Why Does My Fitbit Keep Vibrating?

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Why does my Fitbit keep vibrating? Owning a Fitbit has rather a steep learning curve. Especially if you are more senior, you may experience your Fitbit as daunting technology. 

However, it has to be said that both young and more senior Fitbit wearers experience problems with their Fitbits. 

In this article, we are looking at why your Fitbit may vibrate from time to time. 

Understanding Notifications

What are notifications? Your Fitbit has a notification function. That means it lets you know if you have reached a specific step goal or maybe even missed a particular goal. But unfortunately, notifications or vibrations become annoying for many after a while. 

Fitbit trackers have all sorts of alarms. However, you may not even know that you have an alarm for a particular activity goal. Don’t worry; it happens a lot. 

Many also set Fitbit alarms without knowing that they have done so. Therefore, it is essential to understand the many different Fitbit functions linked to vibrations

Why Does My Fitbit Keep Vibrating? 

Does Fitbit vibrate when it needs charging? Yes, your Fitbit vibrates when it needs charging. However, that is only one of the reasons your Fitbit vibrates. 

Unfortunately, many Fitbit users assume they need to rush off and charge their Fitbit when it vibrates. That is not the case. Check how much juice you have left in your battery, but you should not charge your battery unless necessary. 

It is one of the worst Fitbit habits you can get into. Overcharging your Fitbit means that it will not last as long as it should. Unfortunately, it also invalidates the warranty. 

Checking For Alarms

Like other fitness trackers, Fitbit connects to a smartphone, and other Fitbit supported devices

Alarms set on your Smartphone are often the cause of an unexpected Fitbit vibration. For instance, if you have set the alarm for your next hairdresser’s or doctor’s appointment, your Fitbit will vibrate to remind you. 

You need to check the alarms that you have set on your phone. They may surprise you when you are in your yoga class. When you don’t want your Fitbit to disturb you, it is best to set it to the Do Not Disturb function

What About Activity Goals? 

Having reached an activity goal is another common reason why your Fitbit vibrates. 

For example, if you have set a goal of walking 10,000 steps per day, and you reach that goal, your Fitbit vibrates to let you know that you have reached that goal

Surprisingly, many of our fitness goals are easier to reach than we think. So think about extending your goals. 

Fitbit also vibrates to remind you to be more active. Keeping on top of activity goals is one of the reasons many people invest in a Fitbit. The good news is that activity goals are easy to keep on top of and change. 

You can change them in the app. This is how you do it: 

  • Click on the account icon
  • Go to goals
  • Select the activity and goal you want to set or change
  • Reset or set the information you would like to change

What Other Apps Do You Have On Your Phone?

Something else you should do is check what other Fitbit compatible apps you have on your phone. 

We all love to download fitness apps and other apps. For instance, if you have downloaded other walking apps which encourage you to walk more and even give you points or coins, you may find that Fitbit will alert you. 

Popular walking or steps apps are the worst culprits. App designers often make them Fitbit compatible but don’t tell you. 

It is easy to download an app that alerts Fitbit that you have reached a goal. Sweatcoin is a popular app to download. However, what the app developer behind the Sweatcoin app does not tell you, is that it may cause your Fitbit to vibrate from time to time. 

Many other step counting and walking apps will also take advantage of the Fitbit notification system and alert you by vibrating. 

If other app alerts apart from Fitbit annoy you, you should be able to un-sync them. Check-in settings on your phone for that particular app. If it shows up that it has synched itself to your Fitbit, you should be able to un-sync by changing the settings. 

Can You Set the Alarm To Silent? 

When you are out for lunch with the girls, you may not want to sit there “buzzing away.”

Apart from setting the Do Not Disturb function, you can also choose to set your Fitbit app to silent. It is easy to do and only takes a few seconds. Setting your Fitbit to silent means that you will still receive notifications. Therefore, you can still interact with your notifications if you need to. 

This is how to enable a silent alarm: 

  • Access the app on your phone
  • Tap account
  • Select your device
  • Set to a silent alarm

You can schedule the times you don’t want your Fitbit to vibrate from this function. 

Why Does My Fitbit Not Vibrate When I Am On A Flight? 

Should Fitbit vibrate when you are on an airplane? 

This is an exciting question and seems to vary from airline to airline. If your phone can still receive data while in the air, it may cause your Fitbit to alert you. 

Technically, even though you have set your phone in safe flight mode, your Fitbit and phone should continue to communicate with each other. 

Thanks to the Bluetooth connection between your phone and Fitbit tracker, your Fitbit should continue to send you notifications. 

Unfortunately, there seem to be occasions when your phone does not communicate with your Fitbit when you are in the air. It is not clear why this happens, but it seems to have something to do with the make of the phone. 

Perhaps some phones also disable the Bluetooth function when you put them in flight safe mode. 

Does My Fitbit Vibrate When There Is Something Wrong With It? 

Nothing can go wrong with your Fitbit apart from it becoming damaged or program errors. 

If your Fitbit starts vibrating out of control, the first thing you should do is switch it off. 

Should your Fitbit continuously vibrate when you switch it back on, you should check your phone. 

Switch your phone and Fitbit off, and then switch them back on again. 

Once again, this does seem to happen from time to time. In a worst-case scenario, you may have to do a reset. You will not lose any data, but a reset interferes with the alarms and alerts you have set up. 

What About Updates? 

Your Fitbit should alert you by vibrating when you have updates. Annoyingly, other apps can take advantage of this Fitbit function. 

They sort of “piggyback” onto your Fitbit app and send alerts to you. If you find that this is happening a lot, you should go into the settings on your phone and find out how each app works. 

Downloading too many apps on your Smartphone can cause a conflict regarding updates. The result can be that you may have a problem with your Fitbit vibrating too much. 

Vibrating In Sleep Mode

When your Fitbit vibrates in Sleep Mode, you should check your sleep schedule. 

For instance, it is easy to get confused between midnight and noon. Always check that you have not confused the two. It is straightforward to do. 

Random Vibrations

It is essential to understand that you may experience random vibrations. 

If you don’t think they are anything to do with your Fitbit app, you need to recheck the other apps. 

We may not always see the message or even get a message displayed on the screen. 

If this starts happening after you have downloaded a new app, you should check that app’s settings. It could be that it has decided to use Fitbit’s notifications system. 

This is a problem that Fitbit is poorly aware of when finding a solution. As we have already mentioned, many other apps hijack the Fitbit notification and alarm function. 

It isn’t very pleasant when it happens in the middle of the night. But unfortunately, there are apps out there that have the availability of over-riding Fitbit’s sleep schedule. 

In Conclusion

When you buy a Fitbit, it is essential to take your time and get to know your Fitbit. This is so much more than just a fitness tracker. 

As the Fitbit team continues to develop the Fitbit app, we will likely end up with even more functions. They are not all going to vibrate, but many of them will likely want to give us some information by alerting us. 

Take a closer look at Fitbit, and you will find that it is quickly becoming a medical watch and tracker.