Display on gesture not working (Display stays OFF when I raise my arm)

[MrEngineer]

Hi, 

is there any way to adjust the sensitivity of the automatic display control?

I have the issue that the display stays OFF very often when i raise my arm to look after a notification or just look up the time. 

It is quite frustrating to always look at a black screen and have to use the second hand to touch any button on the watch in order to switch the display on. 

—> definetely room for improvement here!

And it would be nice if the display wakes up automatically when a notification arrives. 

—> next point on the Fitbit todo-list for future software updates. 

Has anyone found a better solution to these problems?

[SunsetRunner]

@MrEngineer Re your first question, no unfortunately. There is a knack to raising your wrist and turning, which will have it light up. Practice is the only (current) option.

Re the second, again no, not possible at the moment, though I believe Fitbit recently ran a survey to see if people were interested in this. Not sure, but pretty certain if you head over to the Feature Suggestion section you’ll find the topic raised, where you could vote for it.

[MrEngineer]

OK, thanks For the reply .

The Display wakeup by gesture/raising arm as way worse than in my 3 year old Moto 360 Android wear watch! No Go!

[SeanG73]

Got my Versa Wednesday night. Seemed to work fine but after a day the wake wasn’t working well at all. 

Logges a ticket. They said to reset. Starts working better but a few hours later it’s worse than it was before!!  

It’s not fit for purpose like this. 

[Anne1983]

Same problem

[Alabama-dip]

Mines work u just have to turn quick view on

[MrEngineer]

Quick view is ON but gesture detection is really bad.

I am not saying that it doesn’t work in general.. sometimes it does. 

But most of the time i look at a black screen, because it has not turned on when i raised my arm.

It is DRAMATICALLY worse than with android wear devices like the Moto 360..

sure if someone only knows the way fitbit does this, then you won’t complain because you don’t know it better, but as soon as you have experienced the way it works dimensions better on other plattforms, then you will be frustrated every time you look at it... 

[SunsetRunner]

“Worse” is a personal view. I’ve owned a lot of different devices and have no problem with the Ionic. Personally, if it is less sensitive, I view that as a good thing, battery-life-wise, as it means the screen isn’t switching on at every wrist move.

Are there times I look and it doesn’t light up? Sure but hey, how difficult is it to re-cock a wrist. Would I like the screen to light on notifications? Definitely but that’s a different issue, hopefully to be addressed. But frustrated every time I look at it? No.

[SeanG73]

I think this is very frustrating.

Cocking your wrist ought to bring it to life, I agree. But how about a dozen times and violently shaking your arm and still won’t wake up? Does that sound frustrating??

Honestly, if it doesn’t bother you, maybe yours is working better?

[MrEngineer]

---

@SunsetRunner wrote:

“Worse” is a personal view. I’ve owned a lot of different devices and have no problem with the Ionic. Personally, if it is less sensitive, I view that as a good thing, battery-life-wise, as it means the screen isn’t switching on at every wrist move.

Are there times I look and it doesn’t light up? Sure but hey, how difficult is it to re-**ahem** a wrist. Would I like the screen to light on notifications? Definitely but that’s a different issue, hopefully to be addressed. But frustrated every time I look at it? No.

---

Sorry, @SunsetRunner Maybe Name is program here... It Sounds a little bit Fanboy-like What you trying to tell us here.. 

And Fitbit would be clever to Not settle with the Status quo as you Seem to do, because thats where innovation stops and companies fade away Like Nokia did.. better listen what your customers Tell you..

IT IS very  frustrating to Shake your wrist every time you want the Screen to switch on. 

I can See that this saves battery life but this has gone in a direction where IT definetely affects usability to a Point which is Not acceptable for a device which should Work as a watch and should present you notifications at a glance! 

If i have to make a Rain Dance every time i want the Display to Go on, Something seems to be wrong here.. i can Just Grab my Phone then, and don't need a so called "smartwatch" then.. 

[MrEngineer]

I have Made a Feature request for this issue:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Improve-Raise-to-wake-functionality-on-Versa-Dis...

Pleased Vote If you like

[SunsetRunner]

@MrEngineer You can call it what you like but it’s certainly not fanboy. I don’t need to shake my wrist; simply raise and turn and my display lights up. If you’re having to do a jitterbug every time you want to tell the time, I’d hazard a guess there’s something amiss with your Ionic and you should put a call in to customer services.  

[taijitu]

@SunsetRunner he's talking about a versa, maybe they do have issues with it? to be fair though the device is still new and it's a little bit selfish to expect it to run A+ perfect right at the beginning of them being sold... every device needs a few months to fix the bugs that the general finds, i hope your feature suggestion brings this issue to their attention, op!

[Cantryboy]

@MrEngineer Fitbit is from California and they are having a drought.... So this is just a really environmentally conscious device!

[dannydandan]

I'm having the exact same issue.

Decided to vote with my wallet and return it, especially due to the lack of an official response from the company.

[SunsetRunner]

Same for me, I've had it for less than 30 days, so I'm still within the return period with target. Was working fine up until the past two days. I've reset it by pressing both buttons, still same thing. Won't wake when I raise my wrist. 

Given the complaints by others on this forum and fitbits lack of response, I'll probably be returning it. Was hoping this was a cheaper alternative to Apple watch and liked the longer battery life. Guess that is not the case. 

[SunsetRunner]

Oops quick view was off. Must have turned itself off yesterday when I got the low battery notification. Working normal now. All is forgiven. 

[Palm866]

I have the Versa Fitbit.... my husband has the ionic.  There is a vast difference in the response to movement in our watches.  As you can tell, I am the one on here looking for answers.  He was having the same issue a couple of months ago,but I was able to change the settings, not so with the Versa.  It is very frustrating.  I replaced my Alta HR for this reason thinking it would be better with the Versa.  No simple flick of the wrist 🤔🤔

[Jennypha]

I had this problem.....my husband has a Versa too and I tried his watch and his worked perfectly with every one of my gestures so I thought mine might be faulty.  I did a live chat and they told me to do this, so give it a try.......

Hold the back button and swipe the screen to the right and there will be a Screen Wake option there of "off" or "Auto" and mine was set to off.  As soon as I set it to auto it worked perfectly.

[Jennypha]

This doesn't always work, my quick view was on but it still didn't light up when I moved my arm like it was supposed to do or even when I double tapped the screen.  I did a live chat thinking the Versa was faulty and they told me to hold the back button and swipe right and on the Screen Wake option, make sure it was set to auto and once I did this, it worked perfectly.