App keeps asking choice for location services

[JBDow]

I recently updated my iPhone to ios13.  Since then  I get asked to change my choice for location services “only when app is open” to “always on”.  I select “no thanks”, the next time I open or switch to the Fitbit app, it asks me the same thing again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again...(You get the picture).  How do I get the app to remember my choice like it used to?

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[jwalder]

“M*ronic” is a censored word?  Seriously?

[noirdesir]

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@thenameless1 wrote:

I'm not sure of your current fitbit app settings and i'm assuming you are using an iphone. If you go into settings->battery-> scroll to the bottom. You have the option to see battery usage by app and activity by app. You will see some obscene numbers for the Fitbit app and begs the question what is the Fitbit app doing in the background.

An observation made is that "All day sync" has no bearing on the high background app usage. Turn it on and off it doesn't matter.

What i think is happening is that the fitbit app is trying to access the users location in the background (which does happen as seen in one of the links i provided), but since the users in this thread have the location set to "never" they are bombarded with the requests to turn on location services when they open the app

Now if the user turns off the background app refresh from the settings screen the prompts for location stop.

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I agree that 'background app refresh', battery usage and the UI prompts basically all paint a consistent picture. What I am not sure of is whether:

a) Fitbit cannot find what is triggering this (if it were a feature, it isn't working 100% either as sometimes the prompts stop appearing)

b) Fitbit does not invest enough resources into 'solving' this

c) Fitbit really thinks this is doing them any favours, ie, they are doing this intentionally (after somebody has dismissed this dialogue 1000 times, do they really think they will break down and allow location access?)

[jwalder]

Me being a stubborn guy, I’m more likely to throw the Fitbit in a drawer and never use it again than to relent.

[thenameless1]

@noirdesir if you are experiencing issues with the location pop ups you could try disabling the background app refresh as that seems to solve the problem.

In my opinion i believe the Fitbit app is working the way they intended.  Google purchasing Fitbit is a way for Google to circumvent some of the changes Apple introduced in ios13. Can't fault google for that they found a way.

It's obvious the fitbit app didn't do everything that google was wanting/expecting and right now all these changes/bugs/issues whatever you wan't to call them are just Fitbit's way of trying to rush a completed app out prior to the Google/Fitbit merger approval process. It's going to be alot easier for them to say this is how it was as opposed to things changing after Google takes over.

I edited this post  based on your recent post

[noirdesir]

At least while the app is the one in the foreground, disabling background app refresh doesn't fully resolve the issue (it might have become less frequent, I need more time to provide a better estimate of that). 

And regulatory approval will be about sharing data not collecting data. Public perception however might be swayed a bit by 'we already did this before the takeover'. 

[noirdesir]

When you think you have defeated the machine, the machine defeats you. I have now gotten dialogue boxes* within the Fitbit app asking me to enable background app refresh... 

What has stopped are notifications on the lock screen but then I think I've also disabled notifications from the Fitbit app at the OS level. But while the app is the frontmost one, I still most of the time get a dialogue asking me to enable location whenever I unlock the phone. It's like an additional unlock 'gesture'. 

(*) Ok, that only happened once so far.

[thenameless1]

@noirdesir By any chance is all day sync turned on?

I just looked at my settings.  My location is set to never, background app refresh is off, and i also have all day sync turned off.  I'm still able receive my notifications without any issue.

I'm using a fitbit blaze on app version 3.12.1.  I've been holding off on upgrading the fitbit app.

If you are using a newer fitbit like the versa i believe they have the mobile app gallery so it's possible  one of those apps might require the background app refresh.  If you already have all day sync turned off and don't have the app gallery or not using any of those apps then you are probably looking at a bug in the app if you are on a newer version.

My logic with turning all day sync off was the fact that the ios version doesn't have a widget and the blaze has a screen to see the status.  Then my fitbit just syncs when i log food and water throughout the day.

[noirdesir]

All-Day sync is on. I'll try out what happens when I switch it off. BTW, I have a Charge 3. 

[noirdesir]

Things looked like improving somewhat after switching off all-day sync. But then I noticed another pattern: The messages asking to enable location stopped showing up when I was more than a couple of hundred meters away from any buildings (and/or other people, maybe).

It is as if that when I am out of range of other Bluetooth devices (beyond my own, ie, the Fitbit and a pair of headphones) or maybe WiFi networks/devices, the app stops asking for location access. It is easier to be sure that I have put a certain distance between me and any buildings than to make sure there is no other human within a, eg, 100-metre circle around me in forested and slightly hilly terrain. But I suggest affected people to try that out to see if it makes a difference for you. 

[sovrappensiero]

I just started having this problem last week, with my Inspire HR on iOS 13.3.1. I did the first suggested fix, and that didn't work.  I then tried other things, but nothing fixes this problem.  My current settings are: 

1. Location services set to "never" (used to be "while using...")

2. Background refresh turned off

3.  All-day sync (inside Fitbit app) turned off.

Other potentially noteworthy details in my case:

1. I wear hearing aids, which are connected to my phone via Bluetooth (have worn Bluetooth-enabled ones for two years)

2. My Fitbit battery life started exponentially decreasing at the same time this problem started.  A full charge used to last 6-7 days, now it lasts 3-4 (fully charged battery 22 hours ago and it's at 80% now).

3. I got this Inspire HR almost exactly one year ago.

I'd like to know if this is a problem that will be fixed, or if this is now built into the design of the Fitbit app.  On the list of "Things I Hate About Fitbit," this ranks higher than the stupid "daily tips" that are the perfect combination of useless and annoying.  I hope it's just a bug, and not a feature.

[fourthirty]

Hi @sovrappensiero ,

I have my iPhone Xs set to the same configuration as you:

1. Location services set to "never" (used to be "while using...")

2. Background refresh turned off

3. All-day sync (inside Fitbit app) turned off.

I am also receiving the "Location Services Disabled" popup message each time I start a "Walk" exercise.  No other application does this (including Google maps when set to Never).  Very frustrating.  This worked fine when Fitbit allowed location to be set to "while using".  I previously enjoyed using my Fitbit to track my lunchtime walks.  Now I never engage the exercise and just use it to count steps.  Smh.

It appears the value of location data exceeds Fitbit's customer privacy or satisfaction with their products.

[sovrappensiero]

Mine shows this message upon opening the app. Every single time. So now I avoid opening the app, but that really reduces functionality for me. Mostly I wish that Fitbit would respond to tell us whether this is a bug (they are actively working to fix) or it’s part of a more “sinister” move (as other people suggest). In the first case, I’m happy to be patient and wait for a fix. In the second case, I’ll start researching to move on to a different device.

[noirdesir]

Thanks to your post, things appear to make sense for me now (in regard to one aspect). I've been stricken with this issue the vast majority of the time. But not always, and I couldn't figure out why the issue sometimes went away. 

My hypothesis at the moment is that this dialogue box only shows up while an exercise is being tracked/active. My settings are to auto-recognize an exercise automatically after 15 minutes. This would also explain why I very rarely see that dialogue while I'm at home. It also gels with the fact that the fruits of location tracking are only exposed to the user when (re)viewing a past exercise and thus it 'only' asks for location access during an exercise. It might kick in slightly earlier when it thinks something might turn into an exercise and/or when the threshold for counting activity as active minutes (ie, > 10 min). 

I've also reconfirmed that for me the dialogue box stops showing up as soon I've put some distance between me and 'civilization' (aka buildings). I've assumed this must either be related to WiFi or Bluetooth signals. I've switched off WiFi on my phone but that doesn't seem to have the same effect. It could thus be related to Bluetooth (I haven't yet tried to switch that off as I am using Bluetooth earphones, but that is the next test, though as it needs Bluetooth to communicate with my Charge 3 that might trigger other things).

But since we are talking about location, it could be related to whether the phone itself is in range of WiFi networks and is using those WiFi networks to assist in determining location. 

[fourthirty]

Unfortunately, I just confirmed that the new iOS version 3.18 release does not address the "Always" location requirement.

Fitbit - please revert back to allow your users to select "While Using the App" in iOS location settings, instead of "Always" for mobile tracking.

Your customers had faith in your company by spending their hard earned dollars on your products.  I have no other 3rd party application on my iPhone which requires "Always" access.  Why are you not giving your customers back the option to use location tracking only while using the Fitbit app?

[Sarah4321]

That's why Google bought Fitbit. It's bad enough Google knows what time I went to bed. Now they want to know everywhere I go. 

[Sarah4321]

Mine is set to never and I CONSTANTLY get popups trying to get me to change it. 

[Sarah4321]

It's been SIX MONTHS and the problem has not been fixed. 

Moderator edit: format

[fourthirty]

@Sarah4321  -Below is another interesting thread on this topic with some external article references:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/iOS-App/App-asking-to-keep-location-services-quot-always-on-quot/td-...

[Jswain9581]

Super frustrating-I am going to return my Fitbit!

[Lmwillo]

I still have this issue. Asks me EVERYTIME I open the app to change location settings to always. How can I fix this?