Fitbit app keeps asking for Location access & Bluetooth sharing

[Mingarh]

I have the charge 3 and it has been asking me for as long as I can remember. My husband got the charge 5 for Christmas and it hasn’t asked him once. 🤷🏻‍:female_sign:

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[snoot]

I hope that's the case, @CPotato  - seems like a privacy invasion. 

I checked last night, and ensured FitBit's GPS was set to "Never". Went for a run this morning, it tracked it and mapped out exactly where I was. One would think that if I set FitBit location services to "Never", that it would not know where I am - regardless of using FitBit GPS or iPhone GPS. Agree or disagree? I'm a bit weirded out.

[Nmcc27]

As noted in a previous post it was requested by admin to notify after some time if this pop up issue persists.. well, it’s still happening. Every time I open my app it continues to prompt me to share this info, I click ‘No Thanks’, but it is as if it does not register and continues to irritatingly prompt each time the app is opened. None of the other suggestions work. This is ridiculous. Please fix this bug or provide me with a solution to get rid of this issue other than chucking my device in the trash and going with another brand. It’s always something with these Fitbits…

[meljohnson]

Lizzy,

This issue still hasn’t been resolved by all the smart folks at Fitbit so I surmise that it isn’t a priority. That’s fine. Refund my money. I have had at least 5 chats/calls with Fitbit tech support who are unable to resolve this annoying, intrusive inconvenience. I want my money back for this Fitbit and I won’t be using it any longer. Who will contact me about next t steps? The suppprt person I spoke with 3 weeks ago said someone would contact me within 72 hours. Yet another unmet expectation by Fitbit. 

[BRMOR]

If you fix the issue you won’t have to apologize! 

[StuckInTraffic]

Someone else at work got a fitbit a couple of weeks ago and has same issue.

She contacted fitbit support and got the reply below.

"Hi Sam,
Thanks for letting us know about this issue. We’re currently working to resolve it and hope to have a fix soon. Be sure to keep your Fitbit device and app up-to-date to ensure you receive the quickest resolution.
We're sorry for any trouble. We appreciate your patience and look forward to getting you back on track.
Please let us know if there's anything we can do to assist you in the meantime.
Sincerely,"

Light at end of tunnel? Perhaps. we will see.

[MGHTS]

I am not optimistic! This problem has been going on since 2019 for some users, which is completely unacceptable. It has never been successfully resolved!

It started in November of last year for me. So 3 months of asking me to change location services, which I absolutely refused to do. I have tried logging out of the app, force quitting it on my i-phone, clicking on "never" in settings and turning my iphone off and then back on. This worked for only about a minute.

The next suggestion that I saw posted by a user (not a Fitbit moderator) seemed like a great idea. Same process but turning OFF Notifications for the Fitbit App. Again, worked for only about a minute (several Fitbit app refreshes).

I alos tried turning the "Background App" Refresh in Fitbit Settings on the I-phone to OFF. This also worked for several minutes but the annoying pop-up is back again.

It's  incomprehensible that FITBIT is not addressing this issue, when a simple APP update could fix this.  

Moderator Edit: Word choice

[Prometheus1962]

I've had the Fitbit for just over a week and now I'm suddenly having this problem. What with the annoying occasional advertisements and this issue, I'm about ready to return my Fitbit to Amazon.

[Prometheus1962]

Hi Lizzy,

It's not just the Charge 3. I have the charge 5, so I suspect it's just a matter of time before it happens to your husband too.

[Mingarh]

as of today, it still hasn't asked him. My still asks every time I open up my app to sync it. Hopefully they can come up with a new update that will fix this for the rest of us!

[CPotato]

In my experience, there is no “fix”currently, and if we can learn anything from the past practice by Fitbit…There’s Not Going To Be One. 

I think it’s hilarious that “support” tells us to “reboot the device” or “reload the app” As If there’s some problem on our end! They Know there’s no problem because this is intentionally programmed into the app…it just “gets us off the line” so they can move on. In reality, they likely expect they would receive more complaints from people who “forgot” the turn on communications and their afternoon jog was not recorded with GPS data. My prediction; there is No “Fix” coming. 

[MGHTS]

Totally agree! It won't get fixed if it hasn't been resolved since 2019. The "solutions" proposed by moderators since then must be disengenous as they DO NOT WORK.

[SunsetRunner]

@snoot if you are using an iPhone go to 

There are 2 GPS devices. One on your phone the other is the Fitbit

* turn off Fitbit’s access to phone gps 

settings > privacy > location services > Fitbit 

make sure it is designated as never

* on the Fitbit device go to settings set to gps phone (other options are dynamic and built-in) 
Since the gps in the phone  is being blocked by the phone’s OS - the Fitbit device cannot connect

*finally go to the Fitbit dashboard on the website

click the gear icon (upper right) > then select your Fitbit device > set gps to off

Then sync your Fitbit and that should block a multitude of ways (redundantly) for the Fitbit to get a gps signal. 

Extra note: when you start an outdoor activity double check that the specific outdoor activity has the gps setting to off. Note: You can individually disable/enable outdoor activity profiles. 

[Grumpsie]

Thanks for that suggestion. If I understand the intention then your process should disable Fitbit accessing the GPS data?

If that’s the intention this won’t be help the majority of people who are bothered by Fitbit behaviour.

Most of us want the app to collect and use the GPS data when and ONLY when we are exercising without being bothered by incessant notifications . In other words the app should be collecting GPS data in tandem with the watch when the app is operating and GPS data collection stopped when the app is turned off, that is explicit within the options offered to the user within app menus ……… as far as I understand that is how other GPS fitness devises behave when configured to do so.

Sent from my iPad

[SunsetRunner]

 Enable itdor either “while using app” or “always”. It will only access gps when activities are defined to use it. When the iOS gps is active it will show a gps enabled icon in the notification bar. You can also confirm  the status of each app under (iPhone) settings > privacy > location services 

If the app is currently using gps the icon will be purple (see the icon key below the list of apps). 

[CPotato]

I believe you are absolutely correct and I’m bummed I didn’t figure it out for myself, haha. This puts me greatly at ease leaving the Bluetooth/Sharing settings on “Always”. As long as it is only actually using GPS when I’m exercising; I’m fine with that. This in turn removes the annoying warning when opening the app!
I wonder, has Fitbit support ever said this as the solution to calm concerns that Fitbit and google were “always watching” while Bluetooth/Sharing was on “Always”. It would certainly “put out a big fire”. Thank you!

Sent from my iPhone

[SunsetRunner]

@CPotato  Well these alerts (when using an iPhone) are more centric to the current iteration of iOS.  As part of Apple's privacy push they implemented nagging reminders regarding some settings (like GPS in this case).  So it is more Apple trying to inform/remind you that an app has access to a particular sensor.  But, it can be alarming if the user is unfamiliar with how iOS is behaving (under its recent versions). I think user concern is accentuated now that Fitbit is owned by Google. But even on Google's smartphone OS, android, you can regulate access data like GPS. Being that I write software - it is intuitive for me to adjust my privacy controls, but for the average user (even tech centric users) I think both Apple, Fitbit and Google can do better in this area.

[Grumpsie]

Thanks for trying to help us solve this issue. The menu options you referred to for GPS under settings on my charge 4 were somewhat different. I tried setting GPS to “phone only” on my device  and set fitbit app to collect data only when using. I continue to get alerts to change to always. I cannot find any icons which indicate gps connection is operating.

[SunsetRunner]

@Grumpsie If you are using iOS see the attached screenshots (this pertains to using the GPS device inside the iPhone)

Also here is some additional info (link) from apple.com: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203033 

[Grumpsie]

Thanks ……

I am curious about this but there was no photo attachment

Sent from my iPhone

[SunsetRunner]

This issue started with me a few weeks ago when I thought it would be a good idea to track my walks🙄 Decided it wasn’t because it left out other information I wanted so turned turned LA back to never. Since then I’ve had this infuriating pop up. So as long your husband never touches LA he might be safe 😂