How to reset a Fitbit: Restart your Charge 3, Versa 2, Inspire HR or Ionic

Your Fitbit may act reliably most of the time, but if it’s playing up – or you want to give it to someone else – you need to know how to unpair and reset your Fitbit.

Whether you have a Charge 4, Versa 2, Inspire HR or Ionic, if your Fitbit is failing to respond, won’t track or sync, or you want to gift it to a friend, it’s likely you’ll have to give it a restart.

There are also occasions when you may want to give your Fitbit tracker or smartwatch a full factory reset, erase your data and get it ready for a new user, too.

In this guide, we’ve detailed exactly how to restart every Fitbit device – jump to your device or head below to read the steps to unpair or factory reset your Fitbit.

Fitbit factory reset and unpairing

Factory reset Fitbit

Further down this page, we’ll explain how to perform a soft reset for each Fitbit, which essentially means giving your tracker a quick restart. However, sometimes, you need more than that, and sometimes you will want to clear your user data entirely.

Not every Fitbit will allow you to perform a factory reset from the device itself, but there are ways for each to start from a blank slate again.

Fitbit factory reset

1. From your tracker, swipe across to the ‘Settings’ menu.

2. Once in the ‘Settings’ section, find the ‘About’ tab and tap it.

3. From here, scroll to the section that’s labelled ‘Factory Reset’ or ‘Clear User Data’.

4. You’ll then be prompted to confirm the decision to clear your Fitbit to its box settings. If you want to, hit ‘Reset’ or ‘Confirm’.

Unpairing Fitbit

Unpairing a Fitbit can not only free your account up to pair with a new device, but it can also mean it’s free to be linked to another Fitbit account. So if you get a new Fitbit device and want to gift your old one to a friend/spouse follow these steps:

If you’re having issues with your Fitbit, unpairing and going through the setup process can also help resolve this.

1. From the Fitbit app, tap the icon in the top-left corner and then your tracker.

2. Scroll down to the bottom of this menu to the ‘Remove This [Device Name]’ tab.

3. Make sure all you data is synced, as unpairing will see this lost.

4. If you’re ready to unpair the device from your account, confirm the prompt after you tap the ‘Remove This [Device Name]’ tab.

My Fitbit has been reset but won’t pair to a different smartphone

Top tip: Often after you have used the Fitbit app to remove the device, you may have trouble when repairing the device with a different smartphone e.g. your spouses.

That’s because sometimes unpairing from the Fitbit app doesn’t “forget” the connection between your phone’s Bluetooth and the Fitbit.

So head to the Bluetooth menu on the phone, see if the Fitbit is still listed and choose “Forget this device”. You should be ready to pair immediately.

Reset the Fitbit Versa 2

Reset Fitbit Versa 2

Resetting the Versa, Versa Lite, Ionic and Blaze is perhaps the easiest example of restarting a device from Fitbit.

1. Press and hold the left button until you see the Fitbit logo on the screen. This should take roughly 10 – 15 seconds.

2. When the Fitbit logo appears, let go of the buttons.

3. Once complete, you should be prompted to open the Fitbit app and set up your device.

Reset Fitbit Versa or Versa Lite

1. Press and hold the left and bottom buttons until you see the Fitbit logo on the screen. This should take roughly 5 – 10 seconds.

2. When the Fitbit logo appears, let go of the buttons.

3. Once complete, you should be prompted to open the Fitbit app and set up your device.

Reset the Fitbit Charge 3/4

Reset Fitbit Charge 3

If you’re having trouble syncing, tracking or connecting to the Fitbit Charge 4 (or earlier versions of the Fitbit Charge), it’s time to restart the tracker.

To do so from the tracker, swipe from the clock face to ‘Settings’ and tap ‘Reboot Device’. However, if the tracker isn’t responding, follow these instructions:

1. Plug the charging cable into a USB port and connect the other end of the port to the back of the tracker.

2. Make sure the button on your tracker is in line with the button opening on the charging cable. The tracker will vibrate and you see a battery icon pop up on the tracker’s display.

3. Hold the button to restart your tracker:

  • For Charge 2, press and hold the button on your tracker for four seconds. When you see the Fitbit logo and the tracker vibrates, the tracker has restarted.
  • For Charge 3, press and hold the button on your tracker for eight seconds. When you see a smile icon and the tracker vibrates, the tracker has restarted.

Reset the Fitbit Inspire HR

Reset Fitbit Inspire

No matter whether you have the Inspire HR or the non-HR version, if you find you can’t sync your tracker or you’re having issues with tracking, here’s how you can restart it.

1. Plug the charging cable into a USB port and follow this by connecting the end to the back of the Inspire tracker, ensuring the pins are locked into place.

2. From there, press and hold the left button on the device for five seconds.

3. Once the smiley face appears the tracker vibrates, it’s restarting. Again, like with the other restarts, this reboots but doesn’t factory reset your device.

Reset the Fitbit Ionic

Reset Fitbit Ionic

Resetting the Ionic is actually performed in the same way as the Versa, and is another easy example of restarting a device from Fitbit.

1. Press and hold the left and bottom buttons until you see the Fitbit logo on the screen. This should take roughly 10 seconds.

2. When the Fitbit logo appears, let go of the buttons.

3. Once complete, you should be prompted to open the Fitbit app and set up your device.

Reset the Fitbit Alta HR

Reset Fitbit Alta HR

Unfortunately, you can’t perform a factory reset on the Alta or Alta HR. Instead, you will have to restart your device.

1. Plug the charging cable into a USB port and connect the other end of the port to the back of the tracker, making sure the pins on the cable are securely locked.

2. You’ll know the connection is secure when the tracker vibrates and you see a battery icon on the tracker’s display. The tracker will then begin charging.

3. Press the button on your charging cable three times, briefly pausing between presses. When you see the Fitbit logo and the tracker vibrates, this means the tracker has restarted.

Reset the Fitbit Ace

Reset Fitbit Ace

If you want to reset the Fitbit Ace, follow these steps:

1. Start by plugging the charging cable into the USB port or wall plug and clip the other end of the charging cable to the port on the back of the tracker.

2. Make sure the pins are lined up – you’ll know the connection is secure when the tracker vibrates and the battery icon pops up.

3. To restart, press the button (located on the end of the charging cable) on the charging cable three times within eight seconds, briefly pausing between presses.

4. Then, eight seconds after the first button press, the Fitbit logo appears on the Ace’s display, indicating it has been restarted.

5. Once the logo appears, the Ace will begin to restart and you’re free to unplug it from the charging cable.

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