MobileRun missing data after pausing - Android 2.43+

[AlessFitbit]

Fitbit Update: 9/26/17

Hello, everyone! I wanted to make it known that I haven't forgotten about this issue with MobileRun. Our team is aware of this ongoing problem, however, I don't have a timeline for when there will be a fix available. I understand many of you are frustrated with this feature, and I hope to give you all more information soon. Thanks for your continued patience! 

Just to be clear, this thread is for the MobileRun issue for when you initiate a Run/Walk, if you 'Pause' your activity and then 'Resume' after you finish, you will not see your map or some of your exercise data. Alternatively, this does not happen if you 'Pause' and 'Finish' your Run/Walk right away. 

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Fitbit Update: 7/20/17

Thanks everyone for providing the information requested about this MobileRun issue. It appears since the Android app version 2.43, users who initiate a MobileRun on their devices and later pause it at some point will not have all the data saved when syncing afterward. This data can include the map and distance data. 

I really appreciate your cooperation and patience while our team works towards a resolution. I know many of you have been active on this thread and I want to make sure you know all your input has been very helpful in determining the factors. I will continue to update this thread when there is more information available. Thanks again for your help! 

[Quppa]

As mentioned elsewhere in this thread, initiating the tracking of an exercise from the device itself with connected GPS works fine (pause and all), assuming your model supports this feature.

In fact, I'm not really sure why this and MobileRun are separated in the first place - the resultant data seems identical when I review it in the exercise log history.

[BamIAm]

Yep, connected GPS works great, until it doesn't.  Lots of people have difficulty with their devices maintaining the connection to their phones. 

I think just using MobileRun is simpler and less problematic.  Unless you hit "pause" and lose all your data.

[Rich_Laue]

@Quppa the difference is that with mobile run, all recording is done through the Fitbit app. 

With the connected GPS the tracker gets the GPS points through the notification services, and the actual recording is saved on the tracker. The Fitbit app does not need to even be running. 

[phatbitzr]

I have fitbit app version 2.15.1 running on my Galaxy Lite w/Android 4.2.2.   I use MobileRun to record my bicycle ride (as a Run), and also recording it on my Blaze.  Sometimes, I would pause the app when my activity is over, and a couple of minutes later, when I go to 'finish' the activity, it might be non-responsive, very sluggish, etc.  Anyway, if I when I am able to finish the MobileRun.  I can see the Run as an activity with my route recorded, but without the heart rate data from the tracker.   I do see the Ride from the tracker though, with its heart rate info (but no GPS info, because my phone doesn't support connectedGPS.)

Later on, when I try to sync the tracker again, in order to try to get the heart rate data to be part of the MobileRun, the whole Run activity disappeared.

Does anyone know why its doing that?  It happened a few times.  I've also had MobileRun app hang, or hang the phone, where if I restart the app or phone, it acts as if the session was never recorded.  I've got other apps, where if the app dies or phone reboots, it knows how to recover a session that was being recorded.

Moderator Edit: Updated Subject For Clarity

[Quppa]

No improvement in 2.72.

[BamIAm]

No surprise there.  I think Fitbit ran their decent Android programmer(s) off or something.

I've been trying the iOS app lately (bought a used iPhone) instead, it's a much more polished piece of software.

[RobertoME]

Hello @phatbitzr, good to see you are visiting the Fitbit Community. I'm sorry for the late response and I'm wondering how often is this happening? There are some external factors that may explain this issue.

In this case, I was reading your post and you are using Mobilerun to track your exercise since your phone is not compatible with Connected GPS.

There is a part where you mention that you start tracking your MobileRun exercise and also in your Blaze. I'm wondering what are you referring with this? Are you tracking the exercise in your tracker too? I'm a bit confuse with this, however you do not need to track the exercise with your Blaze since you already are recording the exercise with MobileRun. Your app automatically will recognized if you are using the tracker or not to complement your information.

Now, I saw also that your app is not the most recent version and is outdated. The most recent version for Android to the date of this post, is version 2.72.1. For more details please refer to this post.

This might be the reason of the app behavior, since with older versions it may present some abnormalities at the moment to track your exercise.

Also, I recommend to not pause the exercise. Note that in some exercise; pausing, may produce loss of your GPS map due to a glitch affecting a small portion of users.

Hope this helps a bit and stay tuned if you have other questions.

[phatbitzr]

@RobertoME, thanks for answering.

I use Mobilerun and the tracker because the tracker will auto recognize my activity anyway, but I won't be able to view vital stats like heartrate when it is being auto-recognized.  Plus, I want to record my activity as a bicycle ride.  The mobilerun activity is there because of the GPS and export capability.

I am using version 2.15.1 because that is the only version available for my Android 4.2.2.  Version 2.72.1 requires Android 4.4.

I pause because I want the tracker to sync'd its recent heartrate data to the app before I end the mobilerun activity, which I presume automatically sync'd up its information to fitbit, and if the heartrate data is incomplete, the sync to Strava will be missing that, in which I would have to perform a manual export to .tcx, and manual upload that file to Strava.

[phatbitzr]

My workaround now is to not pause my Mobilerun, but end the activity.  But at the same time, I would put my phone in airplane mode so there is no way for the app to sync the activity to fitbit.com.  Once I end the activity on the tracker, I would disable airplane mode and continue with sync.  The mobilerun activity doesn't always sync up to fitbit.com with my heartrate (which means it gets sync'd to strava w/o the heartrate, requiring manual export), but at least, no activity gets lost.

[MysteryGirl05]

This happened to me today 

[jandreasen]

Yep. And it's going to keep happening because Fitbit doesn't care

Another example: the challenges and adventures in the app? The same exact ones they've had since I bought my Fitbit over a year ago, despite the the app saying new ones would be added. I think they updated the app to remove that wording...

Moderator Edit: Word Choice

[raiche.peggy]

This thread started almost a year ago. It is about time Fitbit did something about this issue. When a feature is advertised and then does not work, that is called bait and switch...

Moderator's edit: format

[RobertoME]

Hi there @phatbitzr, @jandreasen @raiche.peggy and welcome aboard to the Fitbit Community! Thanks for your comments and feedback. My apologies for the late response.

This issue has been affecting the MobileRun option for a time and I understand, you as affected users of this feature it might be frustrating not to being able to use the option as it should. It's important to mention here, that the feature is working, the only difference is that by pausing the exercise it may cause a lost of data,

Just keep in mind to keep on topic your feedback, this help us to keep an open and productive dialogue. I do not want you to think we do not care, with some issues may take longer to prepare a fix. Rest assured our teams, including myself, are giving follow up to this issue to offer you a prompt solution and when I got more details I will be happy to share this information.

See you later.

[1journeyman]

@RobertoME This message basically says nothing and adds no actual value to the users.

The time that this issue has been open is embarrassing and the product being advertised doesn't match reality. Fitbit should post a message to the community and openly explain the nature of the problem and next step to fix it and not just a canned generic note of CRM.

[Rich_Laue]

@RobertoME explained the problem in his post @1journeyman. 

When the tracking is paused., then resumed, the data disappears.

As mentioned several times in this thread Fitbit is well aware of this problem but so far has not been able to determine the cause of this problem.

Unfortunately the cause will have to be determined before a solution may be implemented.

I'm not sure what you mean by the nature of this problem .

[Romengaccord]

I fully agree. This has been a fault for over 12 months now - how on earth is this not resolved by now? To say that the problem must be identified prior to a solution being implemented is a joke when it's been over a year already. 

I've had 4 fitbit models now, and have issues with them all. For the tracker on the app not to work either is ridiculous. 

[Quppa]

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@Rich_Laue wrote:

@RobertoME explained the problem in his post @1journeyman. 

When the tracking is paused., then resumed, the data disappears.

As mentioned several times in this thread Fitbit is well aware of this problem but so far has not been able to determine the cause of this problem.

Unfortunately the cause will have to be determined before a solution may be implemented.

I'm not sure what you mean by the nature of this problem .

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We know this bug was introduced in version 2.43 (corrected - thanks). Surely the developers have source control and can compare the code changes between 2.42 and 2.43 quite easily. If the app were open source I'd volunteer to help!

It will be the 16-month anniversary of this bug this coming week.

[BamIAm]

@Quppa, 2.42 actually works, 2.43 on is broken.

Off topic, I just picked up a Garmin Vivoactive HR off Ebay, lightly used, for less than $75.  Mostly wanted to check their software and website, see how it compares to Fitbit.

So far, it's world's ahead.  Build quality, configurability, all very impressive.  The transflective LCD takes some getting used to, but if the data is good I don't care.

If the GPS tracking works as expected, I'll probably upgrade to the Vivoactive 3 or Forerunner 235.  Both can be had for the same price or less than an Ionic or just a little more than a Versa.  Tried both of these Fitbit models and send them back for refunds, multiple issues with each.  Very frustrating!

[Romengaccord]

I have the FR235. Way better and more reliable than the Ionic. Having been
a loyal fitbit customer since the original flex, and having the Flex,
Charge HR, Blaze and Ionic I'll not invest in Fitbit again. They have far
too many bugs and Fitbit are never in any rush to resolve issues. Garmin
are streets ahead.

[phatbitzr]

@RobertoME  I stopped using Pause, and end my activity right away.  Sometimes, putting the phone in airplane mode so it doesn't upload the run right away, until it has time to sync with my tracker so it can include the heartrate data.

But frequently, when ending the MobileRun activity, it will stay on the ending screen where it says Booyah! or some other msg for a long time.  Today, it just stayed there, until a few minutes later where my android phone said the app is non-responsive and had me force close it.  When I reopened the app, the recorded Run was there but w/o the heartrate.  I went to fitbit.com dashboard and the Run was not there.  I tried logging out of the app so it forces a complete sync to fitbit.com, but when I logged back in, the Run session was gone.

Doesn't the fitbit app record data to non-volatile storage, so no matter what happens to the app of phone, it can resume or make use of the previously recorded data?  That's how pretty much all the other activity tracking apps I have work.