Surge won't connect to Android Pixel XL

[Ryan-not-a-fan]

My surge stopped syncing sometime in July.  I tried several restarts and could not get it to work.  Then I tried removing the device from my account, but now I can't add the device back into my account.  I'm going through the basic setup to connect the surge, but the Android fitbit app just asks if the surge is powered on and in range.  It is.  I've tried turning off bluetooth and turning it back on.  I've tried all the troubleshooting tips that I could find.  The surge is fully charged.

Here is what I think should work:

I open the android fitbit app (it says it was last updated July 23, 2019)

I open my profile and click to add a device.  There are currently no devices in my account.

It seems the app is trying to detect which device I'm setting up and fails so displays a list of all devices.

I scroll down to the surge and select it.

I agree to the terms and policies.

I click through the instructions.

The app tells me to power on my surge and tries to connect.

Here is where it always fails.  I've tried having the surge off so that I could turn it on immediately before it tries to pair.  I've tried having the surge on and displaying the time.  I've tried pressing different buttons to trick it into pairing.  I've also tried restarting bluetooth on my Pixel phone right before starting the fitbit app.  I've made sure there are no other trackers or even bluetooth devices in the vicinity.  I've tried force stopping the fitbit app.  I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the fitbit app.

[WendyB]

Have you tried to turn Bluetooth off on your phone?

After doing so shut down the phone for a minute. Go back in and try to add the device again but allow it to turn Bluetooth back on

[Ryan-not-a-fan]

Hello,

Wow, that worked!  (kind of)

Here is what happened.

I turned off my tracker, and made sure it was off for over a minute. At
this time, my tracker was not plugged in and was charged to about 50%.

I turned off bluetooth on the phone.

I started the fitbit app and started to set up a new device.

It asked to turn on bluetooth and I said ok.

I agreed to the terms and conditions.

I turned on the tracker when it asked.

After a few seconds the app said that it failed.

I clicked on try again.  After the same delay it said it failed.

I told it to try again and it connected to the tracker and prompted me
to enter the 4-digit code from the tracker.

Then it said setup was taking longer than normal and it prompted me to
enter the 4-digit code again.

It said it was taking longer than normal, but at least it had set the
time correctly on the tracker.

Then the app said "Not working?" and asked if I want to try again.

Then the app started the device setup all over again, telling me to
power on my tracker.

Then the app went into "searching" mode for much longer than previous
tries.  After a few minutes, I figured the app is dead and gave up.  I
pressed the back button until I was out of the app.

During this time, the tracker and the phone are sitting right next to
each other, away from any computers or bluetooth devices.

Should I have my tracker plugged into power for any part of this
procedure?  Is there anything else that I can do to make the connection
happen?

[Crazy-Fritter]

---

@Ryan-not-a-fan wrote:
Hello,

Wow, that worked!  (kind of)

Here is what happened.

I turned off my tracker, and made sure it was off for over a minute. At
this time, my tracker was not plugged in and was charged to about 50%.

I turned off bluetooth on the phone.

I started the fitbit app and started to set up a new device.

It asked to turn on bluetooth and I said ok.

I agreed to the terms and conditions.

I turned on the tracker when it asked.

After a few seconds the app said that it failed.

I clicked on try again.  After the same delay it said it failed.

I told it to try again and it connected to the tracker and prompted me
to enter the 4-digit code from the tracker.

Then it said setup was taking longer than normal and it prompted me to
enter the 4-digit code again.

It said it was taking longer than normal, but at least it had set the
time correctly on the tracker.

Then the app said "Not working?" and asked if I want to try again.

Then the app started the device setup all over again, telling me to
power on my tracker.

Then the app went into "searching" mode for much longer than previous
tries.  After a few minutes, I figured the app is dead and gave up.  I
pressed the back button until I was out of the app.

During this time, the tracker and the phone are sitting right next to
each other, away from any computers or bluetooth devices.

Should I have my tracker plugged into power for any part of this
procedure?  Is there anything else that I can do to make the connection
happen?

---

Make sure your surge is completely removed from your phone, including your phone's Bluetooth and the Fitbit app. Also go into your Fitbit account on your PC and make sure your surge is removed from there as well. Then remove the Fitbit app from your phone and turn it off. Then pair your surge back to your account with the dongle plugged into your pc using the windows 10 Fitbit app from the windows store.

Once your surge is paired to your account through the pc, close the Fitbit app on the pc and remove the dongle. Then turn your phone back on and reinstall the Fitbit app, then log back into the Fitbit app on your phone and your surge will automatically sync to the phone and should be good to go.

For some reason the surge trackers don't like to make the initial pairing to a phone, but once you pair them to your account through a pc they'll pair to your phone for years to come without a problem as long as you don't update the app on your phone. If you do constantly update the app you'll more than likely always have sync problems with your surge.

[Ryan-not-a-fan]

That's great information. Thanks.
But I don't have access to a Windows PC or a Mac. All my computer's run
Linux. So I suppose I can fire up a virtual machine with Windows on it, but
that seems like too much work.