Zip only syncs with new battery

[WiskiAndRye]

I'm mostly curious to see if anyone else has run into this. To start, my Zip is on the older side, ordered it September 2017. 

The past month or so it's only been syncing if I put a new battery in it. Yes, I tried to just restart it with the original battery and that did not very much.

When that stopped working, I put the sticker on the bottom of the battery on the back of the battery and now it's back to syncing if it gets a brand new battery. Sometimes. 

Edited for clarity

[YojanaFitbit]

How you doing my friend? Welcome @WiskiAndRye! 

Thanks for sharing your experience with Fitbit Zip and for the steps that you've tried. The first thing that we need to check is that the little metal contacts on the back of it are well positioned; you can check some helpful information in this post. Also, check if the back is clean and that the battery door is not broken or loose.

Other tips:

• Place the battery back into the tracker with the "+" side facing up, and close the door.
• Buy a 3V coin battery, CR2025.
• Try to sync your Fitibt before changing the battery since data could be lost if your tracker if is not synced. If the battery is loose, it might be causing that data lost that you've mentioned and the issues with the time.

Also check this syncing requirements:

• Phone should be a compatible device check our list of compatible devices
• For Android phones: to help improve the delivery, go to Notifications and make sure Enable Notification Widget is on. If you recently updated the Fitbit app, reboot your mobile device and try setting up notifications again.
• Make sure the Do Not Disturb setting on your mobile device is turned off because it prevents the device from sending notifications to your tracker.
• The software on your mobile device is updated. To check, tap Settings > General > Software Update iOS for Android  Settings > About phone > Android Version.
• If you use more than one Bluetooth phone, tablet, or computer to sync, the other one isn't nearby (or has Bluetooth disabled).

If the syncing issue remains with a mobile device I would recommend following the steps below:

1. Restart your tracker a couple of times and make sure that it is fully charged
2. Reboot your phone and check that you phone and Fitbit App is up to date 
3. Open Bluetooth Settings on your phone and delete your Zip from there (forget device)
4. Open Fitbit App > Account > Zip> Remove device (tap on the trash can in the upper right corner)
5. Reboot your Bluetooth and double check that it is not connecting from there
6. Force quite the App. Open it again Account > Set up a device
7. Check your phone Permissions and leave location on to keep syncing and getting notifications with your phone, for more info check these instructions.

If that's not working, we might have to check what is the next options with our support team.

[WiskiAndRye]

The metal contacts seem to be positioned properly. Again, it powers on just fine. It just seems to have trouble on syncing on anything but a full battery to the extent of I managed to sync it last night and now it won’t.

Thus the advice about a full battery isn’t very helpful. I’d just rather not have to pop open a new battery just to get the zip to sync.

The only thing I haven’t tried at this point is removing the zip and adding it again, but with the spotty Bluetooth connection, I’ve been disinclined to try.

Sent from my iPhone

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @WiskiAndRye, thanks for trying the suggested steps about the metal contacts. And for your feedback, some other users have noticed that for some reason their Fitbit Zip is only syncing when restarting. You can try the last step that you mentioned and if that doesn't help, we can check your options with our support team. 

Keep me posted. 

[WiskiAndRye]

I had tried restarting it with the original battery but that just resulted in me staring at the sync screen and tapping the zip a lot.

[YojanaFitbit]

Hi @WiskiAndRye, thanks for getting back. Sorry to hear that it didn't work. I noticed that you had a case with our support team for a syncing issue, please confirm that you've receive the last email from them with your warranty options. Or you can let me know, so I can request them to send again that information.

See you around. 

[WiskiAndRye]

Yes, I did have my warranty information reviewed. I was just hoping there was an option besides replace it that I hadn’t tried yet.

Sent from my iPhone

[Rich_Laue]

Could these problems have stayed with an Fitbit app or phone update?

[WiskiAndRye]

I did have a phone update to do but the problem persisted after finishing
the update.

[Rich_Laue]

After the phone update, did you uninstall the Fitbit app and install a fresh copy?