Is the latest firmware update suspended?

[LokeAa]

I am aware that there is a long thread about the firmware update, but I cannot bear to read the whole thing😁

I have had a terribly busy summer; firmware has not been on my mind. I have been thinking it is strange that I have not received the latest firmware update as I have always received them early. It has never taken 2 1/2 months for firmware updates to reach all users. For me, the main reason to update is the new dynamic GPS feature.

Today I decided to force update the device. I assumed that the latest update would install if I performed a factory reset. But no, I am still on firmware version 184.52. Is it put on hold?

[N8teGee]

Hi @LokeAa.

It would seem to be the case. Although there doesn't appear to be any updates from Fitbit as to what is going on. Why can't they just tell us that the rollout has been paused? I'm sure most of us can understand that, instead of scratching our heads and wondering why it hasn't appeared on our own devices. 

[LokeAa]

They have never been particularly communicative, that is unlikely to change🤔? I do not know if the update is suspended, but it is strange that the device did not update after a factory reset. Do not know how big the problem is. I see there are some users here, but active participants in the community are vanishingly insignificant compared to the number of Fitbit owners worldwide. Nor is it mentioned in tech magazines. It might indicate that the problem is not that big, but I do not know...

[Victamon]

Likewise the Dynamic GPS functionality be what also I have eagerly been anticipating out of "upgrading" my firmware on my Sense2 from 184.52 to 194.61. Assessing the overwhelming disfavorable regards of folks who have been enabled and did the installation of the newest firmware it doesn't seem to be muxh if any of an up- but actually more of a down- grade because of lots of problems.

I for one, and presumably most Sense 2 users presently on an 'old' firmware version, am not in a hurry to switch to a shoddy "improvement". I would be glad to wait until most of the bugs are worked out.. Howver!: the company should explicitly say that the update has beenpaused, in this case. For as of currently (and since around or before the new firmware was announced), the official literature on the Senae 2 has corresponded to the newer firmware that as yet is unavailable to many.. amounting essentially to false advertising.

As for factory reset -ing it: If anything that should revert the device to how it was when you first got it.. or at least to how it was as of its last firmware update minus personal data, if indeed that update were truly "firm"  (but not to a future update, which is "being rolled-out in stages".. which ought never to take more than three months to complete!).

[LokeAa]

I do not recall ever having a problem with a firmware update from Fitbit. They have always released upgrades in pools, but it has been over the course of a couple of weeks, not months like now. There is no technical reason for rolling out in stages. OS for Android / Apple releases OTA updates to one hundred million devices on the same day....

Fitbit has almost never commented on errors, and any time limit for error correction. In the last three years I think it has happened only twice.The first Sense, where they finally had to admit it was a mistake on some of the first units sold. Ionic, which they recalled due to fire hazard.

Factory reset has always reset to the starting point +  updates, it has not been possible to stop the process until Fitbit installs all updates. That is why I wonder if Fitbit has suspended the update temporarily.

[Rich_Laue]

@LokeAa it is the same for the Versa 4 update, and why we believe that this update has been put on pause. 

[Triletics]

@LokeAa I remember one more time the FW update has been pulled from release. Lots of Ionic watches were getting bricked by the update and eventually, the update disappeared (I never received it but skipped directly to the next one). No word of explanation from Fitbit (it would be more of a surprise if there was any explanation) but clearly something went very wrong.

My current Sense 2 didn't receive the new update either (although I haven't checked that in a week, I use old Sense right now). Rolling out the software is a usual practice and despite it may look like other companies do one big push it's not true. They just schedule it a better way and do it quicker. I usually need to wait 2-3 days for a new update for my G. watch (and just a few minutes ago, I received another one. Since this thread started I received 5 updates for my 'other' watch and all is still done as incremental software roll out). Fitbit doesn't have two things: beta FW which can be tested voluntarily by users who would enter the beta program and there's no way to revert back or simply - unbrick the watch using a PC by installing stable FW. This increases the risk that untested software may be fatal for some devices. It is very clear that something went horribly wrong with the current Sense 2 update.

[LokeAa]

@Triletics , 

I just read that broken devices are the cause this time as well. The Charge 5 also received firmware update 194.61 - and that resulted in some broken devices.

[CaptainSpike]

The new update is horribly bad. Nobody I’ve spoken too likes it. Most are talking about jumping ship. I’m done with them now I think. I have a pile of their dead watches and this is the final straw. Loads of data no longer easily found… or found at all! Bye bye unfit bit.