Lock screen/buttons during exercise for all Fitbit devices

[Sharpypus]

I've seen similar ideas/feedback noted for the Surge/Blaze and I'd love to see the same sort of thing for the Ionic, I also saw an idea to change the 'stop exercise' button to the (left) hand button on the Ionic which would too be good but would very much prefer a lock screen if possible 🙂

When I'm sometimes performing pushups, boxing, burpees or anything that causes my hand to bend, I've sometimes ended up pushing the bottom right hand button to 'pause' the workout and then sometimes ended up pushing multiple buttons during workouts to end it prematurely.

I'd love it if it were possible to disable the buttons during certain workouts or have some kind of lock screen, maybe even a long-button push option to only unlock the screen when holding one of the buttons for a few seconds etc. At the moment, it's just far too easy to accidentally click the right hand buttons which are tied to pausing/ending workouts.

An idea which would be great would be that my old android watch had, I could turn the screen on with a button although in order to interact any further, I would need to manually swipe away a lock screen (or you could set it up with a PIN each time) and then you'd be able to start/end/pause the workout.

Thanks a lot for reading, really hope this could be considered for a future firmware update 

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject and updated label

[crossfit_bc]

Please fix this!

I never had an issue with accidental pause or exit with my Charge HR or Charge 2.

Even if we could possibly edit the workout time on the app afterwards, I would be pleased with that!

I know you can currently edit workout time, but that doesn't include if you've paused it by accident and then 10-15min later you resume workout. It wont count the time in-between where it was paused.

[fpintodias]

Due to multiple demanding exercise positions on Crossfit, the right buttons keep being accidentally pressed, making the training tracking to keep pausing. It would be great to have a way to lock/unlock the side buttons, maybe on the App.

Thanks.

[lmarius]

I’m supporting this excellent feature, make it harder to pause an activity by pressing pause button for a longer period. For now I use the watch on my right arm, which seems to actually help. Nevertheless, a screen lock or a feature which makes it harder to accidentally press pause is necessary. 

[modestmary]

Please add this feature! My Fitbit Versa completely restarted today while doing planks because my arm was pushing two buttons at the same time. It's far too easy to accidentally pause your workout without realizing. Please fix this fitbit!

[ScottKilbo]

I just lost my fourth walk in a row because my sleeve or something shut off the workout and sent it back to the main screen.  Between this and the sync issues, I'm getting ready to smash this @#@#*!& thing with a hammer.  What is the point of having a workout watch that loses ever single workout.  What a waste of money this thing has been.

[Richie967]

Lost another run yesterday. Sleeve just shuts it off. And there no audio notification to say the workout has been ended!

maybe a good idea to use Twitter, they may do something about it then!

[Scott.Bike]

So, so sad when I get home and realize that I lost most of the data i wanted to track. It happens often - specifically when biking. The orientation of my wrist easily pushes the hem of my glove into the pause button. I have become obsessive - watching to make sure i haven't inadvertently pressed the button which takes the fun out of an aggressive downhill run. I'm sure one day i will crash looking at my fitbit instead of the tree ahead. Please help Fitbit!

At least have the watch vibrate significantly when the activity is paused so i can restart it manually.

[bobbypage]

So ridiculous that this even needs to be requested by the community. I’ve lost countless workouts from doing simple push-ups. I’ll be returning my fitbit and getting a Garmin

[DarrenS47]

It would be good to be able to switch off the physical buttons so not to trigger whilst wearing gloves in weights and biking. Currently the gloves trigger pausing accidentally 

[HOUNDGPS]

I play ice hockey and I bought the Blaze specifically for the purpose of tracking my hockey sessions to make sure I pace myself and don't over do it with my shifts and track my progress on recovery. Right now, its completely unusable because it constantly pauses the workout, sometimes gets out of workout completely, starts random stuff like breathing sessions... It is REALLY annoying. I've been carefully reading posts and threads in the fitbit community, this feature has been requested multiple times in different ways for different models and all that was implemented was the return to clock face after 15 seconds if there are no workouts in progress as a means of screen lock... This is NOT a solution. A proper fundamental feature implementation should have a button push over a set amount of time to completely disable touch screen input. This should be a basic feature on ALL model firmwares. As a developer myself, that is well versed in the land of gathering client requirements and requirement compliant programming, it really baffles me how this was overlooked in the design phase.

I see this as an essential feature since many activities can't even be tracked without it. I've therefore put my fitbit into the "Not a bit fit for purpose" category and will not purchase or upgrade to another until this feature is implemented. I am afraid I will have to go to competitors for my current tracking needs.

[Dragonbird]

I would love for this to be implemented!  My boxing gloves are always ending my exercise sessions! I would love to be able to set my Fitbit for an hour and have the whole thing locked.... only logging my exercise.

[Wilkovian]

I think this idea has been being pushed for a number of years now; pretty much since the Surge landed and I know I spent a while banging on about it for the Blaze when I had one. 

I really hope Fitbit does this as it would make them infinitely more useful for exercise. 

I managed to lose my Blaze a while ago and I downgraded back to a Charge 2 partly because of the above issue and because I didn't trust the heart rate feature on the Blaze particularly; having tested it against a chest-strap heart rate monitor (Polar) and counting manually I found it wasn't at all accurate for any sort of exercise really but particularly plyometrics and even jogging on the spot; the heart rate would go crazy. 

I really hope features like the above are implemented by Fitbit though as it might restore my faith in the devices. I love fitbit, it's not a stretch to say that when I bought my Fitbit One years ago it really changed my life. Now though I'm really hoping they step up their game and keep moving forwards because I'm at a stage where I've considered moving to a Polar or Garmin as an alternative both because they tend to have built-in GPS in their devices and because they can be used with a heart rate strap but they also tend to include locking features as above. Full disclosure; they don't have the kind of app-support etc. that Fitbit currently enjoys though and that combined with the fact that I like my Fitbit setup (I use it in conjunction with the Aria scale and it's all synced to MyFitnessPal) is the main reason I'm sticking with them for now. 

Please, Fitbit, consider these things and don't forget those of us who've been with you for a long time.

[RachJulie]

I have the same problem when i go to my gym classes. I constantly press pause durring the activity by accident. Please can we get this fixed asap!!

I have the fitbit versa, why is there no activity for hiking????

Thanks

Rach

[Roadtofitness7]

Hi @RachJulie, there is a Hiking option on the Versa, it’s one of the 15 we can choose from.  I found it on the app, and you have to choose your 6 or so for the mobile to display.  It is annoying not all 15 are always options on the watch. 

BUT I have to warn you, this ongoing saga of not being able to lock the watch during activity is very annoying for hillwalks.  Many of my walks see the Versa be paused in error due to a nudge of the side button or the screen.  Even the cuff of a jumper or jacket can pause it - and close the activity.  Hugely frustrating. 

It seems Fitbit are not taking onboard everyone’s feedback on this :0(

[Dragonbird]

I don't know if this will help anyone else, but I got some sweatbands to wear over my fitbit Ionic when I track my exercise during boxing.  I tried it for the first time yesterday and nothing got accidentally pressed so I was able to track my whole workout.  I don't know if I just got lucky or the sweatband actually helped.  Sometimes, I will get lucky and track the whole workout so this could just be a coincidence.  I'll keep using the sweatband and see if that will do the trick-if anyone else has any ideas I'd love to hear them.  I really REALLY would love the screen and button disable for set time periods though.  

[KevinRD]

Since I got the fitbit versa, I find my workouts being "cut short" because I find that I accidently paused it.  I like fitbit because I like a sense of achievement. The fact that my numbers are lower than they should leaves me less impressed. In the end, I know how much I work out a day, but it's the accuracy and achievement in recording I want. 

[Turbomwg]

The  Buttons tend to get push by accident while working out with wrist wraps, this causes the devise to go into lap mode while weight training. Have a central button the the Apple Watch to eliminate this issue.

[jmg425]

I am also having the same issues and hope they come up with a fix very soon! 

[MrBadger]

Some feedback from the moderator on this accidental pause / stop situation would be much appreciated! Is someone aware of the problem and looking at (what should be a simple) solution? Or have they simply decided not to fix it?

Inquiring minds want to know!

[crossfit_bc]

The temporary fix I've been working with is not manually tracking my workouts at all. My Versa will detect my workout at some point during, so afterwards I will just go into the app and edit the time frame and that has been working fine for me so far. Obviously I hope that fitbit will do something about locking the buttons because I enjoy being able to track the workout with time/calories etc as I'm doing it.

This also resolves the issue of my data being tracked as "distance and pace" when I sync the workout to the app - even if I'm not running or walking. With my charge 2 it would always show me the calories and length of the workout.

When I don't manually track the workout and I let Fitbit figure it out, it shows me the data that I want to see.

I hope this helps someone!

[Dragonbird]

A little update with my very pathetic attempt at a workaround:  I've been putting a sweatband over my fitbit Ionic right after I do the manual tracking for exercise.  I make sure that the sweat band is covering the screen and both of the sides.  Since doing that, when I box, I have been able to track my workouts for four days straight with no accidental pauses.  Obviously, this is not ideal but it works.  The auto tracking just isn't good enough-I love the stats you get when you actually track it.  I hope that helps someone else! 

[blarojo]

Agreed. Also, as we cannot lock, it's impossible to see the time while doing excerciuse. It is still a watch, how can it happen that you cannot look at the time??

[TamLeon]

Yes please!!! This has been an issue for me since day 1. Constant pausing during my workouts because of burpees, push ups or anything that requires wrist bending. I’ve tried to wear it higher, the other hand, on the inside and no luck. Pausing keeps being an issue. Please correct ASAP!!

[jd.conley]

I just got my Versa today and it paused three times during my workouts. It was really annoying. I was weightlifting and doing some CrossFit. I would like to at least disable the buttons for pausing during workouts. The screen pause is fine for me, I don't accidentally hit that. I very often am bending my wrists and it's easy to accidentally hit the buttons.

An on-screen confirmation of the pause if paused with the button would be helpful. Or maybe the confirmation can be on a double tap of the button. For instance you hit the button to pause, and then you have to hit the button again within a second or so. Or maybe it has to be a long hold of the button for a few seconds to pause.

Just, need some way to make the pause function much more intentional.

[ScottyDM]

Fitbit is unfortunately not very responsive to customer feedback. Why they
even have forums for such is apparently just a front. For a very long time
now, they haven’t responded to this need other than to say that they are
not considering it. I can’t think of any updated feature that would be
needed more than this very basic one.