Can't sync Fitbit now after new update

[SUSDAR30]

I followed all of your suggestions and instructions exactly. It didn’t sync. It sees my battery level but can’t see the steps or other data. In addition, if I have my phone on at all, the Fitbit won’t sync to my computer.

Your Fitbit software is a huge problem !

Details: Locations were on for everything. That’s not the problem, so please cease and desist using the easy blame-the-user answer.

Actually, I have done all of your email’s steps previously except for the “force stop” thing. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the Fitbit App multiple times previously. But today I added in the “force stop” thing.  No change.  Didn’t work. It’s your software or Verizon’s or Samsung’s but the App doesn’t work. All locations are on. All the settings are exactly as Verizon and Fitbit recommends.

[emilenl]

SUSDAR30​ there is nothing wrong with the FitBit app or the FitBit itself. The problem lies completely within the Bluetooth part of the Android OS that has for some reason become broken with the latest OS update.

The reason the FitBit doesn't work when you try to connect it to your computer while the phone is on is because the phone "steals" the connection to your FitBit. While the FitBit is connected to the phone, it can't connect to something else. Notice that what's broken is that the Bluetooth part in the Android OS doesn't notify the FitBit app that it's connected (as it should). That's why it doesn't work. You will probably have no luck trying out other BLE devices since the whole BLE part of this OS update is broken.

[mwolfeaxon]

This is mostly correct. This seems to be a Samsung bug as it hasn't been confirmed on any other devices.

While not all BLE devices are actually broken, most of them are. More specifically though the devices that are broken aren't doing anything wrong. They're simply not implementing behavior that is not required by the BLE specification.  We've figured out how to fix this in our BLE device firmware but it's not something many companies would have the time and to figure out.   (P.S. see the issue tracker on the google website).

More importantly, this is something that worked fine according the BLE specification before and now it doesn't. Not sure what the process is of getting the bluetooth certification group to de-certify samsung but at this point it may be more effective than yelling in verizon forums.

Seriously Verizon and Samsung, figure this out! No amount of restarting your phone, clearing cache, factory resets, toggling bluetooth, deleting apps, starting in safe mode will ever fix this issue.  A phone firmware update is required to fix this. You've broken standard BLE and turned most 3rd party product into  paper weights!  You've also caused headache to all of these companies who now have to deal with customers yelling at them for breaking something that is clearly and demonstrably a problem with these samsung phones, specifically the note 4 and s5 with the July 1 security update.

[Dave-in-Decatur]

Verizon Wireless Customer Support wrote:

We hear you and we've reached out to our Samsung moderator for assistance, hambrew807. Make sure the Fitbit app is installed on the device and is the most current version, make sure the phone has Bluetooth turned on, make sure the Fitbit is only connected to one phone or tablet, and make sure the Always Connected option is turned on in the Fitbit app. Fitbit app>Account>select tracker>turn ON All-Day Sync.

If the device is running Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) or later, you may need to manually grant permission for the Fitbit app to scan for Bluetooth devices. On the phone, please go to Settings>Applications>Application manager>tap the Fitbit app>Permissions>turn ON Location. Ensure that the location setting is enabled on the phone in Settings>Location>turn the Location switch ON. You will then force stop the Fitbit app in Settings>Applications>Application manager>tap the Fitbit app>Force Stop>Force Stop again at the warning prompt. Turn Bluetooth off on the phone, then back on. Restart the phone and uninstall/reinstall the Fitbit app.

Let me know how this works.

ZangY_VZW

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If my response answered your question please click the �Correct Answer� button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

zangy_vzw​, I'm sorry to sound disrespectful, but do Verizon support reps actually read the posts in this thread? Specifically the one just above yours, which clearly states that this is a Samsung OS issue and can't be fixed by any amount of customer action? Why bother sending out such pointless, time-wasting instructions? (And yes, I did try it, as I and most of us here have tried such actions before. It didn't work, of course, and it was pointless, and it was a waste of time.) Please tell your Samsung moderator to do a little investigation. Better to tell customers, "We're sorry, this is broken at the Android level and we can't offer you any way to fix it" than to waste our time with this.

[GARKUB17]

This is so ridiculous. Maybe we can turn blue tooth off then on again, restart the cell, and try reloading the app. Maybe that will work. No wait, that has already been suggested 1,000 times already. Well maybe if someone else from Verizon suggest it again... it might work this time. These guys don't have a clue about customer service. Time to vote with our feet and move to a service oriented carrier.

[vzw_customer_support]

LOVE2CTHEMOON,

We want you to be able to connect your Fitbit. You could do a factory reset on your device. However, before you do a reset we do highly recommend backing your information, such as Contacts, Pictures, Music, and other important documents, to the Verizon Cloud or any other backup assistance you use.

YeseniaV_VZW

Follow us on TWITTER @VZWSupport If my response answered your question please click the Correct Answer button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this.

[Dave-in-Decatur]

Verizon Wireless Customer Support wrote:

LOVE2CTHEMOON,

We want you to be able to connect your Fitbit. You could do a factory reset on your device. However, before you do a reset we do highly recommend backing your information, such as Contacts, Pictures, Music, and other important documents, to the Verizon Cloud or any other backup assistance you use.

YeseniaV_VZW

Follow us on TWITTER @VZWSupport If my response answered your question please click the Correct Answer button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this.

I can scarcely believe that Verizon is giving people advice like this. A factory reset--restoring your phone to the condition in which you bought it--would not only require backing up documents, but re-installing and re-configuring all your apps. For some people, that's not a big job, and there are backup tools to simplify it. For others, it's an enormous headache.

But would it fix the problem we're discussing? I suppose it might, in that the phone would no longer have the recent update that caused the problem. But it would nag you constantly to do that update; and you would be missing all the functional and security updates from between the time you bought the phone and the most recent, problematic one. I can't advise anyone what to do--I'm just another user. If I were advised to do a factory reset to address this problem, though, I wouldn't do it.

[mwolfeaxon]

Please do not do a factory reset on your phone or fitbit or any other BLE device to try and make it work. We've done it plenty of times, it doesn't help. The problem isn't caused by any app or setting on the phone but instead by the firmware running the bluetooth LE code on the phone. The startup sequence does not complete due to a bug on the phone firmware.  There are workarounds you can implement on th 3rd party  BLE device code (eg. fitbit), but they shouldn't be necessary so ultimately samsung needs to fix this.  I've heard from a little bird that Samsung has found and fixed the issue but the update will take some time to get approved and released. This is 3rd hand knowledge though so who knows if  that's true.  Keep pressuring Samsung though to get this pushed ASAP.

[mwolfeaxon]

Factory resets just clear app and user data/settings. They won't change your firmware version on the phone back to a previous date.

[Dave-in-Decatur]

mwolfeaxon wrote:

Factory resets just clear app and user data/settings. They won't change your firmware version on the phone back to a previous date.

My bad, an amateur trying to give advice without fully knowing what he was talking about. But wow then, why on the green earth would a VZW support rep advise doing a reset in this situation, since it couldn't conceivably do any good?!