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7 common Samsung Gear Fit problems and potential solutions

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Gear Fit Watch on wrist
The number of fitness trackers and smartwatches on the market seems to be growing exponentially. Samsung decided to combine the two in this sexy-looking hybrid wearable. We’ve seen reports of a few Gear Fit problems, and they extend beyond complaints from users that they don’t have the perfect body they expected yet. In this roundup we’re going to look at common issues and suggest workarounds or solutions for sufferers.

Bug: Showing incorrect time

A lot of people have been complaining about an issue with the time, and sometimes also the date, being displayed incorrectly on the Gear Fit. It can be out by 30 minutes, or in some cases by a great deal more. The fix is easy.

Potential solution:

  1. Go to Settings > Date & time on the smartphone that’s paired with your Gear Fit. Try changing it to the correct time. If it’s already correct try toggling the Automatic date & time setting off or on.
  2. If that doesn’t work then unpair the phone, make sure the phone has the right time on it, and try pairing again.
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Glitch: Inconsistent Auto lock

There have been a few reports of troubles with the Auto lock feature on the Gear Fit. The idea is that the Gear Fit automatically allows you to unlock your smartphone with a simple swipe when it is within five feet. When it’s further away your device locks and requires the unlock pattern you entered.

Potential solution:

  1. You’ll find the Auto lock option in Apps > Gear Fit Manager > Settings. Try turning it off.
  2. Now go to Settings > Lock screen on your smartphone and set Screen lock to Swipe.
  3. Hold down the Power button until your phone restarts.
  4. Hold down the Power button on your Gear Fit for 7 seconds and it should also restart.
  5. Go back to Apps > Gear Fit Manager > Settings and turn Auto lock back on and follow the onscreen instructions.

Problem: Reboot loop

Quite a few people seem to have encountered a nasty problem with the Gear Fit where it just gets stuck in an infinite reboot loop.

Potential solutions:

  1. Try holding down the Power button for 7 seconds to restart it.
  2. If that doesn’t work then go to Apps > Gear Fit Manager on your phone and tap your device then choose Disconnect.
  3. Restart your phone by holding down the Power button.
  4. Try loading up the Gear Fit Manager app and see if you can reconnect and stop the boot loop.
  5. If that didn’t work, try holding down the Power button on the Gear Fit and keep holding it until you see the Samsung Gear Fit logo and then the Samsung logo. When the Samsung logo disappears let go.
  6. Now press the Power button on the Gear Fit five times while the Samsung Gear Fit logo is on screen.
  7. You should see Select Reboot Mode. Press the Power button once to select Download and then press and hold the Power button for 3 seconds to enter Download mode.
  8. It should download and snap out of the boot loop. If it still doesn’t work then it’s time to contact Samsung support.

Issue: Not syncing data

A lot of Gear Fit owners are having trouble getting the data from their Gear Fit to sync properly with the S Health app on their smartphone.

Potential solutions:

  • This might just be a display problem as the S Health app will default to data from your phone. Go to the Pedometer screen and tap the Settings icon (three vertical dots) at the top right. Now choose Phone data to view and then you can select your Samsung Gear Fit as the device to sync data from.
  • If you’re still having issues then try disconnecting via Apps > Gear Fit Manager, choose your device and tap Disconnect. Restart both your Gear Fit (hold down the Power button for 7 seconds) and your smartphone. Try connecting again and see if the data syncs correctly.
  • Make sure that the S Health app is up to date. Open the Play Store app on your phone and tap the menu icon at the top left. Tap My apps and look for S Health in the Updates list or tap Update all.
  • Go to Settings > Application manager and swipe over to the All tab. Find Gear Fit Manager and S Health and then tap Clear cache on both.
  • If that doesn’t work then go back into Settings > Application manager > All, but this time tap Clear cache and Clear data in S Health and Gear Fit Manager. Now restart both your phone and your Gear Fit and try again. You will lose some data doing this, so leave it as a last resort, but it could get the sync working again.

Problem: Gear Fit won’t turn on

If you find that your Gear Fit won’t turn on, or the power button is completely unresponsive, then don’t panic.

Potential solution:

  1. Hold down the power button for at least 7 seconds and it should come back to life. If there’s no response then just keep holding the power button down.
  2. If that doesn’t work then plug it in to charge and leave it for a couple of hours then try holding down the power button for at least 7 seconds again. Make sure that the charging points on your Gear Fit are clean.
  3. If it still won’t turn on then it’s time to contact Samsung or your retailer.

Glitch: Weather isn’t updating or incorrect

Trouble getting the correct weather information to display, and a failure to update the weather data on the Gear Fit seem to be common glitches for owners. There are a few things you can try to resolve this issue.

Potential solutions:

  • Make sure that you have the Accuweather widget on one of the home screens on your smartphone and enable your location.
  • If you’re using a different launcher, other than Samsung’s default TouchWiz, then it may be the cause of your problems. Try switching back to TouchWiz and see if the issue is resolved.

Issue: Gear Fit stops recording during session

A lot of users are annoyed that the Gear Fit stops recording sessions seemingly at random. This seems to be most common for cycling where it will stop recording the session after a few minutes or only record half of it.

Potential solutions:

  • If you stop for a rest or perhaps because of traffic then there’s a risk the Gear Fit will decide you’ve ended your session. The latest version of the software should offer a pause option for moments like this, make sure you use it.
  • It could be that your mobile data network strength is interfering, if, for example, you go through a heavily wooded area or somewhere with weak signal. Try turning mobile data off during your workout, or switch LTE off if spotty coverage is a concern.

There are other Gear Fit problems, such as an inaccurate step count and heart rate data, but we don’t have any solutions to suggest for them. We’ll update this roundup with new problems and potential fixes as and when we discover them.

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Simon Hill
Simon Hill
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Simon Hill is an experienced technology journalist and editor who loves all things tech. He is currently the Associate Mobile…
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