Alta HR has been flashing all of the icons (blinking)

[Garmonica]

My Alta hr has been flashing all of the icons for hours now. It’s on the charger and I’ve installed the updates, hit the reset button, restarted my phone, logged out of the app, reset my bluetooth, and most recently disconnected the device from my Fitbit account. Alta hr is still blinking and now will not reconnect to my account. Help! 

Moderator edit: subject updated for clarity

[Baltoscott]

Hi @Garmonica

You said you hit the reset button on the Alta.  Did the logo show up?  If not, you may not have completed the process.  Here are all the steps

1. Plug your charging cable into a USB port on your computer or any UL-certified USB wall charger.
2. Clip the other end of the charging cable to the port on the back of the tracker. The pins on the charging cable must lock securely with the port. You’ll know the connection is secure when the tracker vibrates and you see a battery icon on your tracker’s display. Your tracker will begin charging.
   
3. Press the button on your charging cable 3 times within a few seconds, briefly pausing between presses. The button is on the end of the charging cable that is plugged into your computer. When you see the Fitbit logo and the tracker vibrates, this means the tracker has restarted.
4. Unplug your tracker from the charging cable.

Hope that helps.  Let us know.

[Garmonica]

Thanks for the reply, Baltoscott! Just wanted to follow-up with what may have been the solution - oh yeah, it's fixed!

I tried all of this, of course, and everything else I read on the internet and customer service suggested. So all of this may have contributed. The last things I tried were --

1. Let the battery in my fitbit completely die.

2. Delete the app on my phone.

3. Reload the app on my phone.

4. Charge the fitbit.

So, who knows what the final magic solution was - Grit? Resilience? 🙂 - but I'm back counting my steps!

Best,

Amy

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @Garmonica, I hope you're doing well, it's a pleasure for me to welcome you to the Fitbit Community!  It's always nice to see you @Baltoscott, thank you so much for your help with this situation. 

@Garmonica, I'm very glad to hear your issue has been resolved and for letting us know the troubleshooting steps you tried, I'm sure they will be very helpful for many members of the Community facing the same situation. 

In case you have some spare time, I would like to invite you to visit our Discussions board where you will find great tips and encouragement from other members and if there's anything else I can do for you, please keep me posted!

[mjsb]

I'm having the same problem. I've restarted, saw the model number, felt the vibrate, but each icon keeps repeating over and over again until it dies again. This started a couple of days ago. It was only keeping charge for a day or two instead of the usual 4-5 days. Now, I can't even get pass the continuous blinking. Please help.

[EKMaj]

Was exactly the solution for me.  Had the flashing screen, called customer service who was not able to help, even turned Bluetooth to phone off AND let battery die.  No success.  Wasn't until I deleted app from phone and reloaded that I got the thing working again as soon as it synced.  Seems like an app issue that gets cleared with a delete and reload from the phone.  Happy counting steps again too, thanks for the tip.

[Baltoscott]

@mjsb — did you get it fixed?  Thinking @EKMaj ‘s tip to delete and reinstall the app may help.  Or maybe letting the tracker go fully dead before trying to recharge.  

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @mjsb and @EKMaj, have a warm welcome to the Fitbit Community, it's great to have you on board. I appreciate your help @Baltoscott, I hope you're doing well. 

I sincerely apologize for the delay in the response, thanks for joining the conversation and shared your experience with us. 

@EKMaj, thanks for letting us know you have contacted our Support Team and after troubleshooting with them your issue has now been resolved, I'm very glad. 

@mjsb, I have reached our Support Team and it seems you have already created a case with them and have reached a satisfactory resolution. If there's anything else we can do for you, please let us know, we'll be happy to help. 

[drkiang]

Hi,

I am having this same issue of the flashing/cycling thru the display. I tried resetting as suggested here and it isn't working. It seems to stop it momentarily, but then it just starts again. Any other suggestions?

[Garmonica]

Hi! My solution required an update to the operating system on my iPhone.

Sent from my iPhone

[drkiang]

I'm on an Android operating system. Not due for an update for a while. This
happened yesterday, but it stopped on it's own. Now it's just not stopping.

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @drkiang have a warm welcome to the Fitbit Community, it's great to have you on board. It's nice to see you too @Garmonica, I hope you're doing well. 

@drkiang I appreciate you have joined the conversation and shared your experience with us. If the Alta HR is blinking constantly and as you have already restarted it using the instructions provided earlier, I would like to suggest you to wait for the battery to drain completely, then charge it and if the device is still doing the same, let us know so we can check this further and determine what we should do. 

Thanks for your patience and understanding, please keep us updated. 

[Babydoll29]

I'm having the same issue. I've tried to let my battery died, deleting and reinstalling the app, and then charge my Alta HR to restart it. Still getting the flashing icons that rotate through between Fitbit icon, time, steps, heart rate, etc. I've tried to reset the device multiple times and still no luck. Help! I'm at a loss now on what else to do....

[ecole162]

I began having this same problem yesterday evening after working out. The icons flash on the screen one after the other with no assistance from me. The icons flash through in about 3-5 seconds. The green light on the underside has stopped lighting up as well. I wonder if it was from getting too sweaty during my workout? Maybe it's waterlogged?

Regardless, I took it off, let it die, and tried resetting it with the cord, tried recharging it, deleted the app and reloaded it, etc. Nothing worked. I just contacted support and fortunately, it was still under warranty so they were gracious enough to send a new one.

[Mary2u]

I’m having the same problem and resetting it hasn’t helped.  Any ideas? 

[drkiang]

Fitbit ended up replacing mine as it was still under warranty. You should
call them.

--
We do what we do because of who we are.
If we did otherwise, we would not be ourselves.
- Dream, from Neil Gaiman's The Sandman

[SunsetRunner]

I have the exact same problem as Garmonica - series of icons blinking for hours. I tried all suggestions above - letting the battery die, erasing then re-downloading the app again, resetting the button on the charger several times, turning  bluetooth on and off, etc.

When I finally manage to connect the tracker to my iPhone and I enter in the app the 4-digit number that briefly appears on the tracker, I get this message « There was a problem communicating with your tracker. Please try again ». I tried several times, no luck. I even did the same routine on my husband’s iPhone. Same thing happened.

[Tuwa]

Same issue here. No idea what to do to fix it. I doubt it's still under warranty. 

[Juhl]

I am having the same problem with my Alta HR as well,  I tried all the suggestions for fixing it but nothing.  This is very disappointing, I love using my fitbit but I am not going to keep buying one every-time it wigs out.  Are there any-other things I can try.

[MinFlorida]

I had the same issue today for the first time for a unit purchased in January 2018.  I chatted with support and tried to restart, to sync, etc but to no avail.  They said it is out of warranty and offered me a discount on a new model.