Fitness app 3rd party data incorrect

Question

Level 1

37 points

Fitness app 3rd party data incorrect

I use my Apple Watch to keep track of all my activity, and it generally works really well.

However, 3rd party apps do not seem to sync their data correctly.

For example, I was on a Life Fitness Connect running machine today. As it was a treadmill I wore a polar heart rate monitor and didn't use the workout app on my watch, choosing to use the lfconnect app on my iphone as I figured it would be more accurate given it talks directly to the treadmill.

At the end of the run it showed I had burned about 500 Calories. In the fitness app on my phone, it showed that I had only burned about 400 calories in total that day. Much less than it should have shown. Yet in 'workouts' it showed the LF connect workout calories as what the lf connect app had shown. I was wearing the watch, so I think the calories it registered were based on its own readings not the ones from the lf connect workout.

Also, the Polar app doesn't seem to pass data either properly. In fact this app is worse as I didn't wear the watch.

I started a 'martial arts' workout using the polar app on my iPhone and polar heart rate monitor. At the end of the polar workout, the apple fitness app showed the workout correctly when you click 'workouts' but the main fitness rings only showed the exercise time, but no calories at all having been burned. And the graphs show empty bars for calories during the time I was working out. Please see the pictures below.

in this case I wasn't wearing the watch which is why I think it registered no calories at all being burned. The polar app was working via Bluetooth from my heart rate monitor to my iPhone.

Is this a fault with the apple fitness app or all the other 3rd party apps?

I really want this to work, as I'm working quite hard to improve my fitness, and it's impossible to do if the data is not accurate. It clearly isn't transferring the calories burned from 3rd party apps, from what I can tell.

Watch Series 2 Nike 42MM (2nd gen), iOS 10.1.1

Posted on Nov 8, 2016 3:03 PM

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Answer 1

Almeisso

Level 1

8 points

Oct 18, 2017 9:00 PM in response to Glyn Harper

I use Polar Beat, MapMyRide, MapMyRun and Strava.

1. For each of these third party fitness apps, Apple Health and the Activity App on my iPhone include the "Active Calories" recorded during my workout, but these calories are not included in the red Activity ring ("Move") total in the Activity App on my iPhone or Apple Watch. In other words, I get the same result as shown by Glyn Harper in the posted pictures.

2. The workout time DOES appear to count towards my green "Exercise" ring. One might expect that if the time counts, the active calories would count as well. I believe - but I am not sure - this demonstrates that the Activity app is able to read data from the third part apps. This exercise time data could also be coming from the iPhone, but my iPhone is not listed as an Activity data source (see further discussion towards the end).

3. I completed a ride today using my Apple Watch instead of my iPhone. As expected, the red Activity ring included the active calories burned during that activity.

BTW - I rarely work out with my Apple Watch as I do a lot of bike riding, and I like the large display of my iPhone. And I think looking at my watch during a ride is awkward and potentially dangerous. An Apple Watch handlebar mount will not work for me as my company's security policy requires wrist detection to be on, so I cannot use my Apple Watch unless it is on my arm/wrist.

Anyway, I would like the active calories from the third party apps I use to also count towards my "Move" goal as well. Just makes sense that it would.

Also, as far as data sources, within Apple Health iPhone Activity data source only includes "Apple Watch" as shown below.

Questions:

1. How can I get my fitness Apps to be included at an Activity data sources?

2. How can I get active calorie data recorded from third party fitness apps to count towards my move goal?

3. If the exercise time appears to be included, why can't the active calories be included as well?

4. What am I missing???

Pointing me to the third party app developers is not acceptable, as all of these apps as SUPPOSED to support Apple Health. This has to be an Apple issue.

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Answer 2

Glyn Harper Author

Level 1

37 points

Nov 15, 2016 9:11 AM in response to Glyn Harper

Anyone?

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Answer 3

Jonathan UK

Level 10

164,015 points

Nov 15, 2016 9:23 AM in response to Glyn Harper

Hi

For assistance with using third-party apps (including questions about how they sync with Apple's apps), I suggest that you contact the respective app developers.

You may find it most helpful to unpair the Polar heart rate monitor from your iPhone / Polar's app and to instead pair it directly to your Apple Watch and then record your workouts from your watch.

It is not a fault for Apple Watch not to record any calories when you are not wearing the watch.

More information:

Work out with your Apple Watch - Apple Support

Use Bluetooth accessories with your Apple Watch - Apple Support

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Answer 4

Glyn Harper Author

Level 1

37 points

Nov 16, 2016 8:04 AM in response to Jonathan UK

Thanks, I hadn't thought of pairing the heart rate monitor directly to the watch. That could be useful.

But I don't think it's the 3rd party apps that's to blame. Both the Life Fitness connect app and the Polar app do the same thing.

The apple watch registers the amount of exercise time, but not the calories burned. Yet if you go into 'workouts' within the fitness app, it shows each relevant 3rd party apps workout details, including both exercise time and calories burned.

It seems that the fitness app will only use calories burned when it receives the information from the watch, not the 3rd party apps.

I think a developer should look at why this does not pass the data to the actual 'fitness' rings' part of the fitness app. It's easy to replicate and test.

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