Loading music on Ionic?

[Joallore]

How do I get music on to my Fitbit Ionic? I used Spotify mainly. Do I have options to download a playlist with Spotify or am I out of luck? What other options would I have for music downloading?

Moderator edit: edited title for clarity

[chrisharek]

I appreciate the insight. I have searched for my playlist a number of times from my PC while my watch is connected. I have no idea why I can't find it. Overall I'm very happy with the watch but I really want this feature to work.

Moderator edit: removed personal info

[SunsetRunner]

No problem, persevere though! The audio streaming to bluetooth does work well!

Also there is a feature request to transfer music from phone to Ionic if you would like to give it a vote:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/IONIC-Music-transfer-from-phone/idi-p/2218594

[Freak3150]

I pulled out my old hard drive (that Windows 10 got forced on, and that I replaced when reinstalling Win 7) and put it back in my laptop. Still cant find the tracker. This whole process is assinine. One of the things I really wanted out of this watch was the on board music, so I didn't have to bring my phone or another music player on runs. But this is seriously irritating. 

[ellaH]

Amen to that

[johneric8]

I've waited years to finally get a smartwatch that can download my playlist from spotify,  well,  I'm out of luck,  but I did subscribe to Pandora for meantime.   I have an important question that pertains to how I'm going to use my fitness tracker and I hope you or someone can help.

With pandora premium,  I know you can design your own personal station or playlist by picking the songs you want just like spotify.   Can we download these personal playlist into the ionic?  or,  are we stuck with the stations that are generated by picking a song or artist?    The reason I ask,  I only want to hear my playlist and not something created for me that I gotta thumb up or down.   Thanks so much!

[Owlmom83]

I am trying to transfer some songs to my fitbit ionic and most of them transferred fine, however, a few songs that are in my itunes library just like other songs, it says "can't find file"???????

[norbertszucs90]

20 minutes for a 100 songs? You are lucky! I am trying to upload 26 mp3s (210mb) and it says that it is taking me 3 hours. 

If this is normal, then for 2017 wearable, this is a joke. 

[chrisharek]

I don't care how long it takes me! I just want to be able to do it! I can't even load any music on my new watch at all!

Moderator edit: removed personal info

[riverdry]

Hi everyone- my first post here. It covers getting my personal music onto the Ionic using Windows 7 (not Windows 10!) on my desktop PC.

1. I set up my Fitbit with my Iphone 8; (no trouble at all for Wifi).

2. You need a Fitbit USB dongle for the computer. I have this from my Fitbit Charge.

3. I downloaded the Windows version of he Fitbit Connect Program.

4. Use Fitbit Connect to "Sync Now" to the Fitbit. This is needed for the Windows 7 computer to know my Ionic is there.

5. I tried using Windows ITunes for playlists to load. Didn't work. So I tried Windows Medial Player to create a Playlist from the music on my hardrive (MP3's). This worked, so I abandoned ITunes for this effort.

6. In the Windows Fitbit Connect program, click on "Manage My Music", and then click on the right hand corner gear icon, and choose Advanced Settings. Under the box for music folders, click on the + button, and add the folder where you have your music folder on your hard drive (and where Media Player has a 'Playlist Folder'). This is called 'My Music' on my computer, which I think was the default name Windows gave it. Click OK.

7. On your Ionic, click 'Transfer Music." You should then see the progress in the Connect program. It takes a while to transfer.

All works well, though some of my bluetooth headphones/speakers work and some not so well.

I think I got lucky in figuring this out. There was no way I was going to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10, so I think it is a dis-service for Fitbit to state Windows 10 is required.

I hope this works for others that have the troubles I had.

[michlrp]

Chris, I finally got one thing to work.  I created a Windows Media Player playlist and adding a song.  Then I had to figure out where it was stored.  I searched by the name of the playlist and found that the extension was .wpl.  I then searched Windows Explorer for *.wpl and found that mine was located in This PC/Music/Playlists.  I added that folder and FINALLY I have 1 song on my watch.  I can't get it to work with iTunes so I am going to work off of that WMP playlist.  Now I guess I need the headphones LOL.  Good luck!

[chrisharek]

Thank you so much for this! I will give us a go tomorrow.

Moderator edit: removed personal info

[GreenBobber]

Hey just saying hi to post a bit of hope.
I’ve had loads of MP3 players from way back so I suppose it came a bit easier for me, but it was still not straight forward.
But just so’s you know’s once you get it working it’s a peach.
I load up music easy now by adding to my ‘playlist’
A few heads up:
For some reason Ionic can’t be connected to more than one thing, most of you would have started syncing with your phone... but you can only sync music via a computer!?
So turn off your phone before re syncing with your computer.
Make a folder with your tunes in it, like a 70s mix tape.
Open old school Windows media player, and make a new playlist called maybe ‘Fitbit Sync’ and add the mix tape.
Once on your Fitbit it doesn’t seem to see folders so just make one big folder of tunes.
(MP3’s ... it don’t play flac)
Connect your Fitbit to your computer... on your Fitbit click music/transfer...
On your computer point to the playlist... or something like that.
Anyhoo it does work and the sound is pretty good.

[chrisharek]

I figured it out! My Fitbit was not being found by my computer because it was already connected to my phone. So I think when I undid the Bluetooth connection with my phone my computer found my Fitbit just fine. And the other key is that you are uploading a playlist not necessarily the MP3 files. Best of luck to everyone!

Moderator edit: Removed personal info

[SunsetRunner]

Tried that, says my Bluetooth is connected, phone is in transfer mode, it sees my playlists but no music! Arg!

[GreenBobber]

So on your PC you can see your playlist in the app?

i think Ionic at the moment can only load one playlist, with no folders, so is your playlist made up of individual tunes rather than albums?

And the tunes have to be in mp3 or similar.

if so have you ticked the box next to your playlist?

My Ionic sometimes stops doing things like reading heartbeat... when this happens I press and hold the ‘back’ and ‘down’ button together to reset without losing info. Maybe try this

[GreenBobber]

Hiya... I’ve replied but it may show as the next message 

[chrisharek]

Yes. I created a playlist in Media Player on my PC (running Windows 10, BTW).

I un-bluetoothed (is that a verb?) my phone from my watch - that seemed to allow my PC to Bluetooth to my watch . . .

I could see the playlist and then transfer the playlist (not actually the MP3 files, although that's what the Fitbit app does) to my watch.

Working great now.

Moderator edit: Removed personal info

[Juleff]

Having spent all day trying to make the connection work, having deleted all other Fitbit devices and the Fitbit app from phone etc.  it still doesn’t work.  In Australia this kind of failure comes pretty close to false and misleading conduct.  And worse you have nowhere to go.  May have to be a fair trading issue.

[caesar27]

Thanks for highlighting the feature suggestion vote. Everyone, please jump onboard this suggestion to allow music transfer direct from phone to watch. Really Fitbit...........its 2017!!!

[caesar27]

---

@riverdry wrote:

Hi everyone- my first post here. It covers getting my personal music onto the Ionic using Windows 7 (not Windows 10!) on my desktop PC.

1. I set up my Fitbit with my Iphone 8; (no trouble at all for Wifi).

2. You need a Fitbit USB dongle for the computer. I have this from my Fitbit Charge.

3. I downloaded the Windows version of he Fitbit Connect Program.

4. Use Fitbit Connect to "Sync Now" to the Fitbit. This is needed for the Windows 7 computer to know my Ionic is there.

5. I tried using Windows ITunes for playlists to load. Didn't work. So I tried Windows Medial Player to create a Playlist from the music on my hardrive (MP3's). This worked, so I abandoned ITunes for this effort.

6. In the Windows Fitbit Connect program, click on "Manage My Music", and then click on the right hand corner gear icon, and choose Advanced Settings. Under the box for music folders, click on the + button, and add the folder where you have your music folder on your hard drive (and where Media Player has a 'Playlist Folder'). This is called 'My Music' on my computer, which I think was the default name Windows gave it. Click OK.

7. On your Ionic, click 'Transfer Music." You should then see the progress in the Connect program. It takes a while to transfer.

All works well, though some of my bluetooth headphones/speakers work and some not so well.

I think I got lucky in figuring this out. There was no way I was going to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10, so I think it is a dis-service for Fitbit to state Windows 10 is required.

I hope this works for others that have the troubles I had.

---

Yep. Clunky old Windows 7 Home Premium was the only way I could do it. My desktop PC is running Windows 10, but I don't have a wireless adapter installed because my whole house is smartwired with ethernet to every room (so I didn't see the point when purchasing the PC).

So, it was back to the old wireless laptop with Windows 7 (Yes, I also resisted the forced "upgrade" to Windows 10)(And I didn't need a dongle, cause it has a wireless adapter on the laptop). I downloaded the Fitbit Connect program, synced my watch, created my playlist in Windows Media Player and ensured that Fitbit Connect was looking in the right place for said playlist (this held me up for quite a while - Hint: the actual music and the playlist needs to be in the same parent folder E.g. "My Music" for Fitbit Connect to find it).

Then went to the watch, Transfer music. Then to Fitbit Connect, Manage my Music. Then Viola!! it detected my playlists and allowed me to select the one I want to transfer. Took a while to compute the Estimated sync/transfer time, but it got there and started transferring......slowly. 18 mins for 30 songs (2 hrs, 7 mins worth of music).

Next test will be the whole 295 song playlist that I really wanted on there.

Hope this helps someone else. Thanks Riverdry