Unable to add new barcodes

[lemos]

When I scan a barcode that does not exist, it says it is possible to add new products with just a couple of photos, but nothing else happens.

Is there an actual way of accomplishing this?

[Michelle_J]

Having the same problem.
I'm on a samsung galaxy, scanned my item this morning & said the same thing. Scanned something else & it appeared.
How do we add the items that arent on the list. Slightly annoying

[Trotwood]

Hi,

I'm having the same issue. Has anyone found a way to actually add something to the database?

I'm using a galaxy S4. Don't know if that matters.

Thanks.

[GMFull]

Same issue on Sony Xperia Z3.

[munce31]

Yeah, exactly the same issue. Shame really, we all could deepen the variety of the database if we could take pictures and record macros.

[Hoppy59]

Same problem on HTC One have wanted to be able to add several products with bar codes like the others says simple add with just a few photo's but does not do anything else.

[Ceolona]

I believe that this simply sends package photos back to Fitbit so that THEY can manually update their database.  You still need to add a custom food for it to be used by you.

[MarreFitbit · Accepted solution]

Hi everyone, hope all of you're doing great this morning!  Note that if you're using international food databases, the barcode scanning option is currently not available. For the time being, barcode scanning is only available for the US food database. If an item doesn't scan, tap on the option to "Submit to Database" and follow the onscreen instructions. 

We're working to have this feature available but don't have an estimated availability date. To vote for this feature in our community, please visit Feature Requests - Bardcode Scanning thread. Our development team prioritizes the improvements that our customers are most interested in.

Our US food database is regularly updated with new foods and more barcodes. Here are a couple tips for scanning:

1. Please ensure that your item's entire barcode is within the scanning area.
2. If an item doesn't scan, tap the X to exit the scanner and then search for the food. If the food item doesn't appear, create a custom food by tapping Custom and then Add Custom Food.

Hope this helps! 

[DaveAU]

It may be worthwhile adding a note saying international database users can't add scanned items instead of this which makes people think you can actually "add this item":

[MarreFitbit]

Thanks so much for your feedback @DaveAU ! 

[BuildTheRobots]

Sorry, can I just confirm (only got my fitbit this morning so am still coming to terms with it)

Being a United Kingdom user and using the "United Kindom" food database, even though I'm told "We can add this item to our database with a few simple photos" actually I can't?

This is awful user interface design.

I assume even if I add it as a custom food, it won't actually let me add a barcode either?

[MarreFitbit]

Welcome to the Fitbit Forums @BuildTheRobots, hope you're doing great today! In regards to your post, yest that is correct since barcode scanning is only available for the US food database.

But here are a couple tips for scanning:

1. Ensure that your item's entire barcode is within the scanning area.
2. If an item doesn't scan, tap the X to exit the scanner and then search for the food. If the food item doesn't appear, create a custom food by tapping Custom and then Add Custom Food.

I mean, even if you're located in UK, if you're scanning US food database your mobile device should detects this and of course, it will scan it. 

Let me know if I can be of further help! 

[BuildTheRobots]

Thanks for clearing that up.

Though as I'm in the UK and have manually selected the UK database, if barcode scanning isn't supposed to work, then please just remove the optionto scan a barcode -it's really confusing.

I'm now going through and adding stuff as custom foods but have run into another problem.

On the back of the packet, the energy value is listed in either Kilo-Jules or Kilo-Calories.The app expects input in Calories. 

If my food lists 560 kcal then in my mind that means 560,000 calories (kilo == multiply by 1000). If I try and enter this into the app I'm told that "Calories must be no more than 6,000". Please could you advise where I'm going wrong with my math  -or is the app actually expecting kcal but naming it calories?

With thanks.

[MarreFitbit]

Anytime sweetheart ! Thanks for the feedback too darling, I know this can be a bit confusing, I'll be forwarding this comment.

On a side note, I was trying to scan some of the food I have here, and see my pictures below:

The Food I wan scan

My app found the barcode

Finally I got the calories for the food scanned

So, would you mind sending me the last screen replicated on your own? 

[BuildTheRobots]

Ah right -sorry, I'm trying to describe two different issues, I think we might be getting them muddled into one. Actually I just realised I have a third issue on the go, so have appended it to hte bottom 🙂

1. Barcode scanning:

Click the barcode scan option, it finds the barcode and then tells me "Not found. Want to help out? We can add this item to our database with a few simple photos".

It then leaves you on that screen with the camera greyed out but functional. The first time I spend 10minutes trying to work out how I was supposed to take the few simple photos to get the item added (lots of touching the screen looking for a next option, but nothing worked) and then had to google and found this forum thread where I learn it's not supposed to work outside of the USA.

tldr: If you can't let me add it to the database then please don't tell me you can.

Origionally I was more than willing to spend the next month documenting, scanning and photographing everything I ate to help the community, now I'm just left slightly confused and annoyed 🙂

 

------------------------

Second issue: Adding a custom food or calories errors with "Calories must be no more than 6,000"
Ignoring barcodes this time, Select log food, custom tab, Add Custom Food:

Enter a name and brand.

On the back of my packet it says that there's "55 kcal" of energy in these biscuits but the app asks me to enter just "calories".

A quick google tells me that 55 kcal is 55,000 calories so I try and enter 55,000 into the app at which point I get the error about it being above 6,000.

My wild know-nothing guess is that the app is actually expecting input in kcals not cals, but it doesn't actually tell the user that.

-----------

Third issue (also adding custom foods): Can''t add decimal units.
If you go into Detailed View, then you can enter the amount of fat, carbs, sugars etc in grams.

All the food in the UK has this listed to at least one decimal place (eg 1.8g, 0.2g, 8.4g from the photo above) but the android app won't let me put in a decimal place, so I'm left having to round everything up or down -or just not bothering. I don't know if this is the same on the iphone app.

---------

Really appriciate you taking time to listen to feedback -feeling much happier about the experience now.

The first and third issues are annoying, but I can probably live with it. The second issue, the confusion between calories and kilo-calories is really confusing -I literally have no idea what's correct now.

Greatest of thanks 🙂

[MarreFitbit]

My pleasure @BuildTheRobots , I'm so sorry for the delay in getting back to you, I was replicating everything so I can work better along with you! 

Let's start, I scanned an item which doesn't work with the barcord (since my product was made in Guatemala and it's a Guatemalan's brand), so I had to add it:

As the last photo taken says, the photos will be reviewed to get them added to your food database. 

Moving to the second issue you're having in regards to the calories, kcal, kj, etc....

There are two existing type of calories, "small & large calories". Small calorie (cal) is the energy needed to increase 1 gram of water by 1°C at a pressure of 1 atmosphere. 

Large calorie (Cal) is the energy needed to increase 1kg of water by 1°C at a pressure of 1 atmosphere. Larger calorie is algo called food calorie and is used as a unit of food energy.

kcal to cal conversion

One kilocalorie is equal to 1000 small calories:

1 kcal = 1000 cal

One kilocalorie is equal to 1 large/food calorie:

1 kcal = 1 Cal

This means that we're using large/food calorie, so if the item is giving you 55 kCal leave it in that way since remember we are using "large/food calorie instead of small calorie".

See my examples below:

I put the same calories = kCal that my item is showing (74). See my picture here (sorry for the Spanish words, this is another Guatemalan item):

So, don't enter different amounts, you go ahead and put the same that your product is giving you (kCal).

Last but not at least, when you try to swype keyboard resolves this issue with the decimals .

Hope this helps you a bit better darling! 

[Potomus]

Has this issue ever been resolved?  I live in Canada and it would be great to let people add food so I don't have to customize everything.  Otherwise it's kinda a PITA.

[MarreFitbit]

Thanks for stopping by @Potomus, hope you're doing great! At the moment we just support US food database, but I've mentioned before, you can vote for our International Food Databases feature.

Hope we can't implement this soon, have a nice start of the week! 

[Nathanielca]

For the record I don't actually see an actual answer to this question...

Is it possible to add a barcode to the database or is it just adding customs when you have an item that isn't in the US database?

Also two complaints

1) If the product is sold outside the USA then an additional database should be available for the company in which the product is sold.. 

2) Since you are required to custom input so much info not allowing decimals or limiting the quanities types to measurments (for example if I'm manually adding oreo cookies cuz i live in Canada and not the USA I don't want to measure them in grams I want to measure in cookies)

Overall under impressed with this device and his is another reason why

[WelshBoy]

I agree entirely. If a product doesn't function correctly as advertised then that claim should either be withdrawn or a clear unambiguous note should be made so the purchaser understands. Otherwise it's misleading and unlawful- you cannot claim a product does something when in fact it doesn't. The UK food list should be available to all UK Fitbit users