Important: Streamlining Fitbit’s Developer Tools

[JonFitbit]

We are retiring Fitbit Studio as part of our effort to streamline our developer tooling. Fitbit Studio will enter a read-only mode on March 20, 2023, and will fully shut down on April 20, 2023. 

All developers should switch to using the command-line SDK as a direct replacement for Fitbit Studio. Please export your projects now and refer to this guide for instructions about using the command-line SDK. We recognize that this may be a difficult change for some developers, and we are here to provide support during this transition via this developer forum.

Remember, Fitbit Studio will enter a read-only mode on March 20, 2023 and will shut down on April 20, 2023, so be sure to export your projects from Fitbit Studio before April 20, 2023, after which they will be permanently deleted.

We’ve put together a list of some frequently asked questions below to help you migrate your projects.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: Can I still build my apps and clocks without Fitbit Studio?

Yes, you can install the command-line SDK on your Windows, Mac, and Linux computers.

Q: How do I download/export my existing projects from Fitbit Studio?

Login to Fitbit Studio, open an existing project and select `Download > Export Project.`

Q: Can I download all of my projects at once from Fitbit Studio?

No, you need to export each project individually.

Q: Can I still build or deploy my projects in Fitbit Studio while it’s in read-only mode?

No, sometimes the act of building a project would modify specific project files, therefore building and deploying will not be enabled.

Q: What happens if I do not export my projects?

After Fitbit Studio has been shut down on April 20, 2023 all data will be deleted and unrecoverable.

Q: How do I install the command-line SDK?

You need to install Node.js, then follow our command-line SDK guide.

Q: How do I update my existing projects to work with the command-line SDK?

You need to edit your project's `package. json` file and ensure it contains the `sdk` and `sdk-cli` dependencies. Our command-line SDK guide contains the full information for updating existing projects.

[SarahBass]

@cph015 

Have fun learning Monkey C 🐒 !

 Garmin has a ton of resources just like Fitbit and it has a manual.

Android App is actually easier to learn in my opinion if you know Java or Kotlin. It has a great simulation device and a sample clock. Getting a developer account set up costs money (only $20 once), they use real background checks with Driver's Id needed, and the time to get approval on anything is about  2-20 days. Takes about 2 weeks to a month to get it going- but once you do it's great!

[Guy_]

Hi @JonFitbit - unless there is an absolute necessity to stop Fitbit Studio, is there any possibility to extend the March 20, 2023 cut off date for stopping it, as it is working fine?

[deiG]

@JonFitbit , I can't enter Fitbit Studio to export my projects. It got stuck forever at the screen "Here we go Checking login..."

[JonFitbit]

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@deiG wrote:

@JonFitbit , I can't enter Fitbit Studio to export my projects. It got stuck forever at the screen "Here we go Checking login..."

---

Are you using Chrome? Try an incognito window, check you can login to gam.fitbit.com and then try Studio again.

If that doesn't work, open the network console in Chrome and check for any error messages.

[Acrux]

Just got the alert for this, so glad I made the move to Garmin Epix2 earlier this year.. it is by far a better product top to bottom the price point is worth it. 

Best of luck to everyone

[cph015]

@sarah8 Thanks for the info! If it's a 1-time payment, I don't mind that! Kinda iffy on the background checks, but whatever I guess lol

[SinEire]

This is why I own an Apple watch now.

Fitbit has no interest in supporting third-party developers.

Many of their new "smart" watches don't even support third-party apps.

It's a shame.

[cph015]

I'm sure the base logic can be imported over no problem, though syntax and language will need to be modernized to whatever Garmin uses

[1GR3]

Another unpleasant news from fitbit. How surprising! 

[Athar]

Fitbit Studio wasn't reliable lately, so in the end, I don't see why so many people are crying over its imminent closure.

There is some free development apps available and you can run it from your PC without changing a line of your code... (and still using the Fitbit OS Simulator).

I was having a lot of frustration when my code wasn't saved in the web studio editor... something that will not happen locally.

This is not a such "big change", but seeing other saying "I'm gonna stop developping Free apps" just because they stop the Studio availability ? come on, you are not serious folks !

If you keep doing the "paid ones", you already have everything in place to do the same for free apps coding...

I'm not doing that much of dev in here (just one clock face to be honest, for one initial request from my family), but clearly, this change doesn't cost me a cent to apply (just a few minutes to setup my PC for this task).

[SomeDeveloper]

It's not about this, it's the fact that right now we are super uncertain of Fitbit's future to continue and co-exist with Google products. Generally Google kills products it doesn't need and so seeing changes to Fitbit like this makes us uncertain about it's future. Additionally, the latest Versa 4 and Sense 2 don't even support 3rd party apps and clockfaces, so there's literally no motivation to develop for this platform. This is why developers like us have been moving to different platforms like Garmin, Samsung and Android

[Elegac]

In deed, if Fitbit will not open 3rd party support to Versa 4, I think that my Versa 3 will be my last Fitbit device. What I like on Versa, is the capability to add custom apps for free, without complex process like on iOS (developper licence, multiple update). Fitbit SDK is simple, but it is also the strength. Because it is not necessary to spent a lot of time to study to make simple and cool apps. I hope that model could continue. Personally, I don't want making money, I only want to develop tools which I really need.

[Guy_]

Hi @Athar - admittedly there were occasional problems with Fitbit Studio, as there can be with anything.

However it enabled any user to easily write clocks for themselves using a web browser on multiple PCs, phones or tablets without worrying about backups or having to resort to using old fashioned DOS commands which some may feel uncomfortable doing.

In addition it provided a releases capability and married well with the OS Simulator for loading and trace logging

People may also be uncomfortable installing a load of addon software on their own PC for fear it may cause problems in other areas and fill up their hard disks with loads of additional software and intermediate files.

Removing Studio is a huge step backwards and people may be unaware of the consequences and responsibilities they are undertaking in dedicating a single PC to the task.

[SomeDeveloper]

Fitbit Studio may have not been rock solid reliable but it was reliable for the job and worked perfectly, just open a simple webpage and you can start making your own clockfaces instantly. Yes this doesn't seem like "a big change", but it isn't a small change either. Furthermore, Versa 4 and Sense 2 don't even support third-party clockfaces so why should I keep developing for the Fitbit ecosystem if it's just going to shut down tomorrow just to sell more Pixel Watches. They already have removed Music, Google Assistant and others in the new generation of products and at this point you might as well bet that they'll shut down third-party clockfaces at this point.

[SomeDeveloper]

Also they can encounter lots of issues such as node-gyp installation issues that most users won't be able to solve and simply just forfeit in making their own clockfaces!

[RustyKeyboard]

I've been using Fitbit Studio for a few years for personal apps.  I'm not able to get the CLI fully installed and running on my Chromebook.  I've tried the linux terminal and the VS Code terminal.  I see in the demo videos in CLI Guide that when the user enters npx fitbit the response indicates the user name that is logged in.  I don't know how to log in thru CLI.  Thus I receive this error message

'Failed to read auth token from keychain: Error: The name org.freedesktop.secrets was not provided by any .service files'

in the fitbit app on my companion iphone, the developer bridge says 'Waiting for Fitbit Studio...'

How do I log in using CLI?  Thanks

[Gondwana]

@RustyKeyboardI don't think that ChromeOS is a supported operating system. At a guess, I'd say it's because it doesn't have a version of keytar, which uses native code and is necessary for authentication.

[Chamcham]

@Athar 

This is why...

https://killedbygoogle.com/

[RustyKeyboard]

@Gondwana Thanks for the response.  I had hoped to use my chromebook when travelling.  I'll try a windows machine.

One clarification to my first post...  I got this message (as above) when I called fitbit from the root of my linux terminal: 'Failed to read auth token from keychain: Error: The name org.freedesktop.secrets was not provided by any .service files'. 

However when I called fitbit from my project folder I saw this response: 

'[..................] - fetchMetadata: sill resolveWithNewModule fitbit@0.0.7 checking installable status'

After a few minutes, it queried me to log in to github.  I agreed and it opened my browser.  I don't have a github account, so I terminated.  Then after some time, these responses came:

npm ERR! Error while executing:
npm ERR! /usr/bin/git ls-remote -h -t ssh://git@github.c0m/p-m-p/node-oauth.git [changed com to c0m as not allowed in community]
npm ERR!
npm ERR! ssh: Could not resolve hostname github.com: Temporary failure in name resolution
npm ERR! fatal: Could not read from remote repository.
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Please make sure you have the correct access rights
npm ERR! and the repository exists.
npm ERR!
npm ERR! exited with error code: 128

npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR! /home/********/.npm/_logs/2023*03*30T15_01_45_660Z-debug.log  [used * to meet community standards?]
Install for [ 'fitbit@latest' ] failed with code 1

I was expecting the browser to open for me to log in to fitbit.  Perhaps that is the same issue with Chrome os that you described.

One more question.  Would a Ubuntu distribution of linux (instead of Debian currently in use) work to get authorized into my fitbit account?  I see that I can switch to that distribution.  

[Gondwana]

@RustyKeyboardI've had CLI working on Linux Mint, which probably means that ubuntu should be okay.

That said, I would have expected Debian to be okay too.

I haven't used Chrome OS, so I don't know what layers it puts around hosted linux distributions. It may still act like a shim and not support all native linux capabilities.

It still seems that the problem is with authentication, which probably means keytar. If you can, watch the output of npm i very closely. It can spit out build errors that provide clues to what's missing.