Alexa will not connect to Versa 4

[Lreneao]

I've tried every solution I could find online but my Versa 4 will not connect to Alexa. I get the consistent error(Unable to connect,  there was an error connecting to your amazon account.  Please try again) We'll I have tried again, repeatedly with no success.  Today I contacted fitbit customer service and was told to contact amazon..... Amazon does not support fitbit products.  I have an android S22Ultra. I'm at a loss. Any advice?

 

[Guy_]

HI @Lreneao - your post is moved to the Versa 4 forum.

Have you tried to logout of the Amazon account in the voice assistant and also logout of the Fitbit App, clear the storage cache and force stop it.

Restart both the watch and phone and try again with reconnecting to Amazon.

On the latest Samsung phones there can be issues related to the Gallery, don't know if it may also affect the Voice Assistant so worth checking. See No internet connection even if the phone is working normally.

[Biceboca]

I have this problem too. Exact same message. Over and over and over. I tried a zillion things, including the suggestion given for the original post. I logged out, cleared cache, force quit, restarted watch and phone. Newly updated Fitbit App from Google Play Store. Android is up to date for my phone (Android 12). I asked customer support for help with this yesterday and was told I needed to update Fitbit app, which was not yet available for me yesterday. But today it is now available, and I could update. Does not help. I removed my watch from my account and added it again. I'm at a loss now for what to do, because there is really nothing left to try that I can think of. The watch (or account?) does get added to Amazon account because when I go to my Amazon account I see it (and then I remove it so I can try to add again). It always gets added to Amazon but then my browser takes me back to Fitbit and there I get the message that there was an error connecting my Amazon account (exactly like the image in the original post). I even logged out of, and reinstalled, Amazon apps including Amazon Shopping and Alexa (then logged back in). I even set a different default browser that gets launched during this process. Like I said I really think I tried everything  I could think of (other than setting additional different default browsers besides the two I tried, Brave and Firefox). But maybe someone has a suggestion, otherwise I will bother customer support again (which is not promising because the advice I got yesterday did not help).

The weird thing is, when I first got my watch, I successfully set up Alexa! Firefox was the browser that got launched and successfully linked my accounts. But after a day or two, Alexa on the watch would no longer connect to the phone, and I got the (false) note on the watch that the phone is not connected to the internet. I had other weird issues (graphics from different tiles overlapping and watch freezing), so I factory reset the watch, and re-updated, which all went smoothly, and now absolutely everything works (as far as I know) except I can no longer connect Alexa. This is sad because Alexa was one of the few reasons why I chose Versa 4 over Charge 5. With most smart features removed from Fitbit "smartwatches" there is little reasons for these models to exist in addition to the Charge, if voice assistant will not work. If anyone has had this issue and found a fix, please share! It was so cool to have Alexa on my watch.

[Guy_]

@Biceboca  - if you did try logoff Amazon (mentioned in the other post), can you try log out of the Fitbit App and swipe off the active window, clear the storage cache and force stop it, and for Amazon clear cookies and restart the phone, that may help, if not already done.

[Biceboca]

Thanks for your reply and trying to help. Yes I've tried all of those things. I even uninstalled the Fitbit app and downloaded it again and logged in and set up all the settings and permissions all over again, carefully checking things. Rebooted the phone (many times actually) because in my experience the phone reboot is the most likely to fix issues. I even completely shut down, waited a minute or two and power up the phone, instead of just restart. I still suspect the issue is with my phone/android app. I think the watch is okay. The factory reset and firmware update I did yesterday went smoothly and the setup process went smoothly too. I don't get the sense that the watch is defective. It's some weird issue with my phone and/or the Fitbit app, or my Fitbit account.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think what I'm trying to do so hard is simply linking the Fitbit app on my android phone to the Amazon account. And that's not working according to the Fitbit android app (even though my Amazon account shows the link to Fitbit). That is, I think when the process works as it should, the Amazon account is not being linked to a specific watch, but to a specific Fitbit app that I'm logged into on my phone. Then the linked Fitbit android app communicates with the watch -- except it never gets to that stage because the app thinks the link did not work, even though it did, according to Amazon. So I **think** it has nothing at all to do with my watch, at least for the step I'm having trouble with. It seems the issue is with the Fitbit app. The weird thing though is, I did get it to work, sort of, when I first set up the watch. It's trying again that is failing.

But even clearing data and cache and reinstall and re-log-in does not really start things from scratch with Fitbit app, because once I log in I have all my previously selected watch faces for my watch, so some things are saved with my account with Fitbit separately from the phone, and when I re-log-in all of those saved things get transferred to my phone, so I'm thinking I can't really start from scratch unless maybe I make a new Amazon (or Fitbit) account. (Even if I remove the watch from the Android Fitbit app, I get back the settings when I add the watch back.) I set up a new Fitbit account when I got my Versa 4 and because it is linked to a research program, I'm not making another one. I will try to set up a brand new Amazon account. I don't think it would be an issue to have a new one just for Fitbit because I doubt that this entire process has anything at all to do with Amazon apps on my phone (I don't think Fitbit communicates with Amazon android apps, but only directly with Amazon Alexa, and it would be okay for Amazon android apps to be signed in to my original Amazon account). I had tried logging out, clearing cache, and reinstalling Amazon apps (Alexa and Shopping) only because there seems to be nothing else to try but I really don't think those apps have any relevance to Fitbit app or watch function.

[Guy_]

@Biceboca- thanks for your troubleshooting steps, your observations seem accurate, the fault presumably lies between the Fitbit App and Amazon, is it possible to unlink your watch from the Amazon account, if present, or set up a new account as you suggest, that may work.

As you say, your Fitbit App account can retain your data and clock faces, so removing and replacing the watch retains things, except local Notifications setup and a few specific local/immediate settings.

Are you still able to download clock faces, if not there may be a new proxy/security issue, in which case see No internet connection 

[Biceboca]

Yes, I can download new clock faces and also swap out clock faces on the watch. I also get all notifications and texts fine. The only issue I have is Alexa. Trying to connect to a different Amazon account made no difference. I suppose if something needs to be broken, I'd rather it be this than something more critical. But it's too bad. I'm now wondering if it is in part due to my version of Android because otherwise a lot more people would be having this problem. I am the first one to chine in on this thread to describe the same issue in over four months. I have a OnePlus Nord N200, on its latest security update (Android 12). It is not a brand that Fitbit listed as possibly having issues.

[Biceboca]

I've forced-quit, cleared data/cache and then uninstalled all Amazon-related apps (I had quite a few). (That was after I de-attached Fitbit account from Amazon, because from Amazon's end things seem okay and the link to Fitbit account gets made, but it is the Fitbit app that reports failure.) About a year ago, deleting Amazon apps seemed to solve this problem for Sense users, according to discussions on this board (Alexa and Amazon Shopping apps seemed to interfere, and maybe others, so I uninstalled every single one, including apps for music, photos, videos, apps, Fire TV....). I also looked at "registered devices" through the Fitbit app, which shows all devices that have signed into my Fitbit account (including my laptops, and the phone -- each time I re-sign in it is shown as a new device and gets added to the list; same for the Fitbit app on the phone). I deleted all past (and thus redundant) instances of the sign in (device = phone, device = Fitbit app) but I left the current one; my guess is it would have been impossible to delete the current one since I was actively logged in.) After doing that, I also removed my watch from Fitbit android app, forced quit, cleared data/cache, uninstalled Fitbit app. Also had cleared all browser data (cookies, cache, etc). Rebooted phone and watch, reinstalled Fitbit app, re-logged in, re-attached my Versa 4 and set it up yet again (setting its permissions properly, etc). I mean I really made as blank a slate as I possibly could (other than factory reset my phone which I will most certainly not do -- it has many gigabytes of "stuff" and would take a lot of time and effort to set up again).

Still no good. I've spent way too many hours on this problem, and I will never get that lost time from my life back, so I must stop the struggle (unless someone has a suggestion). I will try things again once the Fitbit Androit app gets another update, because I'm pretty sure the issue is a bug in the Android app. If anyone else is experiencing this, please chime in, and say what version of Android and phone you have because the issue may be isolated to certain setups. I have Android 12 (April 2023 security update), OnePlus Nord N200.

[Guy_]

@Biceboca- excellent work! There is one other area to investigate, in the Fitbit App, click profile photo and at the bottom 3rd party apps. This is a persistent setting on your account.

[Biceboca]

Thanks @Guy_ . This was good to check. Amazon or Alexa are not listed under connected Third Party Apps. And Alexa should be listed, I think (right?). When I go to Alexa app on another device, it does show Versa 4 after a failed connect attempt (so I remove it = de-register, to try again). So I was incorrect in thinking it is just a Fitbit account that gets linked, rather than a specific watch, with this initial connection step. So anyway Amazon thinks the link is made but the Fitbit app does not complete the link and so it does not exist as a linked 3rd party "app". My watch also shows that Alexa needs to be set up.

Google Wallet is also **not** shown as a connected 3rd party app even thought I set it up, but maybe that's because it is (no longer) considered 3rd party, but 1st party. When I first set up the watch (before factory reset), I successfully set up Google Wallet, and I even successfully used it in a store. After factory reset of the watch, I had to set up Google Wallet fresh (which makes sense). That is, I had to add credit cards all over again. (But I do not have to set it up after removing my watch from the Fitbit app, and then putting it back later, nor after deleting fitbit app data, uninstall-reinstall fit bit android app.) I have not yet tried to see if it still works correctly for purchasing, but setting it up again after the watch reset all went smoothly, unlike Alexa. And when I tap the wallet app on my watch, it asks for my security code, so its seems to be set up correctly. So the issue really seems specific to Alexa.

[Guy_]

@Biceboca  - I've asked a moderator to take a look at this issue.

[Biceboca]

Thank you, @Guy_ ! I do think there should be an awareness of the issue at Fitbit/Google. Eventually, I would like this watch connected to my Android phone since that's my newest phone. It is a fairly common model Android phone because T-Mobile was giving it away for a while (when they were dropping 3G). I do not own another Android that meets Fitbit requirements.

But for now I'm actually happy and content because I have things working on an old iPhone. I removed the watch from Fitbit app on my Android phone (including "forgetting" on Bluetooth settings because otherwise I think it can reconnect) and I connected it to an iPhone SE instead (1st gen, circa ~2016, still getting security updates and meets requirements for most recent update of Fitbit app -- my first and only iPhone). And everything is working as far as I can tell, so far. Alexa is working. Google Wallet is working. Weather app is (mostly) working, maybe (it seems I may have to restart the watch and then resync to get that to update...). I want to use this new setup in as many ways as I can think of in the next few days, to thoroughly test it, but for now I'm happy with it. It is a shame that Apple's iOS 15 on my old phone supports a Fitbit/Google device better than Google's Android 12 (though to be fair iOS is much more simple to support than the far more diverse Android setups).

About your comment on 3rd party apps -- Alexa does not show up there. I do have a single 3rd party connection but it is to my Fitbit account, not to a specific phone or app or device. It is the research program that provided my watch, so I don't want to mess with it. I set up my Fitbit account (it is a brand new Fitbit account) and connected the 3rd party "app" a few days before I even received the watch. It showed up on the iPhone without me doing anything to connect it (fresh install of Fitbit app and first time login to the new Fitbit account on this phone). The connection is communication between Fitbit servers and the research program. I can't imagine that this would cause any problems at all but I thought I'd mention it for the sake of completeness. And, because Alexa is not this type of "3rd Party App" that is linked solely to my Fitbit account rather than a particular watch and/or phone, if I reconnect my watch again to the Android, Alexa is not connected and it fails to connect when I try.

So at least my watch seems to be fine. The only glitch I'm still concerned about is that two-way sync breaks when I'm sleeping (when connected to Android, I could sync the night data from watch to phone and see my sleep results in the phone, but I had to reboot either android or the watch to see the updated sleep and weather info on the watch). If that issue persists even with iOS, then I will start a new thread on it, but I mention it here just in case it is somehow related to the problem I had connecting Alexa on the Android phone. Maybe during connecting Alexa, the Fitbit app tries to send info to the watch and it does not work??

[jess61879]

Same thing was happening to me. First got it and worked then stopped working. I went to the Fitbit app. and clicked on "On-wrist phone calls" (on the versa 4 ) went through the motions, then clicked on the Alexa option on the app and magically worked.