Fitbit time zone problems plague users

Apparent technical glitch causes wearable fitness tracker to change settings unprompted

Fitbit users around the world reported sudden and unprompted changes to their selected time zones on their devices Photo: The National

Fitbit users around the world have complained that the wearable fitness trackers are suddenly changing time zones on their own.

Social media users reached out to one another to see if they were alone in experiencing the issue, and quickly found that the Fitbit problem was widespread.

“Mine is four hours off, it won't update no matter what I do,” wrote a Reddit user from Trinidad and Tobago.

“Same,” another user replied. “I came on here to ask for a solution. It seems everyone is facing the issue. I tried Google, unpaired Bluetooth and all, still didn't work.”

It remains to be seen exactly how many Fitbit users experienced the problem, or the reason behind what appears to be a technical glitch.

Following an inquiry from The National, a spokesperson for Google said that the company was aware of the issue, and was checking internally to help resolve it.

“There was an issue with time zones earlier that has been quickly resolved, and we apologize for any inconvenience," a spokesperson later said in a follow-up email.

Some of the generic responses from Fitbit's social media accounts appear to be automated, and encourage users to sync their devices, then change to a different time zone, and then sync again before changing the devices back to the original time zones.

Other users, however, reported that several Linux-based devices also had time zone discrepancies, attributing the problem to something often called the TZ database, a database created during the earlier days of the internet and computer networking.

"My Linux system is displaying the time wrong as well," wrote X user Talhah Peerbhai.

Fitbit, one of the most popular wearable technology products in the world, was acquired by Alphabet-owned search giant Google back in 2021.

Though incredibly popular, Fitbits have had occasional problems, prompting recalls and software updates.

In 2022, 1.7 million Fitbits were recalled due to the risk of batteries overheating and burning users.