No good reason why you can't sync music from your phone

[Battousai]

As the device is capable of receiving updates via Bluetooth, and is capable of syncing to the phone via wifi, there is no good reason why we cannot manually transfer music on the fly. Using the desktop app is a waste of time, and, mark my words fitbit, needs to stop. If in today's 'an app for everything' world, something this simple shouldn't be an issue. After working so much with pebble and Microsoft, theres no good reason why you can't load a basic media player into the app and watch, and use that to interface. 

Main purpose of silly complaining: Is on the fly mobile music transfer on the way.? And I mean actually on the way, not Duke Nukem Forever on the way.

Edit: Old but relevant conversation- https://www.reddit.com/r/fitbit/comments/74ufwk/adding_music_to_ionic_is_such_a_bad_experience/

[danseb]

Actually there’s a really good reason, the files themselves. The problem is not the transfer, as you said, it can be done via bluetooth, which by the way would be really slow but that’s another topic, the problem is the files with a combination of sandboxing and digital rights.

The music files on an iPhone can only be accessed by the iOS Music app, some apps can control or read the music details but they cannot copy these files, so fitbit wouldn’t be able to copy these files using the mobile app. The Apple Watch is different obviously because it is made by Apple so they have all access but not any other developer.

The situation isn’t much better in Android, whilst it is technically possible to have regular files in Android that any app can share you have to wonder where did these music files got into the phone? if you’re thinking Spotify, Google Music or Amazon Music then it is the same case than with Apple, only the official app can access them, no other app can make copies of these music files. If you’re talking about your own music that you put in your Android phone, then sure, it can be done but then again, how did you put these files in your phone in the first place? most likely from a Desktop/Laptop computer.

The experience might be bad but there really isn’t much fitbit can do other than improve the desktop app used to copy the files which would still behave like any other old school mp3 player or iPod, or develop their own music cloud solution which is a far strech. For a mobile only experience you need music providers onboard, like they got Pandora, maybe they can get Spotify but that is a business problem, not a technical one.

[Battousai]

What I'm referring to is a method to transfer files that aren't inside another format. Think wild mp3s and so forth. Yeah, Bluetooth updating is pretty garbage. And no, actually, I just download music straight to my phone. I do use Spotify, and would be glad to have a deal made, much like you said. But you should be able to drag/select and port files over from open structure, like your download folder.

[Giampi71]

I think both of you got your points here. In the end I think the last proposal by @Battousai would be really a great compromise: just drag and drop your mp3 files from your PC to your Ionic. This would open the possibility to do also with Linux operative system.

[Battousai]

I feel as though Im being unclear. I know we can already drag and drop on PC. What Im saying is that the mobile app should be able to do the same with non-DRM sound files.

[SantiR · Accepted solution]

@Battousai @danseb Welcome to the Fitbit Community! Thanks for sharing your feedback and ideas about music transfer for Ionic.

I was making some research on the Feature Suggestions Board and was able to find a couple of interesting ideas about music transfer:

• Ionic Music Transfer from Phone (Under Consideration)
• Ionic Music Transfer Through Cable
• Ionic Music Transfer - Copy & Paste

Please feel free to vote for these ideas. The more votes, the better. If those ideas doesn't really reflect what you would like to have, please post a new original idea. 

@Giampi71 Thanks for your participation on this thread! 

Hope this helps. See you around! 

[Battousai]

Aaand iTunes is dead in the water. Par for the course I guess. They never did update the desktop app properly. 

[SantiR]

@Battousai Thanks for your reply! Could you clarify your post?

What happens with the desktop app? What happened with iTunes?

Did you voted for the suggestion on the post above? Please vote for the ideas as it is possible that we will have a new way to transfer music in the nearest future. 

Also, Deezer was recently added to Fitbit. You could try using that app and check if the music transfer is better with it. 

Please let me know how it goes! 

[Battousai]

yes I voted for mobile transfer and one of the other two. I was criticizing the iTunes desktop application, which has always been really annoying to use. I never mess with drm protected files. Hopefully mobile transfer goes through, and Spotify and fitbit kiss and make friends.