Music control not working on Fitbit Ionic

[JimBiker73]

Music control only working sometimes? Most of the time I get the screen that says to start playing music on your phone. Even though it's already started.

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[MarreFitbit]

Hey there @JimBiker73, it's nice to see you around the forums!  If you previously listened to music stored on your watch, you must manually change the source from the watch to your phone. Then try again to control music playing on your phone:

1. On your watch, press and hold the back button and swipe the Music Controls screen.
2. Tap the 3 dots icon (...).
3. Tap the phone icon to change the source.
4. Press the back button to return to the track listing. On this screen, you can play or pause the track or skip to the next track depending on the app. 

If you see "Music unselected" on your watch's screen, first make sure that music or audio is playing on the phone paired to your watch. It's possible that the app you're using to play music or audio doesn't support the AVRCP Bluetooth profile, which is required to control music using Ionic or Versa. Apps that are compatible with this feature include:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Music
• LG Music app
• Rdio
• Spotify
• Pandora
• Play Music
• Samsung music app

Next, if your watch is paired to an Android or Windows phone, turn on Bluetooth Classic on the watch to control music on your phone: 

1. Open the Settings app on your watch > Bluetooth > Pair. 
2. On your phone, navigate to the Bluetooth settings where paired devices are listed. Your phone will scan for available devices.
3. When you see "Classic” next to your Fitbit device, tap it.

Also, for more information about connecting Bluetooth audio devices to your watch, see How do I connect Bluetooth audio devices to my Fitbit watch?.

Give this a go and let me know the outcome! 

[JimBiker73]

Thanks. I've done all things listed. It works on and off. I like to use this while driving to keep my hands off my phone. And I'm using Pandora

[Monkeysmu]

Ive had mine for a week and it had been off and on , mostly off. I follow those steps exactly and hardly get a good result. I have to unpair, repair, turn off my phone and restart my watch. Multiple times of each until it will Judy randomly start working if im lucky.  I even had them (Fitbit) walk me through over the pine and they couldn't understand why it wasn't working.  I want to love this watch but may end up going with Garmin....

[Monkeysmu]

I should have spell checked before i posted.....

[TacoBellionaire]

I am able to connect to Fitbit classic without a problem, but when I select the phone after tapping the three dots, all it says is that "audio output is controlled by phone".

Very disappointed

[Monkeysmu]

Same exact thing here. Id feel better About it if Fitbit at least recognized the issue. When i called them they seemed like they never heard of anybody having issues with music control.  

[Sm1986]

I have a pixel 2 and ionic, have followed these steps endless times and can only get music control to work temporarily maybe 1 out of 40 attempts. I am connected to classic and receive notifications just fine from email and phone but music control (Spotify) never works. For example, I got it working yesterday, put the phone down for 10 minutes, came back and could not get the music control back at all. I have restarted, run updates, followed all troubleshooting. Clearly this is a bigger issue than just one off as I am not having issues with any other pairing functionality. 

[Sm1986]

I have a pixel 2 and ionic, have followed these steps endless times and can only get music control to work temporarily maybe 1 out of 40 attempts. I am connected to classic and receive notifications just fine from email and phone but music control (Spotify) never works. For example, I got it working yesterday, put the phone down for 10 minutes, came back and could not get the music control back at all. I have restarted, run updates, followed all troubleshooting. Clearly this is a bigger issue than just one off as I am not having issues with any other pairing functionality. 

[Lukash]

Bumping the thread as I am still having issues with music control (it simply does NOT work). I have done everything multiple times: restarting, unpairing, resetting device. Still the same - when I play music/podcasts on my phone (e.g. Spotify or Podcast Addict) the "Music Controls" section on Ionic says "Start playing music on your phone" and does not display song title, artists, etc. I cannot pause/play/skip song/podcast. The only thing I can control form this screen is volume up or down.

In the past (few months ago) it sometimes worked (for 1-2 songs). Now (after multiple app and firmware upgrades) - it never does.

Please let me know, what to do to actually make it work. The good old Pebble Classic never had NO ISSUES and allowed me to control the music anytime.

PS I use HTC U11 with Android 8.0, have the latest Fitbit app and Ionic firmware installed.

[MaddogWLV]

I too am struggling with this, just got the Ionic

Long time fitbitter

Have Samsung 9+ Everything working good except music contol and notification on Ionic, the app syncs fine and Bluetooth says connected.

Please help

[JdrWalkee]

For anyone still having problems with this... I know I do. It always happens when I have another Bluetooth device connected. I have to disconnect all other Bluetooth devices, specifically my earbuds, and close my music app. Then follow the steps to connect the Fitbit. Open music app and it should work... THEN connect earbuds and other bluetooth devices. 

Good luck!

[candum]

This is what did it for me. I turned off my trekz air and then the music control worked just fine. Thanks man, I can at least control my music while yard lined to my lg v50 now.

Side tangent/rant time...

This is pathetic and just bloody stupid that we have to go through these hoops when the app is ALWAYS on in the background with location services set to a mandatory on setting to get it to even sync, and they can't fix stupid **ahem** like this? So that we never have to jump through dumb hoops like this?

And I don't want to hear, "just pair your by device to the watch." The watch doesn't support LDAC or even something remotely as good as that. So I have zero interest in pairing my bt audio devices to this, besides I much rather hard line to my lg v50 for a superior audio experience.

The hell is the point of all this interconnectivity if it's all going to be dumb as dog **ahem**e in the end?