Windows 10 Bluetooth Dongle not Syncing with Ionic

[map23]

This morning I gave my wife a new Ionic for her birthday.

She downloaded the app to her iphone and it all connected fine.

She downloaded the desktop app to her Windows 10 PC and it all started to go wrong.

It appears the desktop app does recognise the Ionic - although I'm not sure how - there is an icon, and when I click on it I see the relevant desktop page.

But when it comes to setting up wifi, the desktop app throws up a screen saying "bluetooth is not turned on"

As far as i can tell, the PC does not have bluetooth, so I plugged in an old Fitbit dongle I have from a few years ago.

The fitbit dongle was recognised by the PC, but the Fitbit desktop app still tells me bluetooth is not turned on.

I tried downloading the latest drivers for the Fitbit dongle, but I can't the anywhere.

So now I'm stuck. Should I:

1) Order a brand new bluetooth dongle from Fitbit and install that?

2) Uninstall and reinstall the fitbit desktop app in the hope it will recognise the old fitbit dongle and it will all start working?

3) Do something else?

Advice would be appreciated cos this is all just a bit too mysterious for me to figure out.

Thanks

Moderator Edit: Updated Subject for Clarity

[SantiR]

@map23 Welcome to the Fitbit Community! Thanks for reporting the situation you are experiencing with Ionic connecting to Windows 10 computer. I'm glad to hear you gifted your wife an Ionic! 

As your computer doesn't support Bluetooth, the dongle is a great idea. Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling the Fitbit app just as you said? You can also try plugging the dongle on a different USB port.

If non of that works you could try getting a new dongle. In the meanwhile, you can keep using the app to sync! 

Hope this helps. Keep me posted! 

[DramaQueenDiva]

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@map23 wrote:

This morning I gave my wife a new Ionic for her birthday.

She downloaded the app to her iphone and it all connected fine.

She downloaded the desktop app to her Windows 10 PC and it all started to go wrong.

It appears the desktop app does recognise the Ionic - although I'm not sure how - there is an icon, and when I click on it I see the relevant desktop page.

But when it comes to setting up wifi, the desktop app throws up a screen saying "bluetooth is not turned on"

As far as i can tell, the PC does not have bluetooth, so I plugged in an old Fitbit dongle I have from a few years ago.

The fitbit dongle was recognised by the PC, but the Fitbit desktop app still tells me bluetooth is not turned on.

I tried downloading the latest drivers for the Fitbit dongle, but I can't the anywhere.

So now I'm stuck. Should I:

1) Order a brand new bluetooth dongle from Fitbit and install that?

2) Uninstall and reinstall the fitbit desktop app in the hope it will recognise the old fitbit dongle and it will all start working?

3) Do something else?

Advice would be appreciated cos this is all just a bit too mysterious for me to figure out.

Thanks

Moderator Edit: Updated Subject for Clarity

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I have a Windows 10 laptop with built in Bluetooth.  You can verify if yours has Bluetooth as well by going into the Settings on your computer.  Click on the Windows icon in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.  Next, click the gear icon, which will take you to the computer's settings.  From there, select "Devices".  The Bluetooth option should be right at the top.  Under the "Add New Device (which will be needed later), it should say "Bluetooth" and give you an option to turn the Bluetooth on or off.  To add the Ionic, you will need to switch it to ON if you have it.  If you do have it, you will need to click "Add New Device" after you turn on the Bluetooth.  The Ionic should appear in the list of available devices, all you need to do is click "Ionic" and it will start the pairing process.

Once you verify the Bluetooth situation, you will need to link the Ionic to your wife's account.  Seeing as you already downloaded the app, we will skip that step.  Next, have your wife sign up for a free account (the option to do so should appear once you open the app).  Once she is all set up and the Ionic is paired to the computer, she will need to go to the little credit card icon on her Dashboard (which should open up immediately after the login page).  Click "Add New Device", followed by "Ionic" and follow the prompts.

As far as it already being recognized, is it possible that there are other Bluetooth devices nearby such as cell phones?  This will confuse the Ionic about which device to pair with.  If there is, please decide which device you wish to use during the setup process and leave the Bluetooth on.  Turn off all the others or move them out of the room to continue the process.

Anyways, I hope this sheds some light for you.

Oh, and happiest of birthdays to your wife!

[map23]

Thanks for all suggestions, they helped me towards my final resolution as follows;

1) I installed a new Bluetooth 4.0 dongle. This immediately showed up in device manager so I could see it was installed, available, and switched on.

2) I went in to the Fitpbit desktop app and selected the Ionic, selected the option to set up wifi - this was the point where it failed to progress before, due to Bluetooth not being detected. This time everything was fine and I was able to set up wifi for the desktop app.

The whole point of this exercise was to transfer a music playlist to the ionic from the ITunes app on the PC, so next steps were:

3) Configure iTunes to share playlists with other apps - no problems.

4) Select playlists in the ITunes app to share - no problems

5) Use the Fitbit desktop app, manage music, which prompted me to select 'Transfer music on the fitbit watch...........nothing - desktop fitbit app searching for watch for ages, no progress.

6) After a lot of hunting around I stumbled across a suggestion that you cannot have both LAN Ethernet access and wifi access on the PC at the same time, which this PC did have. I turned of the LAN, and presto - suddenly the watch was found, and the transfer began and completed with no problem.

So - problem resolved - I have Bluetooth 4.0 installed, the Fitbit desktop app communicates with the watch, and its possible to transfer music - I just have to remember with switch the PC's LAN connection off before trying to transfer music as having both LAN and wifi on seems to confuse the Fitbit desktop app when it's looking for the watch via wifi.

Thanks

[DramaQueenDiva]

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@map23 wrote:

Thanks for all suggestions, they helped me towards my final resolution as follows;

1) I installed a new Bluetooth 4.0 dongle. This immediately showed up in device manager so I could see it was installed, available, and switched on.

2) I went in to the Fitpbit desktop app and selected the Ionic, selected the option to set up wifi - this was the point where it failed to progress before, due to Bluetooth not being detected. This time everything was fine and I was able to set up wifi for the desktop app.

The whole point of this exercise was to transfer a music playlist to the ionic from the ITunes app on the PC, so next steps were:

3) Configure iTunes to share playlists with other apps - no problems.

4) Select playlists in the ITunes app to share - no problems

5) Use the Fitbit desktop app, manage music, which prompted me to select 'Transfer music on the fitbit watch...........nothing - desktop fitbit app searching for watch for ages, no progress.

6) After a lot of hunting around I stumbled across a suggestion that you cannot have both LAN Ethernet access and wifi access on the PC at the same time, which this PC did have. I turned of the LAN, and presto - suddenly the watch was found, and the transfer began and completed with no problem.

So - problem resolved - I have Bluetooth 4.0 installed, the Fitbit desktop app communicates with the watch, and its possible to transfer music - I just have to remember with switch the PC's LAN connection off before trying to transfer music as having both LAN and wifi on seems to confuse the Fitbit desktop app when it's looking for the watch via wifi.

Thanks

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You're welcome, glad I could help!

[SantiR]

@map23 Thanks for your reply and for sharing the workaround that helped you out! I'm sure this will help other users that may be experiencing the same situation. 

Also, take a look at the Discussions Board as you will find a lot of interesting things there. Feel free to post on any thread you want. If you are looking for Fitbit friends to compete with on challenges, check this thread to add some! 

@DramaQueenDiva Thanks for your awesome help on this thread! 

Keep me posted!