Versa malfunctioning after 11 months

[bgglenn]

Greetings FitBit moderators and fellow FitBit community members.

My roughly 1-year old Versa has been going through slowly-degarding functionality for nearly a month.

At first it was showing a very high heart rate, resulting in incorrect activity and unexpectedly high calorie counts.  Battery life went from a few days down to a single day between charges.  I reported this to one of the FitBit reps (Marco) on the 1-800 line and after a few minutes was told there was nothing wrong with the watch, but that the software needed updating - but that FitBit could not provide an eta for the upgrade.

That was two weeks ago, just before my Versa's one-year anniversary.

Now I'm seeing multiple function failures:

- heart rate monitor has completely ceased - the little green and red lights on the back are dead

- battery now lasts maybe 6 hours between charges

- stair climb tracking has ceased

- the daily step counter is still working, but the hourly 250+ tracker is not working, nor is the 15-minute interval tracker in the app correctly logging steps (ie. neither the phone app nor the website app trackers)

- occasionally the time on the watch is incorrect - off by a few minutes - however, syncing to the phone usually corrects this

- the screen is now flickering and very often partially blank (the bottom half), with horizontal lines appearing in the part that isn't blank - or completely blank and unresponsive to button-presses

I've reviewed many of the posts in the Community, and have performed the following to try to remedy myself:

- multiple reboots of the watch (pushing left and bottom right buttons simultaneously)

- shutdown and restart of the watch (via the watch menu item "settings")

- gently cleaned the back of the watch with acetone

- twice performed a factory rest of the watch (resulting in the lengthy setup process to get bluetooth and wifi and notifications re-enabled on the watch)

- shutdown-and-restarted the iPhone app

- rebooted the iPhone

- removed a third-party watch-face and installed an official FitBit-created watch face (no animation)

I never wear the watch in the bath/shower/pool - the only time it might get a bit wet is when I wash my hands, or when doing sweaty activity.

My connected device is an old iPhone 4s, running iOS 9.35 - could that be a problem?

My FitBit app on the iPhone is version 2.81.1 (798) - could that be a problem?

My Versa's firmware is currently 32.33.1.30 - could that be a problem?

For the first 11 months the watch was working very well - it has greatly helped during my recovery from a heart-health issue I experienced back in late 2017.  Since receiving the watch in July 2019 (as a replacement for a Pebble Steel watch) I've been using it to track weekly hours of activity, check my peak heart-rate during activities such as using the treadmill, and meeting different goals such as 250+ steps per hour.  My Versa is currently no longer helping me with these tasks/goals.

Many thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

[jotisrusso]

Mine is not even a year old and is doing the same thing. I have tried everything you have and it still does not work.

[bgglenn]

Correction to my original post - I received the Versa in July 2018 (not 2019).

[pzswimmer]

Same thing happened to me.  Went through all the steps I've seen in different forums and nothing. 

Did you receive a response from a Fitbit representative or should we just buy a new one from a different brand?

[bgglenn]

Hi pzswimmer...

I haven't received a response from FitBit yet - I'm giving them a few hours to read/review, and if no response by then I'll try calling on the 1-800 number again.

[jotisrusso]

I just got off the phone with Fit Bit. They are honoring their warranty and sending me a new one. My wife and I got ours at the same time. She has not had issues and loves hers. I began having issues after downloading different clock faces. I will stay with the standard ones this time.

[bgglenn]

Hi Jotisrusso...

Many thanks for your post - refreshing to see some good news after reading all of the gloom-and-doom that has been posted on the site.

Its a shame that we can't trust third-party watch faces to be battery-friendly.  However, I became aware recently that users can create their own watch faces - I'm wondering if those could/would be as "light" on the battery usage as the official FitBit watch faces.  I understand that animation is a big battery slayer - creating my own watch face (with no animation) would be ideal because I'd be able to incorporate just the stats that I regularly view.

[JoshParkes04]

A warm welcome to the Fitbit Community!

Be sure to contact Fitbit Support, or look at some trouble shooting links on. 

Help.fitbit.com

[bgglenn · Accepted solution]

I just got off the phone with a FitBit representative - even though my Versa is now a few days out of warranty, they have agreed to provide me with a replacement watch.  Many thanks!  (I could have opted to receive a 50% discount on a new FitBit, but I decided to try the replacement one instead.)

[Birdlady25]

I, too, have been having issues with syncing my Versa watch.  I just talked to a rep on the phone and she tried a number of things.  In the end they have offered me a new watch same as my current one(or 50% off on another type).

Why are there so many problems with these 11 month old watches?

[Elle-Jay]

Similar issues for me with the Fitbit versa. Bought new in January 2019...starting failing after 10 months. Fitbit send me a ‘reconditioned’ replacement (was not a new one boxed - sent in bubble wrap the device only without strap or cables etc). It has worked for 9 months...but now failing to sync, shoeing the wrong time, trouble connecting to app, failing to recognise exercise and floor counting is unreliable.

As I am now past the 12 months guarantee I doubt the company will be interested...I will NEVER buy from Fitbit again!! Very, very disappointed ☹️