Sense notifications won't work without GPS

[Imatron]

The Fitbit Sense refuses to send texts, answer phone calls, receive notifications, or just about anything useful unless the GPS on my phone is turned on. If I enable this, it kills the battery and I go from two days without charging the phone to carrying a power cable and a battery everywhere. I can understand if I were using it to track a running path or something, but even then, isn't it supposed to have it's own GPS built in for that stuff?

How do I fix this? Theres no way this device could be engineered so poorly that my 5 year old garmin can receive notifications when the newer fitbit cant.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject and updated label

[Gr4ndp4]

Hi, @Imatron welcome to the community, you may find this article of interest How do I get notifications from my phone on my Fitbit device? and How do I use GPS on my Fitbit device? You do not mention the make and model of your mobile phone, almost all Android mobiles play well with Fitbit but you will require Android 10 or higher and some need special care when pairing Fitbit Supported Devices explains in detail. Please check you are not in sleep mode or DND. You should also check that any battery-saving functions on your mobile are turned off as we need the app to be running constantly in the background.

I hope this helps but if you are still stuck please post here again.

Cheers

[Imatron]

I am using a Razer Phone 2, fully updated OS, watch is updated, application is updated.

I've gone through the troubleshooting page and everything is enabled, do not disturb is turned off, lock screen notifications, individually giving each app permission to send notifications to this particular watch, etc.

But the watch will give me notifications telling me I need to start exercising, and I cant seem to turn those off.

[Gr4ndp4]

Hi, @Imatron thanks for your feedback, please check your android version (it needs to be version 10 or newer).

As far as the notification to "exercise" is concerned from the today screen in your Fitbit app>touch your icon in the top left corner>Stouch Sense tile>reminders to move>to turn off slide switch in the top right corner to the left to grey it out>return to today screen & sync..

I hope this helps.

Cheers

[Imatron]

Apparently I have android 9 on this device and the manufacturer has no plans to upgrade to 10 (even though it is a gaming phone and 10 adds better support for gaming controllers).

However, that is not what the documentation for this product says on the store shelf or even on the product's box. The box itself does not declare a minimum version number of 10, or any number for that matter. After researching this, it appears that it originally supported earlier phones including mine, and fitbit forced an update that kicked customers out of access to the app and virtually bricked the watch's functionality, many of whom paid 300 dollars to have the watch remain useless until they paid upwards of 300 dollars to upgrade to a newer phone. The app did still install on my phone however, but I'm finding that it is an irritating series of upsells and constant nagging to turn on the phone's GPS. I also cant seem to swap the 5 watchfaces around, rather, it keeps overwriting the same faceplate every time I install one, and three of the preinstalled faces are not even able to be selected on the watch, so really I've got two watchfaces. If there is an easy way to swap these, the OS and app are so nonsensical that I cannot find out how. Despite installing and running the SPo2 watchface, and seeing the SPo2 sensor running (the red LED apparently), it will not display any form of SPo2 data on the SPo2 watchface or the app.

Even then most of the reviewers are talking about how the watch has these features, but does not actually give you any understanding of what to do with that information, assuming you can get access to it without paying 80 bucks a year to see the sensor data for the hardware you already paid for. Most of the reviewers seem to say this watch was abandoned after google's purchase because they plan to release future fitbit watches with google wear OS, before most of the features advertised were even made accessible to buyers who were sold on these features.

I also have to tap the screen anywhere form 5-20 times before the watchface turns on. Sometimes I get lucky and it registers the motion of turning my arm to look at the screen, but it's getting idiotic that half the time I cant even get this watch to tell me the time. I'm tired of people asking me what Im doing with the watch, if I'm playing some kind of game, and then having to tell them "trying to get this piece of crap fitbit to tell me the time".

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi there, @Imatron. @Gr4ndp4 Thanks for stopping by to help our member.

@Imatron Thanks for the detailed information and the time taken while troubleshooting your Sense. I see your point of view as you shouldn't be getting those messages if you're using non-GPS features. I understand this isn't your case and even though you've tried some steps, let me recommend the following steps to reconnect your watch:

1. Forget your Sense from the Bluetooth settings.
2. Turn off other Bluetooth connections nearby.
3. Reboot your phone and restart your watch.
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.

Once this is completed, try changing the clock face and monitor your watch's behavior in the next days to see if you get SpO2 data. If by any chance the same message keeps appearing, take a screenshot and attach it to your reply so I can investigate.

About your phone, let me explain the Fitbit app was optimized to work on certain mobile devices based on the requirements of each model and OS, and future Fitbit app versions also adapt to any change implemented in the OS. While the Fitbit app might continue working with Android 9, we recommend updating to Android 10 or higher in order to have the optimized experience on the Fitbit app. I'm sorry for this inconvenience and please know your feedback will help us to keep improving our devices and services.

In regards to your other question, did you also make sure to have Sleep Mode off? When this setting is on, the screen stays dark when you turn your wrist and it won't turn on when receiving any type of notifications. To check this, please see this help article and make sure Screen Wake is also set to Automatic.

If you have questions about how other features or apps, my best advice is to check the User Manual, or visit our Help Site which provides detailed information about their functionality, requirements and troubleshooting steps.

[Imatron]

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 While the Fitbit app might continue working with Android 9, we recommend updating to Android 10 or higher in order to have the optimized experience on the Fitbit app. I'm sorry for this inconvenience and please know your feedback will help us to keep improving our devices and services.

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As I just said in my last post, the manufacturer has no plans to upgrade my device to android 10. Android doesn't just let you click a button to download and install the latest version, that only happens if the manufacturer of my particular phone decides to put in the effort and make the appropriate modifications, and then push it out to me. Unless your suggesting I need to go out and buy a new 500 dollar phone to use the new 200 dollar watch, in which case I would sooner put the watch back in the box, take it back to the store, and put my Garmin Vivoactive HR back on which works without any of these extra steps.

How does the screen and capacitive button actually work, because I have tried both keeping the screen on, and letting it go to sleep. Even when I put the screen into always-on mode, it still takes a good 10 screen taps, swipes, etc before it starts responding to the touch screen. The capacitive button does absolutely nothing as far as I can tell.

[Rich_Laue]

The app is not telling you to turn on GPS, the app is asking for location services to be enabled. This has been a requirement of Android since Android 6. 

Having location services enabled, allows an app to get your location. It does not turn on GPS, which should empty the battery within 5-6 hours. Location can also be determined by WiFi and cell towers. 

[Imatron]

I need to figure out what is draining my battery then, I accidentally left location services on a week ago and (incidentally?) the battery was dropping to 40 percent halfway through the day, every day. Seemed to stop happening immediately after I turned the location services off, but maybe that was just a coincidence?

Usually my phone will tell me everything thats draining the battery under one of the menus, but lately its been leaving about 80% of the battery usage unaccounted for.

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi there, @Imatron. @Rich_Laue Thanks for your input.

@Imatron Thanks for providing more details, as well as the screenshot. I understand your point of view about not being able to update to Android 10. The information shared in my previous post was to explain the reasons of this change and so you can take those details into consideration when using your current phone. Nevertheless, I'm sorry if my post caused any inconvenience and appreciate your feedback.

About your other question, your Sense screen should respond without having to press the button or tap on it too many times. Because this isn't the case, please get in touch with our Support team so they can investigate what may be occurring and provide you with assistance. Click here to get connected with them via chat or phone.

In regards to your other question, certain phone's settings and apps such as location services may drain your phone's battery. To see what's draining the battery the most, go back to the same Battery Usage screen, tap the three dots and then Full Device Usage. Take in mind its required to have location services on in order to keep syncing your Sense with an Android Fitbit app.

[Imatron]

So I have just looked at the battery menu as you suggested and am honestly astounded at the level of idiocy with the fact that there is a "full battery usage" menu under the "battery usage menu", as if I didn't actually want to see everything using the battery usage menu. Unfortunately this additional menu is still leaving more than half of the battery usage unaccounted for, even if I compare the total percentage against the remaining battery. I've checked for any more layers to this menu and can't seem to find any.

Turning the location services on is still eating my entire battery before I can get home after a day's work. This results in having nothing for the watch to sync to anyway. I tried taking an extra battery and power cabled (which in itself is annoying), but using them is proving unfeasible. There is no reason the watch needs to know where I am to give me my notifications unless the software engineers hard-coded it that way, and if they did that then I have to question their motives for it. The watch only needs to know where I am if I tell it to track me for jogging or something, and even then it could be programmed to alert me it wont work until location is enabled.

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi there, @Imatron.

Thanks for getting back and reviewing the suggestions from my post. I understand your concern about the battery life and my best advice is to get in touch with your phone's manufacturer so they can provide you with more information about your phone's performance.

About your other question, as mentioned above let me share it's required to have the location services turned on when using an Android device as this will allow you to sync and use other features such as notifications. I see your point of view about this situation and I'm sorry for the inconvenience this has caused. Your feedback is truly appreciated and will be passed along so our team can keep improving and making Fitbit more useful for you. To learn more about this requirement, please click here.