Setting up Fitbit Blaze - Frustrating experience

[Edosa]

It is indeed very frustrating. For the better part of today, I have been trying to set up the Fitbit Blaze, but can not just get any headway - indeed very frustrating and I feel I wasted my hard earned money buying a Fitbit Blaze. Sincerely, I will not be in a position to give any positive recommendation on this device. I have read through several similar issues on the Fitbit community, the problems I am facing are not peculiar to me.

Some of the issues that are frustrating to me are indicated below.

1. The iOS Fitbit App is only available in few Apple Stores globally despite the fact that Fitbit is being shipped to several countries and the iOS is one of the widely used operating systems worldwide.
2. The screen of the brand new Fitbit Blaze I spent $199.99 on do not just go beyond the Fitbit.com/setup screen, despite charging it for over 8 hours.
3. While charging it, the screen only shows the Fitbit logo and the Fitbit.com/setup, there is no indication that the tracker is charging as no green light or flickering battery sign is showing as most devices do when they are being charged. Secondly, there was not indication. If the device was fully charged or any level of charge at all. Most other devices, once they are fully charged, the indicate so by displaying a green battery sign with 100%.
4. The Fitbit blaze could not be connected via Bluetooth with my iPhone, iPad nor laptop. This is the first first Bluetooth device I have bought that could not be paired easily to either my iPhone, iPad or laptop.
5. Could not synchronize the Fitbit blaze to my Fitbit account after several trials. The last option was to use a dongle, unfortunately, the box containing the brand new device contains no dongle. Most other devices I have bought, if they needed a dongle to be paired, their boxes usually contains one.

It's so unfortunate, I spent $199.99 on a device I cannot use.

[AlejandraFitbit]

It's great to see you around @Edosa. I will be glad to help you with your Blaze setup inconvenience.

1. Where are you located? Since so far I know, the Fitbit app is available to all iOS users for free

2. If you are seeing just the setup screen, I recommend restarting your Blaze and then follow the setup procedure

3. At the moment of connecting your tracker, you will be able to see a battery icon at first that indicates that the battery is charging, once it turns off you will see the battery icon in the upper left corner

4. Once you set up the device it will pair automatically to your phone's bluetooth

5. If you haven't paired your tracker, it won't be able to sync and the Blaze doesn't have an USB dongle since it syncs with the cradle (charging cable)

By clicking here you will be able to see the Blaze manual, also I recommend following our setup procedure from your iOS Fitbit app after restarting your tracker.

I hope this helps, let me know the outcome. 

[Edosa]

Thanks for your response, however, I have already done all that you suggested, the screen message still remain the same - Fitbit logo and fitbit.com/setup. I tried restarting by pressing and holding the Back and Select buttons, the screen still showed Fitbit logo and fitbit.com/setup.

I am located in Namibia, and the Fitbit App is not available in the Namibia iOS users in Namibia. 

[DerrickS]

@Edosa Some international Community users were able to download the Fitbit App by following the workarounds mentioned here, this might help!

I don't mean to be repetitive, but the steps mentioned here should get you setup:

1. Restart your tracker.

2. (If you are setting up on a mobile device) reboot your mobile device.

3. (Also for mobile setup) open your iOS settings > turn off Bluetooth  for 10 seconds > and then turn Bluetooth back on.

4. Use the replacement setup instructions listed here on either your iOS device, a different mobile device, or a computer to pair your tracker to your already-existing Fitbit account.

Hope this helps!

[Edosa]

Derrick, I also don't want to be repetitive. Restarting the tracker did not work. I have been doing that even before your response. For the past 24 hours, the only thing that have shown up on the blaze screen is the logo and fitbit.com/setup. The screen has not gone beyond this stage. 

The Fitbit App is not available in the Namibia Apple Store.

Please is there a way that the blaze (just on its own as a tracking device) can work without it being linked to a Fitbit account? If there is a way, that is what I want to do now. Let me know if there is a way of using the blaze alone as a tracker without synchronizing data from it. Unfortunately, I cannot download the Fitbit App on my iPhone 6S.

[DerrickS]

@Edosa I wouldn't recommend using the Blaze without pairing it to a Fitbit account. A lot of the basic functionality of the tracker requires that it's paired to a Fitbit account.

I'd recommend downloading Fitbit Connect on a computer and then setting up the tracker through a computer. Setup instructions can be found here. Keep me posted.

[Edosa]

Dear Derrick

The very first thing I did when it became apparent that the Fitbit App is not available on the Namibia Apple Store, was to download Fitbit Connect on my laptop. However when it came to pairing, Fitbit Connect require that I plug a dongle to to the laptop's USB slot, before I could proceed. Unfortunately dongles are not sold with blaze and I could not proceed. After much going through the Fitbit help, there was indication that the charging cable which was included in my purchase can be used instead of the dongle. I tried this option, when it got to the stage of pairing, Fitbit Connect still requested that the dongle be plugged into the computer USB slot despite the fact the the blaze was already connected to the laptop using the charging cable.

I have had it, just unfortunate that the $199.99 spent on the blaze is money down the drain.

Moderator Edit: Removed personal information.

[Rich_Laue]

If you have a windows10 or 8, or a Mac you should be able to set the blaze up through the charging dock, Fitbit must be inserted, connected to the computer.
Yes there will not be any charge img indicator while the setup message is displayed, 1 hour is more than enough..
As for pairing to your phone, this has to be done through the app, not the BY settings screen.

[Edosa]

Dear Rich_Laue

Thanks for your response. When Sutherland Fitbit App be available on the all Apple Stores globally? Right now it's only available on very few selected Stores.

Regards