Bike ride not transferring to Strava

[Borochris]

Hi, 

Just bought the Ionic, went for a run next day and the Ionic recognised it fine, also transferred to Strava. Following day went out for a 3hr mountain bike ride, all recorded in the Fitbit App, but not on Strava - help. Very frustrating, have had the Surge for 2 years and all files transferred without problems, I have now bought the premium device and am having immediate issues.

All help appreciated

[Borochris]

I unlinked the Fitbit from Strava, from both Apps and the connected them again...and kept my fingers crossed. Don’t know if it was a Fitbit or a Strava issue, but last night’s ride transferred pretty much automatically

Sent from my iPhone

[Borochris]

I don’t know if they did anything? I just unlinked both accounts and then reconnected both. I did report the issue to both Fitbit and Strava though. Can’t honestly say what fixed the issue which I know isn’t a help, sorry

Sent from my iPhone

[Tony.r]

@937dytboi From what I understand @Borochris 's last ride just sync'ed with no issues.(I have now just seen @Borochris 's reply above he must have been tying his typing his as I was typing mine 😃)

I have also noticed there are some further threads over in the 3rd Party App inergations board reporting issues with Fitbit Strava syncing so it may be worth having a look over there, if it helps, you can click on the link below to that board and have a scroll through.

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Third-Party-Integrations/bd-p/other-apps

Hi @SantiR I done another GPS plot this afternoon and the trace is looking perfect no squiggly lines so am satisfied it was just a temporary glitch and we are all good again.

[KonaKai2003]

To my knowledge, this issue has not been fixed.  I tried the suggested fixes, unlinking the Fitbit account from Strava and vice-versa and there is still no syncing between Fitbit and Strava.  This inability to sync between the apps occurred with the latest updates. 

[KonaKai2003]

Rich, you post and link (https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Third-Party-Integrations/Resolved-5-14-2018-Syncing-difficulties-wit...) implies that the failure to sync between apps has been resolved.  It has not.  

[Rich_Laue]

Yes I did you follow the suggestions to try fixing? 

[KonaKai2003]

The link in-bedded in the link (https://twitter.com/StravaSupport/status/993542430015262720) goes to Twitter post, just that acknowledges that is a problem with syncing and their team is looking into the current issue, etc.  

I have been unable to sync Strava and Fitbit since the updates and Strava will not accept the workaround of uploading a Fitbit TCX file.  

I have unlinked the Strava from Fitbit and vice-versa but to no effect.   

[bbarrera]

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@KonaKai2003 wrote:

I have had an ongoing issue with the sudden inability to sync data from bide rides from Fitbit to Strava.  I have also been unable to upload Fitbit TCX files to Strava, the latter reporting a server error. 

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@KonaKai2003 wanted to confirm the pre-requisite - on your Fitbit activity does a map appear? I'm pretty sure you don't get an export TCX option without a map, but just checking.

If you open the TCX file in a text editor, is it a lengthy or short file?

[bbarrera]

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@KonaKai2003 wrote:

I have been unable to sync Strava and Fitbit since the updates and Strava will not accept the workaround of uploading a Fitbit TCX file.     

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@KonaKai2003 Contact Fitbit support.

Fitbit is responsible for sending Fitbit tracked activities to Strava:

I just uploaded a TCX to Strava, no problems with Strava. My Garmin bike computer has uploaded >1000 rides to Strava over the last 2.5 years. Almost every sync happened within 1 second of finishing ride and syncing to phone. Never had a problem. I also have Zwift and TrainerRoad sending trainer rides to Strava. Again, never a problem.

I've tried Fitbit's sync feature several times, and have experienced a lot of issues. Not sure what is going on, but Fitbit keeps having problems.

[KonaKai2003]

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@bbarrera wrote:

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@KonaKai2003 wrote:

I have had an ongoing issue with the sudden inability to sync data from bide rides from Fitbit to Strava.  I have also been unable to upload Fitbit TCX files to Strava, the latter reporting a server error. 

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@KonaKai2003 wanted to confirm the pre-requisite - on your Fitbit activity does a map appear? I'm pretty sure you don't get an export TCX option without a map, but just checking.

If you open the TCX file in a text editor, is it a lengthy or short file?

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Yes.  There is map. The file is lengthy, 12.2 mg.  

[bbarrera]

@KonaKai2003 sure sounds like a problem with the TCX file that Fitbit generates.

[ionic-jo]

I have had issues since Thu 24 May, this was the last time my ionic and Fitbit synced with strava

So since Sat 26 May, have been out on my bike, and over a couple of days, have cycled, 30 miles, 15 miles, 15 miles, and none of these rides have synced to strava

I done everything suggested here, like re-authorising each app, but to no affect the sync not working

[937dytboi]

I have ionic and a wahoo elemnt mini and today after completing a ride. I synced my fitbit right after the ride and it uploaded just fine after having an issue with my last ride. When i did sync my fitbit i also synced my wahoo. I will update on my next ride to see if i have any issues

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[SunsetRunner]

So I've now tried debugging this myself, and I think that Strava is having an issue with how breaks are handled with Fitbit's tcx export. I've looked at some older data, and those rides seemed to be processed by strava just fine, so I think it's Strava's issue, not Fitbit's. The problem seems to be when there are too many trackpoint entries with DistanceMeters=0.0 (i.e. a break), at least for my own, limited, dataset.

I've made a python script to remove these, since Strava seems to handle not having these values just fine. I've got it here, but just make sure you know what you're doing before you run it. Let me know if it doesn't fix a tcx file for you, because I may have misidentified the issue.

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[bbarrera]

@SunsetRunner Strava and .fit sync is working perfectly, and has for the 2.5 years I've used a Garmin bike computer to sync with Strava. Garmin Connect native file format is .fit, and its possible to export as TCX. What is interesting is that some of my Strava activities won't export as tcx. And this morning I logged into Garmin Connect and exported a few rides (outdoor and indoor) as tcx, and those won't upload to Strava (Strava returns a filename error message, weird).

All of my TrainerRoad indoor rides are recorded as tcx, and those upload to Strava just fine.

Preliminary conclusion: Strava tcx isn't completely broken, as some tcx will upload. But some tcx won't upload, and some activities won't export as tcx. 

(I use a test account on Strava to play around with these types of things)

One thing I noted after exporting my Saturday ride with 4 "laps" in it (I hit lap button during ride) -- DistanceMeters should always be increasing, or staying the same if not moving. And a TrainerRoad indoor ride from last week has 25 laps/intervals, the only "DistanceMeters=0" (not 0.0) is the very first Trackpoint.

For your Fitbit activities with DistanceMeters=0.0, are those trackpoints at the beginning of a track? Or somewhere in the middle when you take a break? Within a Tracepoint you should only see DistanceMeters=0.0 (or =0) at the very beginning of the tcx, anything else indicates Fitbit is (probably) doing something wrong. 

Thanks for sharing the python script!

[SunsetRunner]

Yeah they're in the middle of a ride, from what I can tell, when I do a manual pause, the DistanceMeters values that are recorded drop to zero, then when they resume, they're back to whatever value they were (plus the extra distance traveled in that second). I think I'll try recording some test data soon, and seeing if replacing the distancemeters=0.0 values with the previous valid distancemeters value seems to work, since that would allow me to keep the heart rate data during the breaks.

[bbarrera]

@SunsetRunner I have looked at rides with both manual and auto pause, not a single ride has a Trackpoint with DistanceMeters=0.0 (excepting possibly the very first Trackpoint).

Last week I rode my cruiser to the gym, without an HRM.... below you can see how a manual pause is recorded by a Garmin Edge 520 gps bike computer when I output the file as TCX:

          <Trackpoint>
            <Time>2018-05-25T00:21:49.000Z</Time>
            <Position>
              <LatitudeDegrees>xx.42459058389068</LatitudeDegrees>
              <LongitudeDegrees>-yyy.38625695370138</LongitudeDegrees>
            </Position>
            <AltitudeMeters>10.199999809265137</AltitudeMeters>
            <DistanceMeters>4961.5</DistanceMeters>
            <Cadence>0</Cadence>
            <Extensions>
              <ns3:TPX>
                <ns3 : Speed>1.6799999475479126</ns3 : Speed>
              </ns3:TPX>
            </Extensions>
          </Trackpoint>
          <Trackpoint>
            <Time>2018-05-25T01:30:34.000Z</Time>
            <Position>
              <LatitudeDegrees>xx.42438983730972</LatitudeDegrees>
              <LongitudeDegrees>-yyy.38622233644128</LongitudeDegrees>
            </Position>
            <AltitudeMeters>3.799999952316284</AltitudeMeters>
            <DistanceMeters>4962.02001953125</DistanceMeters>
            <Extensions>
              <ns3:TPX>
                <ns3 : Speed>0.0</ns3 : Speed>
              </ns3:TPX>
            </Extensions>
          </Trackpoint>

As you can see time jumps from 00:21:49 UTC to 01:30:34 UTC.

Keep in mind that TCX format a) comes from Garmin, b) is older format and superseded by FIT format, and c) TCX doesn't have a formal standard (just this xsd file), it appears that:

- Trackpoint : DistanceMeters is assumed to be monotonically increasing value

- pauses are handled by jumps in time

would really like to see Fitbit use FIT format instead.

if you want to private message a 'broken' .tcx I could try uploading to TrainingPeaks, TrainerRoad, and Endomondo. In my experience some non-Garmin apps generate 'weird' TCX files that will load in some fitness sites but not others.

[ionic-jo]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

I've made a python script to remove these, but just make sure you know what you're doing before you run it.

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I'm not that savvy when it comes to running scripts, so going to take  the normal approach of re-installing, and re-authorising fitbit/strava, and see how that goes, and do a new gps bike ride

[ionic-jo]

Looks like its working now, can only guess at the problem, so Fri went out for a cycle, and a total of 34 miles, but the activity had been split/paused for breaks

So cycle  8 miles to Glasgow, stop for break 10min break, and pause gps, recommence cycle and start gps, and cycle 10 miles, and then have a break

deleted this exercise, and today logged a new exercise, bike and run, and both synced to strava

[Colmos85]

@SunsetRunner@ You legend, this worked, I had to run the script a few times on the output to remove all of them, there's a simple fix but I appreciate your work. Nice job