Annoyances that are rapidly grating

[ben6650]

I'm desperately trying to love this watch. But the number of foibles and bad OS design issues are getting me to the point where I'm beginning to want to smash the thing.

Firstly connectivity. I've never seen such a messy solution. I find that it is connecting to my phone both on versa and versa (classic) constantly. I cannot just forget the classic connection because it won't control music on my phone without it. And whenever its connected with classic my battery drains in about 1 day.

Secondly watch faces. Who on earth thought it would be a good idea to not store them on the watch itself? To have to use the app just to change a watch face is ridiculous. And if it's a watch face I've purchased, I have to then go to a website and re-enter my details to unlock the full version again. Every time!

Thirdly music. I transferred 112 songs to my versa. This took 3 days of trying because it kept losing connection to my PC. It was plugged into my PC to charge but wouldn't transfer any other way than wirelessly. After 3 days I finally googled the issue and found a hidden post advising me to turn off connectivity to my phone as it could be interfering. This worked and I was able to transfer the 112 songs in a lightning fast 3 hrs 47 minutes. I dare not add more songs because over the previous 3 days every time I lost connection to my PC it wiped all previous songs on reconnecting.

Finally updates. The update to OS 3.0 took a mammoth 8 hours to complete this surely cannot be normal. Alas from my experience with the thing over the last 3 months of ownership, it seems it is.

All of these things are done better on every other smartwatch I own or have owned. The 1 thing I liked about this over my android wear watch was battery life. But lately I'm only getting about 1 1/2 days between charges. And don't get me started about having to carry around a charging block that is physically 4 times larger than the watch when I'm travelling...

[SunsetRunner]

Hi, regarding this: "Secondly watch faces. Who on earth thought it would be a good idea to not store them on the watch itself? To have to use the app just to change a watch face is ridiculous. And if it's a watch face I've purchased, I have to then go to a website and re-enter my details to unlock the full version again. Every time!". This is not to blameon the watch developer, cause if you look closely to the messages you get when you installed an new Clock Face and thereafter the bought one, you will see that Fitbit is working on a solution to prevent to re-enter all of your details to unlock it again. So, I would say: be patient. 

[ben6650]

Hi, yes. I'm in no way blaming the watch face developer, rather Fitbit themselves for not opting to allow watch faces to be stored on the watch itself. I fear that the solution will come far later than my patience wearing thin.

[SunsetRunner]

I really understand your frustration abour this, but for me personal it's no problem at all. Of course it would be easier if Fitbit allowed this, but all in all for me it's more inportant that I can install payed CF's, deinstall then whenever I think another one is better and then finding out that my bought version is still way better and I can reinstall it again without paying (again) for it. 

[Rich_Laue]

Regarding turning the phones Bluetooth off when you want to connect to a computer, this is a limitation of the Bluetooth protocol, it is the same as if you wanted to connect a Bluetooth speaker to two different phones at the same time. Bluetooth will not allow this.

[ben6650]

Hi.

Not quite. There are many Bluetooth speakers that will connect to multiple devices at the same time, although granted, they will only pass audio from one at a time. Similarly my phone can connect to my versa, a speaker, keyboard and mouse all at the same time via Bluetooth. So it's not a limitation of the Bluetooth technology, rather the watch itself. I would fully, and reasonably, expect for the watch to connect with both my phone and PC at the same time but only pass data to one at a time, and be smart enough to recognise which device it's talking to

The mess I experienced was proof that the watch can connect to both simultaneously as it did. But, it then kept confusing itself and swapping between the device it was talking to and each time it did, it started over with the music transfer and deleted all previously synched music (I think it managed a max of 30 to 40 songs until I googled the issue and cut the connection to the phone). That is a flaw in the OS not the Bluetooth technology.

I have an android wear watch and a galaxy S3 that both manage connectivity much better than the versa

It's a shame because there's a lot I like about this watch, but the poor implementation of these fundamental functions is really starting to overshadow the rest of the good bits

[Rich_Laue]

Actually their are not many but some, like the Fitbit Flyer they accomplish this by multipoint. This makes the single speaker look as if it is now two separate speakers.

 

Yes your phones Bluetooth may connect to many devices a up too 255 at one time. This is because the phone is a Bluetooth hub and is in control of what hooks up to it. Where as a speaker, keyboard, mouse, etc are all receivers.

The mess that your received was because the Tracker can only connect to one device at a time, and for some reason it was switching devices.

A hub can have many things connected to it, it may also connect to a second hub  This is the same as your wifi router , however a Bluetooth device can only connect to one hi at a time, like your phone or computer can only be connected to one wifi router at a time 

Yes I know that if a computer has to Wifi boards than it can be connected to 2 wifi routers. You will also be able to bind the wifi so it acts as if it is a single unit giving twice the download and upload speed.