Google and Fitbit have acknowledged a permission reset bug that is causing Pixel Watch SpO2 and skin temperature tracking to stop working for some users, and the fix is not as simple as flipping a toggle. The permissions page on affected devices shows no app requesting access to those sensors, leaving users with no visible way to restore them. Both the PixelCommunity and FitbitHelpCommunity accounts confirmed the issue this week and said work is underway.
That acknowledgment came roughly two months after the first complaints surfaced. In the interim, a second, separate problem emerged: step counts, mileage, and calorie totals inflating significantly across different Pixel Watch models, with some users reporting their daily numbers doubling or tripling without any corresponding change in activity, as covered by 9to5Google and Android Police in late March. Whether the two issues share a root cause has not been officially confirmed.
The pattern of failures appearing across multiple firmware versions points toward the Fitbit app or backend services as the common thread, though that has not been definitively established. It matters for users because it means a watch firmware patch alone may not resolve everything.
How to tell if the Pixel Watch permission reset issue is affecting your watch
There are two main failure modes and one diagnostic clue worth knowing.
The clearest symptom is overnight SpO2 and skin temperature readings disappearing from the Fitbit app with no error or explanation. Both metrics are only tracked during sleep, and it's possible the disruption stems from broader complications with sleep tracking. Most users don't notice until they check their morning health summary and find nothing there.
The second symptom is inflated activity stats. Step counts, mileage, and calorie burn are climbing well past normal ranges for some users, even on low-activity days. One Pixel Watch owner reported hitting what the app logged as 8,000 steps by mid-morning, roughly double their usual pace for that time of day, without having done anything unusual. Even users who haven't lost SpO2 or skin temperature readings may still be seeing inflated steps or distance figures; the two failure modes appear to be independent.
The diagnostic clue specific to the permission bug: navigate to the SpO2 and skin temperature permissions screen and check whether any app is listed as requesting access. On affected devices, that list is empty. There's nothing to re-enable because the system no longer shows the Fitbit app as needing those permissions.
Reports cover Pixel Watch 2, 3, and 4 models, with the Pixel Watch 4 generating the largest share of complaints. The total number of affected users is unknown. Neither Google nor Fitbit has released figures, and visible complaints come mostly from Reddit and community forums.
What Google and Fitbit have confirmed and what's still unclear
The confirmed part is narrow but meaningful. Google's PixelCommunity account responded to a Reddit thread this week, stating: "We regret the disruption to your health tracking experience caused by these permission resets," and that "work is underway to restore access to SpO2 and skin temperature tracking features." FitbitHelpCommunity followed with nearly identical language. Neither account provided a timeline or explained why affected users cannot simply re-enable the permissions manually.
Google acknowledged the issue in March and reiterated this week that a fix is underway. That was roughly a week after the initial user reports, and more than a week before any public response to the inflated activity stats.
Several things remain unresolved. The inflated step counts, calories, and distance figures have not been officially linked to the permission reset bug, though both emerged in close proximity. Early coverage and user speculation initially focused on the March Pixel Watch firmware update as the likely culprit, but that explanation weakened when users on older builds reported identical problems.
9to5Google updated its coverage to note the issue appeared to be app- or server-side rather than firmware-related, citing a Pixel Watch 4 running December 2025 software that reproduced the same inflated-stat behavior seen on March builds. Some early discussion also pointed toward a recent Fitbit app rollout as a possible factor, adding further uncertainty about where a fix would need to come from.
The fact that identical symptoms appeared across multiple firmware versions suggests the Fitbit app or its backend services as a shared dependency, but that's an apparent pattern, not a confirmed diagnosis. It's also unknown whether historical data lost during this period — nights of absent SpO2 readings — or weeks of corrupted step totals are recoverable at all.
Why this isn't just a routine software glitch
SpO2 and skin temperature aren't spot-check sensors. Their value is longitudinal: weeks and months of overnight readings, building a personal baseline. When those readings drop out, that longer-term visibility disappears. Users who've been affected for the full two months since complaints first surfaced have a significant gap in that record.
The inflated stats create a different problem. Fitness tracking depends on consistency more than precision. When a baseline shifts without explanation, any progress measured against it loses meaning. A step goal that suddenly looks easy to hit tells you nothing useful.
There's also a subtler version of the problem. Unlike missing readings, which are obviously absent, inflated totals can look plausible enough to rationalize. A slightly higher calorie burn on a busy day, a step count that seems a bit elevated. The data doesn't necessarily look broken. It just looks wrong in ways that are easy to dismiss until the numbers become impossible to ignore.
What affected users can try now
These workarounds are ordered from least to most disruptive, not by confirmed success rate; the sources don't support ranking them that way.
Restart the watch first. At least one user in a Fitbit community thread reported that a device restart restored sensor access, according to Android Authority. It's a single reported case, but it costs nothing.
Clear the Fitbit app cache. A community Product Expert recommended clearing the Fitbit cache on both the watch and the paired phone, then restarting both. Results are inconsistent; at least one user confirmed it didn't work for them, but it's a reasonable second step before anything more drastic.
Factory reset as a last resort. Some users reported that this resolved the missing-sensor issue, and the PixelCommunity account endorsed it as a workaround. The obvious cost is wiping the watch and re-pairing it, and it's worth being clear that a reset addresses the symptom, not the cause. If the issue is app- or service-side, there's no guarantee the same problem won't resurface, according to Android Authority.
Until a fix arrives, treat your activity stats with skepticism. Cross-checking suspect numbers against another device and avoiding decisions anchored to daily totals is the practical advice from Digital Trends while the data remains unreliable.
Where things stand
Google and Fitbit have confirmed the permission reset bug is real and say a fix is in progress. That's more than was true two months ago, when the first reports surfaced with no official response. What's still missing is any timeline, any explanation for why restoring the permissions requires more than a visible toggle, and any word on whether the inflated activity stats and a related but distinct Google Pixel Watch health tracking bug will be addressed through the same fix or a separate one.
Health tracking is the central argument for buying a premium smartwatch. The sensors justify the price. A fix will eventually close the bug, but the data gaps already accumulated the blank overnight SpO2 graphs, and the weeks of corrupted step totals don't get filled back in. For users who've been watching their Pixel Watch health sensors fail silently while waiting for a response that took two months to arrive, the software problem may resolve before the trust issue does.
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