My fitbit just stopped working

[cat_solomon]

I got a Charge 3 for my birthday in July and it just stopped working. The screen is blank and I can't restart it. It was plugged in and charging all night so I know it's not out of juice. When I press the button, it just vibrates but nothing happens.

[jshawnc]

I have the same issue. I have tried everything I have seen on the site. I can get the smiley face but then the screen stays dark. It will not charge (I did clean the connectors), it will not sync. It seems to be dead.

[apfb20]

I am also having this issue.  The screen suddenly turned black yesterday and has not come back on since then.  However, when the button is pressed it still vibrates and i can see that my stats are still being logged as they appear in the app.  I have tried the restart suggestion however no smiley face appears, the screen stays completely black. 

[rgrove]

I also have this issue. I did an iOS update on my iPhone this morning after an early morning run. The Charge 3 was working fine before the update but sometime after (not sure when) the screen was blank and it has remained blank since then. I have tried to restart (both long and short) and reset the clock face, and delete and reinstall the app, etc., etc. The watch will vibrate appropriately (and track heartbeat, steps, etc.) but the screen is completely blank. Help!

[CornishColonel]

So has anyone had a response from FitBit?  This happened to mine this morning.  Took it off charge and just had a black screen, vibrated when I touched the side button but seemed to discharge and nothing else.

[JackieK1951]

same here an hour ago, I put on the charger and now the app says it is fully charged.  What Next

[apfb20]

I emailed fitbit support last week and to date have had no reply yet.

However, I have managed to now resolve the issue myself.  I connected a different USB plug to the charger and fitbit, long pressed the side button and the ":)" appeared and my fitbit is now working like normal.  Previously I had tried this restart multiple times and tried changing the watch face through the app.  

It appears that connecting a different plug fixed this issue for me so worth trying 

[JackieK1951]

Thanks, the long press resolved.

[LindaGreen]

I'm not sure what you mean by "connect a different USB plug to the charger and fitbit".  The USB cable is fixed to my charger and can't be changed. Do you mean plugged into a different USB socket?

[LindaGreen]

I do think this issue is linked to ios update. The same has happened to me after my iPhone XR recently updated to iOS 13.4.1. My Fitbit stopped syncing. After consulting online discussions I deleted the Fitbit App from my phone; unpaired the Fitbit Watch from my Bluetooth; Downloaded the Fitbit App again and gave permission for Bluetooth; Re-paired the Fitbit Watch to Bluetooth.

This did work for 24 hours then the Fitbit suddenly started vibrating like crazy and the screen went blank.  I tried to restart but no response.  I tried to put it on charge but nothing happened.  I looked at some posts online and tried all the suggestions: changing the clock face; let the device go flat (I assumed once it stopped pulsing/vibrating after a few days it was flat - there was no other way to tell) then plugged it into the charger again.  It did one long vibrate so I had some hope.  Left it 24 hours to charge but it would not re-start.

I left it a bit longer then tried again. I got a 7 second vibrate then a horizontal line appeared on the screen. I left it again. I tried to change the Clock face in the Fitbit app again but got an error message to say “Some applications did not finish installing and asking if I wanted to continue. I said yes to that and got a picture of a Fitbit with a red dot scrolling back and forth across a horizontal line like that displayed on my Fitbit at the time. I left it to continue.(started at 13:00 on Mon 18 May). It was still doing that 3 and a half hours later and the screen of my Fitbit had gone blank again.

I deleted the App from my iPhone again and unpaired the Fitbit again. I downloaded the App again, allowed permission to use Bluetooth and then re-paired the Fitbit again. I reconnected the Fitbit to the charger and pressed and held the button for 15 seconds to try to initiate the reboot process. The straight line came back on the screen again and the tracker pulsed a few times. I removed the tracker from the charging cable then plugged it into the charging cable again.

I turned Bluetooth off on my iPhone then back on again to try to re-pair the tracker. My iPhone could no longer see the tracker.

Looking at the Fitbit Community Support many other people are experiencing the same problem so this is clearly a known issue. I have emailed the Helpdesk but reading other posts in this thread people are not getting replies, presumably due to Covid-19 issues.

[LindaGreen]

I've had an automatic response from the Helpdesk opening a case. It does, however say, "Due to recent events affecting our operations, we may need more than 7 business days to respond."

So I guess it is a waiting game.

[Olusola7]

Experienced the same issue this morning. The screen is totally blank and vibrates when the side button is pressed. No smiley comes on. In addition, the watch isnt able to sync with the app- It keeps saying can't find fitbit.

[apfb20]

Hey, I mean it exactly as I said it...i connected the fitbit charging cable to a different plug 🙂  it immediately fixed the problem when I did the long press restart.