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Fitbit Sense Keeps Restarting

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I’ve only had my Sense for 2 days but it has restarted no less than 15-20 times during the two days. I’ve tried manually restarting it and changing the clock face. Nothing seems to help. I notice it because it vibrates slightly during the restart. Is anyone else experiencing this issue?

 

while on a run yesterday, I tracked the exercise like I always did with my Versa 2 and during the exercise, the Sense vibrated many times. I have it notify me every mile but I only went 2 miles and received 10 or so notifications. When I looked at the Sense, there was no notification on the screen. 

I don’t know if these two things are related, but they are irritating. 

Thanks

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211 REPLIES 211
Hi All

I have been in email contact on my case. They are stating it is software
issue and not device issue. I am a little skeptical as that would likely
indicate it is a model wide issue - though hard to validate if every single
sense is experiencing this.

I have kindly requested a replacement device as next step, though that
request is being pushed back on. I would be more comfortable waiting for a
fix if the issue was replicated via replacement item. I guess it just a
wait and see game.
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@LizzyFitbit - can you kindly please removed the "solved" from this issue thread? The issue is clearly not solved or resolved. I believe this notation of solved may disway others searching on this issue from double clicking into thread and learning the current status. Thank you in advance for the understanding.

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@drod206 we highlight the 'best answer' we currently have so customers know where we currently stand. As soon as the issue is resolved we will update the thread. Thanks for your patience, I understand this isn't convenient. 

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Hi, I got my Sense four weeks ago. Didn't realise anything wrong until the first time I went for a run two weeks ago. Activated the running sport session and ran for 1km. It suddenly started vibrating a couple of times and restarted several times, which resulted in that it didn't record my outside running session. Thought OK maybe I pressed the button or something by accident while running. Second time I went out again for a run, same exact thing while running. I came from my 3 years old Amazfit bip which recorded something as basic as running with GPS without any issues from day one. How a brand like Fitbit with a device that costs 4 to 5 times more can not manage to have such a basic functionality right?. Isn't this suppose to be one of the main purposes and expertise of Fitbit devices? Very disappointed of paying such a high price for a device that doesn't offer a basic feature like this one in 2020. Moreover, despite the many bugs and limitations (slow buggy interface, SpO2 only with a watchface, no offline music, etc, etc), I haven't received a single update since bought it  a month ago nor for the app or the watch firmware. This doesn't look good so far in my initial experience with the Fitbit brand. Very disappointed of wasting this amount of money for a device that don't get basic things right and so many bugs while not offering additional advantages.

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Hi @drpelpi

Sorry to hear that you are experiencing this as well. As a long-time fitbit
user (coming from Ionic), this issue seems to be limited to Sense and not
any of the previous gen devices. I am not sure if the issue is with Versa 3
though as I have not checked any of those threads.

The Sp02 being only on the single watch face is disappointing, though I bet
that will be added to other faces in the future. JFYI...offline music is
available via Pandora, Deezer, and Spotify.

Personal MP3 can be stored on the Ionic though. The Ionic is a solid
device, my wife and children still use it. I only upgraded to Sense since
my work has fitbit benefit and I thought the Sp02 was a neat add - now I am
thinking it might not have been worth it.

I hope your experience improves.
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Several of us have been discussing this with Fitbit for over a month. They respond politely but haven't really done anything, for example there have been no firmware updates. I made a simple suggestion that they get rid of the vibrate on restart (or make it an option) so if the device restarted while the user was asleep they would not be woken up. It seems this would be a straightforward "band-aid" that would make the problem less important until the real fix could be available. But we haven't received any firmware updates since we alerted Fitbit to this problem.

 

My device has never reset during exercise (hiking). It happens randomly when I'm awake or asleep.

 

Curiously, the restarts have happened less often since I changed the strap and wear the device looser and higher up my arm. That doesn't make any sense to me, but that's what I've observed.

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Getting rid of the vibrate is not the fix, users will still have incorrect data, sleep or fitness.

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agreed, they need to either come up with a firmware fix or replace our devices if it's a hardware problem. But if it doesn't vibrate on restart, at least it won't wake us up.  I haven't lost any data through a restart, at least that I've noticed. My sleep records look OK even when it restarts.

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@Dana789  During the week I go to bed around 9-930 pm and get up at 5:30 to 5:45 am during the week. Last nights was sleep at 0.01 until 1:40 and then 3:10 till 6 AM. Every night I don't record a hrs sleep. The day before was 22:02 till 00:23 and then 01:53 till 06:03, do I need to book a doctor's appointment? 

Sorry, my Ionic did not display these problems.

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I think the new Sense is very flakey. Everyone seems to report a different set of symptoms.

 

One thing I've learned in using lots of different types of buggy software: don't assume there's only one bug. Is it a hardware problem or a firmware problem? My guess is that they have hardware issues and multiple software bugs.

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@Fitbit Hi Kate and also Fitbit, Something is really wrong with the sense. I have decided to fire up the old Ionic and last night wore Sense on left arm and Ionic on right.

Results are,

Sense, sleep time 6 Hrs 35 Mins (sleep time was 03:17 to 11:01)

Ionic, sleep time 10Hrs 27 Mins (sleep time was 23:13 to 11:01)

I went to bed just after 11 pm

 

Tonight I will change them onto different wrists and report tomorrow.

 

 

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You slept for 12 hours? Thats impressive 🙂

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Just an update,

Sense 5 Hrs 36 Mins sleep (times are 23:25 - 05:45)

Ionic 7 Hrs 2 Mins sleep (times 22:01 - 5:49) 

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I think I've made an important observation about the restart problem. Recall my Sense was restarting often, especially when I'm sleeping. Not so often during the day. For the past 2 weeks or so, it has NOT been restarting ever. So what changed? Well, I changed the band (I hate the black rubber one). Hard to believe that did it. 

But I did notice that sometimes the Sense would spontaneously buzz and go a setup screen for the Music program. What sense (sorry) does that make? Well, I had changed the setting for Shortcuts/Press & Hold to go to the Music program. Sure enough, if I deliberately "press and hold", it goes to the Music program. If I turn the Shortcuts/Press & hold feature to OFF, then when you press and hold long enough the Sense restarts.

So, my current theory is that the restarts are caused by rogue "Press & Hold" event, which can happen when I sleep with my arm under me. 

The band-aid fix is to turn Settings/Press&Hold to ON, then select a benign app for it to invoke. Right now I have it go to "Today"

This definitely does NOT explain all the restarts other people have reported. One member of this thread said he/she saw it restart while charging. I think there are multiple problems at work here. But I'm nearly certain that most of my trouble was caused by rogue Press&Hold events.

 

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@Dana789 I've just checked and my shortcut settings are set to ON and to goto Alexa

What I would say is my Ionic has updated with the same look and design as the Sense. Last night sleeping figures now both show asleep gap but at different times.

Ionic sleep between 21:40 to 23:11 and 01:23 to 5:54 

Sense sleep between 23:57 to 1:32 and 3:08 to 5:58

Fitbit has emailed me today this promising news. It's just when is the question.

To be transparent with you, our developers are aware of this situation and working on it diligently to have a fix so soon. Be sure to keep your Sense when Fitbit releases a new firmware update and app up-to-date to ensure you receive the quickest resolution.

 

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Ionic with new look/software. I had read that was not going to happen.
Maybe it is truly a software issue.

JFYI, I received the same message from Fitbit several times. I am still
very disappointed that they are not giving a time line to a known live site
issue.
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@LizzyFitbit   Update: I was expecting this issue to be resolved in the firmware update. I finally got the update last night. It finally downloaded. And....IT'S STILL RESTARTING ITSELF!!!! More often than it did before. Seriously?! Why bother releasing a firmware update that still has major issues?! I really wanted to like my new Sense....

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I just installed Version 3.35 (20243544) on my Sense. I don't expect a different result than you got. But I figured it's worth a try. maybe the cause is a hardware fault and mine is different than yours. A reach, for sure.

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I am more convinced now that this is hardware related and not firmware. As i said in my previous posts my first Sense was restarting while charging, while on the desk, literally no one was pressing any buttons. Also restarts seemed random, sometime it took hours between them and other times i got 2 or 3 in 30 mins.

My replacement Sense has had 0 restarts in the last 3 weeks, battery has been amazing and it has not missed a single measurement.

 

Fwd to today, i bought a Sense for my wife, of Amazon again. And it seemed fine the first 2 days, than it started with the restarts. So sent it back and got a replacement, same thing, restarts after restarts. Took me 1 hour to set it up cause it kept restarting during setup. So off it went to Amazon for a 3rd device and low and behold 0 restarts with this one.

If this was truly firmware issue and not hardware related at all why would 2 out of 5 devices on the same firmware with same setup work fine and the other 3 not ? Is software not voodoo.

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I updated yesterday morning and touch wood no reboots at all. I also have sleep records, yeah!

Pulse stats are now close to my Omron b/p monitor.

 

Will keep you updated.

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