Update: the issue should now be resolved.
If your Fitbit tracker or smartwatch is struggling to sync, don’t try and adjust it – the service is down.
Fitbit users are currently unable to sync steps, workouts or sleep worldwide, causing a spike of complaints as the West Coast wakes up. And the issue also affects content in the Discover section, too.
Fitbit Support has officially confirmed the outage, and says it’s working on a fix.
UPDATE: Fitbit Support now says the problem is resolved:
The interruption to Fitbit syncing and services should now be resolved. We apologize for the interruption and appreciate your patience. Steps during this time should still be counted, and this article can help if you have further trouble syncing: https://t.co/TrTpr8x7nl
— Fitbit Support (@FitbitSupport) March 3, 2021
The problems seem to have emerged around 12PM GMT (8AM ET) on 3 March, with users taking to Down Detector and Twitter to vent.
Definitely thought it was my device and went through the full gambit of Forgetting Device, Unpairing, etc, BECAUSE THERE'S NO BANNER ON THE WEBSITE STATING YOU'RE EXPERIENCING AN OUTAGE. That would be very helpful, Support Team.
— Kate (@KateInTheTrees) March 3, 2021
Most frustratingly for users the Fitbit app is not showing a message saying the service is down. That has meant many users are unpairing and troubleshooting devices, and then can't repair them, making the situation even worse. Wareable has seen plenty of activity on our how to sync Fitbit guide, but the problem can’t be resolved using any of the usual tricks. Users will just have to wait until Fitbit’s engineers to their thing.
The good news is that trackers and smartwatches are still working normally. So there’s no reason to think that any data will be lost.
One of the biggest wearable tech outages over the past year has been Garmin, which washacked and had its service held to ransom. That outage lasted a whole weekend – so we’re hoping this is just a minor ghost in the machine.
We’ll update this story with any relevant information as we get it.
How we test
James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.