal physiology, location of wear, and type of movement. 

For tips on wrist placement and how to wear your Fitbit device for best heart-rate tracking results, please see our help article: What impacts the accuracy of my heart-rate readings?

You can also try moving your device to your other wrist.

Heart rate tracking may not work with certain accessory bands, especially if they’re loose fitting. For best results, we recommend wearing a Fitbit-branded classic or sport band during exercise. For more information, see: What should I know about my heart rate data?

Hope this helps, I'll be around! 

[totalgeek]

Hi kimken65! I was actually just about to post my own thread when I saw yours! My Charge 3 does the exact same thing! It's so frustrating because it works fine and captures heart rate without issue up until the point of when I select exercise mode, then immediately it blanks out and shows no heart rate. I'm going to follow up with the post from Fibit below as well. 

[totalgeek]

Thanks for the reply MarreFitbit.

I too have the exact same problem as the original poster. Selecting exercise mode on my Charge 3 causes an immediate loss of my heart rate. If we remove the working out from the equation because I've tested this when not working out, it seems to have entirely to do with some kind of bug in the firmware, because my Charge 3 will be tracking my heart rate without issue, but the second I select exercise and start that mode it immediately can't see my heart rate. If I cancel the workout mode and go back to normal mode my Charge 3 resumes showing my heart rate. So it's like my Charge 3 in these instances clearly can still access my heart rate with the sensor, but selecting exercise mode has some kind of bug which causes it to not display the heart rate anymore.

I've tested and verified that if I exercise and do my standard workout routine but never put my Charge 3 into exercise mode that is has zero issues and records my heart rate the entire time. The issue is entirely with using the exercise mode which immediately causes a loss of my heart rate displaying. It's very frustrating because I like being able to look at the big picture mode of just my workout stats on my wrist, but I can't because in exercise mode my Charge 3 refuses to show my heart rate. 

[SunsetRunner]

Thanks for getting back to me but unfortunately your answer didn't help. I don't understand why my heart rate sensor works all day long when it is not in exercise mode. The only time I have issues with it is when I track my exercise. It doesn't matter what kind of exercise I am doing, I have the same issue with it. Why doesn't it work in exercise mode when it works perfectly the rest of the day?

[SunsetRunner]

It's so frustrating!

[SunsetRunner]

You explained it better than I did! Thanks!!

[totalgeek]

---

@MarreFitbit wrote:

Hey there @SunsetRunner, it's nice to see you here! Sorry to hear that you're having inconveniences with the heart rate readings on your Charge 3. Thanks for following some tips and recommendations, nice way to! 

I'd like to give thanks for the feedback you've provided towards our product. Rest assured that our engineers and product development team use this information to further improve our products and services. 

Please know that we provide feedback to our team based on community posts and we are always working on improving our devices and overall environment based on that feedback. 

Our heart-rate tracking technology, known as PurePulse, is specially designed to give you a more complete picture of your health and fitness. As with all heart-rate tracking technology, whether a chest strap or a wrist-based sensor, accuracy is affected by personal physiology, location of wear, and type of movement. 

For tips on wrist placement and how to wear your Fitbit device for best heart-rate tracking results, please see our help article: What impacts the accuracy of my heart-rate readings?

You can also try moving your device to your other wrist.

Heart rate tracking may not work with certain accessory bands, especially if they’re loose fitting. For best results, we recommend wearing a Fitbit-branded classic or sport band during exercise. For more information, see: What should I know about my heart rate data?

Hope this helps, I'll be around! 

---

Hi MarreFitbit,

Wanted to follow up and see if there was any suggested solution or resolution to this problem? It seems to be some flaw in the firmware that causes this issue? Is this is a known issue that there is a fix in the works for in the next firmware update? Thank you

[totalgeek]

Hello, is there any one from Fitbit that can respond?

[totalgeek]

---

@MarreFitbit wrote:

Hey there @SunsetRunner, it's nice to see you here! Sorry to hear that you're having inconveniences with the heart rate readings on your Charge 3. Thanks for following some tips and recommendations, nice way to! 

I'd like to give thanks for the feedback you've provided towards our product. Rest assured that our engineers and product development team use this information to further improve our products and services. 

Please know that we provide feedback to our team based on community posts and we are always working on improving our devices and overall environment based on that feedback. 

Our heart-rate tracking technology, known as PurePulse, is specially designed to give you a more complete picture of your health and fitness. As with all heart-rate tracking technology, whether a chest strap or a wrist-based sensor, accuracy is affected by personal physiology, location of wear, and type of movement. 

For tips on wrist placement and how to wear your Fitbit device for best heart-rate tracking results, please see our help article: What impacts the accuracy of my heart-rate readings?

You can also try moving your device to your other wrist.

Heart rate tracking may not work with certain accessory bands, especially if they’re loose fitting. For best results, we recommend wearing a Fitbit-branded classic or sport band during exercise. For more information, see: What should I know about my heart rate data?

Hope this helps, I'll be around! 

---

Hello @MarreFitbit or anyone from Fitbit. Was wondering if anyone from Fitbit could respond to this issue as mentioned? I've gone through all the troubleshooting steps online and in the forums and done resets and nothing seems to help. Heart rate is tracked normally and then as soon as I choose exercise mode my Charge 3 immediately loses my heart rate and displays nothing. If I switch back to non-exercise mode my heart rate immediately returns. Seems like the hardware is tracking my heart rate without issue, but some kind of bug in the firmware causes it to not show in exercise mode. I'm wondering if this is a known issue, and if there is a fix scheduled for an upcoming firmware release? Additionally, how long before that firmware release? It would be nice to have some idea of what is happening, otherwise it seems like my best bet is to return this Charge 3 and get a replacement one sent out. I've already sent one back, so it would be nice to know if this isn't a hardware issue but a firmware one and all will exhibit this issue.

Thank you

[totalgeek]

@MarreFitbit @AlejandraFitbit or anyone from Fitbit? It's been about 2 weeks now since anyone from Fitbit responded to this and wondering what the deal is?

[totalgeek]

I guess for some reason Fitbit is choosing not to respond to this? It makes me feel a bit like this is a known issue or problem with the Firmware (or something else). But I can only make assumptions at this point since I'm not getting any input from Fitbit on this issue. I guess I will return this Charge 3 as well and try another one.

[Saraels]

Hi everyone! Hope your doing great. I have a Fitbit charge 3 and have been using it for a few weeks now, and my HR reading behave in the same way. 

It works perfectly fine in normal mode, with no trouble reading heart rate at all. But as soon as I put it in excerise mode it looses it's signal. If I then turn off excerise mode imidiatly the HR readings come back. I've tried rebooting, change the placement of the watch and all that you're suggesting but nothing works. I also use the original wristband. 

This kind of defeats the purpose!! And it's really frustrating. Did you guys got any help or tips at all? Thanks! 

[totalgeek]

Hi @Saraels I never really made it very far with Fitbit help on the issue. I went through the normal steps of resetting, changing placement, etc. but nothing worked for me either. I've been through 3 Fitbit Charge 3 trackers now and they all act the same way. The only thing I could conclude is that there is either some kind of hardware defect, or more likely, that the current firmware has a bug which causes this loss of heart rate when exercise mode is switched on.

FitBit for the most part doesn't comment on this kind of thing and just points you to the same help docs or says to reach out for direct support to Fitbit. But that doesn't really accomplish anything since Fitbit support is unable to fix the issue.

Based on what I've read on these forums and in the feature requests and elsewhere Fitbit doesn't really seem to care. Internally they might be well aware of defects in the current batch of Charge 3 Trackers and are making purely financial decisions to just try and sell them all to customers to avoid taking a massive hit financially. Clearly as evident by the fact that it's been about 4 months now without a firmware update for the Charge 3 they don't really care. They've already moved on and released two newer models and are focused on those revenue streams. It's a shame really, the products could be awesome, but Fitbit doesn't care, they don't listen to users and there is zero transparency as to what is going on. Oh well, lesson learned, when my Charge 3 dies I'll try something different from another brand.

[Greatpomps]

Hi ,I got my charge 3 few months again @Downtown sport check on 7th ave ,Calgary.And it worked fine out of the box..After the firm ware upgrade..my heart rate stopped reading and my sleep stopped on the 30th of May 2019.Please what is going on?I have done all the resets,and reboots,logged in and out of the app..still no progress!

[TraceyinBC]

Hello Everyone. As you know by now the Fitbit is not self for tracking excercise. I had a charge 2 and now the 3 and Ive given up. the 3 worked great for the first 6 months tracking exercise. Now it says my heart rate is 75 when its clearly more like 140. IF you want an accurate heart rate when exercising the only way is with a polar or garmin with a chest strap. Charge 3 is a fail in my view and fitbits refusal to address this issue and simply repeating the same thing over and over is the a big part of that fail. You can use your watch for “walking around” in daily life but for tracking excercise it is completely useless 

[TraceyinBC]

If i were you after 3 months take it back and get a polar or garmin with chest strap. Ive struggles with this issue and its no resolvable. Or keep it and use it for daily life and get the chest strap set up for serious workouts. 

[Anjeilana]

Was this problem sorted out? 

I have the same problem. 

[Anjeilana]

Would love a response from someone from Fitbit and NOT A GENERIC ANSWER. I can actually not believe after going through these  posts that no one from Fitbit have responded...

Moderator edit: format

[ericanicole82]

I am having a similar issue but it only started recently and I've had my charge 3 since last May. I don't switch in to exercise mode, but when my fitbit auto recognizes my exercise it is not providing an accurate heart rate anymore. It never had this issue before. I am doing very hard exercise and my heart rate should be at high cardio rate or even peak but it looks as if I'm on a casual stroll. I know how to calculate my heart rate manually so yesterday when my heart was at 180 bpm my fitbit said around 115. I can see on one of my exercises a few days ago that it was working properly for a short while, but then decided to read very low. Just drops down to almost a resting heart rate when I'm full on. Anyway, I find it super annoying and very unprofessional the lack of response and generic responses received from Fitbit. Get your s*** together, seriously!