Pairing LG G2 and Sony Smartband (SWR10)

[Lance Danca]

I am going to put together this little post to help people pair these two devices... took quite a while when following Sony's instruct.

So, you got a new Sony Smartband... Sweet! it DOES work with your G2! and it works really, really, well. Once its connected.

so here is a quick run through of the procedure I had to use to get this thing rollin'

1. Charge it. (it takes less than 30 mins)
2. While the little deal is charging, download Sony Smartconnect, Sony Smartband App, and Lifelog. They are all readily available on Play Store, and are free... I would suggest not touching them in any way.
3. When Smartband is charged, unplug it... go to your comfy place to get some work done.
4. Turn on Bluetooth AND NFC.
5. Open Smartconnect app, agree to the terms, the app then takes you to an event tab.
6. click on the *Devices* tab within Smartconnect
7. Click the Plus (otherwise known as add) it's in the top right corner.
8. It will prompt you to add device.
9. The G2's bluetooth setting page is going to pop up, if the SWR10 is listed, pair it. DON'T LEAVE SETTINGS TAB!

THIS IS THE IMPORTANT JAZZ!!

10. It is highly possible you get bombed at this point with requests to share app info with Lifelog... select what you do and do not want.
11. UNPAIR the SWR10
12. press back to go back into smartconnect app.
13. Select the swr10 shown in smartconnect
14. It should say something like "disconnected, reconnect with NFC"

THIS IS WHERE THINGS GET WEIRDISH

15. Keep the smartband next to phone.
15b. Pull down notification window it should say something like "Smartband disconnected, reconnect with NFC" tap that. (full disclosure: I don't know that that triggers anything, I just noticed that the final time I got the band to connect I pushed it)
16. The NFC will eventually do it's thing... but, its going to throw errors and its going to connect and disconnect constantly...it's ok, it gets better.
17. After about the third or fourth time it connects and disconnects, it's finally going to start doing stuff.
18. It will connect and disconnect continuously until you can get firmware update installed.... it's ok, if it hangs, reset the band (it happened three times to me)
19. After update, you are all set, you can turn off NFC and from my experience only.... it will stay connected.

I repeated this three times, works like a charm. Sony's instructions are easier, but they don't work for the G2... or, if they do... I officially have a special needs phone.

Maybe someone will find this someday, and it will make them happy inside.... that is the goal

 

[FirstAndroidZ2]

What are your first impressions of the wristband?
I started using it last night. So still early days but for me prime functionality right now is the wakeup feature and wristband vibrating when I've walked far enough from the phone that wristband and phone would go out of coverage.

 

[Lance Danca]

I really like it. It has some hiccups and Lifelog doesn't seem to track everything accurately.. But steps, sleep, and walking all seem to be fairly accurate.

I had a Polar Loop for a few months before it went haywire (I doubt the companies claims that it is waterproof). Compared to the Loop, the software is much better. The Loop is really nice with HR monitor, but it was I'll conceived.

Sony, surprised the hell out of me with this. I was waiting for LG's offering, until I saw the price. I'm not paying that kind of money for a fitness tracker, and I doubt it is half as comfortable as Sony's genius little device.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[gsrrr]

have you experienced any issues with it? like random disconnects, no notifications or anything else?

I saw that this blogger had some issues with it when using it with a Nexus 5. Sony SmartBand review | Wez Riv

 

[Lance Danca]

I have experienced disconnects. It will do it occasionally, but it connects right back up on it's own. Not ever really an issue, it still logs.

The notification thing is kinda strange to be honest. I ended up turning most of them off. Reason being; one of them (or all) notify me when a song ends when I use Google music. It's also worth noting that they will bug out and notify you indefinitely. You have to disable them to get it to stop.

Those are the two real bugs I would say. Lifelog as an app has some (not a lot) issues, but it is well realized.

The apps for the band are pretty cool. I like the idea behind some of them. The music controls work pretty darn well considering it's a series of taps.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[AlexLebedev]

Hi and thanks a lot for your thorough description of the pairing process.

Have you heard something about pairing this band with samsung galaxy s3?

Have you tested it with swimming? Does it track the distance correctly? Because I'm planning on buying this band mainly for swimming.

Thanks a lot for your help and have a nice weekend!
Alex

 

[Lance Danca]

Hi and thanks a lot for your thorough description of the pairing process.

Have you heard something about pairing this band with samsung galaxy s3?

Have you tested it with swimming? Does it track the distance correctly? Because I'm planning on buying this band mainly for swimming.

Thanks a lot for your help and have a nice weekend!
Alex

I have an S3 at home that I can try it out with. I don't think it should be to much of an issue. The problems are really with the initial pairing. After you initially get it paired, it will pair without any hiccups. I would assume that that process should work.

I have used it in water. I have not done any swimming with it. I haven't noticed any water damage type of issues... I just make sure the USB port is nice and dry before charging.

In terms of accuracy, I'm pretty surprised to be honest. Comparing it to a Polar Loop that I had for a short time, it seems to match those results pretty well. Comparing the walking results to Google Now's monthly report was fairly accurate also. I would assume that Google's data is going to be pretty conservative. Google showed 10 hours of walking for May. Smartband showed 12 hours of walking in slightly less than a month (I got it May 4). I would think that those results are close enough to determine that Sony's smartband is pretty accurate. It uses it's sensors along with Lifelog using GPS info. I also think that Sony's algorithm discards steps unless there are about 5 in succession. Distance is pretty darn accurate as long as you turn on high accuracy GPS option. When that is on, it is dead on. It is actually pretty neat to look at the app after a day with high accuracy turned on as it will show you literally everywhere you went and the exact route taken. When it is normal, the results are all over the place.

If I'm being honest though, I don't know if it is going to do what you are looking for. I don't know if it will track strokes like it tracks steps. It seems like it is more of a band and app for tracking what you do rather than tracking fitness. If it will track strokes, you will love it as it will attempt to calculate the actual calorie burn also. It seems to be fairly accurate in terms of additional calorie burn. I believe it uses speed, distance, and steps to determine the additional burn.

oh, it charges fast as hell also. Not that you asked, but I think it's worth mentioning. It takes less than 30 mins to charge. I will usually plug it in while I take a shower, and have been at almost full charge since I got it. Battery life absolutely reflects Sony's claims (5 days). The smartband apps don't even seem to have an impact on it either.

I was seriously apprehensive about buying it as I wanted something more robust, but I love it... everything about it. Sony, for their part, have been really good about updating the band to fix the hiccups. They have also promised a lot more to come this summer, so that's nice. The bugs that you will read about are incredibly minor, and most of the time, you can just turn off the "bugginess." They are mostly notification issues (wont stop vibrating, vibrating randomly, stuff like that).

 

[Jason Chen2]

I've been trying your method but i still cant get my swr10 to connect while updating

i can get it to pair up and connect to my htc one m7 via bluetooth but i cant get it to prompt the firmware update.

Then when i try connecting it via nfc the firmware update prompts and begins to download however it cant connect via bluetooth the device seems to freeze as the button doesnt respond to any action.

pls help!

 

[Lance Danca]

When you are getting ready to do the firmware part. Make sure NFC is on, and the the band is not paired with Bluetooth (but remember to leave Bluetooth on). I think the NFC tag just pairs the device, but I have noticed it doesn't play nice when the band is already a paired item.

I had the EXACT same problem with the firmware update. I would estimate it took me 35 mins to get the band to finally accept the update. And yea, it hung... it froze... it crashed things. You name it, it happened. I basically stayed patient and continually went through the steps start to finish until the update was accomplished.

It is much, much more stable with that update.

 

[Jason Chen2]

Just an update,

sony released an update to their swr10 app today/yesterday, had to tried syncing. As soon as i turned bluetooth on, it paired and updated with no dramas

thanks for your help tho

 

[Lance Danca]

Yeah I noticed that they fixed it with the new update.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[hkgoldenhk]

Hi.
I was wondering whether the alarm function on your Smartband works with your G2?

I read in the instructions that it seems the alarm is restricted to Xperia devices.
But I want to confirm as I want to use my G2 with it too.

Many thanks.

 

[Dutch Brownie]

Thanks for your instructions on how to pair the Smartband with my G2, it worked like a charm.

Though I still have connectivity issues. It disconnects roughly once a day and then I have to reconnect again from my bluetooth settings. Any ideas?

Hi.
I was wondering whether the alarm function on your Smartband works with your G2?

The alarm function works with my G2 and actually it's the function I like the most, along with its sleep tracking capabilities. The lifelog app gives an overview of number of hours of light and deep sleep per night.

 

[Giany Palermo]

Hello!!! How are you!
Your post was very interesting to me!
I've an Optimus G2, and I get the smartband today..
But I have a problem, I cant use the smart camara..
When I go to SmartBand Settings, in the list of installed application I cant select this.. although it was previoslly installed, this application is still listed on the recomended application..
Did you can use the camera and shot the photos with your smartband?
Thank you!

 

[Jagjeet Singh1]

Hi

I am trying to connect the sony smartband swr10 to my andriod phone (micromax a300). it does not have nfc but i want to connect via bluetooth.
but it does work at all. I have installed smart connect, smartband app and lifelog. under smart connect it does pair the device but i can not see smart band under connect app. i can not edit any settings for smartband...if i search for device via bluetooth, it shows swr10 and i can pair it. can you pllease guide how to get this work. I do not see any logs in lifelog.

 

[Marcelle Riekert]

Hi

I have a G2 and it connects to the smartband and stays paired and everything, I have the Smart Connect as well as the Smartband SWR10 app and Life Log Installed on my phone. But it does not want to sign in to the Life Log App. I created a Sony Entertainment account as well and I can log in to it on my computer but not on my phone to access Life Log, when I tried to create a new account again it went one step further to the personal info step. I accepted the terms and conditions and it took me to the Personal info step where you have to fill in your info like birth date, weight, height and gender, I filled in all the mentioned info but it does not want to let me continue, when I press the continue button to complete the step it does not want to work. Is there anyone who can help on this issue ?

 

[elkon84]

Hello,
I would like to ask you about the notifications. It seems to be working just fine but i get no vibrations. I have enabled notifications and gave access to smartband through my security settings also, but still nothing. Do you have any idea?
Thank you

 

[SMILEY3303]

Had to log in just to say thanks. I could not for the life of me figure out how to pair this thing with Droid Turbo. Your instructions worked and I can use the band. I am impressed to see that this thing tracks a lot of things with lifelog app. After 2nd Fitbit failed decided to try this. Too early to tell but thanks to you I have a connection between tracker and phone.

 

[Andrew Greigau]

I was having a lot of trouble using Sony's manual, but these instructions led to success for me. The trouble with the S3 is that the OS needs to be 4.4 and the bluetooth needs to be very recent as well.

Thanks for the useful info.

 

[Gareth Perry]

Still having issues with pairing the device. Keeps forcing firmware update and keeps reconnecting to the smartband, but nothing after 1 hour. Any suggestions? Pairing with a Note 4