Over a year ago I got the Huawei GT2 Pro watch. It was a present from my wifey.
https://consumer.huawei.com/ph/wearables/watch-gt2-pro/
Only today did I work out why certain songs can’t be uploaded to it.
TLDR: You need to have a sample rate of at least 32khz. Use V7 in MP3 LAME encoding settings, v8 or 9, whilst smaller file size also change the sample rate and won’t be supported.
Also have the filenames as “{artist} – {title}“
Explanation:
When using the Health app for the huawei gt 2 pro I would get an error “Some songs can’t be added because the device doesn’t support all HD songs”
This was confusing for me because I thought HD meant High Definition and the issue was that the bitrate or sample rate was too high. However that turned out not to be the case.
After trying a whole lot of different settings and trying to encode files with both Foobar 2k, VLC and the command line, I found out:
- The website says the watch supports AAC, but it turns out to be really hard to get AAC encoding working on my Windows machine. I gave up after an hour, but you might have iTunes already installed or something else and it’ll work easily for you.
- I THINK it’s the sample rate which has to be set to a minimum of 32khz in order for the files to be played, anything lower wouldn’t work.
- When using LAME for MP3 encoding the Quality slider goes from V9 Smallest File (~65kbps) to the Best quality of 320kbps CBR (constant Bit rate).
However in my experience:- v9 encodes the file at 22,050hz
- v8 encodes the file at 24,000hz
- v7 encodes the file at 32,000hz
- v6 encodes the file at 44,100hz
- I didn’t try a higher sample rate file to know if v5 and below also cause sample rate changes.
- The filename matters. The watch will split on a hyphen – character with the first section being the artist and after the hyphen being the title. e.g You’ll want it to be named “Dua Lipa – Levitating.mp3” e.g “{artist} – {title}.{ext}”
- I didn’t check if the mp3 metadata tags are picked up in any way, but it doesn’t seem to be the case.
- You’ve got about 2GB of space on the watch for music, hence converting to the smallest file size that’s supported
- LOTS of file uploads to the watch can drain the battery a little.
- Ohh I’ve also lost my White charging puck and thankfully a normal Wireless charging pad for my mobile phone works, just not nearly as well. It often overheats and needs to be reseated. But I can at least charge my watch :-)
For me the best way of getting the files onto my phone was via Dropbox.
For encoding the music files I enjoy Foobar 2k, but I’m sure there’s plenty of other apps you can use. You can even use an app to download YouTube videos and then convert them.
Instructions (For Windows users):
- Download and Install Foobar 2k
- Download and Install the Foobar 2k Encoder pack (or download LAME MP3 yourself)
- Drag / Add the songs you want into a Foobar playlist. I call mine “For Processing“
- Select the songs then [Right Click] and select [Convert] then click the […] triple dots
- Set the Output Format to MP3 using LAME. You might need to [Add New] or [Edit]. The magic is to make sure the Quality is set to V7 (~100kbps) which is the 3rd smallest size. Anything smaller (v8 and v9) fails.
- Set the Destination to use the “artist – title” File name pattern you can use the […] button to the right of the Name format field to select it which should cause the Name format to be “
[%artist% - ]%title%“ - You can optionally enable ReplayGain in the Processing setting, that’ll help ensure the file is loud enough, but not too loud.
- Don’t forget to [Save <<<] the settings
- Click [Convert] and select your output folder
Screenshots:
Hopefully that helps you. Or me in the future!
For importing the files into your phone and then watch, that’s up to you. But if you need the basics:
Or a longer more detailed explanation:
A further note. The watch doesn’t sound the best after it gets wet. So dry it with a towel or tissue and use the “Drain” function if you need.
If you’ve read down to here then here’s a bonus music clip of Half Alive – Still Feel
