Versa Lite: problem after factory reset

[ogerardin]

My Versa Lite had been acting weirdly for a few days (randomly not displaying time or become totally unresponsive to touch) so I decided to do a factory reset.

After that, the app told me that I needed an update before I could use the watch, so I started the update yesterday night; this morning I found that the update had not worked. I started again this morning and it failed again. I get no error message but the "updating" status in the fitbit app simply disappears.

During update on the watch there is a blue vertical band on the left border, the battery symbol, and the white animated fitbit logo in the middle (see attached pic).

The indicated version on the app is 6.11.

Is there something wrong with the watch? Should I attempt another factory reset? The only thing I can think of is that I didn't remove the watch from the bluetooth connections or the app before performing the reset, but I'm not sure that will make a difference.

[Esther95xx]

I have exactly the same problem! It keeps hanging at 8% 

[Julia_G]

Hi, @ogerardin and @Esther95xx not removing from BT on your phone should not have made any difference.  Sometimes updates can be tricky.

I would definitely suggest trying another factory reset and then trying a new set up from scratch.  Hopefully that will work.

Let us know how it goes.

[Esther95xx]

Hi @Julia_G 

how can I do another factory reset if my watch is not working at all without the update?

thnx

[Julia_G]

Hi, @Esther95xx , technically in the case of the Versa Lite it is a restart rather than a factory reset, but hopefully should do the trick for you.  Plug it in to charge as normal and then hold the back button for at least 10 seconds.

[ogerardin]

Hi,

I gave it another try after removing the watch from my fitbit account, then I did a standard reset (not factory) and I was able to add my watch again and start the update. The update progressed to 100% on the app, and it got stuck there. The blue band on the watch seemed to continue progressing to the right, but after a while it displayed the red cross 😞

At this point I'm ready to try the Windows 10 method, although I'm on a Mac but I have a Windows 10 VM. Are there detailed instructions on how to proceed?

[jcb1204]

Mine won't progress past the photo originally shared. I have reset it several times, uninstalled and reinstalled the app, restarted my phone. No luck. What's next?

[ogerardin · Accepted solution]

I found the instructions there; it was really as simple as connecting the watch to a USB port using the cradle, starting the fitbit app and activating the USB recovery. It took only a few minutes to update the watch through USB! 

I don't understand why it's not the recommended way to update... It's fast and reliable as opposed to the bluetooth method which is obviously highly unreliable and takes hours (if you're lucky).

This method should definitely be described on the relevant help page

[ogerardin]

Also worth mentioning:

• I did this in a virtual Windows 10 machine in VMware Fusion on a Mac (as I don't have a Windows computer)
• I didn't have to update any driver in the Windows device manager for it to work

[Esther95xx]

Wow thanks! I will try this now. 

[ogerardin]

@Esther95xx Did you try it? How did it go?

[Ess95]

Yes it worked!! Thanks