Heart rate sensor and steps not working after swim in my Sense

[Lobaek]

I wore my sense swimming (at local pool) for the first time on Friday. It was great, tracked the time and correct yardage, I was elated! Then on Saturday morning I woke up and my sense had only tracked the time I slept, not the stages. Hmm weird. Later that day I got a workout in and I know I got my heart rate up quite a bit but it wasn’t tracked, in fact every time I looked at my Fitbit, it said my heart rate was 81 which is high for me, but I didn’t think much of it. Then this morning my heart rate sensor lights did not come on, and it stopped just tracking steps all together. I tried cleaning the back of the Fitbit with a Q-tip and some alcohol. I tried some steps I found on this forum including exiting out of the app turning the Bluetooth off, resetting and turning the Bluetooth back on and logging back into the app but it still didn’t bring back my heart rate tracker or my steps all day. I manually added some activity. I also eventually tried a hard reset, a factory reset and now my steps are working, but my heart rate sensor light still won’t turn on. During the factory reset my Fitbit got a firmware update and I was hopeful that that would fix it but that did not. I’m not sure what my next step should be, I was worried about swimming with my sense, but I saw that was water resistant up to 50m and I definitely did not go lower than that. My sister and my husband have the same fitbit sense, she bought all of them for us at the same time and she’s taken hers swimming multiple times apparently so I’m not sure what’s up with my sense. Is there anything else I should try? The heart rate is one of the features I use the most and I’m starting to train for a triathlon event so I was really hopeful about using this to track distance 😞 Any help welcome, thanks.  

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject. 

[Guy_]

Hi @Lobaek - unfortunately it sounds as if the watch has suffered water damage when it starts behaving erratically like that.

The seals aren't very robust and detiorate over time and  if it is still under warranty get it replaced.

Other signs of if water damage are short battery life between charges and getting hot while charging and if so stop immediately.

Drying in a bag of rice for a few days may help but depends on what internal damage has occurred which is not reversible.

If a factory reset doesn't resolve it then the watch has developed a fault.

[Lobaek]

Thanks for the reply @Guy_ yeah, the battery started to do exactly as you described today so I stopped wearing it. I'm really upset that this fitbit essentially can't do what it says it can. Why have a track swim option if it can't survive one swim session? Or if it's working for some and not for others is it a quality issue? Or are others using a swimproof case? Unfortunately, my device is a couple months outside the warranty window and I'll be looking for a replacement which is frustrating since I've been a fitbit user since 2009.

[Guy_]

@Lobaek - as you are outside warranty you have the option to look at all watches for your next purchase and may be surprised by features available elsewhere, as well as better battery life.

Especially if you liked the Sense  you may be disappointed with the Sense 2, so do a bit of research before buying a new watch.