Transferring Personal Music to Ionic

[ErickFitbit]

Update 10/6/17 -- Thanks for sharing your experiences with attempting to transfer your playlists onto Ionic. After reading through the discussions in this thread, I noticed some users where successful and others not so much.

Users are running into various blockers that are preventing a successful transfer. I've compiled the complications into the following categories:

• Stuck on "Looking for Ionic" message on Fitbit connect even though Ionic/Fitbit App/Computer on same Network) 

Cannot connect unless a force manual IP address for Ionic is done(entering IP address manually)

• Frozen at "Determining Transfer Time" (check out @xTommyG's workaround here)
• Stuck on "Transfer in progress" (try restarting your Ionic and then reestablish Wi-Fi connection on Ionic)
• Ionic won't connect to Wi-Fi (see Why won't my Fitbit watch connect to Wi-Fi? for tips)

I've created a guide to help anyone that's having issues with this. So, without further ado, let's start transferring some music!  

Requirements

• Windows 10 (PC) or Mac computer 
• Wi-Fi capable computer: Must be able to connect to the Internet via Wi-Fi (direct ethernet connections will not work)
• Must connect to a 2.4GHz frequency network (5 GHz frequency is not supported)
• Fitbit Connect Software (Win10/Mac) must be installed
• Ionic battery life must be above 40% to transfer music (Keeping Ionic charging during this process is recommended)
• Create at least 1 playlist of songs or podcasts in iTunes or Windows Media Player to download to your watch. You can also create playlists in the Fitbit Music app using the drag-and-drop feature to add individual tracks. 
• To download music files, they must fall under one of the following audio file types: 
  • Windows 10
    • MP3 files
    • MP4 files with AAC audio
    • WMA files
  • Mac
    • MP3 files
    • AIFF
    • MP4 files with AAC audio

• If you use iTunes, make sure you approve the app to share playlists with your watch: Open iTunes on your computer > Edit > Preferences > Advanced > Share iTunes Library XML with other applications > OK.

 

• For best results, perform this process as close to your router as possible to reduce any interference 

Transfer Music Checklist

1. Restart computer
2. Make sure your computer is connected to a strong Wi-Fi network (note: personal or work network that requires a password to connect is recommended - 2.4 GHz) 
3. Restart phone
4. Restart Ionic
5. In the Fitbit app go to Account/Media/Manage Wi-fi Networks and remove all saved networks
6. Connect back to your Wi-Fi network 
7. Plug-in your watch to charge
8. On your Ionic, tap Music app and then Transfer Music: 
9. Ionic will show this screen when connection is established: 
10. Open Fitbit Connect and click on Manage My Music 
11. When prompted, follow the on-screen instructions on your Mac/PC to choose the playlists you want to download to your watch. After you choose a playlist, the download starts automatically. Download/transfer times vary based on how large your playlist is (was able to download 1 hours worth of music in about 6-8 minutes).

Note: For faster download times, you might want to avoid large playlists. The more songs you transfer under one playlist the longer download times you will experience. Should you run into an issue please let us know where in the process you get stuck.

Thanks everyone for your continued insight and feedback in this thread. I hope all of you Ionic users get transferred, drop your phones on your dressers and start working out to the music you most enjoy, phone free!

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Update 9/28/17 -- The latest version of Fitbit Connect for Mac is now live! The update can now be found on the setup page. Please update if you haven't already so you can start transferring your favorite tunes to your Ionic!

• Download Fitbit Connect for Mac: www.fitbit.com/setup

• Download Fitbit Connect for PC: http://cache.fitbit.com/FitbitConnect/FitbitConnect-v2.0.2.6954-2017-09-28.exe 

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Everyone -- To transfer music with Fitbit Connect, please click the applicable link below to download and install the Fitbit Connect software:

• Download Fitbit Connect for Mac: www.fitbit.com/setup

• Download Fitbit Connect for PC: http://cache.fitbit.com/FitbitConnect/FitbitConnect-v2.0.2.6954-2017-09-28.exe

With the Music app on Fitbit Ionic, you can store and play several hours worth of your favorite songs and podcasts right on your wrist. After you download playlists to your watch, connect Bluetooth headphones or another audio device to listen to your tracks.

You need a Windows 10 PC or a Mac connected to Wi-Fi to download music and podcasts to your watch. Keep in mind you can only transfer files that you own or don’t require a license. 

If you live in the United States, you can also use the Pandora app to download stations to your watch. 

For full instructions, I recommend checking out "How do I listen to music and podcasts on my Fitbit watch?"

[Susan-L]

I give up.  Spent at least four hours trying to load music on my ionic.  All that money and I can’t easily load it.  Boohoo

[Osmar]

I have had partial success putting my music in the ionic.

The fitbit connect app ramdomly rejects some of my songs for no reason.

Sometimes it says they can't find the file (but the file is there). Sometimes it says that the format is not supported (but the mp3 is in the same format than the other recagnized files).

And the partially recognizable songs, takes hours to sync.

I put my computer, my phone, the ionic (charging plugged in computer) side by side to my router.

The process took 4 hours to transfer 46 songs.

That is ridiculous!

That is absurd!

It took about 6 minutes for each song. Each song has about 5mb and 3/4 minutes duration.

The brilliant process fitbit invented takes 6 minutes to sync a 3 minute song.

Instead of giving poor excuses and 14 step instructions Fitbit should fix this.

Moderator edit: format 

[AnnieMarcon]

Thank you for this clear concise solution. Very helpful. Finally ran through all theses steps and then realised all my tunes were DRM encrypted. Argh. Now what? Is there an easy conversion tool. 

Thought this would be an easy process, I’ve wasted virtually a whole day so far on this. 

[Susan-L]

I get to the transfer music and then connecting and nothing. Tired of trying.

Get Outlook for iOS

[SunsetRunner]

Try downloading Audacity. Free version should be able to take care of this but I’m not certain. 

Assuming that works, I would  then consider importing your “new” files into media player (assuming you are using iTunes) so you can keep your music separated (and avoid dupes in iTunes)

[SunsetRunner]

I completely understand the frustration here. 

It is too slow but your own wireless network can be contributing to the performance. 

A few other thoughts:

i also got an incompatible format message for a song or two. Not all MP3’s are created equal there’s a big variety in how the files can be formatted.

As as much as I hated the whole process I encourage everyone to use some patience

[PeteG-1]

---

@AnnieMarcon wrote:

Thank you for this clear concise solution. Very helpful. Finally ran through all theses steps and then realised all my tunes were DRM encrypted. Argh. Now what? Is there an easy conversion tool. 

Thought this would be an easy process, I’ve wasted virtually a whole day so far on this. 

---

@AnnieMarcon You have to be cautious, when it comes to removing DRM.

There are ways and tools, that do it legally, and there are those that violate copyright.

Read some reviews, etc.

It'd be nice if the FB music module at least identified these tracks (currently, it just "ignores" them, leaving users wondering why some tracks just didn't transfer), and even better still, if they led you through the process of how to get them onto your Ionic.

As to to the person who talked "WiFi" speeds, this is NOT the bottleneck, by any stretch.  I can push 800-1000mbps, consistently, to my server, through my WiFi setup, and it still takes a couple of hours for the music module to "catalog" my music and what's on the Ionic, EACH time I start it again, say to add a track or two.

I gave up, completely, and went back to my phone (for audio) and my Charge2 (because it "just works", I can sync it pretty much anywhere).

[crustypup]

In the event the WiFi were operating around the same speeds as a 56kbps modem... sure. Then it would have an impact. That was never the case.

Instead of providing direct access to the storage on the Ionic, some bright-spark opted for the most convoluted and flaky transfer method I have seen yet. 

Also given up trying to use the Ionic for music because life is far too short to deal with the impressively poor engineering behind this. 

[elpololoco]

Mine's working OK but it's just the sync speed that is atrocious (currently 1 hour into 14 hours of syncing podcasts).  The Ionic product manager at the head office should be looking the software developers straight in the eye and telling them that modem transfer speeds in the 90's were faster than an Ionic syncing music.

Seriously, if I worked at Fitbit I would be embarrassed.  I would say that this should be your number one bug fix priority instead of lots of extra clock faces etc.

[derekryan]

I totally agree elpololoco.

FitBit and other manufactures are going down the same route as Microsoft. Get new products to market ASAP, doesn't matter if it doesn't work, just pile on extras to keep the customers happy!!

We do not want anymore clock faces etcetera until this device works properly in all areas. 

Moderator edit: Updated subject for clarity 

[PeteG-1]

---

@derekryan wrote:

I totally agree elpololoco.

FitBit and other manufactures are going down the same route as Microsoft. Get new products to market ASAP, doesn't matter if it doesn't work, just pile on extras to keep the customers happy!!

WE DO NOT WANT ANYMORECLOCK FACES ETCETERA UNTIL THIS DEVICE WORKS PROPERLY IN ALL AREAS.

---

@derekryan , @elpololocoYeah, I don't think it's really an issue of "new features" in this particular case.

There are literally hundreds (if not thousands) of well-proven music managers and libraries, all well-tested, known to index/transfer without issue, etc.

FitBit appears to have "wanted" to write their own, for whatever reason (VP pet-project, etc), I've seen it a lot, working in s/w for a long time.  It rarely ends well, IME, these usually fail, some gracefully, some not so much.

I guess FB could really pour resources into developing/fixing their own music library manager, but I'm not sure to what end, exactly, they'd also end up maintaining it, adding features (if they ever get it stable), all the testing per-release, etc.  Maybe it's spiffy/new, in some cool way, but there's no way, currently, to really discover it, because you (almost literally) can't actually transfer any real content (I also tried to transfer a few "Casts", before I realized the hopelessness of the endeavor).

I wish one of the FB people who keeps commenting would talk a bit more, about the elephant in the room, why is the index/transfer process slower than using a floppy-disk, hmm...? ;-]

That's something I thought I'd never say in a forum, past around the year 2000 or so.

[SilviaFitbit]

Hey everyone! Your comments and feedback about transferring music is truly appreciated, Fitbit is always trying to improve the features that are implemented in the trackers. The Community and Customer Support is always here to help you transferring music in case you're having any trouble, our priority is that you can be able to use each characteristic and enjoy as some of them have been posted in our Feature Suggestion board. 

In regards to the users that are still having trouble downloading music, please confirm you've done this troubleshoot to fix it How do I listen to music and podcasts on my Fitbit watch? and follow the steps provided here to properly listen and download music on your watch.

In case, you're having any specific error message, please provide me with a screenshot of it. 

Just remember that you will be able to download music that you own just as mentioned before songs that have been downloaded from streaming services such as Spotify or Apple Music may not transfer due to copyright protections (known as DRM encryption).

Addittionally, if you would like to unsuscribe from any thread, check this post How to unsubscribe from a community topic?. 

Hope this helps! 

[seemebreakthis]

Hello Silvia,

One single biggest issue is that whenever the filename or file path to the music file to be transferred contains any non-English characters (the most prominent case in point -> in iTunes if you own Ed Sheeran's 'Perfect', it is stored inside the "÷ (Deluxe)" folder as iTunes assigns album names to the folder.  And the "÷" prevents this song from getting successfully transferred to the ionic.

My workaround is usually to duplicate the song first to another folder, removing any non-English characters from the filename / file path in the process, before transferring to my watch.  It works, but it is super tedious.

This is a bug.  Please verify and have your team fix it at the very least, even if there is no plan to do an overhaul of the entire transfer process.

Thank you.

[AnnieMarcon]

So, this is what I’ve found after a week of trying to sort my music onto Ionic. Firstly, they have knowledge of this issue and will be looking into a resolution. My solution that actually worked involved trying to source some free software to convert all music to MP3. After not being able to use these easily I resorted to purchasing Tuneskit app for my laptop which set me back $49 AUD. After some initial stuff ups I managed to create a playlist which was easily picked up by Tuneskit and eventually converted, its fairly easy once you know the process. Once converted, files are automatically saved to a file on your computer in documents not Music file. Then once you go into Fitbit app dashboard on your computer, you select the music icon and sync with your Ionic, it will automatically open iTunes playlists, don’t select them. Choose add files and then find the converted music in documents. Highlight all and they will all get transferred across, then its just a matter of waiting till they download, took about half hour for 78 songs. Try and do it all at once as the songs i had previously put on were actually removed before this new file was accepted. Don’t understand why but seriously this has been one long hard process.
I do suggest you all contact Ionic to let them know your concerns for a faster resolution.

[stu1340]

Ok so I'm not getting any of this, I have the fit bit app on my android phone and I have the fitbit dashboard on my lap top. I don't see any sign of "manage music" anywhere. 

I clicked on the Fitbit connect must be installed and that just tells me its going to install the app I already have. What am I missing?

[AnnieMarcon]

I discovered this issue as well. What comes up automatically on laptop is not the actual app they are referring to. You need to download it to your computer and yes it is slightly different.
It will have on the top right hand corner a bar with music :musical_note: symbol. Then there is even more hoops and hurdles to jump through but it can be done.
I have about 78 songs now on my ionic and it is so much easier.

Anne Marcon

[Raoul69]

only showing one playlist and will only transfer 2 songs out of that, not showing any of the other playlists at all

[Raoul69]

no it wont, it cant find the playlists doesn't matter how many times I have tried, it has found 1 playlist and will only transfer 2 songs out of that

[Raoul69]

completely agree, this is embarrassing, you really need to sort this out, a horribly designed piece of software

[SunsetRunner]

Give it time - lots of time - more time than you think could ever be
necessary - then the other playlists will slowly start to populate.

This was my experience