Apple Airpods connected to Ionic - can't control volume, stuck on low setting

[kylejhaas]

I got this watch so I could listen to music without my phone on me, I've paid for a Deezer subscription, downloaded the music, and began listening but the volume control doesn't work and I can barely hear the music. This defeats the whole purpose of the watch for me. I've done everything the other forums have told me to do - reset, shut on/off, pair/unpair, nothing works. It's a great watch otherwise but this is a major problem that will likely cause me to return the watch if not resolved soon.

Moderator Edit: Updated Subject for Clarity

[SantiR]

@kylejhaas Welcome to the Fitbit family! Thanks for taking the time to post the situation you are experiencing with the Bluetooth headphones you have connected to Ionic and the volume control. Thanks for trying the steps found on other threads and for downloading music from the Deezer app.

I'd recommend trying the following:

• Unpair the Bluetooth headphones from Ionic.
• Restart Ionic.
• Pair the Bluetooth headphones back to Ionic.

Try this out and check if the volume controls works afterwards.

Hope this helps. Keep me posted! 

[kylejhaas]

As I've stated in my original post - I have done this many times and it
hasn't worked.

Moderator Edit: Personal Info Removed

[SunsetRunner]

I believe this is a deliberate function of Apple Airpods, while they will connect to other devices, volume control can only be done when using your apple device to actually play the sound. As i am not an apple user I cannot verify this for myself, but there are numerous posts on these forums that specifically mention this limitation by Apple, but as I said I cannot say if it is true or not, and since I don't like apple anyway I'm not going to go look it up further

[kylejhaas]

I imagined that this would be an issue, but having my airpods connect
perfectly to my Dell computer and Android phone shows that there is
something clearly missing on fitbit's behalf.

Moderator Edit: Personal Info Removed

[SunsetRunner]

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@kylejhaas wrote:
I imagined that this would be an issue, but having my airpods connect
perfectly to my Dell computer and Android phone shows that there is
something clearly missing on fitbit's behalf.

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That's entirely possible, I can only go on the heresay of others that have posted about this issue. It could be simple petty competition rights from apple compatibility for a competitors device over their own or it could be a problem with fitbit itself. All I know is that every bluetooth head set I've tried with my fitbit devices have worked the volume fine (although the music does cut out depending on the location of my arm) but I keep seeing issues only pertaining to the Apple Airpods which makes me wonder just who is actually at fault, if there is a fault.

Good luck anyway I hope you find a solution to your problem, and considering the cost of the Airpods they should work with anything straight out of the box.

Moderator Edit: Personal Info Removed

[SantiR]

@kylejhaas Thanks for your reply and for trying the steps provided.

I went ahead and created a case with customer support in your behalf. Please keep an eye on your email inbox for next steps.

@SunsetRunner I hope you're doing well! Thanks for sharing your input on this thread.

Keep me posted! 

[Wurd14]

I have tried to your recommended steps to make the volume adjustment work with no success. Please advise on how to resolve this problem. Thanks!

[simfitchez]

Eagerly awaiting FitBit’s response as I’m having the same issue. 

[SunsetRunner]

I bought a pair of Fitbit Flyers to go with my Ionic sometime ago and although I thought they were quite expensive they appeared ideal. It wasn't long after I had tried all the ear bud sizes I realized none of them were suitable for my ears and too painful to wear, so much so I had to stop using them.  I then bought a pair of Apple Airpods which are also expensive but found they were more comfortable to wear and had no trouble pairing them with my watch. But, like everyone else on the forum, the volume control does not work with Airpods.  Over the months I  have been checking back to see if anything is being done to solve this problem - the problem is still there.  Nothing is being done about it.  So far the only way I've been able to hear my music is to re-record it at a very high volume which then plays back at a reasonable volume but and it's a BIG but, if any of them tunes are too loud, obviously I'm unable to turn it down. So far Fitbit has cost me a quite a lot of money.  Its a shame because the watch is brilliant.  Is there any hope for us in the pipline?

[Love4traveling]

Any update from Fibit on this? Still waiting as it’s a bit annoying to have your music stuck on one LOW volume ☹️  

[kylejhaas]

Customer Support got back to me and said there was no solution, not sure
what the issue is but having no solution does not look good on
fitbit's behalf.

Moderator edit: personal info removed

[Wurd14]

I received the same response. For those looking to buy the ionic, do not purchase it. Totally misleading advertising by Fitbit on this.

[Wurd14]

I received the same response. For those looking to buy the ionic, do not purchase it. Totally misleading advertising by Fitbit on this.

[Pugs4lyfe]

Any updates on this? It is EXTREMELY disappointing to me that I can’t control my volume with my AirPods. I did take others advice and was able to set it at a higher volume, but some songs are louder than others. 

[SunsetRunner]

I'm not sure if this will help much, but when you first transfer songs to the watch using the PC app you can select a box to normalize the should volume so they should all be around the same volume. This of course may make the current loud songs softer and the softer ones louder which may not be of much help at all.

The only other option aside from using different headphones is to use software to manually increase the volume of each song and save/re-encode the file (I've done this in the past) but you have to do it for each song something that is not really feasible if you have a 1000 song playlist

[kylejhaas]

How did you set it to a louder volume

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Moderator edit: personal info removed

[Pugs4lyfe]

Hi Kyle! Try removing the AirPods from your watch and then shut it down. Then turn your AirPods on to your phone and adjust the volume to your liking. Then I changed the name of the AirPods to basically set the volume to that level. Turn the watch on and repair the headphones to the watch. The volume should be adjusted to what you set it to. Hopefully that helps and I explained it ok.

Sent from my iPhone

[Pugs4lyfe]

Thank you for the suggestions! I just hope they figure this out soon because I find it crazy!

Sent from my iPhone

[ShaiBargil]

Hi! 

Same problem here... How did you managed to turn the volume higher?