Not Quite a Bug: Workaround for New Microsoft Band 'More Tiles' Feature Limiting Tiles

Microsoft delivered its “April Update” for the Microsoft Band at the conclusion of Build 2016. For those not quite clued in yet, the update was a big one – much bigger than originally announced. One of the new features extends the number of tiles supported on the wearable. This was one of a number of big asks that Band owners have wanted and Microsoft delivered. Before the update, Band owners could only install up to 13 tiles. The Band can now store up to 20 tiles at a time – which is a great considering the number of community-created web tiles has exploded.

Some Band owners who have tried to take advantage of this increased number of tiles have found it not to work. According to Microsoft, the problem is in how older Band apps have been compiled against earlier SDK versions. The company has explained the issue and provided a workaround:

According to Microsoft:

This is a known issue on Windows Phone 8.1, Windows 10 Mobile, and iOS.

The problem occurs when using a phone app that talks to Microsoft Band 2. Older versions of our SDK have a hard coded limit of 13 tiles, phone apps compiled against these older SDK versions will not be able to add tiles past that limit. As new SDKs roll out and apps are recompiled against them, this problem will go away.

As a work around, use the Health app to uninstall tiles until you have 12 or fewer on your band. The more third party tiles you want to install, the more room you should free up. Now install third party tiles as needed, then add back any tiles you want from the health app up to the limit of 20.