Fitbit Sense firmware update for battery

[HockeyMom28]

I received an email today telling me that is was urgent that I update my Fitbit Sense due to possible battery overheating.  I cannot get this update to install, so I am stuck with a clockface telling me I have to update.  When I try to update, the progress meter never moves and I get a big red X.  

I have factory reset my Fitbit.  Cleared all data on my Fitbit app.  Readded the Sense to my Fitbit.  Rebooted my phone and the Fitbit.  Nothing seems to work. 

Current firmware version is 44.128.6.17

Moderator edit: merged reply

[pastimz]

I took German in college but was/am woefully rusty with it. I used Google translate to read your message--worked like a charm! Sorry the update didn't work well for you. I had an awful time with it until I used my husband's newer phone to update yesterday and then re-paired my Sense yesterday with my S8+ (android 9) phone. Seems to be back to "normal" so far for me although I haven't checked the battery charge today yet. Hope you find a new watch that you absolutely love.

Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
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[momof4boys203]

hi ever since i update that firmware my fitbit has not been syncing to my app and i deleted it and restarted/reinstalled my app n restarted my phone n nothing.  it shows i didnt take any steps on the 7th, 8th-10th, then shows steps on the 11th-13th, no steps on the 14th n so far today shows 0 steps when my watch says 5269 so far 

[PDRobbins]

Shortly after this update, my Sense suddenly turned off, won't charge and won't turn on anymore. I bought it new in October.

[pastimz]

It should still be under the 1 year warranty---I would contact Fitbit about it.

Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
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[pastimz]

If you bought it new in October it should still be under the 1 year warranty. I would definitely contact Fitbit about this.

[olliewills]

Well I borrowed a friend's phone today which is on Android 11. After going through the hassle of putting my Google account on their phone I was able to install the fitbit app, connect my Sense to it and finally complete the update to the .21 firmware. I think resync'd the Sense to my own phone and it seems to be working again. The only issue I seem to be having now is like everyone else, about 10 hours after installing the new firmware, my battery hasn't moved from 100%. I presume this will correct itself over a couple of charge cycles like it has for others.

All in all this is probably the mostly painful update experience I've had with a piece of tech in recent memory, and working in IT and being something of a geek, I have some experience! I'm sincerely hoping that from now I can just use my watch until it no longer meets my needs and/or I can buy something non-fitbit to replace it! Either way, my premium sub is gone and won't be coming back.

[pastimz]

I'm not particularly techie but seem to muddle thru for a 73 year old. But you are right---this was a super painful/difficult experience. It shouldn't have been this difficult and if they had told us from the get go that we needed a certain level of operating system to complete the firmware update, that would have been infinitely better than the almost no info given other than you must do it. And we will force you to if you don't do it voluntarily......At least it's finally done and my Fitbit is useable now.....

Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
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[Killroy-TM]

@pastimz
Of the last 48 comments in this thread you chimed in with 15 that are not very different from each others, give it a rest so that real problems posts witl not get lost among the many postings.

[Killroy-TM]

You noticed that mt comment was at a particular poster not in general.,

[Scott337]

If you use the Reply To This Post link in the subscription email, you might
think you are only responding to one person. But the post goes into the
thread so all can see each response. Sometimes people don't understand
that. So if someone uses the Reply To This Post link they might think they
are only responding to one single person

--
*~ Scott*

[Tim.r.]

You are right. This is a very important issue, the only reason the update even exists is in the interest of thw end users safety. They clearly have a problem here and need to address this fairly and in the interest of the end user.  The customers are clearly beaing fleeced by google/fitbit here. I hope that they do right thing and actually resolve this to a satisfactory result.  I see that there is speculation that fitbit are withdrawing from the fitness tracker/smart watch market, ummmmmm in favour of the Google products.  It seems that if those speculations are true then the products are going to be unsupported in the near future anyway.  🤔. Maybe this is why they are dragging their heals 🤔.  

[pastimz]

I don't know if this will reach you or not. Scott337 had it right. I was replying to the thread as the note I read said it would not be received. In fact, just a heads up: apparently you sent a msg to me @pastimz. I NEVER GOT IT. I only saw your msg when I came to the thread to see what's up. Just let me apologize to you for trying to be toooo helpful to others who (apparently) had not read thru the posts to see how using a more up to date operating system seemed to work to update the firmware. Believe me, I understood their frustration. Sorry for annoying YOU. I hope my posts helped others. Again, forgive me for trying to be too helpful and wanting to be sure they received the information.

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Decided to post this on the thread also as I never got it except by reading the thread. Don't really know how to respond to an individual poster. Can you enlighten me---keep in mind that I did not get your post addressed to @pastimz. This is the post I tried to send you (but don't know if you will receive it since I didn't receive yours):

I don't know if this will reach you or not. Scott337 had it right. I was replying to the thread as the note I read said it would not be received. In fact, just a heads up: apparently you sent a msg to me @pastimz<>. I NEVER GOT IT. I only saw your msg when I came to the thread to see what's up. Just let me apologize to you for trying to be toooo helpful to others who (apparently) had not read thru the posts to see how using a more up to date operating system seemed to work to update the firmware. Believe me, I understood their frustration. Sorry for annoying YOU. I hope my posts helped others. Again, forgive me for trying to be too helpful and wanting to be sure they received the information.


Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
Get Outlook for Android<>

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Moderator edit - Merged messages

[Scott337]

It's all good @pastimz, there is nothing wrong with wanting to be helpful. Learning how to navigate forums can take some getting used to. But now you know that when you reply by clicking the link in the email we all can see the reply. There is usually no need to reply to each individual user. We all see the reply, and then can read it and see if it helps us. 😎

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Hi @pastimz To answer your question:  "Don't really know how to respond to an individual poster."   

You don't respond to individual users on a community forum like this. All posts, whether made here on the web browser view or via the reply link in an email, go to the community board where everyone can see the response. Some forums have private chat rooms where you can chat between specific people. But here it's a community forum with all responses seen by everyone. Hope that helps.

~ Scott

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Moderator edit - Merged messages

[Legical]

Hey, I'm glad someone complained about this. I'm having so many issues with my Fitbit since they put the update out. I didn't update it because I've been busy and I just powered through the annoying update screen. Now, I've come to regret it as I have this new blue update screen, telling me to update in 100 languages, that won't move from the screen. Here is the kicker, it disconnected my fitbit from the app. It won't reconnect no matter how many times I try. So, now, I can't use the Fitbit at all. I don't know what to do.

[FelicityM]

Thank you Bob, very helpful postSent from my Galaxy-Tab A 2017 on the Telstra Mobile Network

[fixmyscreen]

Hi,
I had the same problem.
Your phone needs to have an operating system that is newer than an android v9. I used my daughter's phone to do the upgrade and it is now working fine.
This should work for you.

cheers

[Savari]

Hello @Legical. If you did not already figure it out, your device did a factory reset. You need to reconnect it to the Fitbit app, the same way you did when you first bought your device.

Here is a link to a Google article. Follow the instructions under "Add or replace a Fitbit device on an existing account". Make sure your device is fully charged (100%) and connected to the charger, and make sure your mobile device is using Android 10 or beyond. Those seem to be the requirements, at least for me.

[Chazman21]

My Sense was acquired as a replacement for my Ionic - it was part of a recall because Ionic batteries were overheating. So here we go again.

I've been happy enough with my Sense, apart from having to buy multiple charging cables due to the pins regularly failing. The updates to the app in recent years have been generally annoying rather an improvement, but nothing that I haven't been able to live with.

But the process of this update has been terrible, as is evidenced by the flood of posts in this forum. It has been an absolute battle to get the firmware updates and I still haven't achieved it. Seems like a rushed update that has led to a very brittle update process.

Poor effort all round from Fitbit. If this is the end of this watch (which it may well be), then I'll be looking elsewhere for my next watch.

[Chazman21]

My phone is on Android v11.

Tried the update again. Watch is now frozen with the fitbit logo on the screen and a blue circle around it which is not quite closed. At the time the app said it was "installing", so it looks very much like the update failed during installation and my watch is now bricked.

Nice work fitbit, thanks for breaking my watch.

[LO3131]

This is so frustrating. I saw that there was a firmware update being pushed out. I tried multiple times to update and it would never update after I tried for a few days. I legit tried 30+ times - unsyncing, resyncing, restarting, all batteries charged... Eventually I got an email saying that fitbit was going to manually set me back to factory settings because I didn't update the firmware yet. Now my Sense is stuck on the Logo screen and I've tried everything to fix it. I talked to Support a few minutes ago and they said there's nothing else to do except buy a new one, and because I'm out of warranty all they can do is give me 35% off a new one. This isn't stemming from anything I did -- it's stemming from an update that Fitbit pushed out and now my Sense is frozen and I have to pay a few hundred dollars out of pocket which seems very unfair.