Sense reboots during exercise tracking

[kd5byb]

I took my less than a month old Sense on a walk at lunchtime today.  This was the first time I've used it to track exercise manually using the Exercise / Walk menu options.  (used to do this all the time with my Versa)

During my 45 minute walk, it rebooted three times, buzzing and showing the Fitbit logo screen each time.  Each time it required me to restart my Walk using the Exercise menu.  What should have been one walk is listed as four different walks in my Activity History.  This never happened with my old Versa.

I don't believe it's ever rebooted outside the exercise feature.  If I don't manually start the exercise, the Sense does recognize my activity, logs it, and does not reboot.  Only problem is that it doesn't map my route, and I really like that feature!

Anyone else having this issue?  Any solution?

Thanks much,

ben

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi @kd5byb. Welcome to the Community Forums.

Thanks for sharing detailed information about your Sense behavior. I understand how you're feeling about your watch not tracking your exercise correctly and I'm sorry for this inconvenience. To investigate what may be occurring, may I know if the Fitbit app was opened during your walk? Does the same happen when tracking other type of exercises?

In the meantime, please give a try to the following steps:

1. Remove your watch from the Bluetooth settings.
2. Force quit the Fitbit app and reboot your phone.
3. Restart your Sense to refresh its performance
4. Open the Fitbit app and pull down on the screen to force a manual sync.
5. Leave the Fitbit app running in the background and try tracking a walk one more time.

Hope this helps.

[kd5byb]

Good morning Lizzy,

Yes, the FitBit app was open on my phone, and I was even scrolling thru various items in the app installed on my iPhone as I was walking  (IE: checking my heartrate, watching my steps increase, etc...).  I thought that this might be the cause, so after the second reboot, I stopped playing with the app and locked the iPhone.  That didn't seem to matter as it rebooted again.  I've followed the steps above and will try going for a walk shortly.  🙂

thanks much,

ben

[kd5byb]

Good evening Lizzy and all,

It was a very busy day today at work so I only was able to go for two very short walks - maybe five minutes each and I had zero problems with reboots today.  Hopefully things at work will be more calm tomorrow and I can go for a much longer walk to see if the problem has gone away.  🙂

Thanks much,

ben

[kd5byb]

I forgot to answer part of the questions - I have not had any reboot problems during other types of automatically-recognized exercises.  Last weekend I spent quite a bit of time walking around the yard doing yard work, and no problems.  It also had no issues when I was mowing the lawn.

thanks much,

ben

[Jana.Velvet]

Hi Everyone,

I have the same problem. And I am pretty sure this problem started after the latest FW update - before that I never had this problem. 

I have tried the usual switching off and on again, I even tried the factory reset - didn't help...

I have had the same issue when I went swimming, the Sense was completely useless for that exercise. The exercise kept switching off and asking me for PIN code and didn't track anything... 

On the other hand when I go to a gym and use "workout" or "treadmill" the system doesn't crash. But every single time I go for a walk - after just few minutes I get the blue Fitibit logo and the watch restarts itself. It is extremely annoying when I have to watch the watch during the exercise and I never get the complete exercise..... 😞

I hope this will be fixed soon. Thanks!

EDIT: I forgot to add, since the update I also have frequent problems when the band won't sync with the phone and I have to switch off BlueTooth and reconnect it.

[kd5byb]

Good evening all,

So good news and bad news.  This morning, I went on a ~36 minute walk and *no issues*.  The Sense did not reboot at all.  Yay!  🙂

However, just sitting here at my computer, with my phone locked, not doing anything with the watch, the Sense rebooted.  😞  Got the vibration, saw the FitBit logo.  Once it rebooted, I opened the app on my phone and it was clear that the Sense had not synced all day long...as my step count was about 400.  Took it about 30 seconds to pair with the phone...and once paired, I forced a manual sync...and my step count jumped to 4,653 steps as displayed on the Sense.

During my initial walk that caused me to report this issue, I really thought I may have created the issue by playing with the app on my phone.  However, with the reboot that just happened, I was sitting here at my computer not doing anything.  I wasn't playing with the watch, wasn't playing with my phone, the phone was even locked.  😞

I'm kind of sad - my Versa was *rock solid* and in fact, the only reason I upgraded to the Sense was because the battery life on the old Versa had gotten to the point where it was barely making thru two days of use.  Really sad that the Sense is not as reliable as the old Versa.  :..(

Hopefully there is a firmware update in the works to help with this or another fix.  🙂

Thanks much,

ben

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi @kd5byb and @Jana.Velvet. It's good to see you here in the forums.

Thanks for sharing detailed information about your watches, as well as trying the suggestions posted above. I'm sorry your Sense keeps rebooting by itself regardless of the activity or the interaction on the Fitbit app. Given this situation and because you've exhausted the possible troubleshooting steps, let me recommend getting in touch with our Support team so they can investigate what may be occurring and provide you with further assistance. Please click here to get connected with them via chat or phone, and make sure to share all the steps you've tried so far.

Have a good day.

[Mikeyy]

🙃

[kd5byb]

Good morning Lizzy and all,

Over the last few days, the Sense has been flawless - no spontaneous reboots and what exercise I've been able to do (it's been raining for like a week here) has had no issues.  I've yet to repeat the exact same walk that originally gave me problems; that will be the ultimate test.  Maybe the rain will stop for long enough that I can get out and take a walk at lunchtime.

Lizzy - I will get in touch with the support team.  Although at this point, I'm not sure I've got the problem any more?  Once I repeat the walk, I'll know.  🙂

Having worked on some complicated technology myself...debugging something as complicated as a Fitbit watch, even when you have it in your hands, can be difficult.  Firmware issues can act like hardware issues...and hardware issues can appear to be firmware issues.  Now try to do the same without having the hardware in your hands, doing the debugging at a distance - it's very difficult, if not impossible.  Not to sound like a Fitbit shill / fanboy, but I can totally understand them not knowing what's going on...and it taking them some time to figure out and fix the issue.

Thanks much all,

ben

[Jana.Velvet]

Hi Everyone,

I am not so lucky I am afraid. After two walks without problems I got another restart yesterday mid walk... This is not a problem that would disappear, I have this issue for quite some time - since the FW update I believe. So I will contact the support for sure...

I am quite disappointed I must say, I used to have Charge 3 and I had to get two replacements because the first two bands ended up with two different issues, after that I got Charge 4 which was ok so I got my hopes up... and now with (much more expensive) Sense I am disappointed again...

Not very good results I must say 😕

(And I haven't even started checking the forum about the problems I have with syncing and not working notifications from phone.....)

Anyway I will see what the support has to say about this. 

Thanks and regards,

Jana

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi @Mikeyy, @kd5byb and @Jana.Velvet. Thanks for your participation in the forums.

Thanks for keeping me posted and for your patience through this situation. I understand where you're coming about your experience with the Sense. We value the feedback we received from our members, and your comments aren't the exception and won't go unnoticed as they'll help us to improve our products, services and overall environment.

@kd5byb I'm glad your Sense is now working and thanks for your efforts. While this shouldn't happen again, please know our Support team, via chat or phone, will be always be available for you if you need further assistance.

@Jana.Velvet Thanks for trying the suggestion to get in touch with our team and as mentioned before, please share all the steps you've tried with your Sense. That way, our team will be able to proceed from there and bring you back on track.

Have a good day.

[Clove6060]

Subscribed. Mine does the same thing. My watch restarts in middle of my Walk Exercise.

[Clove6060]

I have the same issue. 

[contina44]

My sense stops recording my run multiple times through a run. He usually just goes back to the time screen and stops recording. On various runs it just resets and stops recording. 

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi @Clove6060. It's nice to see you around.

Thanks for joining this thread. Because this happens during your exercise, may I know if you open the Fitbit app during that time? I'm asking this as our team is aware of an issue experienced with the Sense restarting by itself while tracking an exercise and interacting with the Fitbit app. They're working to identify a solution and you can receive further updates about this issue in this thread.

On the other hand, if this happens without interacting with the Fitbit app, I'd recommend getting in touch with our Support team so they can evaluate your watch's behavior and provide you with further assistance. Please click here to get connected with them via chat or phone.

Have a good day.

[Clove6060]

Yes I had the app open and looked at the step count. I may have also synced the app during the walk.  Let me know if I should not have viewed the app during the walk.

[Jana.Velvet]

Hi Lizzy,

Mine does that without interacting with the app, sometimes I don't even have the phone with me.

I'm still getting around to contacting the support, but I will do that soon.

Thanks,

Jana 

[Clove6060]

I think the reboot takes place after a little more exercise time. Mine seems to work for a bit then reboots. I plan to take a walk today. I’ll the watch closely to see if and when it occurs.  

[Clove6060]

Took an hour long walk. Did the steps you outlined prior. Had FB app open. Listening to Spotify. Did not touch phone at all. At some point during the walk, the exercise tracking on my watch stopped.

Did not feel it reboot though, like in the past.