Error 403 when trying to set up Ionic.

[Su_Per]

Something happened yesterday and my Ionic stopped pairing with my phone. I restarted both. I turned Bluetooth on and off. I removed my Ionic from my Fitbit app and tried to "Set up new device.” Nothing worked. It gives me a code on the Ionic to sync with my phone and then I get a http 403 error. And now I can't even get past the Terms and Conditions agreement screen. 

So I went online on my laptop yesterday too to see if I could pair it to my account online. I was able to login, but I could not get any pages to work. Just blank screens. So I tried logging in again later, and now it's telling me that my email and password don't match. Then I tried the Forgot Password button, and it's now telling me that my email doesn't exist. My internet is working fine. Everything else is working. All web pages are loading, so I'm thinking the problem may be on your end.

Moderator Edit: Clarified Subject.

[wmchapman]

When I have a communications hiccup (blue tooth can get squirrelly in heavy retail areas where there are a lot of competing signals, or when I am at that 20 foot fringe of communication with my mobile) I've found rebooting my phone clears the notification glitch(es). Power the mobile off and then back on.

You mention you already restarted your Ionic and mobile with no success - you might double check the discover feature is active on your mobile:

In iOS, tap Settings, blue tooth

switch off

wait at least a half minute and switch on

Your Ionic and any other bluetooth devices near you should pop up

touch the circle i to the right of each item listed that is not "Ionic"

after a minute or two your Ionic should indicate connected.

If it does not. Delete the fitbit app from your mobile, by tapping home (or slowly swiping up half way from the bottom center if you have no home button and swiping up to close all open apps)

Touch and hold any icon on the home screen until they wiggle and touching the x on the fitbit app

Use your mobiles safari to navigate to fitbit.com/setup and install the fitbit app.

Launch and follow the existing user dialog to add an ionic.

Let us know if you hit an obstacle., I'll monitor...

[Su_Per]

I just tried all of that plus I reset the Ionic to factory settings. I'm still getting HTTP 403 error. I also tried resetting our wifi, and I downloaded the app on my laptop to try it that way, and it won't even let me login.

UPDATE:

I tried what you suggested. It didn't work. In addition, I've now taken the Ionic to factory settings, reset my wifi router just in case, and downloaded the app on my laptop. None of these have worked or helped. If anything it's worse now. Maybe my Ionic is faulty. 

UPDATE 2:

Oh, and the laptop app is giving me an error saying "trouble connecting to fitbit.com." Again, all other non-fitbit websites are working with no issues and I've already reset my router.

[wmchapman]

Laptop a mac or pc?

Chances are your browser is "remembering" a bad username or passwor for you.

You can check this by downloading another browser like chrome or firefox and typing www.fitbit.com in the address bar to get a fresh login screen. After entering what you believe to be your username and password do not check any "remember me" boxes in case you don't have something quite right. You'll be able to try again without it auto-plugging in the incorrect values.

Your username will be your full email address and the password the one you selected for fitbit (not the email password). If you go through a couple of cycles without joy, try the "forgot my password" dialog, assuming you have access to the email we have on file in your account settings. If you aren't invited to change your password then the username may have been changed - set up a second "new" fitbit account using a different email (you have access to) writing down the passwords, using fitbit.com/setup again. IF successful you can contact support email and let them work through combining the "lost" account with the "new" account so you can get your history back. There may be several identification procedures to step through; for your own safety, be patient.

[Su_Per]

PC

Sent from my iPhone

[Su_Per]

Maybe. I don't really care if I can't get to the account online. That's just another one of the problems I'm having, but I included it as an issue in case it's connected to the other issues. The main issue is that neither the app on my phone nor the app I downloaded on my laptop is working with my Ionic, and none of the suggestions have worked so far. I'm getting a HTTP 403 error on my phone and a can't reached Fitbit.com error on my laptop.

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @Su_Per I hope you're doing well, it's nice to see you around. It's great to see you too @wmchapman, thanks for all your help. 

First of all, I would like to apologize for the delay in the response. @Su_Per, I appreciate your participation in the Forums and for sharing your experience with us. If you're still getting the error 403 when trying to set up your Fitbit Ionic, please uninstall the Fitbit app from your phone, restart it, then install it back. 

Then, make sure there are not child blocks or a VPN enabled in your WiFi Network, as these might interfere with the setup process. 

I hope this can be helpful, give it a try and let us know the outcome. 

[Su_Per]

First of all, I've already tried uninstalling. Second, I actually was able to get it to connect on Monday. All of a sudden it started working again and had no connection problems, and I paired it fine and it worked for almost exactly 1 day. Unfortunately, yesterday, it stopped working again after charging it. It's back to not syncing. It also won't allow any apps to be added or updated.

There's nothing wrong with our wifi. My husband is a programmer, and we've already explored our end of it thoroughly. We're good here. Also, after searching fitbit forums for 10 seconds, I've found that this whole thing is a very common issue for Ionic users and yet fitbit techs still don't seem to have a working fix and are providing unhelpful platitudes instead of elevating the issue.

Ionic has a wifi connectivity problem. No one knows yet whether it's a hardware or software issue, or both. Most suspect that it's a software problem, but it could very well be a faulty wifi antenna. The Ionic itself seems to be operating on all cylinders, but can't connect to fitbit.com. Also, when I go to "About" in my Ionic Settings, it shows "wifi off" under the IP address (another common issue). I've already tried connecting it to the wifi in the Fitbit app about a hundred million times, so please don't try to tell me that I should try that. It's not working! It says it's connected and then drops the connection immediately. Probably why it's not syncing and probably the same reason for the Error 403. What I need to know at this point is whether it is a software issue that fitbit is elevating and working on, or is it a hardware issue where I need to cash in my warranty? Those are your only 2 acceptable answers at this point because none of your generic, canned responses are going to fix this. I've tried it all and so have a lot of other people and no one has gotten it fixed from what I've seen.

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @Su_Per, I hope you're doing well, thanks for taking the time to reply. 

First of all, I would like to apologize for the delay. I appreciate you have come back and let us know you have been able to set up your Ionic. I sincerely apologize for the inconveniences you've experienced while trying to sync it and I would like to thank you for the feedback you have provided. 

Please note that the WiFi in the Ionic has been designed to turn off automatically to save battery on your device. WiFi will only be constant when you're updating apps or transferring music, which is why it's recommended your watch is plugged in and charging when performing any of these activities. 

Nevertheless, I have forwarded the information you have provided to our team and once we have more information to share with you, we'll make sure to post it here in the official Forums. 

Thanks for your patience and understanding, have a great day. 

[Su_Per]

Thank you.

On another note, it's downloading music from Pandora right now while it charges even though it still won't sync, which seems strange that it can connect to Pandora but not to Fitbit. I think that means the wifi is working at least. 

[Bpetty]

I woke up this morning and am having the exact same problem.  Ridiculous 

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @Bpetty thanks for joining the conversation, welcome to the Fitbit Community. It's nice to see you too @Su_Per, thanks for taking the time to reply.

@Su_Per please note that while transferring music to your Versa, Bluetooth needs to be turned off on both your computer and phone. Which is the reason your watch won't sync while transferring music from Pandora. Once you finish this process, turn on Bluetooth on your phone and try to sync again. 

@Bpetty would it be possible for you to elaborate about the issue you're experiencing? Are you getting an error 403 as well? If so, let us know if it's while setting up your device or while trying to sync it. Additionally, it will be very helpful that, if you have tried to troubleshoot this issue, you could let us know the troubleshooting steps you've tried so far. 

Thanks for your patience and understanding, we'll keep an eye for your next reply. 

[Su_Per]

It still does not sync properly. I've figured out that if I turn off wifi on my phone though, my Ionic will sync again. 

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @Su_Per I hope you're doing well, thanks for taking the time to reply. 

Thanks for coming back and let us know about your findings. At this moment, I would like to ask you to try syncing a different phone. Log in to your account in the Fitbit app on a different phone and try to sync your device. If it's still having trouble syncing and you need to turn off WiFi on that device as well for the device to sync, please let us know so we can check this further. 

Thanks for your patience and understanding, we'll be waiting for your next reply. 

[Su_Per]

The app is working on my cell phone again like it's supposed to. I'm not sure what changed, but for now it's fine. I'm cautiously optimistic because this happened once before and it quit the next day.