Unreliability of Fitbit Sense software

[RandyRx8]

I've had my Fitbit Sense now for about a month.  Although there are many good things to say about it, right now it suffers from the ultimate frustation:  You can't count on it to behave reliably, and I'm not talking about the sensors.

1)  Every day that I try I use Alexa, I get the message saying to go set it up on my phone.  It *is* set up on my phone.  Most times, if I restart the watch, logout and back into amazon on my Pixel 4 XL and resync it comes back on.  Until of course the next day when it again tells me on the watch I need to set up Alexa.

2) Ditto for Weather.  Went from Tampa to Orlando, most of the day it stayed stuck in my home locations.  Multiple sync attempts failed to fix this.  That is, if I didn't get the Setup message telling me to go set it up on my phone and resync

3) Fitbit Pay.  Finally tried using it at Disney World where contactless payments like Google Pay and Apple Pay work flawlessly.  Got an error at the payment terminal when I touched the face of the watch to the plate.  Yes,  it is set up and shows both cards that are set up with (and are also working fine in Google Pay).

4)  Stubbornly not reading swipes.  Nothing is more frustrating than having to swipe 2-5 times before the display acknowledges me.  In always on mode, it likes to force me to flick my wrist several times or aggressively double tap the display to wake it up (or use the side button).

5) Voice reply to texts.  Often I tap the microphone button multiple times, and just NOTHING happens.  Is this wired into Alexa or related to those problems?  Who knows.  But when I see a notification on my watch, it's a signal to pull out my phone or pull out my hair.

6) Occassional reboots for no reason whatsoever.

If I had to sum up the Sense, I'd say: nice hardware and half baked, buggy and  (most importantly) unreliable software.  Come on guys.  Please fix this stuff?  I am finding this watch to be a CHORE to use and interpret.    I would absolutely NOT recommend anyone buy this who wants it to "Just work".  They would be very angry with me if they bought it on such a recommendation.

[Rich_Laue]

Hi @RandyRx8 points 1,2, and 5 are most likely related to a setting on your phone, and we will need to know what phone. 

As for Fitbit pay, what error was reported? 

I'm not sure why, but occaosionly I find a terminal that simply will not work with the Sense but worked with phone and the Charge 4. 

Point 6, I might try shutting down, or contacting Fitbit. 

[WehuttyWanker]

Are you somewhat saying that all these problems with the Fitbit devices and lack of needed firmware updates are NOT Fitbit's fault??

[FloppyDrive]

If you successfully connected your Sense to Alexa, you should see it in the Alexa app or the Alexa website under devices.

[RandyRx8]

For 1 (Alexa) I have followed the instructions correctly enough that Alexa starts working.  Problem is, the very next day, I'll long press to launch it and the watch will tell me to go set it up on the phone.  When I go into the phone alexa setup for fitbit, it shows it's logged in and all is okay.  But clearly it isn't.  There is a disconnect between the fitbit alexa app and the watch.  (The phone is a Google Pixel 4 XL)

For 2, I don't know what to tell you.  I waited most of the day for it to notice I was in Orlando.  I hit sync several times.  I particularly love how sometimes you get a sync with a red exclamation point and ZERO information about what/why/how failed?  Yet it dutifully reports it successfully sync'ed 1 minute ago etc.

5 I think is related to Alexa...just because it's a voice to text thing.

As to fitbit pay, the pay terminal display just said "an error occurred" or something like that.  Usually in a pay situation when you're in a line of people you don't want to be "that person" by trying several times.  My phone, on the other hand, happily handled payment with Google Pay.  

6 I don't know what to even tell you except I hope that Fitbit OS 5.1 fixes some of these things.

[RandyRx8]

Thanks for the tip.  Went there and logged in.  And see in the logs:

"Sorry, you can only perform this action on a Fitbit device that supports Alexa. 😔"

Wait what?!  The Fitbit SENSE supports Alexa and I launched it, but somehow I get *this*?  Even while it is logged in properly?