The Fitbit Community is a gathering place for real people who wish to exchange ideas, solutions, tips, techniques, and insight about the Fitbit products and services they love. By joining our Community, you agree to uphold these guidelines, so please take a moment to look them over.
Allow users to exercise their internet safety in having a VPN active on their phone, and still be able to sync their devices to the app while being safe.
Hi @PMiley, and thanks for taking the time to share this suggestion about allowing access through a VPN to connect with the Fitbit App. We rely on feedback like yours to help us develop products and features that we know our community wants to see. If this suggestion receives votes from other customers and gains popularity, it will be shared internally with various teams at Fitbit. To learn more about how Fitbit decides which suggestions get developed, visitour FAQs. Watch this space for status updates. In the meantime, try visiting Health & Wellness to talk with other members about all things health and fitness.
I'm having the same problem with my Versa and IPhone using Nordvpn. I've used the VPN for ages without a problem but a week or so ago the Fitbit stopped syncing. Please sort out!
Upvoted. Also, I do not understand the need of accessing the internet for syncing the device. I mean, it's between the app phone and the tracker.
With my Charge 2 I could sync, get SMS and set alarm while being protected by VPN. With my old pal down, I'm now with a Charge 4. And I can't sync or receive SMS while under the same VPN.
I doubt it's the "IP ban stuff" because the IP change every day and it's been over a week without sync while VPN is on.
I have purchased Versa 2 and Aria Air three days ago but nothing is working because I am using a VPN (Nordvpn) in my Galaxy Note 10. I am very disappointed! I am shocked that Fitbit is not working with a VPN! I want my money back! I can not use it!!!
FITBIT should warn all potential buyers of their products that their products are not working with a VPN!!! Don't buy a Fitbit! The worst product in 2020!
for advanced users it's possible to set up a split tunnel to avoid sending fitbit data through the vpn tunnel. I've done this for other applications that do not play well with vpn.
The specifics would depend on which vpn you're using. In my case with ExpressVPN you go to Settings -> Split Tunneling and select the Fitbit app to exclude it from going thru vpn.
If you're using a different vpn google for it and 'split tunneling' and you will likely find instructions for it.
A lot of people (like me) use a VPN service and its all set up in the router, no app needed. The VPN service provides many services for its users, prevents DOS attacks, prevents access to my network and much more. I don't pretend im in the USA, my VPN is set for London UK, but this is all irrelevant.
I use to own many web sites years ago, and had lots of people sign the visitors guest book with links to undesirable sites some times, and so I blocked that IP address in the beginning, but as soon as I became more educated I realised that many people (even without VPN) will share the same IP address provided by the internet suppliers, so it would be wrong to ban 100's of people because of 1 stupid person.
Worse still there is no warning given, so your left thinking there is something wrong with the firbit, and spend a lot of time trying to fix it. Nobody I know blocks a VPN IP address without giving a warning.
Our system has detected your using a VPN service, please disconnect and login again ! That would be better than nothing!
Yes @Jshussey split tunneling allows the Fitbit app to by pass the protection.
Some VPN's allow the user to whitelist a port.
In either case Fitbit has no control over the VPN and will not be able to make the app work with a VPN. This control has to be done from the VPN's side. Maybe if enough Fitbit users contact them, they may add Fitbit to their white listed apps
As a user, I’m willing to accept that forum blocks VPN addresses, or even some of the premium features. I just want to sync my phone
In response to some of the erroneous comments on this thread:
> Fitbit could switch to using HTTPS ports
The Fitbit app already uses HTTPS over standard ports (TCP/443) - ports are not a part of the issue
> It can’t be an IP block, IP addresses change every day
It’s not an IP address block, it’s a network block. Cloudflare and other vendors sell lists of network metadata- there are some that include collections of individual IP addresses in categories (e.g. known malware, spam, etc) but most categorize into larger groups by network block/range- geographical groupings, groupings by carrier/ISP (some colocation providers) or platform (GCP, Azure, Linode)
One of the most frustrating things about this is the overall ineffectiveness of this sort of control to mitigate many threats. It will reduce traffic from many primitive bots, but attacks can very easily be sourced from domestic consumer IP addresses. In my opinion it’s a lazy approach to the problem(s) and that’s proven based on the fact that other products and services have other mitigating controls in place to allow them to secure their systems without heavily inpacting UX
I agree. Fitbit needs to allow access when using a VPN account on our phones. I need to be able to use VPN with the internet on my phone as well as be able to sync my phone to my fitbit. Currently I had to disable VPN to get my phone to communicate with my fitbit versa 2
Join us on the Community Forums!
Community Guidelines
Learn the Basics
Join the Community!
Not finding your answer on the Community Forums?
Go to the Help Site
Contact Support