Stuck on update screen

[Paulo31]

Hi, I have looked and read similar threads to this problem, followed the advice given but nothing seems to be working. There is a long horizontal bar, half white, half black, across the screen now for the last few days. The battery is empty and won’t charge. It will not turn off or reset/factory reset (as advised by the helpdesk). It’s fails to sync with my phone and I’m at a total loss as to what to do. It will not let me remove the device as it’s busy ‘updating’. Any advice or help would be great, TIA 🙂

[Brenda_C]

Exact same issue here. Has anyone contacted Customer Service with this problem?

[Brenda_C]

Hi. My husband was able to fix this by connecting to his Apple computer using the little connection dongle that came with the fit. He downloaded the Mac Fitbit program and it was able to complete the update using the computer.

[Michael.E]

I think that this is my problem as well.  That said I have no idea why my Fitbit is updating (it didn't even say that there was an update available) since my Fitbit already has 18.128—which is probably the last update they're issuing to this model.

[Michael.E]

O.K. figured out what the problem was with mine and it's kind of obtuse.  Apparently if you never told your application to update the Fitbit you actually may have a slight crack in the front face of the case (which tends to happen below the screen) and the Charge HR can flex backwards a bit (ie. the straps are pulled downwards while the face is pushed upwards by your wrist so that the crack flexes open).  This puts pressure on something in the internals that puts it into a pseudo update state.  You can see if this is the cause by gently adding a little pressure on either side as to bring the sides back together like they should sit and seeing if it either drops out of the update mode (which it likely shouldn't be in if you have version 18.128 since I believe this to be the last version that they're issuing to the 1st gen Charge HR) or if you can plug it in to reset the device while holding the case together (which should then show the Fitbit logo and then the firmware version instead of the "update" progress bar).

So the solution is to find some amazing plastic glue and carefully drip only the amount that you need (in case it doesn't work and you need to pull the internals out) it into the crack, then shove it shut so that the 2 sides of the case come back together the way they should sit as to remove the pressure from the internals.  The other solution—aside from an outright replacement—is to look for a replacement case/band kit for the 1st gen Charge HR online and follow their instructions how to unscrew and remove the internals from the old case/band and then how to install it into the new one.

[jbrook]

I have the same problem as Paulo31. Can anyone help us?