Fitbit app outage means its newest Versa watch can't connect

A smartwatch is only as good as the services that support it. Fitbit's newest smartwatches, the Fitbit Versa and Fitbit Ionic, was hit with problems Tuesday because of an hours-long outage in the Fitbit app that seriously affected its ability to do things like load apps and watch faces, or even receive firmware updates.

Fitbit said Tuesday evening that the issue had been resolved.

"We have rolled out a fix and all Versa and Ionic users should now be able to use their devices normally," Fitbit said in a statement. "We will continue to monitor the situation and apologize to our customers for any inconvenience this caused."

Influential gadget blogger Dave Zatz tweeted on it earlier. He's one of many to have been dealing with issues for hours.

CNET's Fitbit-supplied review sample exhibited the same problems Tuesday afternoon. We couldn't install new watch faces, nor could we load apps. The Versa has otherwise performed very well since we received it in mid-March.

Fitbit acknowledged the problem via an earlier statement confirming the situation:

"We are actively working to resolve an issue affecting Fitbit Versa and Fitbit Ionic that is impacting syncing, setup and firmware updates, and downloading apps and clock faces from the App Gallery. We apologize to our customers for this inconvenience and appreciate their patience as we work to get this resolved as quickly as possible."

Updated at 7 p.m. PT with Fitbit statement that the issue had been resolved.

Originally published April 24 at 3 p.m. PT.

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