No heart rate when starting from the phone

[jalbacar]

Hi everyone!

I am having issues when starting a workout/run from my android device. I got all the details, gps, etc.. except the heart rate.It's like the charge 5 doesn't know that a workout has been started, not synced with the app phone.

The only way to have them is to start the workout from the charge 5. Is this the expected behaviour?

Thanks

[LZeeW · Accepted solution]

Hello @jalbacar and welcome to the Community.  Yes, this is expected behavior.  Starting a workout/run on the mobile app is an older feature called MobileRun.  MobileRun is the only way users of older model trackers can get a GPS map of their workouts.  Their devices don't have an Exercise app on the device, like your Charge 5.  You should start/stop your workouts on your Charge 5.

It used to give your heart rate.  I used this feature all the time with my old Charge HR.  It's been "broken" for a few years.

[t.parker]

@LZeeW not broken. It was broken BEFORE it was made what it is now, at least according to Fitbit 🙂 it's the same as when Fitbit "fixed" heart rate being recorded when swimming was auto-detected. Fitbit must have a very unique definition of "bug".

Btw. did you know that while wearing the tracker and tracking ie. Workout, a thirdparty can sync activity into Fitbit externally and that activity will inherit the HR from that Workout. Now, I'm curious whether that would work if activity was tracked both by Fitbit app and watch and then user could just delete one tracked by the watch... 🤔

[LZeeW]

@t.parker   MobileRun worked well when I used it with my Charge HR in 2015.  I loved and used the voice cues.  I used it with my Charge 2 in 2016, even though the Charge 2 has connected GPS.  Again, it has the voice cues.

Fast forward to Aug 2019, around the time you joined Fitbit.  There is an explosion of posts from two groups of users.  The first group use the Alta HR.  It doesn't have an Exercise app and users were vocal about the missing heart rate information.  The second group is all the users (both Android and iOS) who preferred the voice cues over the vibration cues.  Search the forums.

Based on your join date, I don't think you can remember when MobileRun worked and we got heart rate data.  The current moderators are writing revisionist history when they say that MobileRun is working properly.

[t.parker]

@LZeeW I joined earlier than this account (like probably many other previously banned users). I have been using Charge 2 and Fitbit app the same way - because I liked voice cues so I tracked runs using app and indeed there was HR. What I was trying to say, there were several responses from mods claiming that current behaviour is the right one - in other words nothing to fix because nothing is broken (to simplify, it's intentionally removed feature, not an introduced bug).

[LZeeW]

@t.parker   Like some other Fitbit changes, Fitbit never acknowledged that it was intentional.  The Alta/Alta HR forum has moderator responses saying they are looking into it.  If I remember correctly, the Android and iOS forums didn't have much moderator input at all.  It's very recent that they say it is working as intended.

I still like my revisionist history theory.  😉

[t.parker]

@LZeeW regardless the nature of issue I will see tomorrow during morning Parkrun race whether my theory works and while tracking with app I'm gonna get HR similar way to when I cross-sync Zwift. For Zwift, I track Workout or Spin on my Sense 2 but real data comes from thirdparty service as non-GPS Bike activity so I have speed and distance included (which I can't have when tracking Spin). The HR will be there only if I tracked something on the watch at the same time. Then, I can delete whatever came from the watch. Just curious whether this works now with the Fitbit app and it will show thirdparty service behaviour, too (probably not but I always prefer to test first 😉).