New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on July 26, 2022) follows:

Founded in 2007, Fitbit is one of the most popular brands in the smart wearables segment. Now owned by Google, the company generated over $1.21 billion in revenue last year.

While Fitbit continues to lose market share, the number of active users seems to be increasing every year, with data showing that it had over 31 million users in 2020.

Fitbit-Charge-5

That said, Fitbit users are now reporting an issue where the Estimated Oxygen Variation graph is broken or showing inaccurate results (1,2,3).

It looks like the problem surfaced after a recent update. Some tried resetting and re-pairing their devices but to no avail.

Fitbit-Estimated-Variation-Graph-results-inaccurate
Source

With the recent color-scheme changes I noticed in my sleep data under “Estimated Oxygen Variation” the graph shown looks different from before. It does not show “High” or “Low” on the left side. Also, I have been looking at the results daily now for about a week.

Previously, my results usually only showed perhaps one to three events in the high range and normally did not show any events in this range. Now the same results show that I had many events in the high range. Did the algorithm change that is used to determine high oxygen variation or is there a bug?
(Source)

I used to have a normal oxygen variation graph – very rarely was there a spike into the yellow. After the graph update on my fitbit app, I have very frequent high variations. And the old results that used to be all green (low variations) are now also constantly in high variations. I don’t understand how can the old result change like that and it makes me worried about my health. Has anyone else experienced something like that?
(Source)

Fortunately, a Fitbit forum moderator shed some light on the issue where the Estimated Oxygen Variation graph results are inaccurate and said they have escalated the matter for further investigation.

However, they did not share any timeframe in which it will be resolved.

Hi everyone, and welcome to the new members. Thanks for keeping me posted, and for every step tried on your own. I understand where you’re coming from and let me share this has been escalated to our team so they can work on it. I apologize for this inconvenience and appreciate your feedback. Please know I’ll update this thread as soon as I receive more information from our team. In the meantime, please keep syncing with the Fitbit app to make sure the rest of your details are updating correctly.
(Source)

We hope Fitbit developers soon find out the root cause of the problem. Rest assured, we will be keeping tabs on the matter and let you know once they resolve the issue so make sure you keep checking PiunikaWeb.

In the meantime, check out our dedicated Fitbit bugs and issues tracker to see similar problems affecting users.

Update 1 (July 29)

07:02 pm (IST): A Fitbit moderator has now confirmed that they are working to resolve the issue with Estimated Oxygen Variation graph. However, there’s no ETA for the fix.

Fitbit-EOV-issue-fix
(Source)

Update 2 (August 1)

05:18 pm (IST): Apparently, this issue is only affecting Android users. So, those who own an iPhone or iPad can try the iOS version of the app as a potential workaround.

Update 3 (August 15)

06:24 pm (IST): A Fitbit moderator has confirmed that they have released v3.65 update on Android that includes improvements for Estimated Oxygen Levels graph.

Update 4 (August 18)

05:28 pm (IST): The recent Fitbit update (v3.65) was supposed to bring some improvements for Estimated Oxygen Levels graph. However, users are reporting that oxygen variation is still off for them.

Update 5 (August 22)

06:19 pm (IST): The issue with the ‘Estimated Oxygen Variation’ graph appears to have been resolved for some users (1, 2, 3) after the latest v3.65 update.

Note: We have more such stories in our dedicated Fitbit section so be sure to follow them as well.

PiunikaWeb started as purely an investigative tech journalism website with main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.

Anurag Chawake
1373 Posts

My fascination with technology and computers goes back to the days of Windows XP. Since then, I have been tinkering with OS, mobile phones, and other things. When I am not working on anything, you will find me enjoying video games on some Discord server.

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