No sleep or activity data since changing timezones.

[The_Pielander]

Hi.  My wife and I arrived in Japan last week on holiday.  Up until then our FitBit Charge2's had been working fine with our iOS apps but since we arrived we have no sleep analysis or exercise tracking in the app.  We can see sleep data from our flight for example but nothing since we arrived.  The Charge2's are logging steps and mileage ok and appear to sync just fine but then there is no analysis at all.  The hotel wifi is absolutely fine and the fact that it is affecting both of us suggests something regional to Japan.  Does anyone have any ideas what could be causing this?

Moderator Edit: Clarified Subject.

[MarcoGFitbit]

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

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. At this moment I would like to suggest you to go to the Fitbit app than tap on  Account > Advanced Settings > Time Zone and make sure "Set Automatically" is on. That will sync your tracker with your current timezone to prevent this situation from happening again. However, if this doesn't fully work, disable "Set Automatically" and manually select  Asia/Tokyo (Japan Time) under Time Zone. Don't forget to sync your tracker afterwards.

I hope this can be helpful, give it a try and keep me posted in case you need anything else! 

[The_Pielander]

Hi @MarcoGFitbit thanks for your reply.  I checked the timezone on my app and it was set to 'Automatic' and 'Tokyo'.  I changed this to manual and Tokyo but I now have a problem where the Charge 2 will not sync to the app any more.  I updated to the latest version from the app store last night before I read your reply.  I have rebooted my iPhone, turned bluetooth off/on etc but it will not synchronise any more.

I tried the same thing on my wife's iPad - set the time zone to Tokyo manually.  Her Fitbit syncs over bluetooth but there is still no exercise or sleep analytics.  We also noticed that historical data for steps and mileage walked has disappeared.  So for example we saw that we had walked 9.5 miles yesterday but that has disappeared from the graph today.

It is very strange - we can see historical data up to and including our flight to Japan and then nothing after that.

[MarcoGFitbit]

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

I appreciate you have already tried the troubleshooting steps I've provided earlier. Tell me, when was the last time your tracker synced. It's possible that because your Charge 2 hasn't synced, the information is not showing. At this moment I would like to ask you to update the app as we have just released a new version, then sync your tracker. If your tracker is not syncing, please try the following:

1. Restart your tracker
2. Restart your phone
3. Turn off the Bluetooth on your phone for 15 seconds, then turn it back on.
4. Make sure there are no other Bluetooth devices around (including your wife's tracker and phone)
5. Try to sync your tracker.

Remember that Fitbit trackers can store up to 7 days of minute by minute information and 30 day of daily totals, so the information won't get lost. 

I hope this can be helpful, give it a try and keep me posted in case you need anything else. 

[The_Pielander]

Hi @MarcoGFitbit  and apologies for the late reply.  We tried the steps you listed with both of our devices but still no exercise or sleep analytics were shown while we were in Japan.  Yesterday we travelled back to Europe and once we were back in our own timezone (GMT + 0) our Fitbits synchronised and we can now see data for the previous week - it isn't complete though the sleep analytics isn't detailed.  It definitely seems that the app didn't like being used across timezones.

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @The_Pielander, thanks for taking the time to reply, I hope you've had a nice and safe trip. 

Thanks for keeping me updated, I find very odd that your tracker hasn't synced while in Japan but I'm glad it's syncing now. Please keep in mind that your tracker can only store up to 7 days of detailed information, which is why the information for previous days is not showing entirely, the tracker will only sync daily totals up to 30 days. 

Now, when it comes to Sleep Stages, please note that the Fitbit app currently has in-app error notifications that provide an explanation for why you aren't receiving Sleep Stages on any given night. This is meant to provide insight into what might be occurring to cause this.The error messages are the following:

1. We need more than 3 hours of sleep to reliably calculate your sleep stages. Learn more
2. Your tracker couldn't get a consistent heart rate reading while you slept. Learn more 
3. We couldn’t generate sleep stages for this sleep. Please try again tomorrow. Learn more

When you tap on Learn more, you will be able to get more information about why your tracker didn't record sleep stages. Additionally, I'd like to suggest the following:

• For any of the nights you were expecting to see Sleep Stages, did you ever click on the "Begin Sleep Now" or "Add Sleep Log" functions within the Fitbit App?
  • This is important to note because your tracker uses auto-detection to track Sleep Stages; so there's no need to try and remember to click on anything before falling asleep! 
• Do you have at least 3 consecutive hours of sleep?
  • This is important to note because you typically won't see sleep stages if you are waking up multiple times through out the night or taking short naps.
• Your tracker's battery isn't at a critically low level prior to falling asleep.
• Your device is tracking and syncing heart rate data.
  • This is important because Sleep Stages uses a combination of your movement and heart-rate patterns. 
• Your Fitbit App is updated to the latest version.

I hope this can be helpful, give it a try and keep me posted in case you need anything else.

[shaun2020]

I think the timezone issue is a fault with the fitbit software and it's handling of timezones for the watch display.

I'm normally in Australia and although the Android App shows sleep times all the time, the watch never has. Except when I traveled to Canada for a few weeks and then magically it started working - no changes to setting from me. On returning to Australia it stops working again. I suspect a bug in the code for the watch and checking for sleep data related to timezones.