Landscape mode on iPad just arrived

[welshman]

Happy Easter Sunday! I switched on my iPad this morning and launched the FitBit app and low and behold I got a message saying "We're just cleaning things up for you". When the FitBit app came up it was in landscape mode. Way to go FitBit! I was starting to get used to reading the dashboard sideways but I much prefer the landscape mode. The Activity goals screen is still in portrait mode but the main screens seem to be good. I haven't checked them all out yet. Thank you for getting this done.

I am still having sync problems between my iPad and my Versa but I have experimented with turning off Wi-Fi and restarting the iPad and putting the Versa in its charger and turning off the bluetooth keyboard and at some point in the day I can get the two to sync. Sometimes they sync some of the data but not all. For example my sleep pattern needs a full sync but active minutes does not. This problem happens every day and when I check Bluetooth settings on my iPad I usually find that the Versa has disconnected. What combination of actions brings the connection back is a mystery.

I like the heartbeat monitor and the fitness stats. I also like the sleep stats. Things are looking up.

[LZeeW]

@welshman   If you don't mind, I am going to move your post to the iOS forum.  I think it is a better fit for your news!

I have an older iPad that doesn't support iOS 10, so I can't check for myself.  If true, a lot of iPad users will be very happy.  Fibit has resisted this since the app came out.

[welshman]

No problem, please move if it helps to spread the word!

Sent from my iPad

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @welshman I hope you're doing well, it's nice to see you around the Fitbit Community, it's great to have you on board. It's great to see you too @LZeeW I hope you're doing well. 

@LZeeW thanks for all your help and for moving the post to the iOS board, I appreciate it. 

@welshman I appreciate you have taken the time to share your experience with us. I'm very glad you're enjoying the landscape mode of the Fitbit app in an iPad. I'm very glad. 

I would also like to thank you for letting us know the troubleshooting steps you've tried in order to make your Versa sync with your iPad. If you have synced your Versa with an iPhone or another phone before syncing with the iPad, please go to that specific device's Bluetooth Settings and remove the Versa from the list of paired devices, then try to sync the Versa again with the iPad. Additionally, restart your Versa by pressing and holding the Back and Select buttons (left and bottom right) until you see the Fitbit logo on the screen.

Thanks again for your positive feedback, we really appreciate it. If there's anything else we can do for you, please feel free to reply! 

[welshman]

I did go ahead and open the fitbit application on my Android phone and it updated the phone immediately. I then opened the fitbit app on my iPad and it synced right away. I’ll see how things go from here.

Sent from my iPad

[MarcoGFitbit]

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

I appreciate you have come back with more information about this situation. Please keep us updated and reply to this thread in case you need anything else. 

Happy stepping! 

[Rhythmeen]

Nice, but auto rotate isn't working. If you turn the tablet, it locks in portrait mode. To get landscape back, you have to close the app and restart it.

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @Rhythmeen thanks for joining the conversation, it's great to have you on board the Fitbit Community. 

I appreciate you have taken the time to share more information about this situation. I'll make sure to forward it to our team and as mentioned earlier, once we have more to share we'll post it here in the official Forums. Thanks for your patience and understanding, have a great day. 

[welshman]

Also, not all the screens are presented in landscape mode. It’s a start. It took a few years to get this far. I’ll take it. At least the home screen consistently comes up in landscape mode.

Sent from my iPad

[Rhythmeen]

On iPad 6 running iOS 12.2, all dashboard selections open in landscape except Share, Set Goals and Female Health. Challenges, Guidance, Community and Notifications all open in landscape. When the user expands (full screen) any graph in landscape, the app switches to portrait view of that graph, but if the iPad is then rotated, the screen will go landscape/portrait, so auto-rotate does work with expanded/full-screen graphs, but ONLY those. The problem is, the act of expanding/full screen ANY graph OR going into ANY submenu (e.g., Settings or Challenges, Guidance, etc. secondary screens) kills landscape mode for EVERY non-graph screen, and they are all locked into portrait view until the app is closed and reopened. So, once ANY screen is shown in portrait view, ALL screens except expanded/full-screen graphs become locked in portrait view until the app is closed and reopened. Really, it's bad form to use customers as beta testers. Obvious quirks such as this should be ironed out in-house prior to release.

[Rhythmeen]

Dunno what happened to formatting, but I had separated paragraphs in that last post. 8-/

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @Rhythmeen and @welshman I appreciate you have taken the time to reply. 

@Rhythmeen first of all, I would like to apologize for the delay in the response. Would it be possible for you to reply to us with screenshots of the parts of the app that are not showing correctly in landscape mode? This will be very helpful to our team to check this further. I'll make sure to forward them. 

Thanks for your patience and understanding, we'll be waiting to hear from you. 

[Rhythmeen]

Let me try to explain it a different way.

When the app is started in landscape mode, every selection opens in landscape except Share, Set Goals and Female Health.  Those 3 open in portrait view from the dashboard.

The initial pages/screens from the selections on the bottom navbar open correctly in landscape view.

The issue is:  when any page/screen opens in portrait mode, for whatever reason (included rotating the iPad).  Once portrait mode has been engaged, at any point in time, at any page, every page from then on — except the expanded (full screen) graphs — is then forced to open in portrait view until the app is closed and restarted.

For some reason, auto-rotate works every time for all expanded/full-screen graphs, regardless of what happens to the other pages.  I also find that expanded/full-screen graphs auto-rotate properly even if the app was originally started in portrait view.

To show you the pages/screens that open in portrait view would essentially require that I post every single page in the entire app, since they ALL do it after the FIRST time portrait view is engaged for any reason.

I could record a video of this behavior, showing what happens after portrait view is engaged the first time, but your devs can see it for themselves easily, if they use a 6th gen iPad with iOS 12.2 (and probably others).

All the devs need do is make every page/screen operate like the expanded/full-screen graphs and the issue will be resolved.

[welshman]

I am seeing the same issue on iOS 12.2 (iPad Pro 10.5"). If the share icon is selected everything displays in portrait mode until the Fitbit app is closed and re-opened. This behavior is also true when portrait mode is entered. The mode will not change back to landscape unless the app is closed/opened.

Then again I do not use portrait mode. My iPad is always oriented in landscape mode.

[MarcoGFitbit]

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

I appreciate you have come back to us and updated us about this situation. At this moment, I will forward this information to our team so they can take a better look at this situation. Once we have more to share with you about this, we'll be posting it here in the official Forums. 

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

[Clloydm]

Following my most recent update.  My IPad will now NOT go to landscape.  It had been going to landscape prior to the update.  Any help?

[Tcrawf3]

I too would like the screen rotation to be updated in the future. For a while my iPad screen would see the app in landscape mode, then it stopped with IOS updates. Interesting. Maybe it kind of a constant menace to update, I just don’t know. With such a successful device, it’s kind of interesting to find it doesn’t do a simple thing as allow screen rotation. But, like I said, the team may have to “ chase” this issue and it’s a hassle to do so. 

[welshman]

It's been 19 months since I got excited about landscape mode appearing on my iPad. Unfortunately I haven't been keeping up to date since the feature went away again. My FitBit Versa has been sitting on my bedside table for over a year now and I use my Apple Watch to close my rings on a daily basis. I cannot fathom why Fitbit thinks it's OK to abandon landscape mode but it's no longer an issue for me. If anybody is interested in my Versa, let me know.