Fitbit doesn’t turn on clock when you tap it? Screen wake not working? Let’s fix it!

Are you tapping your Fitbit’s screen a dozen or more times, but it still doesn’t wake up and show you its clock face? Or does tapping seem to work intermittently at best? And the only thing that seems to work is to press a button(s) on the side of your Fitbit to wake it up.

It’s usually a setting or two that’s caused this problem. So let’s dive in and see if we can fix this quickly.

If your Fitbit screen wakes up without issue but doesn’t stay on very long, check your Fitbit’s Settings > Display > Screen Timeout or Settings > Screen timeout feature instead.

Then, increase the time before your Fitbit’s screen turns off. Not all Fitbits offer this option, such as the Inspire Series.

And if your Fitbit won’t turn on at all and appears stuck on a black screen, check out this article: Is the Fitbit display screen black and not working or turning on? Let’s fix it!

Related reading

• Fitbit didn’t update the time? How to set the time on your Fitbit
• Learn how to add music to Fitbit Versa 3, Sense, and older Versas
• How to turn on or off raise or tap to wake screen on Fitbit Sense, Versa, Ionic, or Blaze
• Fitbit not getting texts or notifications? Let’s fix it!

Tap more than once

One thing we discovered is that we often needed to firmly double-tap the screen to get it to show up. So try tapping the screen twice with some oomph.

On some models, like the Fitbit Inspire series, there’s also a double-tap setting in the Settings app that you need to turn on.

Double Tap only works when your Fitbit’s screen has been asleep (black) for more than 10 seconds. 

Tap your band instead of your Fitbit’s screen

Have you tried all types of taps, from really hard ones to double or even triple taps but still, the screen doesn’t light up and respond? 

Try tapping on the band right above or below the Fitbit pebble instead of tapping on the screen. 

Don’t want to tap or press a button(s) to wake your Fitbit’s screen?

Use the Screen Wake’s automatic setting to turn on raise to wake. This setting turns your Fitbit’s screen on every time you lift your wrist to look at your device.

This automatic setting does drain your battery faster than the manual option.

Screen not waking when you turn your wrist?

If the Fitbit doesn’t wake up when you turn your wrist, you probably changed your Screen Wake setting, or it defaulted after an update.

Most Fitbits offer a couple of ways to wake the screen. You reach this setting via your Fitbit’s Quick Settings menu.

• Automatic (also called Quick View, Motion, Motion & Button, or On)–the screen turns on when you raise your wrist to look at your watch or tracker.
  • Upside— you don’t need two hands to turn it on!
  • Downside–often turns on when you don’t need it and may drain your battery.
• Manual (also called Button, Button Only, or Off)–wake the screen by tapping the display or pressing a side button(s.) 
  • Upside–only turns on your watch when you want to see it.
  • Downside–need two hands to turn the Fitbit on!

On almost all Fitbits, you find this option in your Fitbit’s Quick Settings options by swiping down or swiping right from the clock face. On some models, you press and hold the side button to access its Quick Settings. 

Find your Fitbit model’s Quick Settings menu

• Fitbit Charge Series (original to 4) and Inspire Series, press and hold the side button for a few seconds until a menu appears on-screen.
  • When you turn off a setting, its icon dims and shows a line through it.
• Fitbit Versa 3 and Sense, go to your clock face and swipe to the right.
• Fitbit Versa 4 and Sense 2, go to your clock face and swipe down.
• Fitbit Luxe and Charge 5, swipe down from your clock face.
  • When you turn off a setting, the icon dims with a line through it.
• Fitbit Ionic, Versa, and Versa 2, on your clock face, swipe down and tap the Quick Settings icon (looks like two sliders.)
• For Versa Lite, swipe down on your clock face, scroll past all your notifications, open Control Center, and then choose Quick Settings.

If you still don’t know how to access your model’s Quick Settings, see this Fitbit support page.

Set your Fitbit screen to wake automatically when raising your wrist

• Open your Fitbit’s Quick Settings by swiping down from the top or from the right side of your clock face. Or pressing and holding the side button.
• Tap the screen wake icon, which looks like a watch or a light bulb.
• Change your Fitbit’s screen wake option to Automatic, so every time you lift your wrist to look at your Fitbit, it automatically turns on.

Depending on your model, the automatic screen wake may appear as Auto, Motion, On, or a bright screen wake button (icon looks like a watch or lightbulb.) 

Check if you enabled Sleep mode

It’s a little confusing since Fitbit offers a lot of features that include the word sleep.

To be clear, sleep mode is different than sleep tracking!

With sleep mode, Fitbit turns off your screen while also muting things like notifications and other functions so you can get a good night’s sleep. 

Unfortunately, it’s easy to unintentionally turn on Sleep mode on your Fitbit!

And when it’s on, you disable your screen from waking automatically when you lift your wrist.

Plus, it dims your screen, so even if you tap your screen awake or use the side button to wake it, your screen may be difficult to see.

Turn your Fitbit’s Sleep mode off

To check if you turned on Sleep Mode, go to your Fitbit’s Quick Settings menu (see information on how to do that below) and look for the crescent moon icon.

If it’s highlighted, it’s on. Tap it once to turn it off–it should gray out.

Check if you scheduled Sleep mode

If you have constant problems with your Fitbit stuck in Sleep mode, you might have set it on a schedule where screen wake disables each night automatically at the same time and then turns off in the morning.

You can also change your screen wake settings using the Fitbit app or Fitbit online account dashboard.

1. Tap the Today tab > your profile picture or icon > your Fitbits device image from the app.
2. Then, scroll down and turn Quick View on for the automatic setting (or off for the manual setting.)
3. For your online dashboard, choose the Settings gear icon under your account name and select your device’s image.
   1.  Then, scroll down and turn Quick View on “show clock” (automatic setting) or off (manual setting.)

Using always-on display mode keeps your clock face visible at all times. 

This feature is available on newer model watches, not Fitbit trackers like the Charge or Inspire Series.

Turning always-on display modes does drain your battery quickly and requires you to charge your Fitbit frequently.

However, the Always-on display automatically turns off when your Fitbit’s battery is critically low.

Always on display for the Fitbit Sense series and Versa 2+ series

Update your Fitbit’s firmware using the Fitbit app

If an update is ready for your Fitbit, take advantage of the bug and security fixes that come with firmware updates.

Another benefit of updating your Fitbit is that it often fixes other issues!

Check your Fitbit’s current version number vs. the latest release number

Check out this Fitbit page to see your specific model’s current firmware version.

How to update your Fitbit’s firmware in the Fitbit App

1. Put your Fitbit on its charger and place it near your phone, tablet, or computer where you use the Fitbit app.
2. Open the Fitbit app.
3. Tap the Today tab > your profile picture or icon > choose your device’s image from the list.
4. Tap the pink Update banner.
   1. You only see the banner if an update is available and ready to download to your Fitbit.
5. Follow the on-screen instructions to update.

Restart your Fitbit or reset it

Restarting often fixes many problems by rebooting Fitbit’s operating system.

You can restart most Fitbit smartwatches and trackers using the device’s Settings app and choosing Shutdown, Restart, Reboot, or About > Reboot Device.

For smartwatches like the Versa Series, Sense, and Ionic, you can also tap and hold the side button (or the back and bottom buttons for Ionic and original Versa) for 10 seconds and release it when you see the Fitbit logo on the screen.

To review step-by-step instructions on restarting your Fitbit by model, see this article Need to restart or reset your Fitbit device? Learn the steps.

Reset your Fitbit back to its factory settings

If all the other tips fail to get screen wake working for you, setting it back to its factory standard is the last resort.

The downside of a factory reset is that it removes all your data, including any apps you added, your personal information, health and fitness metrics, credit and debit cards for devices with Fitbit Pay, and other stored settings.

So before you reset, sync your Fitbit with the app or Fitbit Connect to preserve as much of your device’s data as possible.

After successfully syncing, tap the Settings app on your Fitbit and choose Clear User Data, About > Factory Reset, Device Info > Clear User Data, or About > Clear User Data. 

To learn how to factory reset your specific model, see this article Need to restart or reset your Fitbit device? Learn the steps.

Summary

Hopefully, you are now able to wake up your Fitbit’s screen. If not, it might be something else causing your Fitbit not to show its screen.

Check out some additional tips in this article for dealing with a Fitbit whose screen remains black.