Fitbit Blaze: How to sync with the computer

[Chanett]

Hey,

I just tried to sync my new Fitbit Blaze to my Macbook pro computer. I pluged in the charging cable. And opend the Fitbit app on my computer. But it says that it wont find the wireless sync dongle.

So how do i connect it to my computer?

[SunsetRunner · Accepted solution]

@Chanett it's looking for the wireless dongle, sold with other fitbits but not the Blaze. Either you need to get your hands on a dongle or try using a phone instead of your MacBook

[Chanett]

Oh,okay. I will just use my brothers then. I thought it was another way to do it 🙂

[RedDevilDixie]

Because of problems with my phone, I aquired the Fitbit Dongle, attached it to my computer and downloaded the App. App cannot Sync the Tracker. What now? Been trying for half an hour.

Settings on my comp recognises the Fitbit Base Station

[Rich_Laue]

@RedDevilDixie A few questions for you.

You say you can't Sync, does that mean your Blaze is already set up to your account, and no longer displays the message www.Fitbit.com/setup?

What type of computer do you have, and what OS.

Did you download Fitbit Connect, or the Win 10 app?

A couple things I would try, pull the dongle, shut the computer off, then turn it on. After it is completely powered up the OS is running plug in the dongle.

Restart the Blaze by holding the left button and the lower right together for 15 seconds, or at least until it buzzes.

[RedDevilDixie]

Hi Rich,

Blaze is already set up on my android phone app. It is because I have problems syncing to that, I loaded the Win 10 App onto my Win 10 desktop computer. Have reset the Blaze but to no effect. When I try to sync via computer, I get a picture of the dongle, it trys and then tells me it cannot sync with tracker.I will try your suggestion. hope I don't have to do this everytime.

[Rich_Laue]

The other way to Sync to a Win 10 computer is through the Blaze's charging cord.

Put the Blaze into its charger plug it into the PC, you should hear a beep. If this is the first time, Windows will go out and download the drivers, wait for this. The app now should sync through the cable.

Is there anything besides the phone and PC that you have synced this Fitbit through?

[RedDevilDixie]

Nope

[Midagma]

I have the same issue. No dongle, cannot connect to the mac. Got a nice looking watch I can't do anything with. No instructions included either, I am seriously not impressed. Spent the last half hour trying to get this thing to work before understanding that I need a dongle to connect it to the mac? A dongle that it's not shipped with? Come off it fitbit, that's atrocious form - this service is reminiscent of 1990s computers and struggling for days to get anything working. I live a busy life, I want to sync this to my mac - easily.  It seems I cant do that. Makes a nice looking, potentially very useful watch junk for me.  If that's the case, this is going right back from whence it came, lifes just too short to mess around with tech gadgets not well enough designed or thought out for the consumer to work with. Also - the online help is useless. It tells you to plug in your dongle. What the hell is the point in that if they don't even send you one out? Seriously dissapointed. I had heard these are good devices. My experience so far is well to the contrary. I will most likely be returning this to Amazon and shopping for something that works from a company more concerned about their consumer able to work with their items than fitbit appears to be. . 

[Rich_Laue]

This is 2016 and the computers are being replaced by tablets and phones. with the Blaze bring designed to interstate with the phone, fires Fitbit assumes most won't need the Dongle.

Contact Fitbit, in sure they can help out.

As for the manual since this is a device that will not function with out a connection to the internet, Fitbit has put all the manuals online in their help pages. This is very common today and gives the ability to provide a help manual that is actually but enough to read.

Scroll to the bottom of any page on Fitbit, click Help - the picture of your tracker - then the manual.

This is also where you will find the extensive interactive help guide, where I frequently go to find answers for the posts.

[stangcbr]

I had similar sync problems.  If you call Fitbit, they will send you a dongle for free. That is what I did.  I used my wife's dongle (charge hr) in the meantime and eventually got it to work after inserting the dongle and restarting the computer.  Then start the fitbit connect software and it will eventually find the device.  It is pretty stupid that it can't sync via the USB cable.  Having this for three days, I am not impressed.  Touch display is not responsive at times, text message aren't showing in device half the time, and the software is somewhat confusing with very little options.  For instance, I can't change the duration of the alarm from the few seconds of vibration to something much longer??  Who wakes up with a few second vibration. How about an alarm that takes advantage of the device and makes you get out of bed and walk 10 steps.  But first it has to wake you.  Mine didn't this morning.  This device could be so much better!  Sorry for my rant, but I had to get this out.  

[knavery]

I'm noticing also that this is a piece of junk. I got it yesterday and worked for the last two hours to get this to sync on my Macbook Pro WITH A DONGLE. It's going back. I'm going with the Garmin.

[Pruttinyllet]

---

@knavery wrote:

I'm noticing also that this is a piece of junk. I got it yesterday and worked for the last two hours to get this to sync on my Macbook Pro WITH A DONGLE. It's going back. I'm going with the Garmin.

---

Too bad it didn't work for you! But great that you can still get a refund and purchase a device that supports your needs properly, (syncing with an online account in this case). Sorry that your relationship with Fitbit had to end like this! I'm sure you will enjoy Garmin though, they are much better fit for keeping track of your stats accuratly and syncing them against an online profile.

[knavery]

I'm bummed actually. I love the way the Blaze feels when wearing it. It's very comfortable. However, the Garmin I was looking at is very utilitarian and I've read it's very accurate and has a few more features (not that I considered them very important). However, after owning a Fitbit One for a few years and seeing it work flawlessly, it's sad to see this company go downhill from a quality standpoint. People will swear by them, but when I spend this much on a product, I want it to work as advertised.

[bbarrera]

@knavery When I was trying to get back into shape, tried a friends Fitbit One and loved it. Bought a Flex which was disappointing on several levels, e.g. not accurate while pushing cart in Costco, smell required frequent cleaning, band broke in 4 months. But the app helped make me count calories, and I was committed to walking off the pounds. But Runkeeper was better at giving me walking stats and motivation to walk faster, so I kept using Runkeeper for walks, along with my Fitbit for calorie counting. Upgraded to Force when it was announced, held on to it for almost 7 months after the recall was announced, as the band was starting to break. Force was another wrist Fitbit with poor band design, not just me, lots and lots of people posting on forums with premature band failure. Then I switched to Fitbit MobileTrack and started cycling because I couldn't walk fast enough to get my heart rate up and burn. Traded fixing a computer for a Surge, very disappointed with it and again another wrist Fitbit with premature band failures. The last quarterly report saw a huge jump in reserves for warranties, for "a legacy product" and I think its safe to guess which tracker caused them to increase liabilities on the balance sheet. And now the Blaze, jack of all trades master of none. Accuracy issues, not impressed with industrial design, don't get me started on the 2002 notifications - like someone with an old school Treo decided that was the pinnacle of notifications.

I like Fitbit, they were with me at the start of my mid-life fitness journey. But every tracker I've owned is filled with compromises and poor design decisions. Its like Fitbit wants me to spin the upgrade wheel once a year. I predict this fall will see a Surge 2 that supports swimming, and hopefully removable bands. But I think they've lost me, my Watch has notifications that just work and is perfect companion during the day and night. My workouts are intense, I use an HRM that keeps up and even have a bluetooth HRM that pairs with Watch if I need it.

So I'm bummed too. Huge jump in warranty reserves says it all regarding product quality and the level of returns that Fitbit expects. Maybe they will get it right next time, who knows. Not sure I want to play along with the upgrade train anymore.

[knavery]

---

@bbarrera wrote:

@knavery When I was trying to get back into shape, tried a friends Fitbit One and loved it. Bought a Flex which was disappointing on several levels, e.g. not accurate while pushing cart in Costco, smell required frequent cleaning, band broke in 4 months. But the app helped make me count calories, and I was committed to walking off the pounds. But Runkeeper was better at giving me walking stats and motivation to walk faster. Upgraded to Force when it was announced, held on to it for almost 7 months after the recall was announced. Another wrist Fitbit with poor band design, lots and lots of people posting on forums with premature band failure. Then I switched to Fitbit MobileTrack and started cycling because I couldn't walk fast enough to get my heart rate up and burn. Traded fixing a computer for a Surge, very disappointed with it and again another wrist Fitbit with premature band failures. The last quarterly report saw a huge jump in reserves for warranties, for "a legacy product" and I think its safe to guess which tracker caused them to increase liabilities on the balance sheet. And now the Blaze, jack of all trades master of none. Accuracy issues, not impressed with industrial design, don't get me started on the 2002 notifications - like someone with an old school Treo decided that was the pinnacle of notifications.

I like Fitbit, they were with me at the start of my mid-life fitness journey. But every tracker I've owned is filled with compromises and poor design decisions. Its like Fitbit wants me to spin the upgrade wheel once a year. I predict this fall will see a Surge 2 that supports swimming, and hopefully removable bands. But I think they've lost me, my Watch has notifications that just work and is perfect companion during the day and night. My workouts are intense, I use an HRM that keeps up and even have a bluetooth HRM that pairs with Watch if I need it.

So I'm bummed too. Huge jump in warranty reserves says it all regarding product quality and the level of returns that Fitbit expects. Maybe they will get it right next time, who knows. Not sure I want to play along with the upgrade train anymore.

---

Thanks for your informative post. I read several reviews and watched tons of Youtube videos about Fitbit's lack of quality. I've read that everyone seems to be happy with their customer service however, because they just keep sending out new products to their users when they fail or the bands fall apart. The thing is... I want a product that's built to last and is accurate. At this point, I don't really care what it looks like. 🙂

[Pruttinyllet]

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@bbarrera wrote:

@knavery When I was trying to get back into shape, tried a friends Fitbit One and loved it. Bought a Flex which was disappointing on several levels, e.g. not accurate while pushing cart in Costco, smell required frequent cleaning, band broke in 4 months. But the app helped make me count calories, and I was committed to walking off the pounds. But Runkeeper was better at giving me walking stats and motivation to walk faster. Upgraded to Force when it was announced, held on to it for almost 7 months after the recall was announced. Another wrist Fitbit with poor band design, lots and lots of people posting on forums with premature band failure. Then I switched to Fitbit MobileTrack and started cycling because I couldn't walk fast enough to get my heart rate up and burn. Traded fixing a computer for a Surge, very disappointed with it and again another wrist Fitbit with premature band failures. The last quarterly report saw a huge jump in reserves for warranties, for "a legacy product" and I think its safe to guess which tracker caused them to increase liabilities on the balance sheet. And now the Blaze, jack of all trades master of none. Accuracy issues, not impressed with industrial design, don't get me started on the 2002 notifications - like someone with an old school Treo decided that was the pinnacle of notifications.

I like Fitbit, they were with me at the start of my mid-life fitness journey. But every tracker I've owned is filled with compromises and poor design decisions. Its like Fitbit wants me to spin the upgrade wheel once a year. I predict this fall will see a Surge 2 that supports swimming, and hopefully removable bands. But I think they've lost me, my Watch has notifications that just work and is perfect companion during the day and night. My workouts are intense, I use an HRM that keeps up and even have a bluetooth HRM that pairs with Watch if I need it.

So I'm bummed too. Huge jump in warranty reserves says it all regarding product quality and the level of returns that Fitbit expects. Maybe they will get it right next time, who knows. Not sure I want to play along with the upgrade train anymore.

---

Thanks for sharing your story! It started as heartwarming  and ended on a sad note. Sad to see Fitbit going downhill in quality. Especially sad for a longtime fan as you. Too bad nothing lasts forever.

[knavery]

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@bbarrera wrote:

@knavery When I was trying to get back into shape, tried a friends Fitbit One and loved it. Bought a Flex which was disappointing on several levels, e.g. not accurate while pushing cart in Costco, smell required frequent cleaning, band broke in 4 months. But the app helped make me count calories, and I was committed to walking off the pounds. But Runkeeper was better at giving me walking stats and motivation to walk faster, so I kept using Runkeeper for walks, along with my Fitbit for calorie counting. Upgraded to Force when it was announced, held on to it for almost 7 months after the recall was announced, as the band was starting to break. Force was another wrist Fitbit with poor band design, not just me, lots and lots of people posting on forums with premature band failure. Then I switched to Fitbit MobileTrack and started cycling because I couldn't walk fast enough to get my heart rate up and burn. Traded fixing a computer for a Surge, very disappointed with it and again another wrist Fitbit with premature band failures. The last quarterly report saw a huge jump in reserves for warranties, for "a legacy product" and I think its safe to guess which tracker caused them to increase liabilities on the balance sheet. And now the Blaze, jack of all trades master of none. Accuracy issues, not impressed with industrial design, don't get me started on the 2002 notifications - like someone with an old school Treo decided that was the pinnacle of notifications.

I like Fitbit, they were with me at the start of my mid-life fitness journey. But every tracker I've owned is filled with compromises and poor design decisions. Its like Fitbit wants me to spin the upgrade wheel once a year. I predict this fall will see a Surge 2 that supports swimming, and hopefully removable bands. But I think they've lost me, my Watch has notifications that just work and is perfect companion during the day and night. My workouts are intense, I use an HRM that keeps up and even have a bluetooth HRM that pairs with Watch if I need it.

So I'm bummed too. Huge jump in warranty reserves says it all regarding product quality and the level of returns that Fitbit expects. Maybe they will get it right next time, who knows. Not sure I want to play along with the upgrade train anymore.

---

I decided to keep the Blaze. I've done my research and it is the best in that price range. I eventually got around the sync issue. I figured I'd just use my iPhone to sync. It works much better, and I reckon that's what FitBit had in mind. The app actually looks better on my phone as well, which isn't something I normally say when comparing to my computer. So, all is good so far. 🙂

[Velvet_Elvis]

I love the Blaze. I've also had problems with the bands on the Charge HR. I started out with the Flex, and loved it. I stuck with Fitbit because I've already invested in the scale and all of my stats are now built up on my Fitbit page. I found the Blaze easy to set up. I also found it strange that there was no dongle, but when I sync with my phone, it uploads the info to the website, so all of my data is on the computer shortly afterwards. I believe this was their design plan. So far I love the blaze, and have always been a believer of the "get what you pay for" philosophy. when I like a product I go for the best model I can afford and usually im pleased with the results. In the past with Sirius radio, I had to call and ask for the most expensive equipment because I found that the hardware was junk, but I loved the service. I'm finding the same with Fitbit. The "product" (not hardware) is fantastic, as is the customer service. They've replaced an Aria scale, and 2 Charge HR's for me, very promptly. I'm going to stick with it with the Blaze for now. So far so good. 

[Rich_Laue]

@Velvet_Elvis I think the thought about not having a dongle is because a lot of the features with the Blaze requires a smart phone? And no dongle is needed. Another reason is if you want to sync to a computer most people will have two options, both the Fitbit connect and the win 10 app are now able to use the computers bluetooth, no need for a dongle. Now if your computer doesn't have bluetooth, put the Blaze into its charger, plug said charger into the computers USB port and you can sync through this. 

Yes any sync sends the data to the same server, the the app or website goes to the same server. Neither one displays the data straight from the tracker during a sync.