It’s incredibly annoying. You glance down at your wrist, expecting to see exactly how much time you have left before your next meeting, only to realize your Fitbit is lagging three hours behind or, worse, stuck in a timezone you left two days ago. You bought a high-tech fitness tracker to stay on schedule, not to solve a chronological puzzle every time you check your steps. Honestly, knowing how do i update time on fitbit shouldn't feel like hacking into a mainframe, but sometimes the sync just fails for no apparent reason.
The thing is, your Fitbit doesn't actually have a dedicated internal clock that you set manually like an old-school Timex. It’s a "follower" device. It leeches its time data directly from your smartphone or computer. If the bridge between the two is broken, the time drifts.
Most people assume the battery is dying or the hardware is glitching out. Usually, it's just a handshake issue between the Fitbit app and the Bluetooth settings on your phone. Let’s get it sorted.
The Quick Fix: The Sync Method
Before you start digging into deep menu settings, try the "turn it off and on again" equivalent for wearables. Open the Fitbit app on your phone. Grab the screen and pull down. You’ll see a little spinning icon at the top indicating a forced sync.
Did the time jump to the correct hour? Great. You’re done.
If it didn't, we have to look at why the app thinks the wrong time is the "right" time. Fitbit uses your phone’s system clock. If your phone is set to the correct time, but your watch is still showing 4:15 PM when it’s actually 7:15 PM, the app likely has a timezone "auto-set" bug.
How to Force a Manual Timezone Update
Sometimes the "Set Automatically" feature in the Fitbit app gets confused, especially if you’ve recently crossed a border or if your phone’s GPS flickered during a flight. Here is how you override it.
First, tap your profile icon or the "Today" tab in the Fitbit app. Look for App Settings and then find Time Zone. You’ll probably see a toggle that says "Set Automatically." If it's on, flip it off.
Now, manually select a timezone that is definitely wrong—say, London if you’re in New York. Sync the watch. Wait for the watch to show the wrong London time. Now, flip the "Set Automatically" toggle back to ON and sync again. This "jolt" usually forces the app to re-query the network for the local time and push the correct data to your device.
It feels like a weird workaround. It is. But it works because it clears the cached time data that’s stuck in the app's memory.
Why Your Fitbit Refuses to Sync
Bluetooth is finicky. We all know this. If you’re asking "how do i update time on fitbit" and the sync keeps failing, your phone might be "optimizing" your battery life by killing the Fitbit app in the background.
On Android, this is a notorious headache. Google and Samsung are aggressive about closing apps to save juice. You need to go into your phone's battery settings and ensure the Fitbit app is set to "Unrestricted." If the app can't talk to the watch in the background, the time will eventually drift by seconds or even minutes over a few days.
On iPhones, ensure that Background App Refresh is toggled on for Fitbit. Without this, the second you swipe the app closed, the watch is on its own.
Common Culprits for Time Drift
- The "All-Day Sync" Setting: If this is off, your watch only updates when you manually open the app.
- Low Battery: When a Fitbit hits 5% or 10%, it often disables non-essential syncing to stay alive.
- Multiple Bluetooth Connections: If your phone is connected to a car, a pair of headphones, and a smart speaker simultaneously, the Fitbit often gets pushed to the back of the line.
Changing Time Formats (12-hour vs 24-hour)
Maybe your time is accurate, but you hate military time. Or maybe you're a nurse or pilot and you need that 24-hour clock. You won't find this setting on the watch itself. You have to go to the Fitbit.com online dashboard (the web version, not the app) or deep into the "Personal Info" section of the app settings.
📖 Related: What Does Waveform Mean? The Hidden Physics Behind Everything You Hear and See
Changing the format requires a full sync afterward. It’s one of those legacy quirks of the Fitbit ecosystem—some settings live in the cloud, others live on the device.
Dealing with Daylight Savings and Travel
The most common time your Fitbit will fail you is the first Sunday in March or November. If you wake up and your watch is an hour behind your phone, don't panic. Just sync it.
If you're traveling, don't change your phone's time manually. Let your phone update via the cellular network. Once your phone shows the new local time, open the Fitbit app. If it doesn't update within 30 seconds, use the "Force Manual Timezone" trick I mentioned earlier.
The Nuclear Option: The Restart
If you have synced, toggled timezones, and checked your Bluetooth, and the watch is still living in the past, you need to restart the hardware.
For a Fitbit Charge or Luxe, clip it into the charger and press the button on the flat end of the charging cable three times, pausing for a second between presses.
For a Sense or Versa, hold the side button for 10 seconds until the Fitbit logo appears.
Restarting doesn't delete your data (your steps are safe!), but it does force the internal clock to reboot and ask the app for a fresh time stamp. It’s the ultimate "fix-all" for when the software gets stuck in a loop.
Step-by-Step Action Plan to Fix Your Time
- Check your phone's time first. If your phone is wrong, your watch has no chance.
- Open the Fitbit app and pull down on the dashboard to force a sync.
- Toggle Bluetooth. Turn it off on your phone, wait five seconds, and turn it back on.
- Check the Time Zone settings in the app. Toggle "Set Automatically" off and then back on.
- Restart your Fitbit. Use the specific button combination for your model to power cycle the device.
- Verify Permissions. Ensure the Fitbit app has permission to access your location "Always," as this helps it determine the correct timezone via GPS.
By following these steps, you ensure that the communication line between your phone's network-accurate clock and your wrist remains unbroken. Most time issues are resolved within the first two steps, but the hardware restart is your fail-safe. Once the time is corrected, keep the app running in the background to prevent the drift from happening again.