Why can't we log water for dates in the future?

[alasdair-crono]

The API allows us to log food for dates in the future, however, if you try to log water for a date in the future you get a 400 response.

Please make it consistent and allow us to log water for future dates. It is particularly hard to manage this restriction because it is based on the user's timezone. Our application does not request access to the user's profile so we don't know what timezone they have set.

As an aside, is this a relatively new restriction? We only started noticing water logging errors in the last few months, however, our integration has been in place for years.

[DorisFitbit]

Hi @alasdair-crono 

Thank you for flagging it. To help us investigate, could you please clarify a few details regarding your use case?

• Intentional pre-logging: Are your users attempting to log water data significantly in advance (e.g., planning intake 2–3 days into the future)?

• Timezone overlap: Or is the error primarily occurring when a user is in a timezone that has already crossed into the next calendar day relative to your application's server or the API’s default UTC processing?

[alasdair-crono]

Intentional pre-logging: While our users can log food or water for any date in the future, the majority of our errors are related to requests to log water 1 day in the future.

Timezone overlap: This could be contributing to the problem, however, I think the majority of the time it's because of intentional pre-logging.

[DorisFitbit]

Hi @alasdair-crono 

Thank you for providing those additional details. Currently, the Fitbit ecosystem (including the mobile app and the Web API) is not designed to support water logging for future dates. While the API allows for food pre-logging to accommodate meal planning, water intake is treated as a real-time or historical metric.