RESOLVED: Lost steps when syncing multiple trackers

[MatthewFitbit]

6/14 Update: This issue should now be resolved. If you previously unpaired a secondary tracker, we encourage you to pair it back to your account and resume using multiple devices.

Thanks everyone for your assistance with investigation, as well as your patience while we worked to get this corrected.

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We are aware that some customers are seeing a decrease in steps when syncing with multiple trackers. Our team is investigating this situation, and working to ensure that multiple trackers on a single account are able to sync without issue.

If this has affected you, we recommend having only a single tracker paired to your account until it is resolved. We will update this thread when we have an update.

Apologies for the inconvenience, and thank you for your patience!

[olegdulin]

Yes, what CS told you  contradicts this page: https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1715

[RubyEng]

Same thing here. I've got a Charge 2 and an Alta HR. I like the Alta because it's smaller and I like the alternative bands for it so it doesn't look so much like a sports watch. 

I was pleasantly surprised for the first week of using both. It seamlessly switched between the two and syncing was spot on! Then all of a sudden I did a challenge on Thursday and it lost 6000 steps. I tried another challenge over the weekend and it lost about 10,000 steps over the course of the weekend. I emailed fitbit on Thursday and again last night. I haven't had a response to yesterday's email yet, but did get an utter bs response on Thursday about everyone in the challenge having to be in the same time zone and if I manually add steps they don't count in a challenge. I never said anything about manually adding steps!

Just out of interest- do you only lose steps when doing a challenge? Just a thought because it worked fine until I started doing challenges... 🤔

[olegdulin]

This has nothing to do with challenges. They just like to give BS answers. There is a software issue that I suspect happened with the last iOS app update, but some people are reporting it on Android as well.

[Julia_G]

Hi, @RubyEng, you shoouldn't lose steps (or only a few) when you use two trackers as long as you carefully sync when you switch.

There is currently a bug somewhere in the system meaning that you lose steps -- a lot of steps -- when switching even if you follow all the correct procedures.

I am not sure whether this bug is related to iOS or is elsewhere in the system, but hopefully it will be fixed soon and you can go back to switching between your trackers.

I do know that Fitbit engineers are aware of this issue and trying to identify the source.  (It's definitely not challenges, or low battery, or user error, and resetting or restarting won't help...)

[RevHiD]

I personally would be much more patient if the phone support people were familiar with expected and advertised features of the product. "It's not supposed to be used that way" should never be an answer for a product that IS supposed to do that. "Please try this to help us troubleshoot" or "do this temporarily while we look into it" is ok, as long as temporary is really temporary.

[RubyEng]

Thanks for the response! I'm on Android actually not ios.

Glad to hear it's a bug because I've tried so many different ways to sync carefully and I just couldn't get my head round it! It had synced and all my steps were there and I was winning in the challenge and then all of a sudden it had lost them all, despite telling me I'd hit my goals and also showing up in the challenge that I'd overtaken people even though my steps had suddenly dropped significantly. 

I'll keep my eyes open for an update then 👀 

[Julia_G]

Hi, @RevHiD, it is always a little difficult when issues emerge on the weekend.  Sometimes it takes a little while for information to filter through to Customer Support.  They are very familiar with the standard way things are meant to work, but if things go a little wrong you can often get better minute by minute information here in the Community.

I very much hope (and expect) this is temporary!  I have been using more than one tracker on my account since Fitbit first starting supporting that (several years ago) and I have never had a serious issue until Friday.

As I said, the engineers are aware.  I am sure they are giving this some priority.

[fineagedtequila]

Jumping in to say I am having the issue as well.  I reported this on Thursday of last week to the support team and am awaiting more information.

I too have Flex 2 and Charge 2 but on Android, so definitely impacts both platforms.

Anxiously awaiting a fix.

[Max52]

Okay this is my first post so here we go! I just got a charge 2 and I love it but today I decided to wear my Flex. When I went to sync my Flex I lost all my steps! I belive it just transferred the steps that the Charge 2 already had. I just want to prevent that from happening so any ideas??

[Saranie2]

I've also been having this problem with my flex and charge 2 since last week. Wear my flex to work and log 10-14000 steps. Get home, put on my charge 2, and boom! Only 450 steps! Sooooo frustrating! 

[smj34]

I'm having the same issue. Yesterday was with Flex and Charge 2.  Today is with Charge HR and Charge 2.  Oddly, my Active Minutes are correct and the Steps Histogram is correct. 

[smj34]

I tried to chat with them. Agent did not get it. Then I was disconnected!

[cobauer]

I'm legitimately considering investing in an apple watch instead. It's way more money, but apple customer support has never failed me. The fact that this many people are having this issue and half of their customer support team is spouting scripted responses or blaming the problems on user error leads me to believe nothing is going to change. You know what they say... "You get what you pay for." #Cheap #FitBitFail

[ActiveWoman11]

I am having the same issue as well. I have a Flex and Charge 2. This just started happening and is very frustrating. 

[Jillsy80]

It's happening to me too... really annoying.. and again it's only just started since the last update! Please sort it out quickly! 

[Bouqui]

I noticed this problem this week too. I have an Alta and a ChargeHR. In my case, however, the Alta overwrote the ChargeHR data and I also lost many steps. Thanks for the numerous posts on this subject. I will also report this to Fitbit Support. 

[Bouqui]

I noticed this problem this week too. I have an Alta and a ChargeHR. In my case, however, the Alta overwrote the ChargeHR data and I also lost many steps. Thanks for the numerous posts on this subject. I will also report this to Fitbit Support. 

How can one manually reenter the steps? Thanks. 

[olegdulin]

@cobauer I don't like the looks of the Apple Watch; I don't want it replacing my Swiss swatch for all day tracking. The fact that Fitbit advertised support for multiple trackers on same account was the main reason I stuck with it. Up until recent update I could wear Flex 2 during the day, and Charge 2 at night and during workouts.

I don't mind waiting a bit, but I am extremely disappointed at complete lack of acknowledgement that there is a problem by Fitbit. There is no message saying "Yes, we know lots of you are having this problem, we are working on a fix." And customer service is just repeating the same nonsense. It's been three days since I reached out to them and escalated the issue and I haven't heard back. The Twitter support is telling me they are working on it the best they can.

For real? All those Pebble engineers they acquired can't be put to good use?

[EFD1976]

I've lost loads of steps over the last week when I've switched between trackers.  Fitbit support have said that currently multi tracker syncing is "a bit buggy" and they are working to fix it.  Hopefully soon, I'm not doing very well on my work week hustle!

I have been able to see all my steps by drilling down in the day's step totals, but it doesn't come through to the dashboard.

[Max52]

Okay thanks!