Pixel Watch not syncing heart rate, activity, or sleep data to Fitbit app? Fix it

If your health and activity data isn’t transferring and syncing from your Google Pixel Watch to the Fitbit app (and your Fitbit account), it’s a problem.

The Pixel watch uses the Fitbit app to analyze your watch’s data and give you reports on all your health and fitness metrics. So, if the raw data from your watch isn’t uploading to the Fitbit app, you won’t see those insights!

Follow the tips below to help get your watch and the Fitbit app talking again.

Let’s get to it!

Related reading

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Try a manual sync between Pixel Watch and Fitbit

While your watch should automatically sync with the Fitbit app regularly in the background or after you complete an exercise or sleep cycle, you can also force a sync.  

And there are a couple of ways to do this!

1. Open the Fitbit app on your phone and pull down and release from the top of the Fitbit app’s Today screen to manually force a sync and refresh the data.
2. Open the Fitbit Today app on your Pixel Watch, scroll down, and tap the Sync button.

Force quit the Fitbit app on your Pixel Watch and phone

Sometimes, it’s a temporary issue with the app that gets fixed by closing and reopening it. 

How to force close an app on your Pixel Watch

1. On your Pixel Watch, go to Settings app > Apps & notifications.
2. Choose App info.
3. Select System Apps.
4. Scroll down and choose the Fitbit app (or whatever app you want to close.)
5. Choose Force Stop and confirm. 

We recommend restarting your watch after force-closing an app.

How to force close an app on your phone

1. Swipe up from the bottom of your phone’s screen.
2. When you see the apps minimized into app tiles, let go.
3. Locate the Fitbit app or any app you want to close and swipe up on that app. 

You can also force stop an app using your phone’s Settings app > Apps > Fitbit app > Force stop.

Like your Pixel Watch, we recommend restarting your phone after force-closing an app.

Update the Pixel Watch and the Fitbit app

One of the biggest reasons the Pixel watch and Fitbit app don’t communicate is outdated software and firmware. So, it’s always a good idea to check for updates!

You should see a banner in the Google Watch app informing you that a system update is available.

You cannot update your watch using the Watch app; instead, you update your watch using the Settings app on your watch.

How to update your Pixel Watch’s firmware

1. Make sure your watch is on its charger, has at least 50% battery charge or more, and that your watch connects to a Wi-Fi network.
   1. Keep your watch on the charger until all updates are complete.
2. On your Pixel Watch, swipe down to the Quick Settings panel and tap the Settings icon (gear.) Or open the Settings app from your app list.
3. Scroll down and tap System.
4. Tap System updates. Your watch checks for any available updates.  
5. If an update is available, tap Update.
   1. Updates can take a few minutes or more. Leave your watch uninterrupted on its charger the entire time.
   2. After the update downloads, your Pixel Watch reboots and shows a message that it’s installing the update. 
   3. You know the update is complete when it restarts and shows your watch face.

To check the updating status, open the Google Pixel Watch app on your paired phone

• If you see that your watch is Disconnected, then the update is not yet complete.
• Once you see that it’s Connected, the update is done. And you can use your watch normally!

How to update the Fitbit app on your Pixel Watch

1. Open the Play Store app on your Pixel Watch.
2. Scroll to the bottom and tap Manage apps.
3. If the Fitbit app has an update, you should see it listed here.
4. Tap Update all to update the Fitbit app and any other apps needing an update, or tap the Fitbit app individually to update it.

Don’t forget to update the Fitbit app and Pixel Watch apps on your phone too!

1. Open the Play Store app on your phone.
2. Search for the Fitbit app and Google Pixel Watch app.
3. If it lists an update, tap it to update.

Some basic troubleshooting steps with syncing between a Google Pixel Watch and the Fitbit app

If you updated the Fitbit app and your watch, problems with syncing are often related to a simple issue or an inadvertent setting change.

1. Make sure that you turn on Bluetooth (and preferably also Wi-Fi) on both your watch and your phone Bluetooth.
   1. To check, on both your watch and phone, go to the Settings app > Bluetooth and toggle it on. Verify your watch and phone are listed as connected.
   2. If it’s already on, try toggling it off, waiting a few seconds, and toggling it back on.
2. Verify that you added your Pixel watch to the Fitbit app on your phone.
   1. Open the Fitbit app on your phone and choose the Devices icon in the top left.
   2. Under Connected to Fitbit, you should see your Google Pixel Watch in your account list. If not, tap Set up a Device and add it.
3. Look at your user profile settings for Fitbit and make sure they are correct.
   1. Open the Fitbit app and tap the You tab at the bottom.
   2. Tap your name and review all the information for your location, display name, gender, weight, etc.
   3. To make corrections and updates, tap each item individually and make changes, then tap Save. 
4. Restart both your watch and phone. Restart your phone and then restart your watch.
   1. On your watch, press the Digital Crown and choose Restart. Or go to the Settings app and select System > Restart.
   2. On your phone, press the power button and choose Restart. 
5. Check the Fitbit app’s access to your watch’s sensors.
   1. Go to Settings > Apps & notifications.
   2. Tap App permissions.
   3. Scroll down and choose Sensors.
   4. Verify that the Fitbit app is listed under Allowed. If it’s under Denied, tap it and choose to Allow it access.
   5. Repeat these steps for the Physical activity permissions.
6. Grant the Fitbit app permission to your location and nearby devices.
   1. On your paired phone, open Settings > Apps > Fitbit.
   2. Choose Permissions.
   3. Verify that Nearby devices and Location are listed under Allowed.
   4. If not, scroll down to Not allowed, tap Nearby devices or Location, and choose to Allow it.

Clear the Fitbit app cache

When the syncing problems persist, we recommend you clear the Fitbit app cache on your phone and watch. Luckily, it’s pretty easy to do both!

Clear the Fitbit app cache on your phone

1. Open the Settings app and choose Apps.
2. Select the Fitbit app.
3. Choose Storage & cache.
4. Tap the Clear cache button.

Clear the Fitbit app on your Google Pixel Watch

1. Open the Settings app and choose Apps & notifications.
2. Select App info.
3. Scroll down and tap System Apps.
4. Locate the Fitbit app and tap it. 
5. Swipe down and tap App Info.
6. Scroll down and choose Clear cache.

Issues with heart rate only? 

If your Pixel Watch stops tracking your heart rate or the Fitbit heart rate graph is missing your heart rate for large chunks of time, try changing your watch face to a default Google Pixel one.

You can change watch faces using the Google Pixel Watch app or on the watch itself.

Change your Pixel Watch’s face using just the watch

• Press and hold on the watch’s current clock face.
• Swipe left or right to browse available faces, select a new watch face, or tap Add new.
• To edit the colors, complications, and other features of a watch face, tap the pencil icon under the watch face.

Change your Pixel Watch’s face using the Google Pixel Watch app

• Open the Watch app.
• Tap the Watch faces option.
• Swipe left and right to see the available choices, or tap the Add new button to open the Watch Face Gallery.
• To edit the colors, complications, and other features of a watch face, tap the Edit button under the watch face.

Final thoughts

Hopefully, any syncing issues between your Google Pixel Watch and the Fitbit app are now fixed!

If not, try uninstalling and reinstalling the Fitbit app on your phone via the Play Store.