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.

[PS2021]

Send since the update, my exercise list does not reflect my types I use.  I keep having to scroll all the way through to get to what I want.  The ones it has add my recent workouts never changed and I've never used.  We should be able to add faves to the top.

[SunsetRunner]

Mine keeps the three most recently used exercises at the top.

I have to actually start and stop an exercise for it to be added to the "Recent" list at the top.

[PS2021]

Mine used to, but now it has exercises I've never used, and won't update to the ones I am using.

[bookluvr4u]

I go this update the other day and now when I get a text message, my sense alerts me to the new message but when I click on it I only have the option to open it on my phone or clear it. It no longer lets me click on it to see the actual message and reply to it. How do I get that back?

[sonambajpai]

Was expecting changes like live sp02 and temperature. no major change seen in this version, feeling dissatisfied with my decision to buy sense

[Sharki9]

I regret buying sense and touching Fitbit again, bought new Apple Watch today and will never buy Fitbit again. Sense will go to my father who do not exercise as doing any exercise with sense is pointless, I will go tomorrow to the gym and have both watches and compare HR and calories it will be quite interesting to see.

At the moment sense is only good for those who do not exercise and don’t monitor HR just sit on the sofas all day …. 

[Rge]

I haven’t got a BR reading since the update, but getting all the other health metrics 

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi everyone. 

@Willem48 Thanks for the update and I'm glad Google Assistant is working well on your Sense.

@PS2021 Thanks for letting me know about the Recent Exercise list. As @SunsetRunner mentioned, this list should update as soon as you complete a new exercise. Because this isn't your case, try removing your Sense from the Bluetooth settings, restart your watch to refresh its performance, open the Fitbit app and pull down on the screen to force a manual sync. Then try starting a new exercise and let me know if it appears at the top of the list afterwards.

@bookluvr4u Thanks for bringing this to our attention. While this is odd, may I know the model and OS version of your phone? Is the Fitbit app updated? Also, does the same happen with your apps notifications? If you haven't done so, please remove your Sense from the Bluetooth settings, force quit the Fitbit app, reboot your phone, open the Fitbit app, pull down on the screen to force a manual sync and set up your notifications one more time.

@sonambajpai and @Sharki9 I appreciate the time taken to share your thoughts about your Sense and the firmware update. The feedback shared in the forums is always provided to our team so they can improve our products and their features. I understand where you're coming from and please know your comments won't be taken for granted.

@Rge I'm sorry the breathing rate is still not appearing in the Health Metrics tile. This issue has been reported to our team and they're working to identify a solution. While there isn't a time frame, make sure to keep the Fitbit app up to date just like you've been doing so far.

See you around.

[bookluvr4u]

I'm using a Samsung Galaxy S20 5G. Android version 11 and all of my apps are up to date. I've taken every step possible. Even unpaired it and removed it from the app. Set it back up, restarted it etc. Funny thing is, I use 4 different messaging apps (text messages is my default) but when I get a message from like hang outs, I can see the message, reply and everything. Just not text messages. I chatted with your help line and they have opened a case to an advanced technical team that I'm waiting to hear from. The only thing I have not done is factory reset my Sense which I really would hate to have to do.

[SunsetRunner]

@bookluvr4u  I had and still have sometimes a similar experience. I think that one or several phone apps sending notifications to the watch sometimes interfere with each other. I never gave myself the time to do the proper tests to completely solve the problem, but my rather rough, but probably effective, suggestion for you would be:

1) Try to find out which messaging app is causing (more) problems with the others. For that, start with disabling notifications from all but one messaging app, maybe the most important for you. Restart both the watch and the phone. Check if the messaging app you left is now sending notifications to the watch as it should.

2) When step 1 is solved, add notifications from a second messaging app. And so on, until you find the culprit. Maybe the order you add notifications from a new app is important, but you'll find out only by trial and error. If notificafications get messed up again, restart both watch and phone again.

Probably there is a more simple and elegant way to do it, but if Customer Support still couldn"t solve the problem, that's what I would do.

Note that, in the end, you may find out that the culprit causing all that mess can be a non-messaging phone app also sending notifications to the watch. I believe that the less phone apps sending notifications to the watch, the better. But maybe you'll have to find out yourself by trial and error.

[SunsetRunner]

Hint: Facebook owned apps tend to be quite overbearing on other apps. In the tests, I would leave those for last, if possible.

[SunsetRunner]

If it doesn't work, try the opposite: allow Facebook owned apps notifications first, just after SMS. Than the others.

[fattorelli]

Thank you for your answer. I only needed to log out and in to solve the problem. I use a Xiaomi Mi9T. The "force stop" Fitbit app option was not able to me.

[bookluvr4u]

So the Fitbit advanced team figured it out. They gave me this instruction: 

• Open your "Messages" app on your Android device.
• Go to "Settings."
• Click on "Notifications."
• Make sure there is a checkmark next to "Preview Message"  (If you don't see this option, it might be under 'In-app notifications settings')

Took me a minute to actually find it but it worked! I can now see and reply to text messages! Woo hoo!

[SunsetRunner]

Great, @bookluvr4u !

Thanks for the feedback.

I'm honestly and nicely surprised by how quickly they got back to you with a solution. That's good news. Not so good, though, for those other Sense issues waiting for a solution for a long long time. To the point that many of us just gave up keep trying Customer Support.

[Lorcasaur]

@LizzyFitbit I finally figured out how/where to check my GPS settings and everything looked correct, so I restarted my Fitbit again -- and it worked! So, not sure what happened. But all that matters is that all seems well now. Thanks for your help!

[Johnny29]

My weather app is not syncing still displaying weather please to open the fitbit app to sync weather information Please fix and review

[Lanxkim]

Same!  

[RobertBN]

Since the update my floor count has not been counting more than one floor per day if I'm lucky as I posted before in this thread. Others seem to have excessively high floor counts though or none at all.

I have my Sense set for imperial units since I can visualize feet and inches better than centimeters and meters.

So my question is if I change from imperial to metric will any of my previous data records be lost or become widely inaccurate? Will it convert the miles to km and such?

[SunsetRunner]

Hi @RobertBN ,

I can speak only from my own experience. On the Fitbit phone app I changed from metric to imperial units and all the data, new and old, remained there. Only the units changed on the related values. Floors and Steps didn't change. Changed from imperial back to metric units and the same happened, no data was lost, as far as I could see. I did it again just now and the same happened. So I believe that's safe to do.