(Image credit: Jeramy Johnson / Android Central)

Most of the time, our smart devices just work as intended, which is kind of miraculous if you think about it. However, there are occasionally times when your trusty gadget, be that a laptop, tablet, smartphone, or smartwatch, just won't cooperate. It's particularly frustrating when it happens to your fitness tracker or smartwatch, as that means that you'll not only miss out on notifications, but your crucial step counts and health metrics won't be tracked. When this happens with your Fitbit, you can simply reboot it. Sound complicated? It's not really. We'll show you how to factory reset your Fitbit tracker or smartwatch.

How to factory reset your Fitbit tracker

1. Tap on your Fitbit tracker screen, or squeeze the side or capacitive button to wake it.

2. Swipe through the onscreen menu options/apps until you get to the Settings app.

3. Tap on Settings. 

(Image credit: Jeramy Johnson / Android Central)

4. Swipe through the options and tap on Reboot device.

(Image credit: Jeramy Johnson / Android Central)

5. Depending on the device, you'll either press and hold on the screen for three seconds or tap the checkmark after you've tapped on Reboot Device.

(Image credit: Jeramy Johnson / Android Central)

This process will be similar on all newer Fitbit trackers, such as the Inspire 3 and Charge 5. Rebooting your tracker will generally relieve any hiccups or hangups you had been having, but it's important to note that you may lose some of that day's data if it hadn't previously been synced to your Fitbit app.

How to factory reset your Fitbit smartwatch

1. Tap on your Fitbit smartwatch screen, or squeeze the capacitive button to wake it.

(Image credit: Jeramy Johnson / Android Central)

2. Swipe through the apps and tap on Settings.

(Image credit: Jeramy Johnson / Android Central)

3. Scroll through the options and tap on About device.

(Image credit: Jeramy Johnson / Android Central)

4. Scroll through the options and tap on Factory reset.

(Image credit: Jeramy Johnson / Android Central)

5. Tap Yes to confirm factory reset.

(Image credit: Jeramy Johnson / Android Central)

This process will be similar on all newer Fitbit smartwatches such as the Versa 3 and Sense. You can always remove a watch from your Fitbit app, but this will not factory reset the device. That needs to be done on the watch or tracker itself.

Our top equipment picks

In our opinion, one of the best Fitbit devices and one of the best fitness trackers overall is the Inspire 3 band. It's beautifully straightforward to use, quite affordable, and didn't have any bugs during our testing that would require a factory reset.