My friend John has been having Bluetooth issues with connecting his Fitbit to phone.
Frustrating as connectivity is key to data syncing, receiving notifications, and using additional features.
We decided to sort this out for him. It was quite the journey and learned a lot along the way.
This article covers our research and solutions
Below we will explore solutions to the connectivity problem. We’re confident your Fitbit wearable will be back on track, and you can enjoy all the features to their fullest.
Now without further ado, let’s get into it.
Table of Contents
Basic Checks
If you haven’t yet, we suggest you try these common solutions first.
- Click here to see whether your smartphone is compatible with the Fitbit.
- Reset the Bluetooth connection on your smartphone by turning it Off and back On.
- Forget the Fitbit from the Bluetooth list of your smartphone and try to reconnect after some time.
- Ensure the latest updates are installed on your device and app.
- Ensure that both your smartphone and Fitbit are sufficiently charged. Low battery level can prevent connectivity
- Ensure there are no other active Bluetooth devices nearby, as your tracker might attempt to connect with these.
- Similarly ensure that there are no older fitness trackers (that you might have used in the past) nearby. This is a common problem. Specially for people like me who have many trackers and smart watches tucked away in a drawer
- Remove the Fitbit from the app, restart your phone, and then add it back to the app.
- Restart your Fitbit. To restart, follow the steps below:
- Wake the device by double-tapping the touch screen
- Scroll down and find the settings cog
- From the settings cog, scroll up to find the restart device
- Tap on restart device and select restart
If, for some reason, your fitbit touchscreen isn’t responsive, you can follow the steps below to restart it.
- Ensure you have the original Fitbit charging cord.
- Connect one end to the Charge and the other to the charging source.
- You will find a tiny button on the USB port of the cord.
- Press that button three times for one second. Your device will restart, and the Fitbit logo will appear on the display.
- Make sure you feel a vibration every time you press the button. If you don’t feel the vibration, your charging port is not connected properly.
The video below shows how to do this
Additional Troubleshooting Steps
If the solutions above don’t work for you, it’s time to try the following troubleshooting steps in the order they are written.
- Restart your device using the charging cord.
- Turn Off the Bluetooth on your phone and restart it.
- Open the Fitbit app and try to connect while the Bluetooth is still off.
- When the phone attempts to connect, quickly turn the Bluetooth On, and it will find the Charge immediately and connect.
Turn Off Battery Optimization
One of the major reasons for the Bluetooth connectivity issue can be power management failure. Let’s adjust the battery settings.
- Go to Settings in your phone’s cog and select Battery.
- If the power saver is turned on, we suggest you turn that off. If it is turned on, it limits your phone’s ability to communicate with the Charge 5 through the Fitbit app.
- Next, go to the Background Activity Manager. This feature works as a power saver that turns off the apps running in the background.
- Check if the Background Activity Cleaner is turned on; toggle it off and ensure that Fitbit is omitted from the background activity cleaner list.
- Now go back to the Battery menu and click on the three dots in the top right.
- Click on Battery Optimization.
- Ensure your phone is Not Optimized and the Fitbit app is included in the Not Optimized list. It will allow the Fitbit app to use the battery according to the full requirement to maintain Bluetooth connectivity.
- Please note that the above procedure may drain your phone’s battery a lot quicker, but it is a necessary step to keep the Charge 5 connected over Bluetooth.
Clean the Charging Connections
The Fitbit has no buttons and only small connection holes to connect the charging cord. Sometimes the debris collected inside these holes causes failed connections and prevents a complete battery charge.
All you need to do is clean these holes, reset the Charge, and connect to the app again to see if Bluetooth connects.
Check the Notifications Settings
Sometimes the device is connected to Bluetooth, but you don’t get any notification on your Fitbit. It makes you think Bluetooth is not connected. Whereas in actual fact, the app is the culprit. To check and adjust the notifications settings:
- Open the Fitbit app and click on the photo avatar in the top left corner.
- Choose Account> Charge 5> General> Notifications.
- If the notifications are turned on, ensure the Charge is included in the apps you want notifications for.
- If notifications are off, toggle to turn them on.
- Please note that your phone must be loud for your device to vibrate on every new notification. Otherwise, if your phone is silent, so will your Fitbit.
Try Turning Wi-Fi Off
Bluetooth devices operate in the same range of frequencies (2.4 GHz) as Wi-Fi. There are many other wireless devices operating in the frequency range 2400 MHz – 2483 MHz. Examples are cordless phones, microwave ovens and more. These devices can interfere with Bluetooth connectivity. This radio interference often results in either a total loss or intermittent connectivity.
As an experiment try turning your phone’s Wi-Fi Off and/or moving away from devices such as Access Points and Microwave ovens. See if that benefits connectivity.
Summary
The Charge 5 is Fitbit’s newest product and it works quite well. However it does have issues with connectivity. In this post we have explained how to resolve common issues with Bluetooth. We hope this has resolved your problem, but if not then please write in and tell us more.
References
Here are some links for useful information
[2] Reddit post on sync issues
[3] A helpful YouTube video on Bluetooth Syncing
[4] Fitbit site
