Announcing Sense Update OS 5.3 (44.128.6.12)

[FitbitCommunity]

This update should now be available to all customers! If you have any difficulty updating, make sure you are following the directions in this article, and then provide as many specific details as possible in your post so that we can assist.

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Update 11/7

We are continuing to roll out this firmware for the Fitbit Sense, and expect more users will see it as available. This is a progressive rollout, and all customers can expect to have it within a few weeks. We roll out releases in phases as a cautionary measure 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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Update 10/27

We’re excited to announce that a firmware update for Sense will be available soon!  Some of you may already have this update available - if you installed it, let us know what you think!

If you don’t see the update yet, that’s expected. Check the Fitbit app in a few days, and you’ll see a message when you can install the update. We expect everyone to receive the update in the coming weeks. We appreciate your patience while we get this update to all of our customers. 

Did you know that we gradually release our updates? We do this to make sure everything is working just right for you. Sometimes we find an issue and it might take a little longer than expected for everyone to get the update. While you might see suggestions on how to “force” an update, we ask that you don’t try any of these workarounds. Most of the time the update won’t be available and you can lose data or encounter other difficulties. The best way to get the update is to be patient and wait for the update banner to appear in the Fitbit app.  

WHAT’S NEW AND FIXED

You can find release notes here.

HOW DO I UPDATE?

You can find step-by-step instructions for updating your Sense here. 

We recommend updating your Sense over a home Wi-Fi network as this can greatly reduce the time it can take to get set up. For more information on connecting your Sense to Wi-Fi, check out this article. 

If you run into difficulty updating please review these troubleshooting tips. 

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.

[Aaron123456]

Nice one weather

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That really true lablover

[AlphaSydney]

Is anyone else experiencing wildly inaccurate heart rate readings after the new update?  And the battery still sucks

[SunsetRunner]

@AlphaSydney , I'm experiencing wildly innaccurate heart rate readings since July/August updates. My first impressions of the last update are that HR innaccuracies are less wild on the low HR, but still there. It's still a bit too soon for me to say for sure, though (I had the update just a few days ago).

[SunsetRunner]

FLOORS

I've been doing this numerical exercise: if I divide the number of Floors my Sense shows me by the end of the day by 20 or 25*, I get a number that looks quite more reasonable, like the ones I had until June.

Fitbit tech staff: is it possible that the guy who designed the Floors feature forgot to tell you that those numbers units are in the metric unit system, not in the imperial unit system, or vice versa? I wouldn't be surprised. That would be a typical rookie mistake.

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* Dividing by 30 would also make much sense (cm converted to feet or 12 inches).

[Irish57]

Been sick and on the couch most of the day yet I climbed 13 sets of stairs.
I most certainly did not. Sadly, this will be my first day without goal
steps in 450 + days! That part is true!

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi everyone. Thanks for your continued reports and feedback.

As a small reminder, this thread is related to any difficulty experienced during or after the Fitbit OS 5.3 (44.128.6.12) update for the Sense. If you have a different question, I'd recommend starting a new thread as this will help us to keep the forums organized and on-topic.

@Qlqlp and @scaddenp Thanks for the steps tried on your own, I'm sorry for this inconvenience. Our team is aware of this issue with the SpO2 missing from the Health Metrics tile and they're working on this to get it resolved. In the meantime, make sure to sync after waking up and keep the Fitbit app updated. Take in mind that it can take up to an hour for SpO2 data to display.

@LPease, @RobertBN and @slbert Thanks for the details provided and the steps tried on your own. I'm sorry for the experience that you've had with your Sense not tracking your floors correctly, and your interaction with our Support team. Your feedback hasn't gone unnoticed, and I've forwarded your details for further investigation. Once I have more details, I'll let you know. In the meantime, please keep syncing with the Fitbit app to have the rest of your information updated.

@fattorelli  Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Just to confirm, do you see an error message when trying to access those stats? What is the model of your phone? If you haven't done so, log out from the Fitbit app, force stop the Fitbit app, reboot your phone, open the Fitbit app, log back into your account and check your details one more time.

@RD747 Thanks for the picture provided. I'm sorry you and @Big_G_ are having this experience. While this is odd, may I know if the same happens when using another clock face? If you haven't done so, I'd suggest restarting your Sense and changing the clock face to one from Fitbit to see if that helps. Keep me posted.

@psmv69 Just to confirm, is the issue with your Sense? If that's correct, could you and @Craigkat confirm if the rest of your information is syncing correctly? If not, I'd recommend the troubleshooting steps described in this help article. Once your watches start syncing correctly, check the permissions as @lablover55 mentioned to get the Weather app working correctly.

@Lorcasaur I'm sorry your Sense isn't recognizing your activities correctly. To look into this, may I know what exercise were you doing? As you may know, your watch can detect your exercises based on the continuous movement of your arms. This function is called SmartTrack and some motions such as stopping in the middle of an exercise may interrupt the activity tracking.

If this doesn't apply to you, please restart your watch to refresh its performance, adjust the time it takes to recognize your activity and make sure your activities are longer than the time set.

[slbert]

@LizzyFitbit  After several hard restarts, it looks like the issue I had with no floors registering has resolved itself. It's still not as accurate as with my Ionic, but at least most are registering now.

[barbmyers5]

I am trying to accept terms for the new readiness score and the button is greyed out.  I can't click on agree.  Help.  I've restarted my phone, forced stop and gone back in, downloaded the app on my computer.  Nothing is working....

[Bruce_S]

After you go to the terms page you to scroll down to the bottom of the page. Then you will be able to accept the terms. 

[barbmyers5]

I did that.  The area that says agree is grey and when I click on it, nothing happens.  It's really weird.

[Lorcasaur]

@LizzyFitbitThank you for your response -- I do not envy your job right now!! 😉 Exercise was running, and it happened for a third time today. I did restart, but will try again. Interestingly, it worked normally on Monday and Tuesday, after I updated, but stopped working Wednesday after I turned off the new notifications that seemed to be messing with my alerts. I never touched my SmartTrack settings, and have never had a problem with my Sense mapping my runs before. [EDITED because I misspoke: Auto-recognize IS working, but GPS isn't turning on. So it knows that I ran, but I can't see my pace or route. I was outdoors and not on a treadmill.]

[PrasadNeelath]

When I can connect my earbud Skullcandy sesh evo with sense?

[Willem48]

And Google Assistant ?

[SunsetRunner]

MY FEEDBACK ONE WEEK AFTER THE LAST OS/FIRMWARE UPDATE

Basically nothing changed on my Sense after the last OS/firmware update.

Every feature I use keeps working. Sometimes message notifications start failing, but restarting the watch is usually enough to fix it for some more time. If not, I restart the phone as well and everything start working again.

As for accuracy and reliability, things didn't change either.

The features I don't mention below, I just don't use them and are turned off when possible. Also, I don't have Premium anymore.

THE GOOD:

ECG: apparently remains the only, or one of the only, good "health and fitness" features. Good to share with my cardiologist.

SpO2: Since before this update, I started trusting more and more these values taken during our sleep. They make sense and are on line with readings on a clinical-grade oximeter.

General smartwatch features and screen navigation.

Screen adaptive brightness and easiness to read, whatever the light conditions: excellent. Maybe the best Sense feature.

No problems with syncing.

Battery: with the features I use, each recharge usually lasts 3 days until it reaches 25% charge, which I find quite good, comparing to similar smartwatches. It can last 2 days only until 25% if I use some features more frequently.

THE NOT SO GOOD AND THE BAD:

GPS: not very accurate, but OK. Maybe 10%-20% maximum total error on the total distance after an outdoor activity in an urban area. Maybe it will perform better with no trees or buildings around. Still have doubts about that.

Heart rate (HR): just after the update I had the impression that it was more accurate now on low HR, below 100 bpm. After a whole week, I have now serious doubts that is the case. HR values are fine while I'm sitting quiet, but when I start moving, nonsense values start to appear on Sense. Walking for more than 10 minutes continues to cause the occasional fake spikes on Sense, that can go up to 120, 130 or even 140 bpm, while my very accurate Polar chest band shows that my real HR remains around 80 or 90 bpm. I couldn't test it at higher HR due to my current health problems. If you have a heart condition, don't trust Sense heart rate values. They can be very very misleading.

Resting HR: seems ok, but really not sure.

Active Zone Minutes and Calories:*** with HR like this, I just ignore these values.

Floors: still the worst feature by far, since the Summer updates. Just forget it. Useless. I reckon if you divide Sense Floors by 20 to 30 maybe you will be not far from the truth. But after 4 or 5 months like this... are you kidding, Fitbit?

Breathing rate (BR), Heart Rate Variability (HRV), Skin Temperature (ST): coming from a Fitbit Sense, who knows? Still didn't get any useful info from these. *

Stress and EDA: from Fitbit Sense, who cares? I don't. **

SUMMARY, AGAIN:

Basically nothing changed on my Sense after the last OS/firmware update.

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ADDED LATER:

NOTE: after having problems with some non-Fitbit watchfaces in the beginning (not performing as expected, draining battery), now I only use Fitbit watchfaces.

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* BR has always been within the expected values. Skin Temperature sometimes shows up to 1.5 degrees off the baseline for a single night without me spotting any health reason for it. Even checked my temperature in the morning: normal. I didn't have any fever this year to test it.

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** STRESS AND EDA: anyway I took some readings along the year. I found them useless, not adding any useful info to what I already knew, sometimes just wrongly guessing.

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*** CALORIES: when I have a more active day, Calories are higher by the end of the day. And that's it. Can I trust the number itself? I don't know, but I doubt it. Sense provides already too many untrustworthy values that affect calories, like HR, so...

[Irish57]

Succinct and oh so accurate! Agree on all counts!

[SunsetRunner]

watch will not except update.my watch face shiw incorrect time .Iv tried everything. I'm so frustrated. $$ Monwy back please.Help.Know one from support ever contacts me back.

Moderator Edit: Formatting

[Bruce_S]

Re: GPS - On Friday I recorded a walk on my Sense and also on Gaia GPS on my iPhone. The distances were 1.31 miles on Sense and 1.32 on Gaia. And the tracks were identical on both. I do not perceive any inaccuracies. 

[SunsetRunner]

@Bruce_S , my conclusions on GPS came after comparing, for several months, the usually winding path on the map by Sense GPS, with the path I took and knew was about straight and which coincided with my Samsung phone GPS path. Also compared the distances from both GPSs. Sense GPS distance was always longer, as expected. Also checked with Google Earth. I had 3-4 floors buldings around most of the time.

Not saying you are not right, just comparing notes taken in different conditions. I'm glad to know you could get such accurate results.

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi everyone.

Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback about this firmware update. I'm sorry for any difficulty that you've gone through during this process and please know your comments have been shared internally so our team can work on the Sense, and improve your experience with it.

@slbert Thanks for keeping me posted, and for the restarts performed. I'm glad your Sense started tracking your floors again. I'm sorry this data is still not accurate and we'll keep working to get this fixed soon.

@barbmyers5 I appreciate your efforts in troubleshooting the Fitbit app. Because this shouldn't be happening, may I know the model of your phone? Do you have an active Premium subscription? Also, could you take a screenshot of the button to accept the terms and attach it to your reply? These details will help me to investigate on my end.

@Lorcasaur Thanks for clarifying the issue experienced with your Sense. Because you mentioned the GPS isn't turning on, do you mean it turns back off by itself? In case you haven't, restart your watch and try turning the GPS back on. You can also turn the Run Detect function which allows your Sense to start the Exercise app and track GPS data after detecting that you're running. Keep me posted.

@PrasadNeelath Just to confirm, is the issue with your Sense not connecting to your earphones? Have you connected your earphones with a different device? If that's correct, please turn off the Bluetooth on that other device to prevent any interference. Then, restart your watch to refresh its performance, put your earphones into pairing mode and try connecting them one more time as described here.

@Willem48 Thanks for keeping me posted. Because the issue persists with your Sense, my best advice is to contact our Support team so they can continue helping you with this. You can use this link to get connected with them via chat or phone.

@SunsetRunner Thanks for every step tried on your own, as well as trying to contact our Support team. I understand how frustrating this can be and to look into this, may I know if your Sense is syncing correctly? Do you see an error message when trying to sync or update the firmware? If you haven't done so, please try the following steps:

1. Remove your Sense from the Bluetooth settings.
2. Turn off other Bluetooth connections nearby.
3. Force quit the Fitbit app and reboot your phone.
4. Restart your watch as described here.
5. Open the Fitbit app, tap your profile picture > Set Up a Device.
6. Select your Sense, tap Replace Device and follow the on-screen instructions.

[Willem48]

This weekend there was an update of Google, and now Google Assistant is working.