Sense 2 Firmware Update 194.61

[LizzyFitbit]

7/13 Update: We’re continuing to roll out this firmware for the Sense 2 Firmware Update 194.61, and expect more customers are able to update their devices. This is a progressive rollout and all customers can expect to have it within a few weeks. We release updates in phases so that we can monitor performance closely and make adjustments if needed. If you don't see the option to update, don't worry - you'll have it soon!

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We’re excited to announce that a firmware update version 194.61 for Sense 2 will be available soon! Some of you might already have this update available. If you installed it, let us know what you think!

We release updates to customers in phases. If you don’t see it, check the Fitbit app in a few days, and you’ll see a message when you can install the update. We appreciate your patience while we get this update to all of our customers.

*Firmware releases are not distributed based on region or location and can reach anyone no matter where you reside. We do not recommend performing a factory reset to force the update to your device as your data will be lost and you may not get the update. Please be patient and wait until you see the update banner inside of the Fitbit app to begin the firmware download.

WHAT’S NEW AND FIXED

• View menstrual health tracking on your watch. For more information, see How do I use the Fitbit app to track my period?
• Swap between saved clock faces directly on your watch. For more information, see How do I change the clock face on my Fitbit device?
• View your daily readiness score on your watch (Premium feature only). For more information, see What’s my daily readiness score in the Fitbit app?
• Your watch now supports dynamic GPS. For more information, see How do I use GPS on my Fitbit device?
• Support for global characters and right-to-left text notifications:
  Arabic
  Hebrew
  Thai
  Hindi
  Vietnamese
• This release includes bug fixes and improvements.

Full release notes can be found here. For more details, please see this Community Blog post.

HOW DO I UPDATE?
See How do I update my Fitbit device? for step by step instructions for updating your Sense 2. If you run into difficulty updating, review these Why can't I update my Fitbit device?

We’re interested in hearing your feedback on this update! Let us know what you like! If you encounter unexpected behavior during or after your update, please post the details below.

[Darthan]

Hey.

Maybe it is a good decision... But still surprising for me that the watch backtracked to the old firmware when I did a reset on it. 

[cafbfan]

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@cafbfan wrote:

My Sense 2 updated to this latest version yesterday, but still I don't see a "Clocks" app or a way to change clock face directly on the watch itself. Does anyone know how?

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Answering my own question about how to change clockface on Sense2 after updating to this firmware. Apparently this is the trick:

"you can also press and hold your finger on your current clock face to switch between saved clocks."

[DaSchmidt]

I am having the same problems.  My heart rate has stopped tracking and the green light on the back of my watch just stops randomly also, for hours at a time.  In the heart rate tile on the watch it'll show my heart rate (which isn't accurate) and 0 graph and say please wear your watch for 30 minutes, but I've been wearing it all day.  Or the graph will only show for a bit and then the tracking stops, even though I've been wearing it all day.   I've been wearing my watch all day and the graph doesn't show the last hour. Note my heart rate says 58The picture is immediately after the first picture and the front face says my heart rate is 87When I took my watch off it is still saying my heart rate is 87 and the green light isn't working.

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I'm still having issues.  It's not tracking my heart rate and the lights on the back of the watch either work or they don't work, sporadically and for no reason.  I'm so frustrated and do not want to have to do a factory reset on this watch AGAIN!  I've had to do that 3 times already to try and fix issues in the past.   

I've been wearing my watch all day, and the tracking just stopped randomly, no reason. Note the heart rate says 58 on this tile. The front of the watch says 87

The front of the watch says my heart rate is 87, this was 2 seconds after the first photo.

I took my watch off and it still says my heart rate is 87. No lights on the back of the watch are working.

[infinidim]

Not good. 

@LizzyFitbit can you please tell us what is happening. There seems to be a lot of bugs being reported here. 

[SunsetRunner]

I am already liking the sound of clock faces, bug fixes and some new features.

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Did you try restarting the watch?

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When I was checking, I saw something like “We are experiencing extremely high contact volume and estimated times will be higher than normal.”

[SzGeri]

Yes, because this new update is reportedly bricking devices and Fitbit says if you are under warranty you will get 35 per cent discount (source: Android Authority’s article), but nothing if you are out of that window.

This is outrageous. I am really disappointed in Fitbit. I am certain that I am never going to buy a Pixel watch.

[TheVinny]

My Gawd man. I've had NOTHING but bugs and issues since updating. Been a user since 2016. NEVER seen anything like this. Is like they messed it up on purpose or something. I cant see anything that got better. 

The ONLY way I can sync my Fitbit in mornings is to turn off blue tooth and turn back on. And sometimes even that don't work. EVERY DAY I have to do this. For a week now. (See screenshot 2.)

My heart rate stops tracking 1/4 of the time. For no reason (see screenshot 1, just today, 3 times stopped tracking).  I have to reset my Fitbit which does fix it until a few hours later and it does it again. And as we know when heart rate tracking doesn't work neither do sleep stages/scores/daily readiness number, metrics etc. 

Putting fitbit into sleep mode is now redundant with zero added value. I don't get it. Just an extra notification and button to press to put to sleep and wake up. Who designed that?

Sometimes when I click on anything Fitbit on my phone the whole app vanishes. Turns back on, but WTH?

I can go on but it's late here in Hawaii and just had to do another rest on my watch just now and decided to post something.

Come on guys this is really bad!

[TheVinny]

screenshots wont post with above post

 

[SunsetRunner]

To get answers faster use Fitbit Support: https://myhelp.fitbit.com/s/support?language=en_US

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi everyone, and welcome to our new members.

Thanks for the detailed information, as well as the steps tried. As mentioned before, this update is slowly rolling out to all our members, so if you don't see it yet, wait and install it once you see it available.

@Steninbabu, @Darthan and @SzGeri I'm sorry for the inconvenience experienced after the update. As you may know, our team constantly works to improve, and the feedback we receive from all of you helps us to make that happen. If you decide to install the firmware of your watch, don't hesitate to share your questions or comments about it.

@DaSchmidt Thanks for the pictures, and because your post didn't mention it, I'd recommend performing a regular restart on your Sense 2 to refresh its performance. Then, wear your watch about 2-3 finger widths above your wrist bone and monitor its behavior.

@TheVinny I appreciate your efforts while trying to post a screenshot. In regards to the syncing issues, do you have multiple devices nearby? Take in mind that having multiple Bluetooth connections might interfere with the connection between your watch and the Fitbit app. Aside from turning off and on the Bluetooth, please make sure to exhaust the troubleshooting steps described here. 

About your other question, by reset do you mean the restart process? Do you see a green light on the back? I believe you've done so, but confirm with me if you've reviewed this help article which describes some factors that impact heart rate tracking.

Lastly, may I know the model of your phone? I'm asking this as a similar issue experienced on the iOS Fitbit app was already escalated to our team. If this applies to you, let me invite you to subscribe to this thread in order to receive updates about this topic.

[TheVinny]

Thank you for the detailed reply, Lizzy. You've been around here for quite a while. Good to know.

To answer your questions:

1- I have iPhone 14 Pro.

2- Yes, I check to make sure no other blue tooth items connected. Still has to be turned off and then back on to work so my Fitbit syncs in mornings. 

3- Yes,  by saying I reset my watch I mean a soft reset where I hold side button for about 10 seconds and then the Fitbit logo pops up. Doing so does get my heart rate tracking back to working, but I've still lost however much time I didn't notice it not working. 

And all of this started when I installed the latest update.

I have another little older Sense 2, that was stored, that is not updated and I will just switch out in the next day or two and let you know if that solves everything and back to normal.

Hope this helps and thanks again for your reply!

[alireza.nasibi]

2 weeks already and I haven't got the update yet! How slow rolling an update could be?!

I should agree with many saying Fitbit isn't the same after being acquired by Google! Seems like in order to divert users to Google Watch, they've removed features..... Is Fitbit already dead?

[DaSchmidt]

Thank you for your reply.   I have restarted my watch several times to try and fix this issue.   It has not fixed my problem.   Twice it resolved the problem, but then the heart rate tracking stopped again for no reason and the last time a restart did not fix the problem.   The heart rate tracking and lights on the back of the watch stopped working for several hours and then just randomly started working again.   There really is no rhyme or reason.   

[infinidim]

@LizzyFitbit thanks for coming onto the community and giving us some pointers on how to fix the various issues. 

[asiayeah]

We are very excited to hear about the updates. However, it has been 2+ weeks since the announcement here. According to current plan and progress, when will everyone get a chance to install the new firmware?

[TheVinny]

If you've been reading this and other threads you wouldn't be in too much of a hurry for it, IMHO. 

Okay, so I mentioned yesterday that with all the problems I've experienced since the update over almost 2 weeks ago (continous loss of HR tracking, unit not syncing on iPhone at all in mornings unless turning off/on Bluetooth and also not syncing various other times during day, app vanishing when clicking on at time and more) that I had and would bring out my older Sense 2 which has not been updated and see what happens.  So, I did that yesterday afternoon. And just to mention my current Sense 2 stopped tracking about 2 hours before the switch once again. And again, if I do a soft reset, it will begin tracking though I lose data from whatever time it stopped tracking.

So, after switching, the Sense 2 that was NOT updated, has performed perfectly!

The problem is 100 percent due to the update. Remember, my newer Fitbit also performed flawlessly just up UNTIL the update happened. And as anyone with eyes can see so many other people and Fitbit users have said the exact same things I have written here and then some.

My Fitbit synced with my iPhone first thing in the morning which hasn't happened like that since the update to other Sense 2. HR tracking has not missed a beat. No loss of data or the app vanishing in mid-use. And now no redundant sleep mode message and extra clicking.

It boggles my mind somewhat that Fitbit would roll out an update with these kinds of bugs happening on such a large scale. These things I would expect have been tested and retested before releasing. In fairness to Fitbit and Google even Apple has had bad updates happen often enough. My hope is simply that Fitbit will address these clearly obvious flaws and send us an updated update like Apple and other big tech companies do when needed.

I am thankful to have that second Sense 2 and hope when it comes time for that one to be updated that I will have the option to decline until a remedy has been released first. 

I hope this helps in some manner to send they message that the issue is not all of these fitbits suddenly having breakdowns but that it is clearly the result of the update which has plenty of bugs to fix. Also thanks again Lizzy for your help and detailed replies!

[infinidim]

@LizzyFitbit isn't this proof there is an issue with this update for some of the Sense 2's that are out there? When is Fitbit going to come clean about this give there are also issues with a similar update to the Charge 5!!!

[kvt76]

Hi Lizzy,

I have completed the firmware update for my Sense 2 and ever since have been having issues syncing to my phone. The battery life now drains extremely quickly as well. Any clue on what was in the update to make this happen to my Fitbit?

[infinidim]

@kvt76 I would also raise a ticket with Fitbit about this. 

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi everyone, and welcome to our new members.

Thanks for getting back with more details, as well as trying the steps suggested in my previous post. As it's mentioned in our initial post, the firmware is progressively rolling out and it'll be available to all our members within a few weeks.

@TheVinny In regards to the Fitbit app, let me share that our team is aware of this issue in which the Fitbit app crashes on iOS devices. They're working on this situation and to receive more updates, let me recommend visiting this thread.

Now, about your Sense 2 not syncing or tracking heart rate correctly, I've forwarded your posts to our team so they can further investigate and see what can be done for you. You can expect an email from our team shortly.

@DaSchmidt While I'm glad your watch sensor started working again, I understand your point of view as this shouldn't be happening. Since you're getting heart rate readings, please monitor its behavior and don't hesitate to share your feedback if this happens again.

@kvt76 Given this situation, a case has been requested on your behalf so our Support team can look into this and provide you with assistance. They'll get in touch with you via email, please keep an eye on your inbox.