fixed : how to charge Xiaomi Mi Band Pulse ?

Question :

The Xiaomi Mi Band Pulse seems a great product, but I can’t get it to work.
It seems to come straight from Asia, as the user manual is in Chinese only.
Luckily scanning the QR-code that’s in de manual downloaded the Mi Fit-app, and since the app is in English figuring out how it works was easy.

Only problem was that the app doesn’t include directions on knowing how to charge and when the battery is full…

…the battery pre-charge it came with lasted for less than an hour, so it turned out that the first thing I have to do is charge it…

How do I know ? How can I check ?

 

Answer :

The Xiaomi Mi Band Pulse (a.k.a. Xiaomi Mi Band 1S) is a very high-value-for-money activity tracker indeed. It’s not an extremely accurate top-quality activity monitor, sleep monitor or heart rate monitor, but at this moment it can be considered as the best low-budget activity tracker for people who would normally use the iOS Health app because they want to stimulate themselves into moving or exercising more and want to keep track of their activity during swimming, sporting, exercising and sleeping, even when they can’t keep their iPhones with them.

Secret Trick #1 : Charging :

  • just take the sensor from the bracelet
  • put it in the USB-charging cable the right way round
  • hook it up to a powered USB-port or charger (not included)
  • wait for all 3 leds to light up continuously

Secret Trick #2 : The Missing Manual :

Secret Trick #3 : resetting the Mi Band Pulse / Mi Band 1S :

Secret Trick #4 : try the continuous heart rate app also :

Secret Trick #5 : use it with the iOS Health app also :

  • install the Mi Fit app first and make sure it works with your iPhone
  • then, open the Health app on your iPhone
  • in the Dashboard screen, click on the “Sources” button on the bottom side
  • on the next page click on “Mi Fit”
  • then on the next page choose which data you want to sync between Health app and Mi Fit app
  • then click “Health Data” at the bottom, next to “Sources”
  • then repeat the following for each type of data you want to exchange between the Mi Fit app and Health app :
    • for Sleep Analysis sharing, choose “Sleep” –> “Sleep Analysis” –> “Show on Dashboard” & “Share Data” –> “DATA SOURCES: Mi Fit” –> delete any individual data that you don’t want taken into account
    • for Weight sharing, choose “Body Measurements” –> “Weight” –> “Show on Dashboard” & “Share Data” –> “DATA SOURCES: Mi Fit” –> delete any individual data that you don’t want taken into account
    • for Heart Rate sharing, choose “Vitals” –> “Heart Rate” –> “Show on Dashboard” & “Share Data” –> “DATA SOURCES: Mi Fit” –> delete any individual data that you don’t want taken into account

That’s it 😉

enjoy !

Note/update : there seems to be a German language unofficial manual for the similar Mi Band (so not the Mi Band S1 Pulse), that you can get here :

Xiaomi Mi Band – Anleitung, Tipps & Tricks – das inoffizielle Handbuch

A preview excerpt of this book (which might give you some answers also) can be found here :

Google Books preview – Xiaomi Mi Band – Anleitung, Tipps & Tricks – das inoffizielle Handbuch

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fixed : Xiaomi Mi Band Pulse seems bricked or broken

Question :

As I was fiddling with connecting to a bluetooth speaker, the connection to my Xiaomi Mi Band Pulse suddenly vanished. Even though my iPhone can still see the Mi Band, but it says “Can’t connect to band” and on manual retry connection cannot be established due to a time-out error. In Bluetooth Preferences the Mi Band is visible, but not connected, and on manual retry I also get no connection due to a time-out error.

Is my Mi Band bricked or broken ? If not, what is the right way to reconnect my Mi Band to my iPhone ?

 

Answer :

You are probably in luck as even when your Mi Band seems bricked or broken, is most of the time just hangs and can be fixed doing a reset.

The reset & reconnect procedure in short :

  • switch-off Bluetooth
  • reset the Mi Band
  • reboot your iPhone
  • switch-on Bluetooth
  • reconnect via Bluetooth

That probably isn’t enough info, so here’s a step-by-step walk-through :

  • on your iPhone, swipe-up from the bottom of the screen to get the ‘underwater’ Settings pull-up panel
  • click on the Bluetooth-icon in a white circle, which will then turn grey, indicating Bluetooth is OFF
  • now take the sensor-pod of the Mi Band Pulse out of the bracelet and put it in the refrigerator (yes, the one in your kitchen, but not in the freezer)
  • leave it there for at least one hour (officially that should be at least 4 hours, but experience shows that only one hour will also do most of the time…)
  • first, do a reboot of your iPhone by pressing the MENU- and ON/OFF-buttons at the same time until the screen goes black and a white Apple-logo is displayed [ NOTE : for some iPhones the reboot procedure (a.k.a. “hard reset”) is slightly different ; more info can be found here ]
  • when the iPhone comes back up, type your access code to unlock your iPhone
  • then swipe-up from the bottom of the screen, and in the pull-up Settings panel, click on the Bluetooth-icon in a grey circle, which will then turen white, indicating Bluetooth is ON
  • and open the MiFit-app on your iPhone
  • then, take the Mi Band sensor-pod out of the fridge and plug it in the Mi Band-charger cable and put the USB-end into a USB power adapter (a powered USB-port will also do most of the time)
  • now be quick : only during the blinking of a LED on the Mi Band sensor-pod you have the opportunity to reconnect !
  • while the LED blinks, in the Mi Fit-app, in the Status view, click on reconnect to re-establish the Bluetooth-connection between Mi Band and iPhone
  • if all orange-collored texts are gone from the Mi Fit-app, you have successfully reconnected, if not : just unplug & replug the Mi Band sensor-pod, try again and make sure you act quickly
  • everything should now work properly ; enjoy !

If you can’t get it to work using the above procedure, just try again. And if that still doesn’t help after several tries, try these versions of the procedure, in this order :

  1. try again, without putting the Mi Band sensor-pod in the refrigerator
  2. try again, exactly as described (so including the refrigerator procedure)
  3. try again, now keeping the Mi Band sensor-pod in the fridge for at least 4 hours
  4. try again, now keeping the Mi Band sensor-pod in the fridge overnight
  5. try again, but start with deleting the MiFit-app from your iPhone, and reinstall it after reboot
  6. try again, exactly as described

You probably have things up and running by then, but if you’ve done all this and it still doesn’t work, your Mi Band sensor-pod is probably broken and you should contact your reseller for a replacement…

Good Luck & enjoy !

 

Note/update : there seems to be a German language unofficial manual for the similar Mi Band (so not the Mi Band S1 Pulse), that you can get here :

Xiaomi Mi Band – Anleitung, Tipps & Tricks – das inoffizielle Handbuch

A preview excerpt of this book (which might give you some answers also) can be found here :

Google Books preview – Xiaomi Mi Band – Anleitung, Tipps & Tricks – das inoffizielle Handbuch

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fixed : old hard reset procedure doesn’t work on new iPhones with finger scan

Question :

I just encountered an error (or bug) in iOS forcing me to do a hard reset on my iPhone, but when I try the good-old reset-procedure by pressing both the MENU- and POWER-button simultaneously, there’s no reset… just a click-sound and a screenshot photo being taken…

What’s going on ?

 

Answer :

For all iPhones (and iPads) that still have the MENU-button (*) without fingerscan [ so all iPhones up until and including the iPhone 5 and 5c ], the procedure for a hard reset is :

  • make sure you have the PIN-code of your SIM-card at hand
  • press and hold the MENU- and POWER-buttons (*) of your iPhone/iPad simultaneously until the entire screen turns black and the Apple logo reappears
  • then release both buttons and wait for the screen to go back to normal
  • and when asked, enter the PIN-code to unlock your SIM-card

…that’s it

For all iPhones that have the new fingerscanning MENU-button (*) [ so all iPhones starting from the iPhone 5s and iPhone 6 and newer ], the above procedure does no longer work, so there is a new procedure for a hard reset :

  • make sure you have the PIN-code of your SIM-card at hand
  • press and hold the POWER-button (*) until the screen goes fuzzy and the ‘slide to power off’-slider appears
  • then release the POWER-button and slide the slider to the right to turn the iPhone off
  • wait for the screen to go black
  • then press and hold the POWER-button until the Apple logo (re)appears
  • then release the POWER-button and wait for the screen to go back to normal
  • and when asked, enter the PIN-code to unlock your SIM-card

UPDATE : since iOS 9.3 the ‘old’ procedure for a hard reset was re-introduced as an extra for the newer fingerscanning iPhones, so these can now also be reset by simultaneously pressing & holding the MENU- and POWER-buttons 

…that’s it

(*) the MENU-button is the button that is on the front side of your iPhone or iPad just below the screen :

  • on iPhones up until the iPhone 5 and 5c, the MENU-button has a ’rounded square’ icon on it
  • on iPhone 5s, iPhone 6 and newer, the MENU-button has no printing on it, but it has an (invisible) fingerscanning-sensor inside

…the POWER-button is the button that is used to turn the iPhone/iPad screen ON and OFF :

  • on iPhones up until the iPhone 5c and 5s, the POWER-button is on the top-side of the iPhone (just like it is on iPads)
  • on iPhone 6 and newer, the POWER-button is on the right-side of the iPhone

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fixed : no audio on iPhone, just an annoying beeping noise

Question :

Today the output-sound of my new iPhone 6s turned into complete noise. No matter which app I use, be it YouTube, iTunes Music or online TV, all sound is reduced to an alternating beep-sound. I can turn the volume down (or up), but it doesn’t go away, no matter what I try…

What can I do ?

 

Answer :

Regardless of the exact cause of the error you run into… your best option when encountering weird behavior of your iOS-device (iPhone/iPad) is to do a reset.

For your audio-problem this is tested and proven to work also.

For the iPhone 6s the reset-procedure is a little different from the one used on previous iPhones (*) :

  • make sure you have the PIN-code of your SIM-card at hand
  • press and hold the POWER-button until the screen goes fuzzy and the ‘slide to power off’-slider appears
  • then release the POWER-button and slide the slider to the right to turn the iPhone off
  • wait for the screen to go black
  • then press and hold the POWER-button until the Apple logo (re)appears
  • then release the POWER-button and wait for the screen to go back to normal
  • and when asked, enter the PIN-code to unlock your SIM-card

…that’s it

😉

 

On previous iPhones the reset-procedure is :

  • make sure you have the PIN-code of your SIM-card at hand
  • press and hold the MENU- and POWER-buttons of your iPhone/iPad simultaneously until the entire screen turns black and the Apple logo reappears
  • then release both buttons and wait for the screen to go back to normal
  • and when asked, enter the PIN-code to unlock your SIM-card

…that’s it

enjoy !

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