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?"

[Rauser]

---

@SunsetRunner wrote:

No Android, iOS app for it 😞

No FLAC support :(.

---

Playing FLAC files over Bluetooth which uses audio compression doesn't make any sense... 

[dermbrian]

---

@Rauser wrote:

---

@SunsetRunner wrote:

No Android, iOS app for it 😞

No FLAC support :(.

---

Playing FLAC files over Bluetooth which uses audio compression doesn't make any sense... 

---

Unless that's the format your music is in.

[dermbrian]

Developers please take note:

The Windows 10 program never completes the transfer of my music.  My music is an iTunes "smart playlist" of 2.3 gb of random songs from my collection.  It fails at different times and does not like to restart unless I quit the program with the task manager.   Getting the transfer started in the first place is a process of waiting long periods of time with no feedback from the program that anything is actually happening.

The Windows Program that you mention in the first post of this thread works somewhat better.  It will transfer a huge playlist.  But for some reason, it sees the available memory on the Ionic as less.  I was not able to transfer the 2.3GB playlist but had to create another one that was only 2GB.  Once that one started, it transferred without interruption over the course of about 2 hours.  That Windows Program does not give you any idea of how much free memory it sees.  It just says it's full when the playlist you try to transfer is selected, if that playlist is bigger than 2GB (in my case).

I hope this helps.  This stuff has to work and the program or app has to give some idea of what goes wrong when it doesn't, and that things are going right other than just wheels spinning for minutes at a time before the next stage occurs.

Coming from a TomTom Spark, I know this stuff is hard for y'all.  But the reasons connections drop and transfers stop has to be able to be figured out.  The Windows Program works when it works, the Windows 10 'App' does not.

Brian

[mitwess]

an issue with fitbit connect on windows 10 is that it prompts you to remove it after you've installed it. fix that or you are just going to confuse people. and it takes way too long to transfer music. if nothing else, please have an option where you can connect the phone to the computer and transfer music like you would with a usb drive. everyone knows how to do that and i can't imagine it will take forever like the wifi music upload (about 40m for 78 songs fyi, 40s per 3.5 minute track). 

and stop the **ahem** watch from buzzing every time a track is finished downloading. 

[mitwess]

also seems to be a bug where it loses connection and stays stuck in "transfer in progress" mode on the phone and the fitbit connect app won't reconnect. i'm guessing i'll have to reboot the watch to get things going again.

[mitwess]

after a watch reset it wouldn't go into transfer mode because it said the battery was too low (notice said it would not transfer below 25%). note, my battery drained like 20 percent downloading just 30 songs, so wifi music transfer eats battery life. yet another reason to allow an easier tethered music transfer option (i.e. something like a usb stick experience)

[mitwess]

update, anyone who is having issues on windows. at least for me, music transfer only works through the fitbit connect app, if i try to go to music transfer through the fitbit app (a separate app which launches fitbit connect) it doesn't work, just stays stuck into looking for your ionic mode.  so stick to using only the fitbit connect app on windows (despite their tutorial) if you have any issues like i did. 

on a final note, why does the ionic require all this manual entry to do things? why do i have to manually pair the watch every time to get music control on my phone, why do i have to put the watch in file transfer mode to get music to start transfering, why can't you guys make this more automatic? i've used competing devices that do so i know it's possible.  

[Flea.Lee]

Please follow the steps as below:

=========================================================

1. Install the Fitbit Connect app (Download)

2. Use Windows Media Player to create playlists. 

3. Open Fitbit Connect app you just installed

4. In Fitbit Connect app click "Manage My Music"

5. Go to Music App on Ionic and select "Transfer Music" and wait for Fitbit Connect to find your Ionic.

6. Fitbit will scan your "Music" folder for playlists. (If it doesn't find the playlist use the Settings menu at the top right to set your music folder, usually "C:\Users\yourusername\Music\Playlists)

7. Click the circle to the right of your playlist and wait, you will get a progress bar at the top with an ETA.

==================================

It works for me too.

Also, you can copy your playlist from Playlists folder to Music folder then your playlist will be found. Good Luck.

[GBO323]

I've successfully transferred iTunes playlist music to my Ionic via both the Win10 app AND the FitBit Connect. Of the two, the FitBit Connect app has been the most successful in the times I've used it. So I'm staying with the FB Connect for this.

One issue I've figured out is I used to have my music in a Google Drive folder, but neither app found the playlists. Once I moved back to a C:\ location, it magically appeared.

Hope this helps....

[Dlhill24]

The ionic is a severe dissapointment in this aspect. I've been trying to sync 50 songs for the last 2 hours. So much for being able to go workout, I've now wasted so much time. Sync time said 4 hours to transfer it, and everytime the fitbit disconnects from the computer because of wifi the sync deletes ALL the songs it previously transferred on a playlist and starts over from scratch. Fitbit, you need to get your software together fast. Apple has a major edge on you so far. 

[Paige606]

I cant transfer music using the Fitbit app for windows - after I press if music icon. it’s stuck on not finding ionic, & can’t connect w/WiFi - even though Ionic is paired w/PC, can sync w/it too just music transfer issues - I also tried to use the Fitbit app for windows ( outside the store ) I think there is a bug on it because my mouse gots all over the place w/app & I don’t have a Fitbit dongle. Will the windows store Fitbit app ever work? 

[Dakson]

The Fitbit help that I found on this said that the Fitbit will disconnect every few minutes. I had the same problem with very long playlists but after re-connecting it the same way as the first time you do it will download all of the songs. It's a pain but re-connecting it will download all of the songs that are gray and said download corrupted. This may also be due to a bad connection and the two disconnecting but even if that is the case the same thing will fix that too.

Hope this helps you too.

[erik1313]

This is all fine and well if we were living in 2010 when everyone had their own personal music files. I have Apple Music now and all the files are protected by Apple, meaning I cannot load them on my Ionic. Very disappointing. I really hope Fitbit is working on a deal with Apple Music and Spotify to allow music to be loaded onto our ionic's otherwise this device is pointless.

[Dakson]

Give it time and they should make other deals beyond just Spotify. I hear ya though the Fitbit pay is pointless for me right now since none of my major cards are currently partnered with Fitbit. We will see, they have a great watch to build upon!

[Syrinx]

I have same problem here. My PC is connected via ethernet and cannot pair with the Ionic. I don't have a wifi card for it so I cannot test with wifi...

[jkgaut]

Would you be able to tell me how to find the iTunes Playlist files to move to another folder so that possibly it will locate it? I'm not completely computer illiterate, but for the life of me, I cannot locate where the playlist is housed on my computer! It made one. Gave it a name of "Fitbit Ionic Playlist" but nooooo.....I'm about ready to return this thing if they can't get these things figured out. It shouldn't be this difficult.

I know I'm connected to the WiFi, as I can see it on my phone app and my network on my computer, but the program on the PC won't even give me an option to connect to a network. My PC doesn't have bluetooth, so it's always telling me that "Bluetooth is not connected." I'm so frustrated!!!

[Syrinx]

I tried on a mac and then the pairing went OK, but via the same wifi network.

Apparently trying to pair it using another wifi network (like 5G), or ethernet does not work, even if all devices are connected to the same router. It would be nice if Fitbit could allow PCs/Macs using ethernet to connect to Ionic as long as they are in the same local area network (same router).

[SunsetRunner]

The music transfer is challenging, to say the least.  Everything else has been working well with the Ionic, but after 2 hours of WiFi ‘musical chairs’, I finally got my Mac through the Fitbit Connect app to recognize the Ionic .  They are both on the same 2.4 GHz wifi .  

I have a playlist for running I always use with my iPod.  It recognized it.  Now its taking over two hours to transfer 44 songs.  This is like transferring mp3s to a SanDisk player circa 2001,  burning a CD circa 1995, or copying a cassette tape circa 1987, workout delayed.

I hope future updates to the playlist are smoother and quicker.  I love every other aspect of the Ionic, but this is its Achilles heel.  It should be way simpler than this.  Perhaps an option should have been added to use the usb charger - something...perhaps this is metaphor, the fitness device that forces you to ‘exercise’ patience 

[Elcs]

So... FitBit App and FitBit Connect... neither allow me to transfer music from my wired Windows 10 PC to my Ionic.

Even with the nice Bluetooth Dongle from my ancient FitBit One will allow me to get sorted.

The PC apps are stuck at "Looking for your Ionic" whilst the watch goes "Connecting..." then it says "You're connected. Transfer using your PC". The PC stares back at me saying "Nope. Still looking for your Ionic" and then my watch says "Oh. Press this button to start transferring music"

No solution afforded so far on this thread has alleviated my lack of being able to connect.

[Yansus11]

ive been trying to transfer music from my MacBook. I am using iTunes to get my music, but when i try to transfer it, it keep saying the files DRM-encrypted and can't transfer. help plz!!!