HELP! Fitbit Aria scale w/ Iphone hotspot/tethering....

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JessicaJonker
JessicaJonker Posts: 28
in Health and Weight Loss
I recently received the Fit Aria scale for Christmas. I don't have wifi, so I was disappointed to find out it could not work offline. I tried using my iPhone 5 (Verizon) as a hotspot. I get to the final step of the setup process, and the scale says "WIRELESS ERR". I've tried many times and am getting frustrated! I don't want to return the scale if I don't have to....if it would work, it would be a great weight loss monitoring tool. Fitbit customer support is slow (email only) and I their "solutions" are useless. Has anyone had success with this? Thanks in advance!!

Replies

  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    Contact Fitbit customer support: https://help.fitbit.com/customer/portal/emails/new
  • Tomahawk3Niner
    Tomahawk3Niner Posts: 61
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    I don't have one yet so I can't tell you for sure. (I should have my Aria tomorrow)

    From what I've read, you must have a wireless network present that can talk to fitbit.com. In theory this should work with a phone acting as the network but there are a couple different entities in play here that could be blocking whatever port the Aria's traffic runs on.

    Could be Verizon has it blocked, not allowing third party connections such as this. Could be something in the iPhone or Safari browser as well. Kind of hard to say.

    It could be that the Aria is specifically designed to work via a wifi router and not a mobile hotspot.

    Do you have traditional internet in your home? You can pick up a cheap wireless router for less than 20 dollars on amazon that would be sufficient to get your Aria online.
  • JessicaJonker
    JessicaJonker Posts: 28
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    We had a house fire and are in an apartment until our place is rebuilt. Our only option for wifi where we are now is Charter, which will make us sign a contract, and they don't offer service at our original home. We will be at our temporary place for hopefully less than a year, and Charter makes you sign a contract for at least a year. What a bummer if the scale doesn't work with tethering!
  • JessicaJonker
    JessicaJonker Posts: 28
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    Oh, and I have already been contacting customer support. I tried that first! Like I said, they are slow and useless!
  • Tomahawk3Niner
    Tomahawk3Niner Posts: 61
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    Sorry to hear about your home.

    Yeah contracts suck.

    I did find this, someone left a message on Fitbits facebook page about this exact issue. They responded, kind of.
    They said you should be able to do it via the hotspot but it can be tricky. They suggested clearing your phones browser cache (you'll have to talk to an iPerson for that, I'm an android guy, but it's probably in Safari settings somewhere) and then proceeding with the web based set up @ http://www.fitbit.com/scale/setup/start


    https://www.facebook.com/fitbit/posts/566929153331273
  • JessicaJonker
    JessicaJonker Posts: 28
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    Thanks for your help! I'll give that a shot!
  • Tomahawk3Niner
    Tomahawk3Niner Posts: 61
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    Good luck. I get mine in the mail tomorrow hopefully so can play around with that a little if it still doesn't work.
  • editorgrrl
    editorgrrl Posts: 7,060 Member
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    I don't have one yet so I can't tell you for sure. (I should have my Aria tomorrow)
    I love my Fitbit Aria Wi-Fi Scale, but you should both be aware that once you connect your accounts at http://www.myfitnesspal.com/apps/show/33 your MFP weight is automatically updated every time you weigh yourself. So if you have friends you may want to uncheck "automatically update my news feed when I have lost weight": http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/news_feed_settings

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