Lost Fitbit, What to do?

Last weekend, my Charge Fitbit fell off my wrist while chasing our new puppy, Charlie, through the woods behind our house.  I was pretty sure that was the activity when it was lost because of the time of the last sync on my phone.  After searching the area twice guessing where I might have run through since I was off path, I found nothing.  I figured since it still had battery left, based on the date of my last charge, I had best find a way to track it down before that battery died.  This, of course led me to search it up on google.

The first app I found was Bit-Finder Geo.  I downloaded this on my phone and walked the area.  Quite confusing as to whether the blue tooth is supposed to be on or off.  At any rate, I got nothing.  I tried another couple of apps, with zilch results.  Until I got BLE Scanner, which searches for Bluetooth signal.  Simple and straight forward.  I saw what to look for by firing up an old Fitbit I had.  It registers the MAC number and gives it a strength rating like -75db.  I went fumbling around in the woods, almost pulled a header when, bam, the thing lit up with my correct MAC number for the missing Charge.  It was like -95.  I spent over an hour combing the area with readings going to -105 to -92.  I thought the higher the number, the closer I was.  Wrong!  Its opposite.

I gave up and went back to the Bit-Finder Geo, and decided to try it again in that area of the woods.  This time I started where the readings were but walked farther away as the signal got stronger.  It even has a little pie chart with sound effects that tell you when you are getting closer.  Like a Geiger counter.  Anyway, it got me right to where I needed to be to find the Charge.  Now I have it tracing my Charge in case it gets lost again.  Very sweet app I highly recommend.

One issue however, is that after turning off then on, the blue tooth, now my android phone blue tooth won’t recognize the fit bit, even tho it syncs just fine.  Strange.

Author: Geoff

Quick rundown: Grew up in Lombard, Illinois, went to Arizona State University, worked as a CPA with Arthur Andersen & Co, then Laventhal and Horwath, then Rolling Stones, then Heron International, then Goodby Berlin and Silverstein in San Francisco. Moved to the foothills in 1990 and traded futures and designed websites. Married to Kate Stewart, now living in Colfax, CA. We have six grandchildren. I enjoy camping in our RV, hiking, kayaking, fishing, droning and cross country skiing Also conga drumming, photography and dogs. View all posts by Geoff