Sense OS update (5.2.1)

[FitbitCommunity]

We’re excited to announce that a firmware update for Sense will be available soon!  Some of you may already have this update available - if you installed it, let us know what you think!

If you don’t see the update yet, that’s expected. Check the Fitbit app in a few days, and you’ll see a message when you can install the update. We expect everyone to receive the update in the coming weeks. We appreciate your patience while we get this update to all of our customers. 

Did you know that we gradually release our updates? We do this to make sure everything is working just right for you. Sometimes we find an issue and it might take a little longer than expected for everyone to get the update. While you might see suggestions on how to “force” an update, we ask that you don’t try any of these workarounds. Most of the time the update won’t be available and you can lose data or encounter other difficulties. The best way to get the update is to be patient and wait for the update banner to appear in the Fitbit app. 

WHAT’S NEW AND FIXED

You can find the release notes here.

HOW DO I UPDATE?

You can find step-by-step instructions for updating your Sense here.

If you run into difficulty updating please review these troubleshooting tips. 

We’re interested in hearing your feedback on this update! Let us know what you like! If you encounter unexpected behavior during or after your update, please post the details below.

[Newtripley]

Well I updated and am pleasantly surprised 

Seems to be much snappier, smoother transitions when swiping 

I have also noticed better battery life before update i would get a good 5 days between charging but now am getting 6 days and could of probably pushed it to 7 and thats with notifications and alarms on 

Very pleased 😀 

[cali_girl65]

After the update my phone stays charged for 24 hours ONLY.  Anyone else having this issue.  Charged it Sunday evening, it is Tuesday Morning and dead.

[lablover55]

reset the watch, then after you go through the setup, turn off bluetooth. See if that helps with the battery life...

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi everyone.

@HeckItsMike I'm sorry for the issues you're having. To work on this, could you confirm if the issue is with the clock face not showing your data? If that's correct, have you tried changing the clock face to one made by Fitbit to see? Also, are the rest of your stats displayed correctly on the Today app of your watch? These details will help me to investigate on my end.

About your other question, if the battery isn't charging correctly, please give a try to the troubleshooting tips described in this help article, monitor your watch behavior in the next days and keep me posted on the outcome.

@mkostersitz Thanks for the details provided. Because you're trying to connect your Sense to another Bluetooth device, did you have other Bluetooth connections nearby? While you can sync your watch with other mobile devices, take in mind that we recommend to turn off the Bluetooth from other devices to prevent any interference with the connection. If you haven't done so, please give a try to the troubleshooting tips described in this help article and let me know how it goes.

@Elwil1 Thanks for joining this thread and letting me know about your Sense. I understand how frustrating this can be and please let me share that our team is aware of the SpO2 data not appearing on the watch or the Health Metrics tile. They're working on this matter and my best advice is to keep an eye to this thread which will be updated as soon as we receive details from our team.

@lbc47 I'm sorry you've had this experience with your Sense and thanks for the steps tried on your own. I understand where you're coming from and because your watch is still unresponsive, I'd recommend getting in touch with our Support team so they can investigate its behavior and provide you with further assistance. Click here to get connected with them via chat or phone.

@cali_girl65 I've moved your post to this thread to keep our forums organized. Please note that your Sense battery life depends on how often certain features are used such as SpO2 tracking or Always-On Display. With this in mind, let me suggest trying the tips described in this help article to maximize the battery life, fully charge your Sense with the original charging cable and monitor its behavior in the next days.

Hope this helps.

[AZFitbtUser]

It's not 100%, but it seems to be tracking detailed sleep more often now so that's good. I'm happy to hear that it's working well for you @RonaldM; there's hope! 😃

[mkostersitz]

@LizzyFitbit, I am not connecting the Sense to another BT device. I am connecting another BT device to my phone i.e. my car head unit or headphones, the Hidrate bottle. It does not seem to matter what BT device my phone connects to once that happens Sense stops syncing and I need to restart the watch and the phone to recover.

[JSONDENAA]

I did the update and yet now some words are replaces with "~" owed by a mix of letters and numbers. And some of my apps have titles but not icons. 

[Sharky9000]

At this time I have no idea about any of these problems, I still don't have my FitBit Sense.

It's been ordered & awaiting delivery, I held off purchase until regulatory approval for the ECG function had been given here in Australia.

Using an Android phone the Apple Watch was never going to happen.

After my Sense arrives & I've had time to play with it and understand it I will try & post my thoughts.

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi everyone.

Thanks for participating in this thread and sharing your experience with your Sense firmware update.

@mkostersitz Thanks for the clarification, as well as the steps tried prior to posting. As you may know, your Sense will pair via Bluetooth with your mobile device after completing the set up process. However, it seems that your phone wants to stay connected to your other devices instead of your Sense. Because your post didn't mention, did you receive an error message when trying to sync your watch to your phone? Let me recommend giving a try to the following steps to reconnect your watch to your account:

1. Forget your Sense from the Bluetooth settings.
2. Check if the Fitbit app is updated.
3. Force quit the Fitbit app and reboot your phone.
4. Open the Fitbit app, tap your profile picture > Set Up a Device.
5. Select your Sense, tap Replace Device and follow the on-screen instructions.

Try using your other devices and once you're done, disconnect them from your phone's Bluetooth. Then, open the Fitbit app, pull down on the screen to force a manual sync and let me know how it goes.

@JSONDENAA That's odd. If possible, could you take a picture of your Sense showing those symbols? This will help me to investigate on my end. See this post for instructions on how to attach a file in your reply. In the meantime and if you haven't done so, please try restarting your Sense to refresh its performance and monitor its behavior.

Hope this helps.

[carriejean]

mine is getting stuck in exercise mode. Going on two days now. How did you fix that?

[RonaldM]

---

@RonaldM wrote:

Almost a week after the update I have to say all the things work fine for me. Not sure if this is related to the last update, but since then I have received daily sleep stages! I don't want to jinx it, but I'm very excited about this. Especially it's months ago since I received it on a daily basis. 

@AZFitbtUserany luck on your side? 

  

---

I'm afraid I jinxed it, after posting this positive feedback my Sense is unable to find a consistent hartrate anymore. I guess this update didn't fix my missing; Sleepscore, stressmanagement score, Breathing rate and Resting heart rate after all. 

A quick reset didn't help, so I guess it was fun while it lasted (one week). 

For comparison, for a Covid-19 test group (Covid-red) I'm in, I use the Ava tracker for four months now. And every morning I get all data my Sense is unable to report, amazing! 

 

[JT_sense_user]

Thank you for keep repeating the same thing.  I literally have done all of this multiple times and still have same syncing problem with some miner hickups.  

You guys removed my previous post and I hope you keep this to let the community know that is is not isolated problem.  It happens on iphone some times too which is a golden standard for Google owned companies.  Everything works on iphone but OS update messed that up too.  Good job.

[LostScientist42]

So added to this list of faults:

• Grossly inflated floor count
• Inconsistent syncing with phones
• Notifications not being received
• Inconsistent recording of SpO2 data during sleep
• SpO2 readings now 24 hours behind every other health metric when it is recorded

My battery is now tanking if I use the SpO2 clcokface. Around 20% of battery use for monitoring sleep of which most stats are unavailable as I'm no longer a Premium member.

And still no further clarity into what this latest update actually did. It does not convince me to use the replacement Fitbit Sense out to me considering the first thing it's going to do is want to update firmware.

[Deechte]

The latest update gives me 6 days of 24/24 usage, without SpO2.

[ArtOfCode]

It might be unrelated to this update but since recently my Sense tracker seems to be very inaccurate with my heart rate when in an exercise. I just finished a gym session and when I went to stop the exercise it was reading something in the 80s BPM which I knew was wrong and when I ended the exercise and went to the homescreen it was showing 144 BPM.

At times when this has happened taking it off and putting it back on has helped.

I've also noticed it has sometimes not detected when it's been taken off, with it detecting a ridiculous high heart rate for a period when I left it at home recently.

[RealSting]

What’s version 5.2.1? My Sense says version 128.5.49?

[LostScientist42]

The ECG function on the Fitbit Sense still hasn't been approved in Australia. I don't know where you got the information that says it has been.

[Niteowlcop]

I never mentioned ECG. I mentioned heart rate. Plus I'm not in Australia.

[ArtOfCode]

Who are you replying to?

[ArtOfCode]

I've had problem not being able to properly log water or weight until hours into a day from the Sense itself for ages. I have a feeling it's timezone related but no way to prove it. It's like it won't properly show some stats until their timezone day matches your timezone day.