How to stop the app from asking me to turn on GPS tracking?

[Wahoo5899]

How can I stop the iOS app from asking me to turn on GPS tracking? 

Moderator Edit: Clarified Subject.

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @Wahoo5899, have a warm welcome to the Fitbit Community, it's great to have you on board. 

I appreciate your participation in the Forums and for sharing your question with us. Tell me, is the app asking you to turn on "location" as soon as you open the app or when you're about to perform an exercise. Which device are you using? Please note that if you have a device that uses connected GPS to track your exercises, the app will ask you to enable Location, by going to your phone Settings > Fitbit  > Location, set it to always for the message to disappear so you can track your exercises with connected GPS. 

I hope this can be helpful, in the meantime, we'll be waiting to hear from you. Happy stepping! 

[melgage]

I have also asked a question regarding this, but received a different reply, as if I was reporting a bug:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/iOS-App/GPS-data-is-recorded-if-location-services-are-set-to-quot-Al...

Why is it necessary to have GPS on 'Always' (which the reply on this post states, but not the reply to my question), when it used to be sufficient to have it on only 'while using the app'?

[debdebweb]

Margo,

I also have the same question but noticed that you didn’t answer the question being asked. 

 I have an Inspire HR. I keep getting alerts both inside the app and on my iPhone 11 Pro, both, to set GPS to “Always” for exercise tracking.  But I don’t want to do that for 2 reasons:
1) GPS always on drains my phone battery fast.

2) I don’t need GPS tracking. 

So I always choose “No thank you”. And yet the alert appears every time I wake up my phone and every time I open the Fitbit app. And other random times as well. This is driving me crazy. 

Please help!

[OrangeArtichoke]

I don’t want to set my GPS to always on. Once I have told the app “no thanks”, it should no longer have the pop-up window asking me to turn it on. This is just a basic app design problem and should be fixed.  

[yaletowngirl]

Was this question answered? I don't want to choose "always on". I don't want the gps tracking on - which is a choice. Fitbit asks me this incessantly every time I open the app. This is a major issue and should not rely on forcing users to make a choice.

[melgage]

@yaletowngirlNo, it was never answered, except to basically say 'that's just the way it is.' I did read elsewhere that it was necessary for some Android phones for some reason, but Fitbit seem to have made it standard across all the platforms. I guess the only way it will change is if enough people complain about it, but there doesn't some to be all that much angst on the forums. At least there wasn't when I first posted. If everyone just accepts it, why would Fitbit want to change?

[yaletowngirl]

What terrible product design, and I work in the tech industry too. Clearly poor design and experience. I could easily just start using my Apple watch or Garmin too. I was using Fitbit because it was just simple. Now not so simple.

[melgage]

@yaletowngirlNot only that, when I included in my email the fact that my Floors count suddenly went up in November from an average of about 30 to an average of about 80, their response was basically 'this is how the floor count works' and 'if you don't want to count floors, here's how to turn it off' 🙄

[Derek123456]

When I called fitbit support to complain about the "always share location" changethey kept saying "we need it to sync properly" even though it would sync fine before the latest update.

Thankfully I'm inside my 45 day return window and they can have their versa 2 back.

[Shyland]

This is new feature/bug and it’s very annoying. No thank you means no, not 

ask me again every time I use the app. 

[thenameless1]

Turning off background app refresh for the fitbit app stops the notifications, but depending on how you use your tracker you might find that you are losing some functionality.

[Shyland]

Thank you for the suggestion but background app refresh is off. I’ve been
using Fitbit app and Charge 3 for a year and have made no configuration
changes. This issue appeared with the newest update

[thenameless1]

I apologize,  I've stopped updating my app and i'm on version 3.12.1.   I don't receive the popups, but in addition to having background app refresh off i also have all day sync turned off, and location set to never.  Are those your settings by any chance?

Hopefully @KateFitbit can shed some light onto this issue. Since i'm on an older version, 3.12.1, and you are on the newest version, 3.18, and experiencing issues I would interpret that as the app going downhill with updates. @KateFitbit  is this the intended behavior of the app?  Is the app supposed to bombard users with prompts for location?

Me personally, I don't think it's a great option and why i think of the app in a negative way. Although if Fitbit is intentionally including this "feature." Then i can see why they think the app is improving.

Any clarification you can provide @KateFitbit  will be greatly appreciated

[fourthirty]

There are at least five different threads talking about the same issue.

The new iOS version 3.18 release does not address the "Always" location requirement.

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

[Mihalis]

Exactly. I'm trashing my Charge3 that I bought this year and getting an Apple. It reflects a lack of integrity and wrecked my trust in the brand and the company ethos.

[CundyMcC]

Marco, would you please tell us how to stop the notifications from popping up every time we open the app? I have a charge 4 and I don’t want the location setting to always. So, please stop the notification from appearing. How can I accomplish that?

[KathrynKC]

I fixed it by deleting the fitbit app altogether and then reinstalling it from the app store.   Needed reset I guess.  I was so relieved!

[KathrynKC]

Whoops, within a few days the notification came back.

[msf37]

Very annoying.  Extremely poor programing.