Aria Wifi ERR solution for new routers which support 802.11ac

[SunsetRunner]

So I spent a little while trying to get my Aria re-connected after making some changes to my router.

I have one of the new models with two radios (2.4Ghz and 5). It uses 802.11 b/g/n on the 2.4Ghz band and ac on the 5Ghz band, and offers to "intelligently" use the correct band for the device connecting. I set it up on a newish laptop running Windows 10. Apparently there's something that Aria doesn't like about this whole setup, but I finally got it working and this is how:

1. Turn on the guest network in your router and make sure it's set to use the b/g/n mode. (or no more than 54Mbps, or compatibility mode, or whatever they call it in your router.)
2. Give your guest network a name that only includes letters or numbers. (There's no real reason for this; it seems Fitbit just decided that would be easier for them.)
3. Make sure there are no hackers in the near vicinity.
4. Turn off any security for your guest network.
5. Make sure your guest network is visible (is broadcasting its SSID)
   1. If you don't own your router or have some means of accessing the settings, try calling whoever does and asking them to please change the settings for you, ideally while you're home, during working hours. We're using the guest network because 802.11b is a slower protocol and you'll want to keep using the faster ones on your secure home network. 802.11b was only superceded by faster protocols in 2003, so it's understandable that Fitbit needs a little time to catch up.
6. Put your Aria in setup mode by taking out one battery for 10 seconds.
7. Bring your scale, router, and laptop to within 10 feet of one another.
8. Go to http://www.fitbit.com/setup/aria (I used MS Edge, because enterprise software teams tend to develop for Microsoft first and it doesn't allow plugins. If you don't have Edge, try IE8) (I know we're not dealing with enterprise software here, but it feels the same, so work with me here.)
9. Clear your cookies and restart your browser. Throw a pinch of salt over your left shoulder and spin around three times counterclockwise.
10. Follow the prompts, giving your Aria a name that reflects your feelings towards Fitbit. Be honest.
11. Take a break and send an email to Fitbit support asking why they couldn't just use WPS like printers and music streaming boxes and everything else that needs to connect to wifi without having a keyboard.
12. Connect to the network starting with "ARIA", hoping that there's only one. You might have to wait a bit for the network to show up.
13. Hope that no wise guy has called his router "ARIA501b" or something to trick you to connecting to it.
14. Let it scan for networks and select your guest network. Status messages will be displayed on the scale.
15. When the webpage shows your guest network, select it.
16. When prompted, go to your wifi settings and connect to your guest wifi.
17. Go back to the page and click continue.
18. Hopefully you'll get a success page, but we're not done yet. Go have a cup of tea.
19. Put your scale on a hard surface somewhere
20. Stand on it.
21. Step off when it tells you to step off.
22. Watch the display to see if it gives you a checkmark after displaying your weight, BF, and initials, then doing the little "sending" animation.
    1. If you get a little x above a wifi symbol, it didn't work. Contact support or go to step 8 and try, try again.
23. Go to your fitbit dashboard or open the app and see if it logged your weight.
24. Go back into your router settings and change your guest wifi to WPA2 and give it a simple password with only letters and numbers (again, this appears to be just because Fitbit decided that would be easier for them.)
25. Repeat step 8 through 20, including the cup of tea, but this time, when you select your guest network, the scale (or whatever device is broadcasting a name starting with ARIA) will ask for your wifi password. Give it your guest network password. (This is why step 2 is very important. If it turns out to be a honeypot device, at least you have only given it your guest wifi password, which you totally aren't using anywhere else, right?)
26. Enjoy your new time and effort saving scale!

[JuanJoFitbit]

@Luroc It's great to see you in the Fitbit forums! I'm sorry to hear that you need to repeat the workaround mentioned above in order to connect your Aria scale. Try restarting your router and once this has been done, try the workaround one more time and monitor the behavior of the scale and let me know if the issue gets resolved.

See you later! 

[Luroc]

LOL. Yes, I have reset my modem and the gateway. many, many times.

The only way to get my Aria to sync any more is to switch B,G,N to B,G and back... and then weigh myself within minutes or it won't sync. This "fix" only last a very minimal amount of time.

Moderator edit: format

[JuanJoFitbit]

@Luroc Thank you for getting back! Since the issue persists, let me go ahead and send your case to our Support team and they'll be happy to assist you and follow up. You should receive an email from them soon.

Let me know if you have any doubts! 

[Tsanta59]

I think it’s terrible that we spent a lot of money in an allegedly easy-to-use scale. Instead, we are told to perform difficult, convoluted steps, in order to get the lousy item to do what it’ was intended to do. To add insult to injury, this scale can’t even just tell weight, even if it didn’t sync, etc. You can’t even just step on it to find out your weight. My old $20 drugstore one is better. My fancy Aria is in the garage collecting dust. And only because I’m not sure on how to dispose of it.

[JuanJoFitbit]

@Tsanta59 I totally understand your frustration about this and appreciate your feedback. Since your case was being handled by our Support team, please let me know if they provided a solution and followed up on your case.

See you later! 

[oltimer]

I followed this and it resolved my issues FINALLY!  I was not able to successfully switch back to GN with BG protection enabled.  The only way I could get the scale to connect was with B/G/N mixed mode - sigh but the fact that is working again after many tries, countless videos and support articles to setup the last two weeks I am relieved.  Thank you so much for posting

[JuanJoFitbit]

@oltimer Welcome to our Fitbit Community! I'm so glad to hear that you resolved the issue and could set up your Aria scale. Thank you for posting the update here and sharing the workaround you followed in order to have this issue fixed.

I'd like to invite you to visit our Discussions board where you can share your experiences, meet people and create new topics.

Hope to see you in our Fitbit Community more often! 

[AMGoodridge]

This didn’t work for me as my router doesnt give me this option - I have an ASUS AC-68U and it refuses to work with it despite working for a couple of years on my older ASUS router.  Really disappointed and having read this thread I’m not going to try any longer.  Is there a firmware upgrade at all ?

[JuanJoFitbit]

@AMGoodridge Thank you for joining us in this thread and our Fitbit Community! I'm sorry to hear that your Aria scale is not connecting to your network either. I would like to know a couple of details that will help me to determine the cause of the issue: Have you changed your WiFi password or router settings? Does your router run the protocol 802.11b and bandwidth 2.4GHz?

Keep me posted! 

[AMGoodridge]

Hi, I have recently changed my router (and SSID and password) and I’m sure it runs protocol 802.11b at 2.4ghz.  I got the WiFi ERR once but rest of time it’s just NO SYNC on the last stage.  I created a guest network with the SSID not containing underscores etc and the password is only alphanumeric ie no special characters (plus I made it the same password as before) which made no difference.  Have tried the pc app as well as the other method with same result.

[JuanJoFitbit]

@AMGoodridge Thank you for getting back and providing the details requested previously. Since the issue persists, let me go ahead and send your case to our Support team so they can investigate further and provide a solution. They'll contact you via email soon.

Let me know if you have any doubts! 

[ECM68]

It’s beginning to make sense. Your solution of dedicating the Guest WiFi for your scale would ensure that the scale could get a dedicated 802.11b protocol connection. Since I have several devices that operate at 2.4 GHz I can see where that could cause interference. As for the security protocol being a problem. I wonder if the Guest WiFi has its own MAC filtering. The Scale MAC address is on the inside of the battery compartment. Assign that MAC address to the Guest WiFi and you could have a secure connection. Thanks for coming up with this fix. I think this will solve my WiFi Err problem.

[SunsetRunner]

Happy it worked for you.  Still no joy for me. I’m over it.  Have spent 3-5 hours fooling with the device. I’m now “upside down” on this investment.  I was using it for years on an older router.  I suspect the new Cisco Gateway and its automated wifi settings are to blame. I tried parsing the bands and SSID names, and removing symbols from passwords.  Played with firewall settings, ensured no MAC filtering, etc.  

Will now consider a Withings wifi scale as I’m on iOS Health anyway and was necessarily porting my fitbit weights over to myfitnesspal, then over to Apple, LOL.  Enough already. Should be easier. 

[Dom326]

Hi Aaron,

This solution worked for me!! Thanks!!!

08-22-2016 11:24 by AaronPlant

I deleted the Aria from my account via my PC and added it back as new scales! 

Wasted an hour with ‘Wifi ERR’

thanks for posting the fix!!!

[AMGoodridge]

I have finally resolved the issue - in addition to following all the rules, I realised that my pc (only when setting up the aria) also needed to be using the WiFi network I had specifically setup for the aria (and other devices that don’t work if WiFi passwords contain special characters etc)

Hi, just posted my solution to this which may work for you - in addition to setting up a 2.4 ghz network with no special characters in the password etc, you need to be using this network on your pc when setting up the aria or it won’t work......worth a final try if you can bear it !

Moderator edit: merged reply

[ECM68]

I’m ready to try anything... Already tried setting up a new 2.4GHz network
as a guest account with b,g,n protocol as well as setting up a connection
for the scales MAC address. If this solution works for me, it will save me
another couple of hours on proving my next theory for a fix.

Thanks

[oltimer]

Thanks! It’d be nice if we could just get a software patch but of course
the scale would have to connect. Mines working for now I had to setup a
special 2.4 network for it and simple
Passcode that was suggested, while rubbing my belly and saying my abc’s
backwards 🙂 if it disconnects again Fitbit is going bye bye

[texascatmom]

Exactly where is info on the fix? 

Im ready to stomp on my scales, then pitch it in the lake.

[ECM68]

I spent a couple more hours on the problem this evening but it involved
creating a single purpose SSID from my router’s Guest account. I named it
4Aria and had no other devices connected. Sounded like a good idea, it just
didn’t work. I thought that there may be too many devices with g or n
protocol on my routers 2.4GHz but it didn’t help, in fact something about
this setup brought my WiFi to a crawl. I spent most of my time trying to
put back the old configuration. Now my WiFi is close to what I get on
Ethernet connected to my router.
I’m going to have to start over tomorrow and try my old modem. At this
point I just want to prove the old modem still talks to the scale if that
doesn’t work, I have to think there’s a problem with my scale.

[AMGoodridge]

Did you try connecting your laptop/pc to this new network before trying to setup the scales? I found by just having the SSID available and selecting it from the list during setup wasn’t enough, my laptop I was using for the setup also needed to be using the SSID during the setup process.....

Sent from my iPhone

Moderator edit: personal info removed