My wife purchased this for Christmas - it is Jan 30 and I still can't even see what time it is!

[Radioman54]

After 30+ years operating all types of computer platforms for a living, I still can't make this thing do anything but charge. It synched once two days ago and still has no display. I have set up hundreds of computers and various other related hardware but this thing flat does not work. I don't know how it synched two days ago but I had nothing to do with that and can't get it to do it again. 

I have a perfectly functional Garmin Forerunner 45 that was simple and took 5 minutes to activate - this thing has several advantages over the Garmin, however if it won't display the time or the ecg/bp/spo2/skin temp/ or even the time as advertised what good is it doing me? 

Is this a dead duck or does it have some voodoo incantation I missed in the setup? This is a very expensive FAIL right out of the box and I expected it to work. Silly me, after all who believes that when you buy something it should operate according to the hype. 

If anyone can offer help I am open to suggestions. 

Thank you. SC

[JohnnyRow]

If it is connected to phone app, can you see data there?

Have you pressed side "button"  to see if that gets display?

[Drew_Watkinson · Accepted solution]

Do you have it connected to multiple devices like your phone and a tablet?

fitbit will only connect to 1 device at a time. Could be you are trying to sync to phone but your Fitbit is connected to tablet. 

[Radioman54]

I set up the app on my PC and the Moto g7 Power phone.  Uninstalled the app on the phone, power cycled the phone. Will  Reboot the PC and try again...  I was able to make it sync prior to this today, and noted that the device activity history goes beyond September 17 - no data but why the records before I received it in late December? Was this a return from someone else who couldn't make it work before I got it? For the record, this practice is not unheard of;  customer A returns unit as defective, refurb person checks to see if it powers up - yes - repack and reship. NO - then it goes to scrap where the components are salvaged. 

Had I known she was ordering this I would have seen all the problems reported on the Sense and we would have gone another direction. 

[Radioman54]

See reply to Drew Watkinson below...

[JohnnyRow]

Fitbits can connect to multiple devices.  But they might have trouble syncing if both connected devices are nearby with bluetooth on.

[SunsetRunner]

Or it might have trouble syncing at all.

[Radioman54]

After the process I described above, (deinstall on phone, reboot of phone and PC) I did the replace on the computer according to the app. It finally found the Sense, and then nothing. It just displays in multiple languages :To start download the Fitbit app - and (drum roll..........) nothing. l can't make this thing respond and display anything else. We just keep on spinning and now I can link to my home wifi  - for what good that does. Anyone know how to call the support people for this piece?

[Radioman54]

I can synch at will though. 

[twl1971]

Just open an online chat session with support.  You probably have a dud.

https://myhelp.fitbit.com/s/support?language=en_US

[Radioman54]

I saw many problem reports online with this product, and the complex nature of it's capabilities seems to be a large part of the trouble reports with this product. I think many of those who complained probably did what I did and tried the computer first setup - Please make a note to engineering that the install only works if you start the process on the phone and later on the computer. I will note this on the forum so others can see what they should be doing - and if all else fails call the help desk (FitBit could do a better job of listing the number up front on their website). I can't imagine doing this in chat, too much typing and frustration, being able to directly question the helpdesk person while the process is ongoing showed me that the reason it didn't work in the first place was I didn't know to start the setup on my phone, and later do the computer setup. Now it works great. If you are having problems on the computer setup, go to settings and bluetooth and see if there are any FitBit Sense instances listed - I had two. Delete them all and start over only after you complete the phone setup and it should work like it was designed. If FitBit automated the process in a downloadable routine, this would make it much easier to get working. I used to do software installs and configurations in corporate roll outs of new platforms and I couldn't get this to work. That should be a warning to the engineering department.