Issue with new phone synching to My Fitnes Pal

[Howardnmi]

Just got a new phone. The T-moble store messed up and failed to transfer all my data, so I needed to reinstall both the Fitbit app and My Fitness Pal.  Since then, even though My Fitness Pay is connected to Fitbit, it will not synch with my calories/food intake. Instead, Fitbit wants me to directly load my food intake on Fitbit, using an Apple Phone. Is there a way to tell the Fitbit app that I am using an Android phone? Or, has the issue that was apparently solved some time ago returned?

[N8teGee · Accepted solution]

Hi @Howardnmi.

It could be a case of the Fitbit - > MFP sync service being down. It used to be a far to regular occurrence when I was a user, so much so it pushed me to move to the "Lose it!" platform (which has been extremely reliable).

You could try unblinking both services and then linking them again to see if that helps. You can unlink by opening the Fitbit app on your phone - tapping on your profile picture - scroll down to the bottom and tap on "Third party apps" - manage 3rd party apps - find MFP and revoke access.

To link the services again you can visit this page on my fitness pal (you will need to log in) - https://www.myfitnesspal.com/apps/show/30 

[Howardnmi]

Tried it, twice, still no connection.

[N8teGee]

Hi @Howardnmi.

I'm sorry to hear that. I'd like to point you towards this blog post from Myfitnespal (here), as there seems to be an ongoing issue which they are currently investigating. Perhaps this is where your issue also stems from.

I'd also recommend checking out MFP's forum (if you haven't already) to see if other users are experiencing the same issue. 

As I said above, MFP's connection with Fitbit has been pretty poor over the years (leading to me leaving the platform). I believe the issue is there end as for the 2 years I've been using a different platform there has only ever been two instances of down time. So hopefully this more thorough investigation will solve the issues once and for all. 

[Howardnmi]

Thank you for your responses. It is interesting that I never had a problem until just one week ago when I got my new phone and T-Mobile messed up while transferring my data. As a result I needed to reinstall the Fitbit and My Fitness Pal apps and establish the linkage. In place of allowing me to get that linkage, Fitbit is asking me to enter my food items directly with an iPhone…but I have a Samsung.

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

[N8teGee]

I take it your Fitbit is actually syncing with your new phone/Fitbit app? When you open the Fitbit app, all the data agrees with what the watch says?

Really the phone shouldn't make any difference with the data going from Fitbit to MFP, as by this point everything is done server side. The only time the phone could play a part is failing to get the data from the tracker to Fitbit's servers.

A typical sync (to MFP) would look like this :-

Watch -> Phone -> Fitbit server -> MFP server

If you log onto the fitbit Web dashboard (here) does this agree with your tracker and phone app? If so then we know the data is definitely making it to Fitbit's server, and would point the issue to the data not making it to MFP's server.