Fitbit Trackers Water lock Function: What Is It?

Fitbit’s Water Lock A Handy Need?

Surely, you don’t need to hear it from me but Fitbit trackers are amazing. They can be used to track, analyze, and present any form of metric with a unique insight. Yes, they have their cons, I don’t let them cloud my judgement.

However, today we are not going to focus on one particular model or series. Our goal is to talk about the Fitbit not novel yet eerie function called Water Lock. Not many people are aware of what it actually does or why it is even there in first place.

So let’s define it first…

Water Lock in Fitbit devices can be thought of as a safety feature against accidental water damage. While it is true majority of Fitbit trackers are water-resistant till 50m, there is no guarantee your Fitbit device at that depth would be functioning properly (Below shown is example of Fitbit Luxe tolerance compared to Fossil Gen 5).

With time tolerance level of the tracker decreases and your smart device becomes more prone to be on the receiving end of permanent damage. Hence to ensure safety in that case Fitbit has installed a Water Lock on its new line of trackers.

It disables the controls and locks the screen, you wouldn’t be able to interact with your Fitbit device. Even when notifications or alerts come up, it will simply remain locked until you are out of the water or you manually disable it.

List Of Fitbit Devices With Water Lock

Unfortunately not every Fitbit model have the Water Lock functionality embedded within it. For now it is just handful of them having the feature.

• Fitbit Sense & Sense 2
• Fitbit Versa 3 & Versa 4
• Fitbit Ace 3
• Fitbit Inspire 2 & Inspire 3
• Fitbit Charge 5
• Fitbit Luxe

How To Turn On Water Lock Manually?

Apart from the smartwatches (Versa and Sense series) and perhaps their newly arrived successors, you do get the liberty to manually turn on and off the water lock for your trackers. As for those four, it is an automated process, your Fitbit device would turn it on once it will sense you are near a water body large enough to have the device protected. You won’t have to do anything. Although at times during a black screen, it is the water lock that becomes the reason for nuance – (blank screen).

Turn on the water lock setting when you’re in water, for example showering or swimming, to prevent the buttons on your tracker from activating. When water lock is on, your screen and buttons are locked. Notifications and alarms still appear on your tracker, but you must unlock your screen to interact with them.

To turn on water lock, press and hold the buttons on your tracker  tap Water Lock firmly tap your screen twice.

Note that water lock turns on automatically when you start a swim in the Exercise app on all models apart from Ace 3.

How To Turn Off Water Lock

Turning off the water lock might be a little more force-consuming than opening it. What happens usually is that it takes more force while tapping to alert the Fitbit it is the user willingly hoping to disable the water lock than when you would have turned it on.

And there is a good reason for it…

Since water can exert a huge amount of pressure as well, Fitbit has made sure your trackers use the accelerometer to ensure the guard is up at all times. Hence if you find yourself in a situation where it (water lock) isn’t turning off, all you have to do is to exert more force with each tab.

Tab the middle of the screen twice. If it doesn’t work do it harder until it does. Although, at times even force might not be up to the task, and then we rely on other methods…

Water Lock On Fitbit Not Working: Do This!

As we mentioned above sometimes you might face a situation where your Fitbit tracker would get stuck in the water lock. In other words, you wouldn’t be able to use your smartwatch, and in the worse case, you might even lose sight.

In that scenario we recommend you go through these steps until your tracker is out of the water lock:

Press Button

Depending on the model and series you have in hand keep tapping the screen with force accompanied by the use of buttons. Although, make sure you don’t damage the screen. I have heard a tragic story from a friend about such an incident.

Ensure you are covering the middle of the screen. If you see a notification or alert telling you where to tap, follow the order accordingly. Press the side button too simultaneously (if available).

Charge It Up

Put the Fitbit tracker up for charge. There is no guarantee it will work, but you just might be able to leverage something out of it. If you don’t have charger, you can still charge your Fitbit without one. Just make sure you get to break the wall of water lock.

Restart Fitbit

Hopefully you would have resolve your issue using the above mentioned steps, but if not try to restart your device.

• For Fitbit Versa and Sense, keep the side buttons pressed for 10 seconds until you see Fitbit logo appears on the screen.
• If it is Fitbit Inspire 2, first get the charger to supply power and then press both side buttons for 5 seconds. Release them at the same time and you’ll see a cheerful face greeting you on screen.
• As for Fitbit Luxe, make sure it is connected to a power supply and you are using an official Fitbit charger, press the button on the charger three times, and pause after each attempt. Hopefully, you’ll see Fitbit logo in no time.

Change Watch Faces

You can always try to get help of your smartphone to do some heavy lifting. Sometimes what happen is there is a software bug interfering with tracker.

Now, you can’t change the watch’s face while it is stuck/locked due to the water lock from the watch. With the Fitbit application installed on phone, there is a chance to grab.

• Open Fitbit application on your phone.
• Navigate to Today and then click on your profile picture.
• Choose the watch faces from drop-down menu.

Tip: While it is not a need or necessary, but a good practice to go for default Fitbit watch faces to ensure a smooth soft reboot.

Dry It Off

Okay, perhaps the reason why your Fitbit watch couldn’t get off of the water lock is it is still sensing the water or wetness. Of course, it can be wrong, it is not a human with mind or eyes to pass the judgement. You can help it to do better.

How?

Dry your Fitbit. Get a microfiber cloth and use it to dry each part of the device that might be still wet or have residual droplets laying in the corners. Just ensure everything is cleaned and dry. Even if your Fitbit isn’t stuck in the water lock it is good practice to dry the device once you are out of the pool or wherever it came in contact with water.

Change Position.

Okay, there is a 0.1% chance that it will bring a change of fortunes for you, but sometimes changing the position does bring the luck you need. And there is no harm in doing so.

Switch from one arm to another. Make sure it is in contact with the skin. Pray everything works out.

And tap again…

Fitbit’s Water Lock A Perfect Option.

There is no doubt Fitbit smartwatches water lock function is one to think about.

It is never heavily marketed during promotion of devices, and I guess it make sense, it is not actually revolution of our time. But when you put your safety glasses on it does rise in the rank of importance. Yes, it is still that feature that many wouldn’t even notice it is here.

But…

It will keep protecting your tracker whenever it will have too. And now when I think about it, it makes sense why Fitbit Versa 3 and Sense have it automated. It is hard to convince people to care about something they should than make the lifeless device understand the needs of proper safety.

Fitbit’s Water Lock might not be the feature we deserve. But it is the one we need.

IT.IS.WATER KNIGHT.