Ionic is always visible to other devices?

[charlesisgreat]

How do I stop Ionic from being visible to all Bluetooth devices? I don't want random people pairing to my tracker.

[WavyDavey]

Hi @charlesisgreat,

You can't turn off Bluetooth on the watch. However, there's no need, as nobody could pair with it unless they had physical access to the watch and it's pairing code.

[charlesisgreat]

This is an old post but I connected to my Ionic with a laptop that doesn't have any Fitbit software installed. It didn't ask for a PIN, and the watch said nothing on it.

[charlesisgreat]

Anyways my question remains then: How do I keep my Ionic from being visible to non-paired devices? 

[WavyDavey]

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@charlesisgreat wrote:

Anyways my question remains then: How do I keep my Ionic from being visible to non-paired devices? 

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No way that I know of. My computers and phones without the app can see all the Fitbits, but without the app/Pin connection, they can't really communicate.

It seems like you're wanting only the device with the fitbit app to see the trackers?

[charlesisgreat]

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@WavyDavey wrote:

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@charlesisgreat wrote:

Anyways my question remains then: How do I keep my Ionic from being visible to non-paired devices? 

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No way that I know of. My computers and phones without the app can see all the Fitbits, but without the app/Pin connection, they can't really communicate.

It seems like you're wanting only the device with the fitbit app to see the trackers?

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I just figure you could put it in pairing mode like any other Bluetooth device.

[PureEvil]

Actually, the answer to this is really subtle.

Fitbits work in a Bluetooth mode called 'promiscuous'.  This means that they can communicate with any other Bluetooth device that would care to communicate with them.

This is the reason why if you had a Fitbit dongle, you can sync any nearby Fitbit.  In fact, there's that very option on the Windows 10 Fitbit App:

It doesn't mean that you can see any of that data (yours or anyone else's).  The Fitbit app will simply take the (encrypted) stats and send them directly to the Fitbit servers.

However, this doesn't mean that any device can get your stats from your Fitbit (as mentioned before, it's encrypted).  Fitbits don't have pairing mode the way traditional Bluetooth devices have and though visible, if you were to try to pair your Fitbit to any arbitrary device, it'll likely refuse the pairing.

If you do have a Fitbit paired with a device without any Fitbit software installed, you probably had Fitbit software installed at one point.  The Fitbit app doesn't delete the pairing upon uninstalling (or for that matter, removal of the tracker from your account).

When you pair your Fitbit to your account, the Fitbit App negotiates the pairing through your Bluetooth settings.  This is also the reason why when you upgrade phones, all you need to do is log in to your Fitbit account (and Fitbit will re-establish the Bluetooth pairing on your behalf).

So in summary, Fitbit devices communicate through the Bluetooth radio but don't follow many of the conventional rules of Bluetooth devices.