Sideload failed! on watch but works on emulator

[ViGouR]

So I've been working a while on my watchface for a while and all was well, until today. I've made a few more changes, tested on the emulator and all was happy. But when I tried to test it on my watch, it keeps on telling me "Sideload failed!"

I have a private link on the app gallery I've been using as well, and installing from there also always fails.

The complete size of all files are 117kb, so it' can't be too large and struggling with that (I hope)

I then reverted my changes (from my Github repo) and attempted again, and now it just keeps failing on the watch, but always works on the emulator...

Any suggestions are welcome.

[TshiamoBhuda]

Been having the same issues on my versa, started a week ago after trying out the Simulator  ... Tried restarting / shutting down the watch and re-installing the app but nothing

[TshiamoBhuda]

I got it to work again, not sure if this will work for you: ... It seems to me like the side-loaded clockface & the actually private clockface (which are the same thing) cant operate side by side. So what i did was change my watches clockface to something else (installed another one through Gallery) & re-tried running my project on the studio & it worked. 

I got the hint to do this after side-loading a new test clockface (which ran) and then re-ran the other project & got an error mentioning something about installed clockface & side-loaded clockface being the same.

[ViGouR · Accepted solution]

After a lot of tinkering, got mine to work again too, but I had a different issue.

I'm only installing mine usually through a private link to my watch, with no side loaded app through the web studio. But after it kept on failing, I did a factory reset (I was a bit desperate :D) and tried side loading but it still failed.

As a last ditch effort, I removed all files from the web studio, pulled in all the files freshly from my github repo, and viola, it started working again.

I played around with a downloaded version and it seems a jpg I minified was the issue. It worked on the emulator, it worked on my PC, but my Ionic didn't like it much.

[jeremiahlee]

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@TshiamoBhuda wrote:

I got it to work again, not sure if this will work for you: ... It seems to me like the side-loaded clockface & the actually private clockface (which are the same thing) cant operate side by side. So what i did was change my watches clockface to something else (installed another one through Gallery) & re-tried running my project on the studio & it worked. 

I got the hint to do this after side-loading a new test clockface (which ran) and then re-ran the other project & got an error mentioning something about installed clockface & side-loaded clockface being the same.

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I had this exact same problem and this solution worked for me. Fitbit really, really, really should make the cause of this error explicit in Fitbit Studio and provide instructions on how to correct if it cannot figure out a way to make this problem non-existent.

[Pietero]

Can we make a list of possible causes?

I can add 3 to it.

1) there is duplicate application (either from app store or sideloaded). Solution: remove app from "My Apps" or remove it from Developer Menu 

2) File names using special characters

3) minified files like images.

[LiamFitbit]

This is addressed in a future release: you'll get a specific error message letting you know to uninstall the version installed from gallery before sideloading your application.

Without this restriction, you could poke at the files belonging to another app by sideloading a replacement under the same UUID.

[pegetive]

I can't run my app on Ionic while it works on the simulator. But I do not understand how you solved this issue. What did you do to the image you mentioned to make it work on the device?

[JamesF510]

I had the same issue.  What worked for me was removing any side loaded watch faces that were on my phone (which removed it from my Versa) and side loaded the new watch face, then it worked.

[LiamFitbit]

This is unfortunately a bug in the current FW 3.0 release. It is addressed in the next release and you'll no longer need to manually remove the clockface before re-installing it.

[Blaug6988]

What is FW? I am still getting this error on Fitbit Studio

[Guy_]

@Blaug6988  - what problem are you experiencing with Fitbit Studio exactly?

[Blaug6988]

Hi @Guy_ I have connected Fitbit studio to Fitbit Simulator and to Versa 3 Simulator. I am able to build the app from Fitbit Studio successfully, but when I try to Run it, it gives an error with the message "Sideload of app failed. Internal Error". 

My App and Build Id are: 

App UUID: 543e5a92-105f-4d81-9ea9-4d3ab039034e, BuildID: 0x08af3d8d2da52c17

[Guy_]

@Blaug6988  - you have to be careful not to use the same UUID as a clock downloaded from the gallery.

If that is the case rename your package.json and rebuild. It will give you a new package.json with a new UUID (though you will need to adjust the settings in the new package.json) and rebuild again.

[Blaug6988]

I am trying to install the app on Fitbit OS Simulator. There are no other apps in the simulator with the same UUID. anyways, I tried changing the package.json file to package.txt and generated a new package.json. But, I still get the same error

[Guy_]

@Blaug6988  - aha,  in the Simulator when you click the settings tab, are both the top 2 items connected and are you logged in on the same account?

Some Simulator options; change to another watch of the same type, or stop start it, login to the same account or refresh the Studio display and select the watch type in Studio again.

[Blaug6988]

Yes, both the top 2 items are connected and I am logged into the same account. See picture attached. I have tried everything like restarting my VS code , restarting Fitbit OS Simulator. I wish there was some error message on why the sideload of the app failed. Without any information,  I am lost

[Guy_]

Hi @Blaug6988  -  try using Studio sideload to load the built FBA module.