Caution: Pixel 4a & Pixel 4a (5G) not compatible with Fitbit App as of January 2021

[ODJ45]

Just learned from Fitbit support that the Google Pixel 4a & 4a (5G) phones are not compatible with the Fitbit app.  What a bummer.  And it's not that these phones just came out.  It's been quite a while now, and they're the purest form of Android possible.  What a joke!!  Now regretting having invested in the top of the line Sense watch.

[Marrrmaduke]

@ODJ45 There must have been some miscom as Fitbit products are working with Pixel phones, including 4 series. Can you describe the issue you're having so we can help you out?

[ODJ45]

Hi. The issue I'm having is that when I go into the app and try to view
clock faces, I get a screen that states that there is no Internet
connection. I called Fitbit tech support and the tech had me:
1. Reboot my Pixel 4a (5G) phone;
2. Uninstall the Fitbit app;
3. Reinstall the Fitbit app;
4. Try to see the clock faces.

Net result, same problem persists. The tech then went and consulted with
others in the support team and he came back to me saying that the Pixel 4
is supported but not the Pixel 4a (5G). Really sounds bogus to me as
there's not all that much difference between the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4a.

[Marrrmaduke]

@ODJ45 Fitbit app definitely works on Pixel 4. I have just confirmed it with a fellow user. I myself used it with Pixel 3 and now with Pixel 5. Are you using VPN? Can you try different type of internet connection - i.e. different wifi network or your mobile operator's wireless internet? Please do not hot spot from other devices.

[Giampi71]

My entire family is deeply invested in Google ecosystem. Currently our gear is as following

- Pixel 4 + Inspire 2

- Pixel 4a + Versa 3

- Pixel 5 + Versa 2

- Pixel 3 + Sense

The closest case of you is the second (being Versa 3 just a Sense Lite, or , if you like the Sense just a Versa 3 Pro) and the setup works properly.

Fitbit Supported device page actually is very dated and it seems Fitbit has no particular dedication to keep it updated (of course all iPhones are present!). However a glimpse of hope: Fitbit has just been acquired by Google.

Still I know this doesn't solve your problem, as @Marrrmaduke said can you try with a wifi?

[sanman202]

That's throughout the surprise because these are the latest phones within the last few months. Should we be using 2-yearls or older devices? we'll see what Google does now that they have acquired Fitbit as of today it became official. of course there are still some hurdles  they have to go through in the United States. 

[sanman202]

The app works with all pixel devices, it's the actual connectivity of the watch or tracker with the Bluetooth from the phone. I've had just about every Pixel device and at least three Fitbit products and they all connect, but they drop from Bluetooth. I do think though the charge 3 they had it down better after a while with the Pixel 3 and 4. Its rather surprising that they can't get this figured out by now. Bluetooth has been around since the early 2000s. Hopefully now with Google acquiring Fitbit Pixel devices will be at the front of the line for compatibility. 

[sanman202]

Hopefully this nonsense will stop with now the acquisition happening. One thing they did good with Android devices is the messaging is geared more towards Android than iPhone. We'll see what they do here going forward, It's going to take a little bit of time for things to settle in. It appears that Fitbit needs assistant with support and just overall keeping things up to date. It appears like they hit a wall here and they need assistance now to get to the next level.tech and product support.

[ODJ45]

Hello. Thanks for your suggestion. I tried a couple of different WiFi
connections, and even did a wired connection to my Pixel 4a (5G), and every
time I tried to go to the "Clock Faces" page I would get an error message
stating "Oops, looks like there's no Internet connection." So I turned off
WiFi completely and just used cellular, and it worked. So the issue on the
Pixel 4a is that it can't do "Clock Faces" while the phone is on a WiFi
connection - it only works using cellular data.

Thanks again for the suggestion.

[Marrrmaduke]

@ODJ45 I'm glad it worked! But now I am dying to know which ISPs you've tried. I mean would you happen to know if all wifi's tried used the same internet provider? It looks like the ISP has some blocking on. ughh

[southpawlife]

I saw the same thing, and disabled the Private DNS in the android settings to get it working. Not really sure that was the issue as I did not see logs for a DNS lookup, but alas it was the thing that did the trick. I also have a fair bit of custom configuration on my router so switching off Wi-Fi for these things always helped me rule out where the issue was occurring. Just my thoughts. 

[Marrrmaduke]

@southpawlife yes! that could be the thing as well.

[ODJ45]

I don't think it's the ISP that makes a difference. I suspect that the
Fitbit application doesn't know how to properly detect that an Internet
connection is available when the phone is using WiFi, but is able to see an
Internet connection when the phone is just using cellular and not WiFi.
The underlying Ethernet network on which the WiFi is running makes no
difference. It's just that the Fitbit app hasn't been correctly programmed
to detect a WiFi network connection for Internet access. Hopefully now
that Google owns Fitbit the developers that maintain the Fitbit app will
pay a little closer attention to current model Google Pixel phones.

[dgmipper]

tried to post this to you 8 times now. 

9th time's a charm! just view the image in imgur

Fix for Pixel 4a 5G 

[ODJ45 · Accepted solution]

Okay folks. I think I got to the bottom of the issue. It's not the fault
of the Fitbit app after all. It's a DNS issue. I run a custom DNS server
on my home network named "pihole" that blocks ads, trackers, and lots of
other malicious activity by blocking DNS addresses for the known bad
domains. Turns out that the Fitbit app tries to connect with Google
Analytics (www.google-analytics.com), and if this website is unreachable
the Fitbit app concludes there is no Internet connectivity. When I went
into the admin console of my pihole DNS server and whitelisted "
www.google-analytics.com" the Fitbit app immediately worked perfectly.
In an event, the problem is now understood. So the Fitbit app is programmed
to use Google Analytics and if unavailable concludes there is no Internet
connectivity. The reason using cellular data worked when WiFi didn't is
simply because when on cellular I wasn' using my private DNS server.

[Marrrmaduke]

@ODJ45 sounds about right! I'm glad it works now!👍🏻

[aforman0411]

Hi, I too was having an issue with getting my pixel 4a 5G to connect to my fitbit versa lite. I had tried everything from reinstalling and restarting and contacting Google customer support. Nothing worked until I went through the notification settings on my phone and saw the fitbit needs to be given access to receive notifications i.e. emails, messages, phone calls. Once I clicked "allow" for each type of notification it instantly worked. My fitbit now receives calls and messages. I hope this helps!