RESOLVED: Unable to link with Facebook - 3/31/16

[MatthewFitbit]

4/7 Update: This should now be resolved, and Facebook integration should now be working normally. If you are still having trouble, please consult this help article for tips on connecting with your Facebook friends. Thanks everyone for your patience while we worked to correct this issue!

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4/6 Update: We have a fix in place which will resolve this issue, and it is being prepared to roll out into production. I'll post again once that happens, but it shouldn't be long!

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We are aware of an issue preventing Fitbit users from linking with their Facebook accounts, and producing the following error. This may also prevent users from searching for friends via Facebook if their accounts are already linked.

Our team is currently investigating this issue, and we're working to return this functionality to normal behavior. If you see this error, please note that there is nothing wrong with your tracker itself. We'll post another update here as soon as we have news regarding a resolution.

Sorry for the inconvenience, and thank you for your patience!

[NikiJ]

Matthew. I am frustrated with this answer as these threads paper to go back almost a year. Is Fitbit really working on a solution?

[Theamj]

Hi.
I cant connect my firbit account to my Facebook account. Ive tried to do this from the app and from my profile in fitbits website.

First i get a message that says that my fitbit is allready connectet to Facebook, so I press OK, then the message "Unable to create Facebook account".
Help?

[Rich_Laue]

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@Tracey64 wrote:

glad that app update I've just had for my phone worked..**

................................................NOT!

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You do realize that the link to Facebook happens between Fitbit and Facebook, and really has nothing to do with the app. BTW this even affects those that don't use an app.

[SteveH]

There is a known problem with this at the moment. Fitbit are aware and are looking into it. The main thread is being updated here:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Third-Party-Integrations/Unable-to-link-with-Facebook-3-31-16/m-p/12...

[Rebekahrathbone]

I am still able to return my Fit bit. Please advise if I should call customer service first or just go ahead and return. This is a major feature for me and I am 100% disappointed to not be able to connect with friends and participate in challenges

[Jim_NJ]

Thanks for the update, MatthewFitbit.  I hope Fitbit can resolve this quickly.  It's getting more and more frustrating not to be able to connect with my Facebook friends.

[brazzle]

How long do you think this process will take and how will we be notified once the error has been corrected? 

[AlvaroFitbit]

@kaltrock @JackyK @Brandyjo12 Welcome to our Community! We are currently investigating this issue as it is affecting several users. You can read more about the status in this post. Thank you for your patience while this is corrected.

I'll be around!

[Seiyar]

I m returning mine until they fix it. frustrating.

[HELMINGLB]

I am also having issues pairing my Fitbit Flex with Facebook. It also will not show me all of my contacts on my phone. It is only letting me find friends by email addresses, or if I go under my friends that popped up I can add friends from thier friends list. I know I am not the only one experiencing this. It lets me share my trophies and badges on Facebook though, and I am getting very frustrated. 

[MeylinP]

It's nice to see our Community is growing @Clare79 @NikiJ welcome sweeties! Please know our engineering team is still working to resolve this issue as fast as they can. You can read more about this by going to this thread.

Thank you for your patience with this! 

[Sharonnorbury]

Hi
I appear to not be able to add friends through facebook.keeps coming up saying unable to add account
Can anybody help with this ?

[HELMINGLB]

I am still having issues wanting to add Facebook friends. The littel Facebook insigna is blocked out so it's not working at all. Plus, its only letting me add via email address and I would like to add by Facebook or phone number. Is this even possible? And why does it show me people who don't even have a Fitbit??

[cpoe007]

Having the same problem. I went with fitbit bacause it was supposed to be the easiest to use and sync.. this is annoying

[Carli050386]

Hi,
I have just set up my surge it's all good to go and seems to be working. Apart from it won't let me log into and add friends for Facebook. I went to the desktop to try that way and that also wouldn't let me. Keeps saying try again later. Anybody else had this problem. Oh I've tried logging out and back in on the app and desktop and that didn't work. Thanks.

[OhioDisasterDad]

Since FitBit doesn't seem to be saying anything about what is wrong and simply just attempting to bury the issue by having us post to a somewhat obscure forum that doesn't impact their sales by suggesting we post here instead of social media, I'll share what I think it is.

The issue appears to be the OAuth sharing between Facebook and Fitbit (not the app or the device). Essentially Fitbit is requesting access via OAuth, Facebook is granting permissions (from the error messages I've seen) but then FitBit is dropping who the information should be linked to. Its sort of like walking into a room and then you forgot why you came in, except in this case you had to be given permission to walk into the room.

[JRGon]

What's amazing is how long the issue has continued. I've tried tweeting it. Not much impact. In their defense though, OAuth and 3rd party apps have always been a nuisance. Especially when Facebook goes API change crazy. Hopefully this gets fixed sooner or later.

[OhioDisasterDad]

I agree that this has went on long enough that it's more than just a "department" issue and has most likely esculated up in their organization. If it becomes a PR issue for them and they see a drop in sales then it has expanded past database engineers, programmers, and projects managers. I'd like to think that internally what is going on is "Karl or Nancy" is on vacation and their the only ones that do this sort of work, and they didn't take their laptop to VPN and they aren't answering their phone, everyone else is trying to jury-rig something together but are failing miserably. Or the people at Facebook lost the email request from Fitbit engineers who are looking for the change in the API that is breaking the system. It's always stuff like that that really casacades from a simple error into a NASDAQ crushing error. 

My guess is that they'll have it up in 5 days since it's been a week already...Karl or Nancy should be back from vacation by then.

However, the people that are dealing with the PR on this need some re-training. They aren't addressing the issue as a whole, and are just deflecting or being non-responsive. A simple top-page press release on their page, a notification pushed to the app, or a pinned tweet, saying that they are working on a system-wide issue and hope to have it resolved in x amount of days is more helpful than just pushing people to their community board. It is more transparent and it "owns" the problem.

[Facebookhelp]

Can't connect to Facebook tried logging in and out deleting and reinstalling

[OhioDisasterDad]

Yeah, it appears that the issue is not the device or the platform that you
are attempting to link from (desktop vs app) but rather the linkage between
Fitbit servers and Facebook servers. Essentially, we are all in a holding
pattern.