How do I get the old Dashboard back?

[SunsetRunner]

Does anyone know how I get the old dashboard back on my iOS app? I don’t have automatic updates turned on so I don’t know how this has happened? The new dashboard is not user friendly and set out very poorly

[greghei1]

@Fyrfyter  On iOS, you definitely can trial and cancel.  You sign up for premium as an in-app purchase, and then if you want to cancel, you can cancel your subscription on your phone within the first week for no cost (which is what I did).

[Fyrfyter]

@alcurb The price of the Apple Watch Series 3 was just reduced to $199. This is less than the new Fitbit Versa 2. I don’t know if Fitbit was caught off guard by this or if they knew about it and the transition to the subscription service is a hedge against declining hardware sales. Either way, the turmoil they’re causing within their customer base is very bad timing with Apple’s announcements. Coke or Pepsi?

[Fyrfyter]

@greghei1  Did the dashboard look any different in the premium trial?

[greghei1]

@Fyrfyter  Nope - dashboard looked the same to me.  There was more sleep data available, though.  The workout/coaching programs were useless to me.

[J-flex]

@greghei1    Out of curiosity what kind/type of sleep data is available in premium as opposed to the regular version? Thanks 

[alcurb]

@Fyrfyter , Wow, the Apple Watch 3 has gotten more affordable now. However, I don't think it would be good for sleep tracking because the battery charge doesn't seem to last as long as my FB device, I mean, AW3 has to be charged regularly, usually when the wearer is asleep. I do think, however, that the AW3 is an attractive device.

I want my FB alternative device's app to have a nice dashboard style user interface such as the old FB dashboard and has to track sleep and steps with their associated historical bar graphs and I don't want to pay for a subscription to get it back when I had it for free all along. Too much to ask?

[alcurb]

Hi @Fyrfyter, 

Regarding you comment that they all are made in China: I had a Chinese-branded one that had all the bells and whistles, that looked very much like the original Apple Watch, but the app was useless; the on-watch user interface was clunky and hard to use; and the battery lasted about 4 to 5 hours. It was pathetic and I vowed to stay away from Chinese-branded watches. This was not my only experience with Chinese-branded products. I have tripped over the same stone before usually because I was attracted by the low to reasonable pricing. I know that most devices are made in China but the differences are: Where was the watch designed and developed? Where was the intellectual property created? What company owns the IP, holds patents, trademarks, etc? What company paid for ensuring high-quality manufacturing standards? What company paid for providing real-time or near-real-time customer support? What company is liable under US laws and are subject to consumer protection? The last two questions are the most important to me.

[Melissa111111]

Please change it back! There was nothing wrong with the old

one! I was thinking for buying fitbits as Xmas gifts for my boyfriend and sister but they would hate this new app as much as me so now I will be looking elsewhere...good change I will also change to one of the other similar products out there 

[alcurb]

I managed to get my step counter on the dashboard and re-activate the the sleep tracker as the new software update did not allow me before because it said that my Charge HR was not compatible. What??? (I had been using the sleep tracker with my Charge HR for years.) Anyway it took a lot of effort and patience, but I got the sleep tracker back.  I had to reset my device (which supposedly should not have wiped out my previous data) AND had to clean out the app's cache and data memory. I then re-registered my Charge HR to the app but at a cost of time, as it took over 15 minutes after a third time for the device to register and sync up to the app, and I lost about two weeks of data starting from yesterday. The data prior the two weeks seem intact, possibly downloaded from Fitbit servers? I don't know where the old data is stored.

After this little odyssey, I'll find out after tomorrow if my sleep data and step data sync up. If this workaround works for IOS users, post your experience here.

If Fibit developers knew this would happen, it would have been nice if they'd warned us and given us the workaround before causing all this grief.

BTW: I still don't like the new app's user interface. I still wish the old one back.

[LesRoddy]

AMEN!!!!!!

I want my old app back......this maybe enough to convert me to apple.....main thing I loved about fitbit was my app page.....give it back!

[alcurb]

I posted  this in another FitBit board, Community > Platform > Fitbit.com Dashboard > Re: Bring old dashboard back

"Fitbit could have their cake and eat it too. Fitbit could re-introduce the old dashboard as a theme that the user can choose. If the user likes the old look, the way the data is presented, choose the 'Classic Dash' theme and if user doesn't care or likes the new user interface (I don't know who would but for argument sake let's say some do) then the user can choose the 'New Dash Theme'--remember the New Coke and Classic Coke?"

[tammyrivera414]

I agree booh on the new dashboard. 

[laurajhawk]

My two cents after using the new dashboard for a few weeks: Yeah, it looks normal to me now. Still, when I go into it, I experience a tiny energy drop like I'm in a dark room, vs the old look that gave me a tiny energy boost. The colors, I think, are de-energizing and look old. The other thing I notice is that I haven't gotten back my motivation to hit all my targets for the day. The green diagonal effect was very motivating for me and I'd grab for my phone to see it happen. The li'l stars in the new app don't do it for me and I don't bother looking for them.

Human reactions are funny. I can't say "oh this dashboard makes me mad, I won't buy another Fitbit." I can say "this dashboard doesn't motivate me like the old one did; by the time my Fitbit breaks, I may have stopped paying attention to it and therefore may not replace it."

[nujol]

Well some time has passed FitBit and the rubbish new dashboard hasn’t got any better. 

I’m checking it less and less now, haven’t hit goals properly for a while. 

Totally demotivating for me sadly. Going to have to look elsewhere I think to replace my Charge 2. 

Can’t understand why you’ve made the app so much worse, and can’t understand why there is no acknowledgement of this or quick action to restore what we had before. 

Hundreds of comments on here, hundreds of votes for it, even people at work with FitBits making conversation about how poor the app now is. 

The crazy thing is that the page for choosing what is on the big wide white rows that show nowhere near the quality they used to, actually does have the tiled layout we want back!

Come on... can anyone offer any justification for this or assurance we will get back what we had. I feel like I’ve paid for a device and then out of my control that device has been made worse - should be illegal! 

[greghei1]

@laurajhawk I agree with you, but my Charge 3 was so poor at tracking things from a hardware perspective (especially sleep), I had long ago decided that this was probably my last Fitbit device.  The ease of use of the app and the stupid badges (yes I'm a dork) were the only thing keeping me in the ecosystem.  Coincidentally, they changed the app and I earned my Russian train badge at the same time.  They're clearly not changing the app back, and I waiting another 2 or so years for the next badge isn't sufficient motivation. 

If one of those two things hadn't happened, I probably wouldn't have bought a Garmin, but they did, so I bought a Vivosmart 4 and it's much better hardware.  The app isn't as "pretty" but it has all the data I want, and it's much more accurate at sleep tracking, plus I don't have to pay for VO2 data.

[RyanRayne]

I will never subscribe to anything from Fitbit and if I had known they were going to do this to their customers, I would never have bought it. 

[Fyrfyter]

 I have found some benefits now that I’ve had the new dashboard for a while. I’ve stopped using the Fitbit app to track food, water, hourly steps, days of exercise and heart rate. When I remove those tiles from the dashboard I can almost fit the stuff I have left on one screen. I’ve found other apps for nutrition and sleep tracking that I like and I’m spending less time, in total, on my phone. Sometimes I don’t even glance at the Fitbit app until dinner. Steps have become less important to me and I’ve changed my Versa watch face so that it really just tells me the time. I was probably a little caught up in all things Fitbit. 

[LesRoddy]

guess I will start using my applewatch4…...preferred the old app page for Fitbit, but it is gone and appears that it will not be back

[Cathbadh]

It’s remarkable that the lagging, performance issues are unresolved as of today. I’m on a recent iPhone XR. Just now tried adding a food log and it flat out refused to register it.

I assume the exercise stuff for premium is limited. If I remember there was nothing there aimed at strength training for example. Well, just maybe they snuck in some simple plank exercises?

[tammyrivera414]

I will post my concern/comment on social media then if Fitbit deleted my
post here.