Unable to unlock Versa from my phone

[NickH66]

Hi All,

Yesterday i setup my new Versa successfully.  Even setup & successfully used FitBit Pay. I ran into a problem when i tried to swap out the installed material watch band for the rubber watch band.  Wow, what a complicated band install process!  My mistake was to not first shutdown the watch while i was trying install the band.

During the band install i kept accidentally touching the screen & inadvertently entering the wrong PIN code.  After entering the wrong PIN 10 times the watch locked & displayed the message that i need to unlock using my phone.

Problem was i was now unable to unlock the watch via my phone.  The app first displays the message "Too many unlock attempts. Uh oh! Your Versa is frozen because you entered your PIN code incorrectly too many times.  Reset your Versa PIN code to fix.".  Then i tap the "RESET PIN" button on the message.

Every time i tried to change the pin (as instructed by the phone app) i would get the error "Error. Error connecting to Versa".  Very frustrating!  All the while the watch was still connected & was syncing steps etc with the phone.  I wore the watch to bed & it also successfully recorded my sleep.

App images can be seen here.

So, after much troubleshooting i resolved the problem by removing the credit cards from the Wallet section of the app.  This allowed the PIN reset feature to work correctly.  I then started the FitBit Pay setup process again to add the cards back into the wallet.

Make sure you shutdown the watch before trying to swap out the watch bands.

[HeydyF · Accepted solution]

Hello @NickH66, it is great to see new faces around the Community! I appreciate the time you have taken to try to fix the inconvenience that you had when your Fitbit Versa got locked and thanks for sharing the steps you followed to unlock it.  For any further question about Fitbit pay, you can review this article and you can also review this other one for instructions of how to use the device lock on your Fitbit watch.

Now in regards of changing the wristband, I'd like you to take a look at the tips in the Versa manual and learn more about how to wear it. 

Let me know if further questions come across, let me know! 

[Pauliesin61]

Hi

Did almost exactly the same thing when installing another band. Got the same display saying to unlock using my iPhone. When trying to unlock the watch, the phone prompted me to change the PIN. I have tried numerous times and keep getting a display on the phone saying Change PIN failed. 

Any solutions. 

Thanks

Paul S. 

[NickH66]

Hi,

In my case i found Sync was still working & the trick was to remove my
credit cards from the Wallet. Once those changes were synced to the watch
I found the pin reset worked.

Good luck
Nick

[TezaC]

Just had the same issue. I had charged the phone and taken it off.  It asked for my pin which I entered correctly and then gave me the “unlock with your phone” message. I had not incorrectly entered it 10 times.   Anyway I followed the steps as outlined, it takes a new pin, asks for it again, says “configuring tracker” then asks me to enter the pin but does not wait for me to type anything.  It then says “Change pin failed”

I  tried to removed my credit card from the wallet but it still keeps asking me to change the pin so I can’t even do that.  

The Versa is still syncing with my iPhone but I cannot access anything on the device itself. 

Any my other suggestions?

[Pauliesin61]

Exactly what I’m experiencing. Sorry to learn I’m not the only one. 

[NickH66]

I'm sorry I don't have any other suggestions.

[Thoraxis2014]

OMG.  I did the same thing!  Annoying, but I re-docked the watch after putting back on the cloth band and it prompted me to enter my password and I did.  I guess I’ll never use the sport band because it’s too hard to put on.

[NickH66]

Putting on the sport band gets easier with practice but I always shut down
first

[Pennae]

I needed to deactivate the pay function from the Fitbit website (on a computer) rather than just deleting the app via the Fitbit app. Then after syncing I was able to reset the pin. What a hassle! This glitch needs to be fixed as we all go changing our bands without shutting down first (lesson learned). 

[NickH66]

Yeah, i have had this glitch twice now (i slightly different forms). I
think that the issue (at least in my case) might have something to do with
the stability or strength of the internet connection your phone has at the
time. Just a couple of days ago (the 2nd glitch) i was connected to a
portable wifi hotspot but that hotspot does have some inbuilt feature to
prevent unexpected & unnecessary data consumption. Once i connected the
phone to a regular wifi service in my hotel my issue went away.
Just sayin.

[MizzChuff]

Hi Heydy Fitbit,

I've just woken up this morning and looked at my watch. My watch face showed the time for a few seconds, and then I went to check how many steps I'd done and when I tapped the watchface, the phone has locked. I've tried unlocking it with my phone - the pass code I have is disabled. I've tried to change the PIN anyway and I keep getting a message that my phone can't connect to my Versa. I've tried restarting my Bluetooth, and my phone appears to be syncing, but it still won't change the PIN.

I don't understand why my phone has locked in the first place, as I don't have any cards saved in my Fitbit Pay, and I don't have the device locked enabled. 

Can you please help me?? 

[Pauliesin61]

Got onto Fitbit support and they talked me through resetting both my watch and my phone(twice). Restated and since then, no problems. 

[MizzChuff]

I just managed to restart my Versa and it looks like I can get back in. The
amount of times I'm having trouble connecting my Versa to my phone and
having the Versa lock up, is driving me crazy. 🤯

[LyndaAdams]

Yes, I had same problem.  Restarting Versa twice eventually cleared the error message, after using my iPad to Change PIN on Versa setting.

My issue was that my Android phone and MacBook Air both aren't compatible (which I was unaware of), very frustrating, and I'd forgotten that I'd initially set up the Versa from my iPad!

For anyone reading this, first I had to switch off iPad Bluetooth setting, Force Quit the FitBit ap, then restart the iPad, then I reopened ap to change PIN.  Give it time to work after restarting, it takes a while to reload after changing PIN. Hope this helps

[sashaclare]

Hi, I am trying to unlock my watch from my phone with no success.

As suggested I have tried to remove my credit card from the wallet but every time I do it asks me to change the pin and then I get an error - change pin failed.

Please help!! 

[MizzChuff]

Just to keep everyone updated, I ended up taking my original Versa back to the store and my new one is 100 times better!!

Highly recommend getting yours replaced if you're having nothing but trouble like I was. 

[MizzChuff]

Make sure you have a really secure internet connection while you're trying to fix it. I think that was one of my big problems when my old one was fritzing. 

[NickH66]

Hello,

I think the only other thing I can suggest is to make sure your phone &
watch have a good strong WiFi & internet connection before you start the
process.

It seems to be a lot of trial & error.

Cheers
Nick

[NormaGail]

I have the same problem, I have no cards linked to my wallet, tried uninstalling app and reinstalling and not it cannot find my Fitbit as it is still locked 😡😡