Music controls issue

[Mkorver48]

Hey there! I have had the Versa for a few days now. Loving it so far! Execpt for one thing, lol. I have only noticed one issue that seems software related either with the Versa or my phone. I have an Essential Phone PH-1. My issue is that I have been trying to get the music controls working to control my phone playing Spotify, Google music, ect... My phone recognized the Versa right away and would connect to Versa classic, but the Versa would time out and say "no devices found". However it will say it is connected to my phones bluetooth address. When I go to the music controlson the Versa the volume buttons work but there are no skip, play, pause buttons. Just the " start playing music on your phone" message. I have tried alot of troubleshooting. What I could think of and things I found on forums. Tried a factory reset too. Nothing has helped. Any help would be much appreciated. Just kind of annoying that a feature that is supposed to work, doesn't.

[khant14]

Same issue. I only got it to work twice after unpairing and repairing.

[juniorm]

I have a Versa with Samsung S8+ and could not get the music controls working after several hours I managed it.

Make sure in the Phone your Bluetooth settings has paired Versa (Classic) 

Open the cog on the right and make sure that Use For does not have "input device" turned on.

(this seems to stop music and volume controls from working)

On the watch, you don't need to click on +Audio Devices to add an audio device (counter-intuitive!)

Just make sure the setting underneath for "Music via Bluetooth" is  set to "on"

Finally, hold down left button and swipe until you get the music control screen up and select the phone icon on bottom left.

[Jazzyrhythms]

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@juniorm wrote:

I have a Versa with Samsung S8+ and could not get the music controls working after several hours I managed it.

Make sure in the Phone your Bluetooth settings has paired Versa (Classic) 

Open the cog on the right and make sure that Use For does not have "input device" turned on.

(this seems to stop music and volume controls from working)

On the watch, you don't need to click on +Audio Devices to add an audio device (counter-intuitive!)

Just make sure the setting underneath for "Music via Bluetooth" is  set to "on"

Finally, hold down left button and swipe until you get the music control screen up and select the phone icon on bottom left.

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OH MY GOSH  - thank you. I tried everything and couldn't get it to work. The key here for me was what you said about going to the settings on my phone and making sure it was NOT using the fitbit as an input device. This is super counter-intuitive and not what I would expect.

Using it, I did notice it was a bit buggy and disconnected from my phone but it's not bad.

EDIT: I'm noticing this is super buggy - it is far from always working. I hope they get this functionality cleaned up soon.

[marciemare]

Ooh, good thought!  But sadly not working for a Pixel.  Actually, when I try and uncheck “input device” in the Bluetooth settings, it disconnects the Classic connection every time.  

May try calling phone support and see what they say since it’s not an isolated issue.

[Wdeastman]

Same problem here with a Pixel 2XL. This is the primary function that I utilize a smartwatch for. I guess I made the mistake of assuming that because I have a flagship phone that things would work properly. My Bluetooth connection also breaks when I turn input device off.

This is extremely unfortunate as I've been looking for a Pebble replacement for quite some time. Guess it's back to the Pebble again until a fix is released. 

[pebblerefugee]

Juniorm is on to something. If I try toggling that "input device" slider and switch between watch/phone under Music controls a bunch of times, the controls and current track eventually show up. The track info won't change, but the controls will work until I leave the screen, or the watch screen turns off. Then, it's back to "Start playing music on your phone" again. I'm using a Fitbit Versa SE with a Google Pixel (gen 1). No, nothing else is currently paired besides the Versa. Not even headphones. Also, I did reset both the phone and watch with no improvement.

For what it's worth, my Pebble Time Steel did the same thing perfectly with the same phone.

[Wdeastman]

I seem to be able to get the same results with disconnecting/reconnecting Bluetooth and switching between the watch and phone.

I know the Pixel 2 and XL had a lot of reported Bluetooth issues, however I've never encountered any until today. Hopefully a fix will be implemented soon because other than the music play back issue I love the watch. 

[pebblerefugee]

I have a correction. The most reliable way for me to get the music controls back is to start playback on the phone itself, toggle the watch/phone icons in the "Source" screen from phone to watch, then back to phone again. Wait like 2-3 seconds, and go back to the "Music Controls" screen. If the controls appear, great. If not, try again. If the watch turns the screen off automatically, and I wake the screen by lifting my wrist, the controls STAY. If I navigate away from the screen using the buttons, the controls will go away, and I have to repeat the steps above. Also, if the song changes, the watch will not update the title/artist info. Super annoying, but it seems to suggest a UI issue.

[Username1330]

I called up the Fitbit help line and couldn't get it working even after rebooting the versa, reconnecting Bluetooth, resetting the versa connection through the Fitbit app, etc. I was told by the advocate (call center representative) that the Pixel2 is not a supported device. Apple, Samsung, and Google are the most popular phones out today. Fitbit dropped the ball on this big time. I recommend anyone with this same issue, call up and point out this flaw so we can light a fire under them to fix it faster. I've tried everything mentioned on this forum and elsewhere and it just doesn't work reliably. So annoying. Glad I can vent with you guys lol

Moderator edit: Word Choice

[Jmac087]

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@pebblerefugee wrote:

I have a correction. I wish I could edit my posts, but I don't seem to have the option. The most reliable way for me to get the music controls back is to start playback on the phone itself, toggle the watch/phone icons in the "Source" screen from phone to watch, then back to phone again. Wait like 2-3 seconds, and go back to the "Music Controls" screen. If the controls appear, great. If not, try again. If the watch turns the screen off automatically, and I wake the screen by lifting my wrist, the controls STAY. If I navigate away from the screen using the buttons, the controls will go away, and I have to repeat the steps above. Also, if the song changes, the watch will not update the title/artist info. Super annoying, but it seems to suggest a UI issue.

Earlier when I said "this user," I was attempting to quote juniorm, but goofed. I wasn't trying to take credit for the "input device" trick. 😉

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 most reliable way for me to get the music controls back is to start playback on the phone itself, toggle the watch/phone icons in the "Source" screen from phone to watch, then back to phone again. Wait like 2-3 seconds, and go back to the "Music Controls" screen. If the controls appear, great. If not, try again.

This is the part that seemed to work for me as well

[BlazeFS]

I'm having issues with music playback on my Nexus 5x. Thanks for all the suggestions! I was finally able to get it to work, but I tried everything multiple times and I'm not sure what actually did it. Eventually I pushed a button and now it's back to "Start playing music on your phone." It's definitely finicky!

[totalfrenzy]

Fitbit's twitter support seems to think this could be due to the Pixel 2 not being a "compatible device".

https://twitter.com/FitbitSupport/status/986970947457466369

[JP321]

I struggled with this same problem:  Music control features worked, then suddenly stopped working, but volume buttons worked so I knew it was still connected somehow.

The immediate fix that worked for me and that has worked every subsequent time is to sync my versa with my phone.  I have all day sync turned off and only sync once a day.  I had paired, unpaired, rebooted phone and versa dozens of times and then I realized I had not synced in awhile.  Immediately started working again after I synced.  

Hope that helps some people!

[marciemare]

Ugh, that's rough, Pixel 2 folks. 

I got curious since I'm having music control issues with a gen 1 Pixel, and that DOES show up as a supported device.  (Oddly enough, the Versa is not listed as a tracker to check against for the tracker-specific features, but it lists Music Control as a supported feature when I select Pixel compatibility with both the Blaze & Ionic so...there's that.)

Just noticed a new software update for the Android app is out...how's that working for everyone?  Seems to be making things worse for me, haven't been able to see music control at all since installing it, even with restarting phone/Versa & trying all the other tricks people have listed here (syncing first, toggling between watch and phone sources)...

[Username1330]

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@totalfrenzy wrote:

Fitbit's twitter support seems to think this could be due to the Pixel 2 not being a "compatible device".

https://twitter.com/FitbitSupport/status/986970947457466369

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It's true. I got the same message from them. I can't believe how bad they dropped the ball with Pixel 2. We need more Pixel 2 users to hound them until they get this issue resolved - this is device discrimination!

"We are always testing new devices and adding to our list of supported Android models. We'd be unable to provide a timeline for when the Pixel 2 will be added to our list, but for a current list of compatible Android devices, please visit: www.fitbit.com/devices."

[Quitscho]

Same issues with me and my Pixel 2.

Looking forward to a solution by Fitbit !

[pebblerefugee]

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@marciemare wrote:

Ugh, that's rough, Pixel 2 folks. 

I got curious since I'm having music control issues with a gen 1 Pixel, and that DOES show up as a supported device.  (Oddly enough, the Versa is not listed as a tracker to check against for the tracker-specific features, but it lists Music Control as a supported feature when I select Pixel compatibility with both the Blaze & Ionic so...there's that.)

Just noticed a new software update for the Android app is out...how's that working for everyone?  Seems to be making things worse for me, haven't been able to see music control at all since installing it, even with restarting phone/Versa & trying all the other tricks people have listed here (syncing first, toggling between watch and phone sources)...

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Yeah, that "oops, you chose the wrong phone!" line is baloney. The feature straight up doesn't work. I didn't see any change from the app update. I went for a skate yesterday and I couldn't get the controls to work at all, despite trying the method in my earlier post.

[mitwess]

I've had the same issues listed in this thread on the lg g5 but just got
the lg g6 and everything now works perfectly. I'm running android version
7.0 on the lg g6 fyi. So not sure whether it was a hardware or software
issue that caused problems with my lg g5 (that phone is now dead so i cant
determine what version android it was running).

[Rubylark]

I have the same issue, on a Nexus 6P, Android 8.1. I've done a bit of research, and while I'm a firmware engineer, I have zero practical experience with bluetooth, so feel free to correct me.

All the phones listed by others here support up to Bluetooth 5.0, while the Versa claims only Bluetooth 4.0 support. The big difference between the two is differences with Bluetooth Low Energy mode (BLE). BLE in Bluetooth 5 is greatly expanded and based off of the 4.2 protocol (ie, later than the standard the Versa uses, so Versa is doubly out of date).

BLE is used for wearables to minimize traffic and greatly save battery life by going to sleep when there is no traffic. One symptom of using a BLE connection is that if there isn't a forced update, data displayed on the paired devices will get out of date. One example is song info that doesn't update unless the watch sends some command to the phone, like "skip to the next song." Since that seems to be a symptom people have listed here even when in Bluetooth Classic mode, that means that Fitbit and the phone are disagreeing about which Bluetooth mode they are in.

There are some compatibility problems between Bluetooth 5 and 4, so Fitbit added the Bluetooth Classic pairing option. Classic doesn't have substantial protocol differences across versions like BLE does, so theoretically Classic should bypass some connection bugs that BLE has. Unfortunately, later versions of Android seems to have some problems with recognizing Classic mode as being truly Bluetooth Classic. Cross-version connections were handled much more gracefully through Android Wear which is why we didn't see this problem with Pebbles. 

The good news is that this seems to be a software/firmware issue, so if they fix it for late versions of Android, this feature will work on Pixel 2s. The bad news is that this isn't an issue with most Android phones (ie ones that aren't on Android 8 or don't have Bluetooth 5), and isn't an issue on all iPhones (even ones that do have Bluetooth 5). So it might not be a high priority to fix, especially if it requires a firmware overhaul. The semi-ok news is that if Fitbit wants long term compatibility with their devices and new Android phones, they'll have to fix it eventually, since all new Android phones going forward are going to use Bluetooth 5 and later.

[Vishal206]

Same issue on Galaxy note 8... Please fix this!!