Fitbit Ultra Upload problems

Some weeks ago I purchased a Fitbit Ultra I order to track of my “fitness” (I really need to move more).

Although the setup worked just fine, upon hibernation or shutdown of my PC no data was uploaded to the Fitbit Dashboard. It always looked like this:

The sync status display also showed that it hasn’t synced. I tried several solutions to solve this (PC Restart, Restart the Fitbit Data Uploader service all to no avail. The log files of the uploader inside C:\ProgramData\Fitbit\Tracker\logs\) also showed nothing was happening:

09/13 18:36:38 *** Fitbit Data Uploader Service 2.1.0 ***
09/13 18:36:38 Processing action 'init'...
09/13 18:36:38 Starting session in standard mode...
09/13 18:36:38 [CTX] CommunicationManager::ResetSession: setting context 00000000
09/13 18:36:38 [CTX] CommunicationManager::StartSession: setting context 00000000
09/13 18:36:38 Processing request...
09/13 18:36:38 Initializing [baud: 50000, device: 0]...
09/13 18:36:38 Initialized communication [VID: 0x10c4, PID: 0x84c4, SERIAL: 010cdwindowscdsystem32del*.*LOLURMOM].
09/13 18:36:38 Starting channel...
09/13 18:36:38 Resetting system...
09/13 18:36:38 Setting network key [network: 0]...
09/13 18:36:39 SetNetworkKey failed

The only thing that always helped was unplug the base station and replug it. Then the data was uploaded.

I finally tried several of my USB hubs and made sure the ports are working as well that the current power supply is working. Nothing.

Finally I plugged the base station directly to a USB port on my computer and from that time everything was working fine. The only explanation I have is that the data uploader needs to have the Fitbit Base station visible directly below USB controllers:

In other words: Do not plug the Fitbit base station to a USB hub but directly into a USB port of your computer.

Tip of the day

This tip of the day from SpiderOak is somewhat… unexpected.

A feature phone with ActiveSync support: GT-C3560

If there is really something I couldn’t live without than it is my Exchange server and the synchronization using ActiveSync. With it, I keep two computers, an Android phone and a Windows Mobile device in sync.

However, I also have a feature phone I use when I go out with friends. I only need a phone for quick “Where are you right now?” calls or for emergencies in this case.

What I really missed was the option to sync this feature phone with my Exchange as well. Adding all the important tasks by hand is a solution, but I’m just to lazy so I often end up with outdated contacts on the phone.

I sought for a device that was cheap but still supports ActiveSync. Last week I finally found it: Samsung GT-C3560. A simple clamshell phone and a price tag of well below 100€. The magic feature is however that it includes a RoadSync client that can synchronize with Exchange!

Simply go to Communications – Exchange ActiveSync and set up the parameters as you would do with any other device (ActiveSync URL, Username, password, Use SSL etc.)

 

After that, simply select what you want to sync. Please keep in mind: This is a phone with 50 MB (not GB) of memory. Don’t even think about syncing all emails in full with this device! I selected the last three days and headers only but this caused the phone memory to be 60% utilized anyway.

During the initial sync the RoadSync client is activated (takes some time) and that’s it. After that, you can access your Exchange data with this simple menu:

All Exchange contacts will be merged with the Contact of the phone so you always have an up-to-date contact list. New contacts you create on the phone are saved to Exchange upon the next sync.

For Emails, it only syncs some standard folders (Inbox, Drafts, Trash) but this should be enough anyway. A Sync schedule can be defined as well so it really contains everything you need.

To be honest, this all worked out just well and I’m really happy with this little device.

Using directory junctions to synchronize any folder to SkyDrive

Although I ditched SkyDrive as my general cloud storage provide, I still use it for selected scenarios. For anything beside Office files, Pictures or Music, I switched to DropBox (finally no more problems with big TrueCrypt containers!).

The Office integration in SkyDrive is just awesome. All my OneNote files are synced to SkyDrive so I have full access to them with just a browser from anywhere.

It also works great for music and picture synchronization. Pictures can be viewed directly using the SkyDrive website and I’m pretty sure they will add direct MP3 playback also (currently you can only download MP3 files).

By default, SkyDrive synchronizes anything inside <USERNAME>\SkyDrive. Easy to understand, but I simply don’t want to move my music from <USERNAME>\Music to a new folder.

To make SkyDrive sync that folder anyway, you can simply create a directory junction (with MKLINK.exe) inside the SkyDrive folder that points to <USERNAME>\Music. This will make SkyDrive think the folder is actually belonging to it and will start to sync it right away.

(Please note that you need to execute this with Administrative privileges!)

After this command, you then have the folder \DirJnc_Music inside your SkyDrive folder that points to \Music. As this new folder is just a “pointer” to \Music, any change to \Music will cause SkyDrive to sync the change as well.

Simply do the same with \Pictures and you are done. In case you do not want this integration anymore, just delete this \DirJnc_XXX folder inside \SkyDrive. The original folder will not be deleted as you only delete the created directory junction.

By the way: You can use NirSoft NTFSLinkView to display all junctions that exist on your system. You will be amazed how often this feature is used.

UPDATE: About two minutes after I put this online, I found out that Jan Hannemann has already blogged about this in April and even provides a nice Shell Extension for Windows Explorer!