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?"

[NavyDP1]

I have awesome news (at least in my case).  As indicated below MY ionic was behaving like it ran out of storage space, even though the bar indicator clearly indicated I was nowhere near the end.

Well, as promised, I removed the device from my Fitbit account and completely factory reset it and went through the setup process again.  After that completedd, I started transferring music via the Win10 app and as of this writing I have now successfully transferred 5 playlists and am working on the 6th.

I believe I have resolved my issue, but your situation may be different than mine.  I do think Fitbit needs to look into why the music storage didn't fully clear after I instructed it to via the phone app "Remove all Personal Music" link.

---

@NavyDP1wrote:

Here's the thing I am noticing now since I updated the Win10 app to the latest version.....

If I completely remove all music playlists using the Android app from the Ionic, then go in to the Win10 app to readd my two workout playlists (that total about 2 hours of music), it transfers FINE.  Pretty fast too.  It's when I try to add a third playlist where I have difficulty.  Some of the songs in the playlist download fine, but then it hits a wall and won't successfully transfer any further.  I have tried various other playlists and the same thing happens, it just happens on a different song number given the size/length differences.

This almost leads me to believe the music storage is actually out of space and is preventing further music to be transferred, even though the bar at the top says I'm nowhere NEAR full space usage.  It's almost like there are "phantom" files on the Ionic music storage that are preventing further transfer.

I have not tried a full reset on the watch yet, maybe that is my next step to see if it completely wipes the Ionic music storage so I will do that this weekend and report back here with my success or failure.

---

[Misterbit]

I have a similar issue. The storage shows about 75% full, but will not
allow me to add a new playlist. When I delete some music I am still not
able add more in place of the deleted music. I have about 230 songs on
there, so it could be full, but the App does not accurately tell you so. At
this point I am happy to leave "well enough" alone.



*"life is good"*

[Jaz.Virtue]

Download deezer i just done this last Friday it costs $11.99 per month for subscription but you can download all the songs that you want its so simple. I've ot heaps of songs on my ionic now. Hope that helps.  Go to www.fitbit.com/deezer

[Jaz.Virtue]

Download deezer i just done this last Friday it costs $11.99 per month for subscription but you can download all the songs that you want its so simple. I've ot heaps of songs on my ionic now. Hope that helps.  Go to www.fitbit.com/deezer

[haroldalv]

You can get 3 free months but you can't download right now seems like a server issue 48 hours down and no news from fitbit.

[Manda103]

I don't understand why everything regarding fitbit transfers, connections, etc. is so complicated. I've been sitting here for the last 2 hours trying to 1) connect my fitbit to my mac so I can 2) transfer music to my ionic.  NOTHING WORKS. I'm so beyond frustrated and I'm starting to wonder if all of this is worth it.

I cannot transfer music. I've followed all of these steps.  WHY IS THIS SO DIFFICULT?!

[steven.pino]

Could not agree more-
I’ve worked on this for over a month and hear nothing from FB!
I’m sending my unit back

[Misterbit]

It sounds like your are not even connecting at all, so the easy things are
to make sure your are on a 2.4 connection (not 4G) AND that all Bluetooth
devices are turned off in the area. Most people do not even know what BT
devices they have nearby, but please check this. This Ionic is like a child
with ADHD, it gets confused by anything nearby and won't concentrate on the
transfer. Also make sure the Ionic has a full battery or is at least on
the charger and at least 2/3 full. These are usually (but not always) the
transfer issues. If it doesn't connect after waiting 5 minutes or so, close
the app and start over, but there is usually no need to re-set the watch.


*"life is good"*

[lsbowman98]

I have some songs on my macbook pro that are not on itunes and for some reason I can't get them to show up as an option why can't I just download certain songs that I want?

[gcoupe]

I think the issue was that BT was still turned on on my phone. Since the BT connection is necessary for the Ionic to communicate with the Fitbit app on the phone, it seems problematic that I have to turn it off when I need to transfer music, and then have to re-enable it once music is transferred (using wifi to communicate with the Fitbit app running on a Windows 10 computer, not the phone).

One other observation, if I add a track to an existing playlist, then the entire playlist has to be resent to the Ionic. The app isn't clever enough to just transfer the new track across. Since I'm using playlists to handle podcasts, each of which is 45 minutes long, adding a new episode means that several hours worth of audio has to be re-transferred. This gets tedious very quickly.

[Daljit]

This is by far the worst experience I've also had on any gadget to sync a few songs. Have been trying to put 2 playlists of 25 song each and NOTHING WORKS!!!!!!! Definitely a thumbs down as far as music goes which was one of the main reasons for purchasing the ionic in the first place - so I wouldn't have to run with my phone / ipod in my hands!!!! Feel your pain!

[Misterbit]

Yes, I feel your pain too. Please read Carlos' post for all the steps and
follow them to the tee. It's all you can do. If you look at FITBIT'S stock
price it has been on a downward trend for the past 2 years. There is little
doubt they released the product too soon.

That having been said, when you get the ionic working it is really
astounding. I like the slim profile, long battery life and many other
things about it much better than the Apple Watch features, and the screens
are very readable. Oh well, keep trying.


*"life is good"*

[Steve69]

Misterbit,

If you dont mind me asking. How long have you had the Ionic working without any problems.

I returned mine but I feel the same as you. And am holding off buying the apple. Don really care about price. Need something I enjoy and makes live better. 

The constant frustration of the Ionic not being fully developed. Was not worth it. I need less stress not more.

The only think the Ionic did for me is make me realize really do want a simple smartwatch.  Was more of a impulse buy on sale. But Ionic was even more comfortable than my regular watch.

Just wish the stock would hurry and drop so much that another companie buys them out and finishes development so it is as dependable as any other products. 

[PeteG-1]

---

@Steve69 wrote:

Misterbit,

If you dont mind me asking. How long have you had the Ionic working without any problems.

I returned mine but I feel the same as you. And am holding off buying the apple. Don really care about price. Need something I enjoy and makes live better. 

The constant frustration of the Ionic not being fully developed. Was not worth it. I need less stress not more.

The only think the Ionic did for me is make me realize really do want a simple smartwatch.  Was more of a impulse buy on sale. But Ionic was even more comfortable than my regular watch.

Just wish the stock would hurry and drop so much that another companie buys them out and finishes development so it is as dependable as any other products. 

---

Yep, this is pretty similar to me, made me realize I wanted a smartwatch too, even though (as a serious tech-geek, having worked on s/w for h/w for a good many years) I had been a long, long holdout (compared to many co-workers and some friends).

I don't know about buyout, but I think they need to figure out why their QA is so lacking, particularly in the Ionic (my Charge HRM is still going strong, although the Charge2, which I "fell back to" recently died, the battery started lasting for 5-30 minutes max, after 9 months of use).

I think they're WAY to date-driven, and need to think about releasing a really "high quality" watch this time.  This was what they got noted for, in recent reviews, almost all of them, the Charge2 comes out "best overall", mostly because it "just works", even if it's not full of extras.

If I were the PM running the show, we'd be turning off those modules (cough, cough, music) and testing across a WIDE range of Bluetooth client chipsets, with high compliance, before release.  You can always say you're targeting "2nd quarter whenever" for finishing a feature, or part of one, but if you release "junk", almost every user is going to lose faith in the feature/brand, which is a tough spot to dig yourself out from (there's TONS of data to support this model).

I think the market is "hungry" for a mid-level activity watch, like the Ionic, with basic stuff like water-resistance, good battery life and connectivity, with a configurable GPS.  FitBit "almost" has this, in the Ionic, and is hopefully working on an Ionic 2, with a better Bluetooth chipset, and a full rewrite of the music (there are SO many good libraries out there for this, cheap per-unit, I still don't understand why they did the "roll your own" deal here, or at least mostly)...

I loved the features on my Ionic, but the lack of dependability made it essentially "useless", evaluated over a months' time, IMHO.  Having to re-connect your BT devices, sometimes several times/day, is nuts, in 2017-18...

[Steve69]

I think you are right on the money with everything you said. 

But the new generation wants everything quick.  Company not smart enough to know it will hurt them. 

To answer your question. I do remember I got it to work properly for a good 8 hours. But 6 hours of that I was sleeping.

I caught on and started a little research after the tech support guy admitted to me it really was not made to work on windows 10. And of course would not answer why they advertise it to work.

Younger gen I think you can get by with a lot of things if you have good marketing. Same as with the news. Truth no longer matters.

[Misterbit]

Ha ha, that is pretty funny. If I were you I would try another one and try all the steps in Carlos' post. The new updates may have addressed some of the bugs you had.

It's a great smart watch with practical features and is working fine for me now, although it slowed significantly with the update (from about a month ago).

I'm. not sure if what effect the latest update will have.

"Life is good" ⚽️

[Leppy]

So after about an hour of playing with my watch, I finally got over an hour of music on my watch.  My case might be different as FB is sending me a new watch for a GPS issue which might come into play with music, but it was a pain when I first opened it; but I want to go for a run tomorrow.  With that being said, I deleted everything associated with FB on my W-10 machine and tried Carlos' "supposed to be amazing link" on the first page.  That didn't even open my computer (brand new HP, pretty loaded).  I resorted to using the Window's app and it finally worked, turning off all satellites that I don't need on, on everything around me and it worked. It shouldn't be this hard!

What pisses me off is that no one is stepping up from FB and saying there is an issue.  Why on Earth these days do we have to transfer music by BT.  I have an old black and white ipod (right after the click wheel) and the drag and drop still works and that thing is ancient old.  This is why FB is not doing well as a company, they don't listen or care about existing customers.  To me, they are right behind Comcast as far as customer support for existing customers....and that's saying something because Comcast is AWFUL. But there is nothing they can do for us now, they have our money and they are good.  They can't change how music transfers, it has to be wireless due to the USB can only charge the watch.  So FB is happy not caring or doing anything about our concerns.  If my new watch doesn't meet my expectations of what FB said it would, I will be expecting a full refund. 

[Misterbit]

I have had my Ionic for 4 months. 3 months without any problems. My only
complaint now is that it is a bit slow since downloading the update.

*"life is good"*

[Misterbit]

Yes, that is unfortunate. There are however a lot of people that have got
it to work on Windows 10. Don't give up. Read Carlos' post on all the steps
and take them.

*"life is good"*

[Misterbit]

Congratulations, now that you have some music on there, remember to adjust
the volume before your workout. Once the workout starts it is impossible to
control the music, or even to pause it. I have to agree the FB folks are
asleep at the wheel. Every day I watch the stock go down little by little.


*"life is good"*