How to change the time on your Fitbit

Image Credit: TechRadar

Your Fitbit fitness tracker or smartwatch is more than a pedometer – as well as all the fitness data it can produce, it's likely also your way to tell the time too.

Quite often you can find your Fitbit is displaying the incorrect time. Whether it's due to Daylight Savings or you've traveled to another timezone, you may find the tracker has switched to the wrong time.

Rather than leaving it for six months  until the time's right again, you can actually quite simply change the time on your fitness tracker. To do that, we've given you a full guide below that'll teach you how to switch up the time on your Fitbit.

  • First off, make sure your Fitbit is synced to your phone
  • If it's not, switch on all-day sync in the Settings of the Fitbit app
  • Or manually sync the tracker by pulling down when you see your tracker in the app
  • If that doesn't work, you'll have the manually set the time (as we explain below)

How to change the time on your Fitbit

The easiest way to change the time on your tracker is to sync it up to your phone. You'll find your device will often do this automatically, and that's how the tracker transfers information so you can break it down within the app.

When your tracker syncs with your phone, it'll also update the time. We recommend keeping all-day sync on in the options for your Fitbit, which should mean it pings throughout the day and keeps you on the correct time

To manually sync your tracker, you'll want to open up the Fitbit app and find the picture of whatever tracker you want to sync. Tap on that – it should be at the top of the screen – and then pull down to refresh.

After a few moments, your device should sync to your tracker if it's nearby and then, hopefully, update the time to the right time zone as well.

What if that doesn't work?

If that hasn't worked, you'll have to manually set your time zone. The good news is that this isn't too difficult to do. 

If you head into the Fitbit app, you'll find an icon that looks like a little ID card that says 'Account'. It's often in the bottom right hand corner.

Within this menu, press 'Advanced Settings' and find the option that says 'Time Zone'. From within here, you'll want to turn off the option that says 'Set Automatically' and then you'll be able to change the 'Time Zone' to whatever you need it to show.

You'll then need to sync your device, like we've explained above, for the update to take.

How do you change from 12 hour to a 24 hour clock?

This is an easy change to make too, and you'll be able to do it through the official Fitbit website. Click on this link, and sign in with your official Fitbit account details to bring up your Profile.

In the top right, you'll see a little cog icon that you should press on and then choose 'Settings' in the following menu.

Scroll down through your details, and you'll find an option called 'Clock Display Time'. If you press on this, you'll then be able to switch between 12 hour and 24 hour clocks with ease.

Hit submit at the bottom of the page, and the next time your device syncs to your app you'll then find it offers the clock type that you've chosen.

James Peckham

James is the Editor-in-Chief at Android Police. Previously, he was Senior Phones Editor for TechRadar, and he has covered smartphones and the mobile space for the best part of a decade bringing you news on all the big announcements from top manufacturers making mobile phones and other portable gadgets. James is often testing out and reviewing the latest and greatest mobile phones, smartwatches, tablets, virtual reality headsets, fitness trackers and more. He once fell over.

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