Customize frequency of sync (hourly, daily)

[MargieSC]

Hi, not sure if this has been mentioned or not but I think that a feature for 'timed syncing', or however you want to call it, should be added. For example, theres the all day sync- which kills both phone and tracker battery syncing every 15-20 mins-or whatever its set to. I think we should have a option, for the background/automatic syncing, where we can set our own time intervals for syncing, every hour or 2 hours etc. Or/and, an option that allows us to set times that we would want it to sync at - every day. Ex. Everyday at 6am / 1pm / 6pm. 

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[InstructorSnowy]

I would like to be able to schedule my FitBit to sync with my phone at certain times during the day. The way it is set up now just kills my battery. I have turned off the automatic syncing because of this. If I could schedule my sync times, it would save my battery on my phone as well as my FitBit because they are not constantly looking for each other.  Being able to schedule 3 or 4 sync times a day would be great.

[LoneHowler]

Hi. I love the syncing to get live updates from my flex, however I hate the battery drain. What I'd love to see next update for the iOS is the ability to set times when it syncs. Perhaps up to about four times daily. I may use only one or two sync times but others might like the extra two times.

[SunsetRunner]

I second this ! Especially on windows phone which has no automated sync ability. 

It would be even be suitable if an event was raised when the phone was being charged that triggered a syncronisation as then it would sync automatically once a day and you would not need to worry about timers or user interfacing for people to set timers. 

I've had situations numerous times where the battery has died and I haven't realised and as there is no automatic syncronisation I don't get those battery alerts (only when I sync manually, which if I forget to do I don't get) meaning I've lost data but no idea how much.

[sanfong]

I'm working at my desk on Mon to Fri, at 8am to 5.30pm each day. My phone is on the desk connected to power through out the day at work. I'm using Android OS phone and Fitbit One. I'm hope to see next update to include "scheduled background sync" just like "Silent Alarms". I could set a schedule "background sync" according to my routine.

[Mjmm82]

I was just going to post this idea. For me I'll go days without opening the app and syncing seems to take awhile. I would love multiple option times to sync custom and predetermined like every 4, 6, 8 hours.

Make it happen Fitbit!!!

[SunsetRunner]

Not as user friendly as I would like... a little depressing when you log into the computer fitbit to see 100 steps taken but it hasn't synced because the phone isn't constantly syncing.  

[SunsetRunner]

I think that would be a great idea.  I know I get tired of my husband's zip battery dying.  He is on the 3rd battery since Dec.

[MargieSC]

Yes! My hub is so bad about remembering to sync or even having the time at work to stop and sync. He turned on all day sync other day and now hes at work with a dead fitbit. The all day sync is just too much!

[AmandaR]

Great idea! I get so busy I dont ever think, "hey I need to sync!" 

[RoadDog]

I just came on here to post this very same suggestion after realizing that syncing every 15 minutes or so is crushing the battery on my iPhone 6. Please make is so that we can customize out sync times. Thanks!!

[MargieSC]

Thanks for your support! This would be a huge fix to a lot of issues! Also a little helping hand for the current bug they have going on. The bug is when a challenge times out due to someone not syncing, when its is over, its glitching in tthe background and not fully closing. Locking out that challenge. I was glitched out of 3 challenges for 2.5 weeks. Finally got them all back, until this morning. I let one time out and now its glitched out, again. If we could set it to sync at a set time every morning, rather awake yet or not - as long as bluetooth was on, then we wouldnt have to worry about people not syncing in the mornings to allow challenges to close. I just hope they listen to some of these suggestions and act in a timely manner. Most suggestions Ive seen actually get some feedback from fitbit themselves took at least a year or is still 'under construction'.

[MargieSC]

Dont forget to 'vote' for this suggestion! 😃

[LO31eiiD]

This is really an easy update to the existing functionality - this would make things a whole lot easier.

[SantiR]

@MargieSC This is a great idea! This will save a lot of battery for all the users, both in cellphone devices and trackers. To set up the times in which you want the app to sync with the tracker is something really innovative, I believe. We will have 3 different options then: background sync, manually/force sync and custom sync. It's great, hopefully this will be implemented for the app. Keep voting for this idea! Thank you for posting, if you have any other ideas; please make sure to post them too. 

[Snarznack]

Please vote for this one.  I forget to sync all the time and then lose the steps for the previous day when I finally remember.

[wardedmocha]

Please make this happen. It should have been done along time ago. My charge hr dies every 3 days because I keep forgetting to sync, so I turned on background sync, there is no need for the background sync to sync the tracker every 15 min. 

[Radioactive1]

To conserve battery power on the Fitbit and on the Bluetooth device, it would be nice to have an option in the Fitbit mobile app that would allow you to choose a specified time or tines to sync your Fitbit with your phone or tablet.

The option would allow the user to choose a specified time of day and save it in the app. Much like an alarm, at the specified time(s), the Fitbit would automatically turn on Bluetooth on the device, sync the Fitbit to the device & turn Bluetooth back off.

I do this now with my Fitbit, but have to use a third party app to schedule turning Bluetooth on/off.

This would save on the battery on both the phone/tablet as well as the Fitbit.

[kcthebest]

Agree schedule sync is good and safe battery life. I use call notification, so turn Bluetooth on / off not applicable (so need to cater some setting not require turn off Bluetooth after sync) To me, ideally the feature include, - schedule sync (probably I will set early morning, so that when I leave home yesterday & night information available on mobile) - able to turn off auto-sync when every time I open the mobile app Thanks.

[mschris_e]

Yes, syncing every 3-4 hours only would be perfect to have this option

[saurabh9]

Very useful feature suggestion. In fact i came here to post this suggestion itself and found this already posted. We would love to have a way to set a scheduled sync, e.g. at fixed time or after every X hours.

On an Android app, recent Android versions have added a number of efficient ways to enable scheduling activities. They should be used to implement this extremely useful feature to schedule syncs. E.g. The Fitbit app on Android should respect "Doze", which means .e.g. if the phone is kept on bed side during night, no need to sync. This happens automatically if simply the app respects Doze.

I believe a way to specify that the sync happens every X hours might be most battery efficient using APIs such as setInexactRepeating. This way, if user says that I need the sync to happen every 8 hours, then the app will not hammer the phone battery every few seconds, and still the OS will try to "club" waking up the phone with other apps need. So even though the user said sync every 8 hours, the OS would choose automatically to wake up the phone a few minutes +/- if it feel that will save battery and serve needs of a few other apps too. At the same time, due to "Doze", the phone will not wakeup when perhaps the user is not really using the phone anyway.

Additionally, if the particular OS version allows, the app should allow option to enable/disable Bluetooth during the sync duration. This will add greatly to the phone battery life too. Ofcource, this should not require "root" permissions and should check and work only if the particular phone is allowing this to happen, else it should turn off this feature gracefully.

[saurabh9]

I happen to have 'Tasker' app on my Android phone. I created a profile for myself which turns on my phone bluetooth and the Fitbit app for 5 minutes at 7 AM and 8 PM. This way my phone is now syncing with Fitbit only twice a day and battery life of both Fitbit and phone are much better. I had already turned off 'All Day Sync' before this.

In case it helps anybody else, i have posted the profile for download at http://techblog.saurabhkumar.com/2016/01/fitbit-sync-battery-drain-tasker-profile.html 

[zaTricky]

@saurabh9 - that idea works unless you need Bluetooth to be available for other uses. In my case I'm trying some alternatives with Tasker:
- start the Fitbit app on a schedule and kill it after a delay whenever it is detected to be running. This seems to not work - I probably have to root my phone for it to be killed properly. I'll probably do that unless Fitbit implements this feature.
- enable and disable bluetooth automatically depending on if I'm walking/driving/etc. I never use Bluetooth while the phone is stationery. The "Autolocation" plugin for Tasker handles movement/location detection. I'll have to see how well it works - and I'm also not sure about the battery drain on the phone as the accelerometer supposedly has a high-drain on most phones.

[ljlongwing]

I also came today to suggest this feature.  I have recently turned off all day sync and encreased my battery life from 2.5 days out to 4 days with this simple change...there needs to be another option other than 'always sync and kill battery' and 'only sync when I launch the app'....sooner than later will be better for this feature.

[saurabh9]

@zaTricky, perhaps you can try this in your case. In FitBit app, turn of all day sync. In this mode now the app tries to sync when you open the app, if bluetooth is open. So now all you need to to is to get tasker to open the app at the scheueld time, sat at 8 pm everyday. Assuming your bluetooth is already on at that time, fitbit should sync after few seconds. I leave it open for about 5 minutes. This is a variation of what i am doing, and seems to be workign for me. This way, your bluetooth is not distrubed, but only the app is started to sync.

[SunsetRunner]

I just logged in to make this suggestion. I would love to be able to choose a duration for the sync: Every 15 minutes, every hour, 2 hours, 6 hours, 8 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours.