Adding bar-codes to the Barcodes app

[EmTe]

This step-by-step guide will tell you how to add bar-codes to the third-party Barcodes app for the Ionic and Versa.

Step 1:

First, manually sync your watch to the phone app. Syncing should clear the communication buffers to accept new data.

Step 2:

Tap on the device icon located in the top left of the Fitbit phone app.

Step 3:

Tap on the Apps icon.

Step 4:

Tap on the Gear icon located on the right side of the Barcodes menu.

Step 5:

Fill out the name of your barcode. You can use the name of the store.

Step 6:

Fill out the barcode number. Leave out spaces and dash marks.

Step 7:

Scroll down and tap on the Save button. Your watch should vibrate immediately to show it has received the data.

Step 8:

Compare the barcode on your watch with the barcode you are copying. The order of the thick and thin bars should be the same. If they don't, tap "Encoding" and choose another option and see if the resulting barcode looks closer.

Troubleshooting:

If you get a "Code too long" error, it means your barcode has too many characters and the app cannot generate a barcode that can fit on the screen. You will need a device with a larger screen (let's hope the next Versa will have a 4.5 inch screen ) to fit the whole barcode in it.

Conceptually when a "Code too long" error occurs, the barcode runs off the edge of the display therefore rendering it useless (unreadable). Conceptually it looks something like this for a 17 digit code:

It is worse for barcodes containing letters, because each letter takes twice the amount of space than numbers. Conceptually it looks like this for a 10 letter code:

 End of Guide

Moderator Edit: Updated Subject for Clarity/Format

[elot]

I had trouble at first to.

But after first rebooten the watch and then rebooting my phone, then changing the color of 1 barcode it started to sync and worked.

So try:

1) reboot watch

2) reboot phone

3) Change color or name of barcode

4) sync via Fitbit app

[MassiP]

Thanks Elot! That did the trick, especially the changing of the color. Even no need to sync afterwards!

[SimonRJ]

Love the app.  But unfortunately one of my membership cards (groceries) - the barcode number is 19 characters.   The app says the number is too long.  

[elot]

See if you can find the developer (on twitter, facebook, developer site of Fitbit, etc) and ask for an feature request for longer barcodes.

If you do, also ask for QR codes, would be nice to show that to 

[Tieu]

I wonder if it is safe to put my card# in since the app is not by fitbit. Not sure if it save to the watch and phone only or it store to the app's cloud. Don' want my card# to leak out and other people use it.

[elot]

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@Tieu wrote:

I wonder if it is safe to put my card# in since the app is not by fitbit. Not sure if it save to the watch and phone only or it store to the app's cloud. Don' want my card# to leak out and other people use it.

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If you open an other app (worldclock for instance) you can see that they need permisisons (Internet).

That is visible just under the line with Settings.

The Barcode app does not need any rights, so it does not need internet (for uploading) or any other thing that can be dangerous.

Which means that it only uses local (watch and phone) storage.

At least, that is how i interprete the lack of rights that it needs.

[Rich_Laue]

@elot that is the way I would look at it. If the phone says the app can not use the Internet, it won't be able too. It also does not ask for permission to run in the background. 

[elot]

Just found out today that my Ikea family card also has problems in this app. Probably also to much numbers.

I could add it, but it was not shown on the watch as barcode (even the name was gone), but checking the app, shows the name and barcodenumber.

Strange.

Just glad that i still had the card in my phone card-app.

[EmTe]

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@SimonRJ wrote:

Love the app.  But unfortunately one of my membership cards (groceries) - the barcode number is 19 characters.   The app says the number is too long.  

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Is the code all numbers with no letter and spaces? If it is all numbers it should be able to hold about 23~26 numbers. If it includes letters or spaces then it is cut by half.

[EmTe]

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@elot wrote:

Just found out today that my Ikea family card also has problems in this app. Probably also to much numbers.

I could add it, but it was not shown on the watch as barcode (even the name was gone), but checking the app, shows the name and barcodenumber.

Strange.

Just glad that i still had the card in my phone card-app.

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The name should always show even if the barcode doesn’t. And if it is long it should say so. Maybe there is a weird character in the name. Can you also post the barcode here (and change it a little to be anonymous) so we can test it?

[EmTe]

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@Tieu wrote:

I wonder if it is safe to put my card# in since the app is not by fitbit. Not sure if it save to the watch and phone only or it store to the app's cloud. Don' want my card# to leak out and other people use it.

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Do you mean credit card #? Most point of sales don’t expect credit card numbers in barcodes.

[Tieu]

No I meant Sam's club membership card.

[EmTe]

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@Tieu wrote:

No I meant Sam's club membership card.

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The app stores the data on the watch and phone only.

[SimonRJ]

No letters,no spaces.  

I've tried the number 3 times.  Watch says code too long.  

The code has 19 numbers.  

[elot]

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EmTe wrote:

The name should always show even if the barcode doesn’t. And if it is long it should say so. Maybe there is a weird character in the name. Can you also post the barcode here (and change it a little to be anonymous) so we can test it?

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Nope, no letters, no spaces, no special characters. Total length is 19 exactly.

But it does NOT show the name, nor the code.

I just now changed the color, just ones again.

Now it does show the name of Ikea, but also the text at the bottom: Code too long.

Length is still 19 chars 

[EmTe]

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@elot wrote:

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I just now changed the color, just ones again.

Now it does show the name of Ikea, but also the text at the bottom: Code too long.

Length is still 19 chars 

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I did some quick calculation and it appears 19 digits does exceed the 348px wide screen taking into account the 10x white buffer requirement on each side of the barcode, but just narrowly exceeds it by 0.2. I don't see why we can't forgo the 0.2 and just show the barcode with 9.9x white buffering.

[oobabydolloo3]

I have tried all of the above and the app still won’t sync the cards to my ionic. Really frustrating!!!

[Rich_Laue]

After 5 days I still can not get any barcodes into the app. 

[gibbyhome]

Same thing happens to me, I uninstalled the app and reinstalled but still keeps saying to create barcodes from app that I all ready did

[Rich_Laue]

That's because the barcodes are not being loaded into the app on the ionic. 

I've been waiting 2 weeks for mine to carry over. The CVS app took longer to punch the numbers in, then it took to load the app on the watch. 8 hours later my CBS card was scanned at CVS