Versa heart rate reading too high

[Cathy5678]

My Versa worked amazing for the first couple of months now it keeps reading my heart rate in the high 160's when I replace with my old Charge it's my HR is only 78 which is correct. I have tried restarting the Versa and changing back to the factory setting, even updated the software. Nothing has helped. Any extra suggestions?

Moderator edit: subject

[AlejandraFitbit]

A warm welcome to the Community @Cathy5678.

Thanks for troubleshooting this by yourself. If you are having issues with your heart rate reading, I recommend taking a look at this post where you will be able to see some things that might be affecting this reading and some tips to improve it.

I hope this helps, let me know the outcome. 

[Cathy5678]

Thank you for your reply. 

My heart rate still does not seem to be reading correctly.....not sure if the sensor has been damaged, is there a help number for Australia? 

[AlejandraFitbit]

Thanks for the update @Cathy5678.

Since the instructions provided didn't work, I've gone ahead and escalated your case to our support team, for them to take a deeper look at this. Please keep an eye on your inbox for further instructions.

Keep me posted. 

[AjayPG]

Hi @AlejandraFitbit,

I'm having exactly the same issue as Cathy5678. I got my Versa SE on June 24th and it was working fine until this Saturday October 13th when the HR monitor appeared to stop working in the evening for no apparent reason and that night I also got simplified sleep details.

I followed all the suggested steps mentioned above, eventually after a few re-starts the HR monitor is working again, but I'm now getting ridiculously high HR readings e.g I'm sat typing this in bed and my HR on the Versa is fluctuating between 95 and 139 bpm! - My normal resting heart rate is around the low 50's.

I'm gutted as functionality I regularly use on my Versa; Heart Rate, Sleep monitoring, Exercise Monitoring and Calorie Burn has now been rendered useless due to the inaccurate heart rate readings.

Reading the forums this appears to be affecting a lot of people and so I would really appreciate some urgent investigation by FitBit into the root cause to provide a prompt fix.

[absolutSHD]

So apparently Fitbit's customer support is no longer addressing this issue.  After we tried all the reboots, powering off etc, they tried to tell me I was drinking too much caffeine or taking meds that would impact my heart rate.  Funny part is nothing has changed since day 1 of using the device.  AND this is when FITBIT has been fully aware of this issue  for several months.  So their only other response after the "troubleshooting" didn't work was great we will let our engineer know and check back at the forums to see if there is (EVER) a solution.  TIME TO SWITCH TO ANOTHER COMPANY 

[AjayPG]

After numerous restarts this somehow resolved itself for a few months . The problem then came back intermittently and then the heart rate monitor stopped worked all together in April, a factory reset did not help either, I was just getting faint red light on the optical reader but no HR reading.

Reported to FitBit support this week who were really good, after asking a few questions they offered me a replacement Versa SE Pebble within a day and I should be receiving it in 2 days.

[Ken-89]

I am having this exact issue and I have tried all the same reset options as Cathy5678 well as the suggestions in the post mentioned by @AlejandraFitbit. I am typing this sitting in bed first thing in the morning and my hr is usually in the high 40's to low 50's until I get out of bed. My Fitbit Versa is reading my hr between 130 and 170. 

[KatherineS42]

Found this thread today and your experience is exactly what is happening to me. Fitbit support has suggested I adjust my positioning of the device (which I've worn the same way since I purchased), also suggested caffeine and alcohol could be the reason, and finally suggested I exercise more often to lower my heart rate. Sounds like they have an ongoing issue they don't know how to solve and are avoiding it at all costs. I've been Pro Fitbit over Apple Watch for years and have even bought them as gifts for my friends and family, but obviously will be finding a new company. Sorry you had to go through this, as it has been very irritating on my end the past few weeks. 

[Anlizet]

Hi my fitbit versa all of a sudden has very high heart rate readings. I have reset to factory default and i have also switched heart rate on and off.. its still incorrect.  When i sit infront of the tv..it tells me my heart rate is 178.... i burn 6000 cals in a day all of a sudden   .. and that is sooo far off.

[Healthymamabear]

I’m having the exact same problems. I don’t know what happened but all of a sudden it’s way off. I’m angry because my watch wasn’t cheap and it’s not old. Guess it’s time to get an Apple Watch 

[Adrixx]

Funny to see you here, we both have separate posts about heart rate issues and no response.

[jjtnotary]

I am 61 ended up going to the cardiologist over this. Was even prescribed a beta blocker. Doct thought I was going into AFib...which can be difficult to detect.  Now when I see a high HR number I do a pulse check and time it.

[jjtnotary]

I had the same thing happen.  AFib runs in my family...went to cardiologist and was prescribed a beta blocker before I found these articles.