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

[jimplas67]

Honestly - how hard could this be?  I'm guessing their dev teams could knock it out in one sprint.  They seem to be more interested in changing which way you need to swipe in order to see your workout stats.  Makes no sense...

[jmg425]

I just found this cover on Amazon. It prevented my Versa from pausing during my workout today. I'd highly recommend it! 

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07D7VX6F3?psc=1&ref=yo_pop_mb_pd_title


Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

[SunsetRunner]

I recently upgraded from the Blaze to the Versa.  One thing I always found frustrating is that as I participate in boxing cardio classes, the workouts would sometimes pause because the gloves are constantly resting on the screen.  If there was a way to truly make the display manual, where you would have to press one on the buttons in order to see the screen that would be great.  Even if it's only when the exercise mode is on, this would ensure we can get the full tracking of our exercises and not miss anything.

[Aallen080809]

 Definitely need a lock option. I've been losing workout information bc of accidental pausing. 

[Dr_No]

I too would like to see this feature implemented. I wear gloves when I'm doing body building and on more than one occasion the gloves ended up pressing the pause button without me noticing. I don't often look at the versa unless I'm doing cardio so sometimes my 1h session ends up being registered as 20 or 30 minutes.

[MartinePeeters]

Same here, a simple lock would solve the problem! Perhaps using a code to press pause of finish to enable that function?

[BSRMPete]

I wear my Versa on my left wrist and accidentally pause the workout when bending my wrist. The pause / resume button is located in the lower right-hand corner which is suppressed when doing push ups or handstands. These are movements I perform daily and so this is becoming a problem for me. I can move the Versa to my right wrist but it is unnatural for me to wear the device on this hand.

It would be great if the pause button could be reprogrammed or if this particular feature could be disabled .

Thanks! 

[Amandi29]

 Please add a lock button to the versa only screen tap can unlock it ?.....This would be a great help when I am moving my wrists doing weights to keep track of my calories...

[Slt033]

Yes, I would LOVE to see some kind of a lock option during a workout! It's so frustrating to work so hard and to have the screen paused and you not know how many calories you've burned or your distance ran if yuou accidently pause it. This feature is needed for those of us who are so active! 

[johnm251]

Please add an option (long press of a button) to lock the touchscreen on the versa. This would prevent the screen from activating unintentionally in situations like while in the shower, or in the pool (but not swimming). The same long press of a button would then enable the touchscreen back on.

[sclewis]

Really needs a lock button! I think also an option to navigate to the home screen during exercise mode would be helpful

[ScottyDM]

As you will find out soon enough, Fitbit is not responsive to customer
feedback and imo doesn’t deserve your business.

[Alliu23]

Definitely need a screen lock for work outs.  Went for an 8 mile hike today and it only logged just over 6 because it kept pausing.  This happens all the time when I hike.  So frustrating that my Fitbit is basically worthless for tracking my hikes, walks, etc.  And none are exercises that auto pause works for, so it’s a design issue. 

[Guy7626]

If at all possible add to the software a way to lock the screen during a workout  with a hard button, I like many others have issues with workouts being unintentionally paused. i would like to be able to turn of the touch screen so that it wont come back  on without pressing a hard button. i bout this watch so i do not have to use my phone for tracking bike rides and runs but because the touch screen is so sensitive it just pause all the the time, i have to unpause it 10-15 time during a 1 hour bike ride. 

Thanks

[Kitty6]

My fitbit blaze drives me mad as it always turns off during boxing or swimming. And it repeatedly lights up during the night wasting power. It really needs a lock action to prevent this. Can you please add this.

[Wilkovian]

I very much used to find this issue with the blaze. It's totally unusable for boxing or any kind of workout where your hands are moving around quickly.


The optical heart rate monitor goes bananas if your hands are moving around a lot anyway so the readings I used to find were way off even just from bag work. It also pauses or outright ends the workout from the least little thing; I swear this happened even from the occasional drop of sweat hitting the screen.


In the end I just gave up on it and switched to an ECG heart rate chest strap and my old Polar running digital watch with a button-lock function and then manually uploaded the exercise to the Fitbit app afterwards. Irritatingly faffy; especially considering the Fitbit is supposed to be a one-stop-shop for fitness tracking. In its current form though, sadly, it really isn't if you want any kind of accuracy.


Now I have a Charge 2 and I just use that during the day for steps and resting heart rate measurements (and sometimes sleep) and I use the entry-level polar GPS running watch with the chest strap for any serious exercise and manually enter the exercise. Daily tracking on other devices is really good now too though. Literally the only reason I haven't migrated completely to a Polar, TomTom or Suunto sports watch for daily and exercise tracking (as all have optical heart rate monitors for during the day but are compatible with an ECG for exercise as well as built-in GPS functions - and most of them are waterproof so you can even swim with them) is that I use MyFitnessPal to track food and at the moment Fitbit is the one with the best integration to that.


To be honest though, even on the strength of that I'm considering switching to a TomTom watch as they have their own food and calorie tracker. It may not have quite the same database of foods etc. as Myfitnesspal but I can always look food up and add it if it's not there and that way I'd only need the one device which would, as it stands, do a much better job of encapsulating workouts AND daily tracking than Fitbit.


I have a lot of brand loyalty to Fitbit and I've had a fitbit for many years now; but the company really doesn't seem to be taking consumer feedback into account on these issues and it's a real shame. They're so close to a complete and brilliant bit of kit if they'd just take some of these things into consideration when designing a new one but a.) they won't admit that the optical heart rate tech isn't accurate enough for workouts if you want any kind of precision and b.) they need a locking function on their devices.


I guess their current business model is such that they know a lot of their customer base don't want it for those purposes and is quite happy just using it to stroll around the block a few times a night and call it a work out. Not that there's anything wrong with people wanting to do just that but then they want to have their cake and eat it by making all these claims about the number of workouts it can be used for etc.


Real shame.

[Gavirv]

I need this functionality. Workout constantly getting paused while cycling. 

[LizFitbit]

Hi @Sharpypus and commenters, thanks for sharing this suggestion. We're always striving to enhance Fitbit products and services, and we appreciate all of the input we receive from our customers. We do not currently have plans to release this feature, however this has been taken into account for future designs.

You can learn more about how Fitbit decides what suggestions get released in our FAQs. For now, we will leave this suggestion open for votes (and closed to comments) so that we can continue to track community demand over time. Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback with us and we will let you know if anything changes.

[DNottingham]

I keep accidentally bumping the pause button during some of the more extreme runs/races that I do.  Previous watches of mine have a lock option so that this won’t happen.  Seems like a watch as high end as this would at least give u that option.  I’ve had to wear my watch upside down to prevent this.

[MarioJ]

This is a must! Every time, one or other right side button gets pressed. Tracking gets paused or excersize ended. Really annoying!

please provide a solution.

thanks.

[AlexandraFitbit]

That’s an interesting idea and could be useful, thanks for sharing this suggestion @MarioJ! 

[Wasu77]

I find it is much too easy to accidentally press pause when doing a workout with the FitBit Versa. Specially when doing push-ups. It would be useful to add to future updates a locking option while the Fitbit is on excersise mode. 

[MarcelBK]

Hi @Wasu77, thanks for taking the time to share your feedback with us,this feature suggestion already exists so I’ve moved your post here as it is not currently planned.

[dougbwyatt]

I searched for "lock Fitbit during exercise", saw there was a discussion group, but was unable to post anything new. My main workout is HIIT where I'm doing all kinds of calisthenics and I lose a lot of workouts. If this isn't fixed soon I'm going back to my ancient Polar heart rate monitor (they figured out how to lock the watch at least 15 years ago). It's also a problem that I have to post those comments in a new feature suggestion vs in an existing new feature discussion thread.

[JohnnyRow]

No idea what you mean by 'locking the watch'.