How do I delete old notifications?

[TommyRosati]

Everyday I get notifications telling me that either I need a certain amount of steps to reach my goal, or that I'm an over achiever with so many steps above my daily goal.  That's great, however I now have 198 notifications showing.  How can I delete all these older ones?  Thanks!

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[SunsetRunner]

Eloquently put. 

[Rich_Laue]

True this thread is a year old. but remember it is on the community board designed for Fitbit users to help each other out with their hardware problems. Plus this board is for the Charge 2 hardware and this thread is for the Fitbit app and thus is in the wrong board. I have thought about moving it, but with 4 different apps that might be effected and no one is kind enough to say which phone they use. I'm not sure which board to move it to . Every body here might only be on one type of phone. 

I have an Android phone and my notifications are automatically removed after 30 days. 

As mentioned above you would want to add your votes to the Feature Request where the developers look for user feedback. I noticed that the request only has 361 votes, bately enough to gain attention and not enough to keep the thread in the forefront. 

If you rellyrewant change you'll need to get those voted up. 

Let us delete in-app notifications/Messages

[mjperry51]

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@Rich_Lauewrote:

True this thread is a year old. but remember it is on the community board designed for Fitbit users to help each other out with their hardware problems. Plus this board is for the Charge 2 hardware and this thread is for the Fitbit app and thus is in the wrong board. I have thought about moving it, but with 4 different apps that might be effected and no one is kind enough to say which phone they use. I'm not sure which board to move it to . Every body here might only be on one type of phone. 

I have an Android phone and my notifications are automatically removed after 30 days. 

As mentioned above you would want to add your votes to the Feature Request where the developers look for user feedback. I noticed that the request only has 361 votes, bately enough to gain attention and not enough to keep the thread in the forefront. 

If you rellyrewant change you'll need to get those voted up. 

Let us delete in-app notifications/Messages

---

Rich -- this is so much silliness.

Clearly (since your Android device DOES delete notifications after 30 days) this should not be considered a feature. And storing old notifications such as this ANYWHERE (whether on the phone or Fitbit's servers) is just poor programming. If they're on the phone and not removable it takes up user storage. If they're on the server then it takes data to download them EVERY TIME the app is opened. It is very presumptive of Fitbit to believe this cannot be an issue for users -- I don't care WHAT device they're using.

And nitpicking about in which forum the issue was posted -- really??

[le_jawa]

@Rich_Laue

Rich,

I appreciate your bringing up the feature request - I went and voted for it after reading your post.  You also make a good point that we do need to include the phone/OS in use where we're experiencing the problem.   That will certainly help the devs focus their efforts.  So, here's my info:

iPhone 8/iOS 11.2.6

Both my FitBit app and Charge 2 are up-to-date.  (app version 2.47 and Charge 2 firmware v 22.55.2)

I hope that as I and other users provide that info that it helps in getting the problem resolved.

Which brings me to my other point.  Your post did provide useful info and insight, so thank you.  However, it didn't address the larger issues.  While the ability to delete notifications manually is a desired feature, the lack of that ability is not the problem.  There is a real bug here: the app doesn't clean up notifications every thirty days as FitBit claims it does.  What's worse, they keep insisting that it does "just work" and ignore the evidence.  This is lousy customer service to say the least.  (Yes, we are paying customers, not just users.)  As I'm sure you noticed, people are getting very frustrated with the way this is being handled.  To alleviate the frustration their customers are experiencing, FitBit needs to:

1. Admit there's a bug.
2. Quit telling their customers that it works when it doesn't.
3. Fix the bug.  If there are other bugs that need to prioritized above this one, that's fine, but they need to keep open communication with their customers and let people know about when to expect a fix.  (then deliver, naturally)
4. If possible, provide a reasonable workaround.  Wiping all your data, (and all the other nonsense in their current work-around) just to get rid of old notifications is really a ridiculous solution.   It's like using a sledge hammer to drive in a finishing nail.

So, again, thank you for the useful information in your post, but if you really want to help with this issue, please use whatever influence you may have as "Community Legend" and get this bug (and the associated PR gaffs) in front of the powers that be at FitBit and get them to handle the situation better and get the bug fixed.

In the meantime, I would also ask the community to do their part and post their device, OS, tracker  and app info in order to help FitBit more quickly troubleshoot the problem.

[ESK22]

Good reply.

Sent from my iPad

[Rich_Laue]

Im not nitpicking, if the thread was in the right board we would know what device the problem is on, as it stands tgeretus no way to know if everyone on the thread uses the same operating system or not. Users feel no need to post all the relative information. 

We have Android, win 10 phones., win 10 pcs and ios. This has been the most agrevating part of this thread. EveryboduEhas the same problem but no one knows what device the problem is on. 

[le_jawa]

@Rich_Laue

@mjperry51

C'mon guys, let's not waste our time snarking at each other.  We're all FitBit customers, and we all want the same thing - to get this fixed.  Right?  We all feel like we're not being listened to (in various ways) so everybody's frustrated.  Completely understandable.

Rich - You've wanted the folks on the thread to say what OS they're running, and are frustrated because no one is providing that info.  I looked through the thread, and actually, seven people (myself included) have confirmed that they are using an iPhone or other Apple (iOS) device.  They are:

• TommyRosati
• LZeeW
• Dilipkum
• mjperry51
• Dougan
• ESK22
• le_jawa

No Android or Windows users have reported this issue in this thread.

So again, I'll make my appeal to the other posters on this thread; if you haven't provided device info, please do so.  Providing version information may also be useful.

I don't know whether a count of seven people is statistically significant, but I think it's enough to at least suggest, that yes, this is a problem on the iOS version of the app.

I know you also wanted to use this information to move the thread to a different forum.  If that helps, then I guess I'm in favor it as long as it doesn't hurt the odds of FitBit hearing the voices on this thread, or allowing other users to find it.  Understand, though, that you may incur the ire of some of your peers if you move it.

@HeydyF

@MarreFitbit

From what I can tell, you two are FitBit employees; not devs or project managers, granted, but employees still the same.  Could you please look over this forum post, the evidence in it, and the related feature request, and advocate getting the bug fix on the development plan?  As I've stated previously, I have no doubt that this is not the highest priority FitBit has on its schedule, and that getting a fix may have to wait a little bit longer (but not too much, it has already waited about 9 months). 

Regardless, there needs to be good communication; your customers need acknowledgement of this as an issue (QA should be able to confirm it quickly) and to know when to expect a fix.  (If you're an Agile shop, I would think you could work this into a near-future sprint.)  So please, take the info here and elsewhere, and get the development team to release an update that fixes the issue.  Hopefully, we can also get manual deletion of notifications in a future release.

To the other community members on this thread - thank you for making your voices heard; please continue to do so.  To FitBit employees, please communicate with us and get this fixed.

[Fluffie]

whoops, didn't mean to vote For this, -it didn't work. Have notifications going back to last July...Aagh!

[HeydyF]

Hey folks, thanks for your participation! And let me thank you for the time you have taken to try delete the notifications. Since it's not possible to delete in-app Notifications from the Fitbit app and they don't always got deleted after the 30 days, I would like to encourage you to check our Feature Suggestions board and review this suggested idea to implement this in a future update. Please feel free to vote for this idea and add your comment. The more votes it has, the bigger the chances to be taken into consideration by our team it'll have. 

Keep me posted if you have further questions guys! 

[mjperry51]

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@HeydyFwrote:

Hey folks, thanks for your participation! And let me thank you for the time you have taken to try delete the notifications. Since it's not possible to delete in-app Notifications from the Fitbit app and they don't always got deleted after the 30 days, I would like to encourage you to check our Feature Suggestions board and review this suggested idea to implement this in a future update. Please feel free to vote for this idea and add your comment. The more votes it has, the bigger the chances to be taken into consideration by our team it'll have. 

Keep me posted if you have further questions guys! 

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Heydy -- all due respect. . .

To ask IOS users to request this as a new feature completely disrespects users control of their data usage. If previous notifications are stored on the phone then users have no control over their available local storage. If the notifications are downloaded at each sync users have lost control of their data usage. Keeping this as a "potential feature" for IOS users when it seems Android already has this capability is incredibly presumptuous on the part of Fitbit.

Not every user has 128GB of local phone storage or unlimited data plans. This is unacceptable. . .

[Karen84]

If you are not going to do anything about it, why do we have to comment?????

[Tigerlilly32]

I am using an iPhone and all of my notifications are still in my phone from day one as well.  Very annoying!

[BoJohn]

I have notifications back to April 2017 so mind aren't deleted after 39 days.  Any idea on how to clean it up?

[GradyW]

As far as I know Fitbit has decided to ignore this problem.  I still have all my original notifications, going back over 6 months, e.g. You only have 2,600 more steps to meet you daily goal.  Like I really need that information now.  My solution was to turn off all of those kind of notifications sent to the phone. To do this I had to go the the Fitbit website, and turn off all notifications to my watch.  My move every hour, phone call, and text message notifications still function.  Those are controlled from my phone app.  They have recently expanded the phone app, so it may now control the other Fitbit notifications, I'm not sure.  But be sure to look at the web app, to see which notifications are controlled there.

[BoJohn]

Thank you! I'll try it; the notifications are more nuisance than helpful.

[Rich_Laue]

Fitbit has not ignored this, they just haven't figured out why the notifications on the iOS app don't get deleted like they do in the android and windows. 

[Colin999]

How can I remove old notifications? I don't need to see 3-month old messages/

[Mranus20]

I have notifications showing back to December 2017, I can’t seem to clear. Any help on how would be great. 

[Tigerlilly32]

I am assuming you have an iPhone.  There is no way to delete these.  Or at least none that those of us who have been complaining about it since 2016 can find.  FitBit has no solution and won't help in any way.  Just feel better knowing that there are many many of us with the same problem! 

[le_jawa]

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@HeydyF wrote:

Hey folks, thanks for your participation! And let me thank you for the time you have taken to try delete the notifications. Since it's not possible to delete in-app Notifications from the Fitbit app and they don't always got deleted after the 30 days, I would like to encourage you to check our Feature Suggestions board and review this suggested idea to implement this in a future update. Please feel free to vote for this idea and add your comment. The more votes it has, the bigger the chances to be taken into consideration by our team it'll have. 

Keep me posted if you have further questions guys! 

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@HeydyF

Thanks for getting back with us on this; we appreciate that someone at FitBit has eyes on this.  However, your response begs more questions than it answers.  You mentioned that "...they don't always got (sp) deleted after the 30 days..." which suggests that this a feature which exists in the FitBit app on iOS, but which doesn't work, or does so inconsistently. 

If that's the case, why are you asking users to request a feature?  Last time I checked, bugs were problems, not an opportunity to add a new capability.  That said, the page you linked us to is actually for a new feature - the ability to delete messages manually.  While some of us would like to have that level of control, I think it's safe to say that everyone here does want the 30-day autodelete to work.

So why are you (meaning FitBit as a company) dancing around the issue?  Why not address it head-on, admit that there's a bug, and get it fixed?    Quit insulting your users with bad work-arounds (that don't work) and optional features (that may never materialize) and just fix it already.

You've got a growing list of unhappy customers who are complaining about the issue, but are powerless to fix it themselves.  How many more will it take before you fix this?