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Time fails to sync

When changing timzones, the watch takes an extremely long time (measured in hours) to sync to my phone time.  I get the local time zone from the companion into my clockface almost immediately, but regaurdless of what I try there appears no way to force the time to update.  The result is that my actual and displayed timezone might be showing PDT, but the time on my tracker is still showing the time from a different timezone.

 

Is there a way to force the time sync?  

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12 REPLIES 12

Does no one know what gets the tracker time to sync?

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Am I really the only one with this problem?  

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I am still getting complaints from users that the time is not syncing from their phone and their tracker.  Two pilots have made the same complaints about my clock faces to me.  I can see that the tracker and phone are synching because I have to get the time zone from the phone (Fitbit's Date() does not include this info for some reason).  

 

Sample:  You fly from New York to Chicago with your phone in airplane mode.  When you land, you sync up your tracker and phone.  Your phone shows the correct local time of 1100am.  However, the tracker shows 1200 (New York time) but lists CDT as the timezone.  So, while my timezone is correct, the time is wrong.  This is really confusing.  If you are there long enough (I have not found a constant) the tracker time will update.

 

There has to be someway to get the correct time immediately on the tracker.  Thoughts?

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That's strange. Does it show the correct time if you navigate away to another app, then return to the clock? I'm not flying until next month, but I will see what happens.

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From one of my clock face users (I made him a special inverted version of my Dual Time clock which he references as I-DT) which mirrors my own experience.  My notes are annotated as {italics}.

 

"...

--The Small clock showed the letters BST (British Summer Time), but the time that was displayed was still Central Daylight Time. (I’m guessing that the ‘fitbit time’ was locked based on my user selection)  I can’t explain why the letter indicator changed but not the clock. {Dual Time gets the local time zone from the phone when it syncs which is why I know the tracker is syncing but not getting the time}

____________________

 

I went ahead and loaded Dual Time (DT) while still connected to hotel wifi and synced the Fitbit:

--The Large clock showed BST label but CDT time.

--The Small clock showed GMT label and time.  Again, I was able to select several different offsets and they all functioned well.

_____________________

 

I reinstalled I-DT and synced to the phone.

--Large clock showed GMT label and time.

--Small clock showed BST label but CDT time. 

 

I set the large clock to GMT-1 (London time) and that’s the way I left it for the trip.  Other than the small clock label, this is a perfect display for me.  I’ve got local time on the big display and home time on the small display.  The labels don’t distract from the times so I think I’m going to keep using it this way.

 

When I landed back in MSP and took my phone off airplane mode, the phone clock immediately updated to local.  I synced the fitbit and the BST label stayed.  I synced it several times to no avail, but I noticed a little later that the label had changed to CDT.  Weird."

 

I have another user that has reported the same problem. He thought it was my clock, so he switched.  He had the same issue with the other clock, too.

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I have not given up yet, so...a bump with some more info.

 

I just came back from traveling again and am still having issues with times on the tracker.  One major issue I am noticing is the seriously variable duration it takes for my phone and tracker to find each other after exiting airplane mode.  So, aside from Fitbit still not sending the timezone with the date function, there are still serious issues with the phone and tracker talking.  I cannot get the correct timezone from the phone if it and my tracker will not talk.  So, two questions...

 

1) Is there an improvement in the works for better syncing?  keep in mind, my sons Samsung and my wife's iWatch both synced to the correct time within seconds of coming off of airplane mode.  Not me.  One time, after about 40 minutes, I had to restart both my phone and watch to get them to talk again.  Not really a selling point for Fitbit "smartwatch" if it doesn't even tell the correct time.

 

2) Will Fitbit ever include the timezone information in its version of the Date function?  If not, just put me out of my misery and say so.

 

 

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Is there a way to piggyback information when the tracker and the phone syc up time?

 

PS- The app still does not lkie to find the tracker when the phone cmes out of airplane mode...

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Bump (again).

 

I tried other published clock faces (not just mine) on my last series of trips and can confirm that in order for the time to sync to the current time zone when coming out of airplane mode, you must manually force a sync.  Apps function (sms message notifications happen, the weather updates...) but the time does not update.

 

This seems like a major error for a watch that Fitbit seems to not care about.  Why?

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Can you private message me a link to download the source for this project? or provide a code same here of how you're handling the multiple timezones? Also, which phone OS/version are you using?

 

Can you reproduce just be changing timezone on your phone? When I'm travelling, my device changes pretty quickly.

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I have a public posting of my code on Github (keep in mind...I am not a professional programmer).  The shorter program is Dual Time and is located at: https://github.com/FlyFrosty/Dual-Time

 

Some key parts to my work around to the missing time zone in the Date function are...

 

In my index, I use 

 

if (Date.now() % 900000 < 100) {
    if (messaging.peerSocket.readyState === messaging.peerSocket.OPEN) {
      messaging.peerSocket.send("event");
    } else {
      timeZone = "Unknown";
    }
  } else {
    console.log("don't do it"); 
  }

for no other purpose than to trigger a conversation between my Ionic and my phone (Moto X, 4th gen, unlocked, attached to Verizon, fully up to date).  

 

 

Then, on the companion...

 

messaging.peerSocket.onmessage = function(evt) {
  // Output the message to the console
  console.log(JSON.stringify(evt.data));
  sendTZ();
}
function sendTZ() {
  let myTZ = new Date().toString().match(/\(([A-Za-z\s].*)\)/)[1];  
  let data = {
    key: "zoneCode",
    newValue: myTZ
  }
  console.log(`full date ${new Date()}`);
  console.log(`newValue ${data.newValue}`);
  sendVal(data);
};

Which then gets processed back in the Ionic.  

 

This process works (when the time hits a quarter of an hour anyways) even though the Fitbit time may not update.  That's driving me batty because now I find myself doubting the time on my watch.

 

With the new SDK, using the File Transfer Upload, it appears I will be able to make this process much more efficient.  I will install the new tracker software tonight for my next trip starting on Wednesday to see if I have different results.

 

Other than manually doing a Fitbit sync from my phone app, is there a way for me to force a time sync?  For what it is worth, I tried using "Linear Clockface" from the store, and it also had the same issue updating to the local time when coming out of airplane mode.

 

Thank you for looking into this.  

 

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Bump...again.

 

I have a new phone (Samsung Galaxy S9) and the time sync still lags horribly or fails to update at all when coming out of airplane mode in a different timezone.  I have to force a sync for it to update.

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Almost 2 years later...and my Fitbit still cannot always tell the time.  When does a tracker sync its' time with the phone?

 

It appears if I do NOT put my phone in airplane mode when I fly, the time will update in under an hour.  If I use airplane mode, the tracker appears to never update time.

 

So...Is when Fitbit trackers check for time a proprietary secret?  I am amazed more people are not upset by a watch that does not tell time.  Again, almost 2 years later...and my Fitbit still cannot keep track of the time.  Please help!

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