Ionic run app doesn't stop storing data when paused - but it sets the DistanceMeters to 0.0

[DavidGould]

When I'm running and pause my Ionic, I would expect it to stop storing data points and to resume when I press the pause (bottom right) button a second time. Instead, it appears to continue to store data but sets the DistanceMeters to 0.0. This is either an artefact of the watch's run app or the "Download as TCX" operation from the Activity. I suspect the former.

This happens if the watch is paused in the middle of the run, when the subsequent points do have the correct DistanceMeters, which is the cumulative distance covered. It's just the paused section that has 0.0 for DistanceMeters.

It also happens right at the end of the run: unless I'm missing something, the "Stop" procedure is to push the bottom right button, then the top right button, then dismiss the onscreen dialog. All of which seems a bit of a faff, to be honest. It also means I have to edit every TCX file I download for analysis elsewhere, because the zeroes mess up the pace calculations. I've mentioned it to them, and they may be attempting a workaround.

[SantiR]

@DavidGould Welcome to the Fitbit Community! Thanks for reporting the situation you are experiencing with the activities tracked with your Ionic. 

That is strange. I'd recommend performing a restart on your Ionic. That should help you out with this situation. 

So, the watch keeps recording steps, HR, and other data when you stop the activity but the distance reset to 0?

Is this also happening with all activities that does have distance recorded when you export as TCX?

Keep me posted! 

[DavidGould]

Thanks for your reply. I've done a few very short tests, each of which involved wandering up the road a bit and pausing the watch in the middle. Resetting the watch did not change the behaviour.

Run - https://www.fitbit.com/activities/exercise/16337930935
Bike - https://www.fitbit.com/activities/exercise/16337930933
Reset the Ionic (bottom right and left buttons held until the fitbit logo appears)
Run - https://www.fitbit.com/activities/exercise/16337930934

The 'bike' activity is empty. I wasn't actually cycling and it was only just over a minute, so that might be an issue. I shall ignore the bike app for the moment.

The two run TCX files both include blocks of <DistanceMeters>0.0</DistanceMeters> both in the middle where I paused and at the end. ...935 only has a single 0.0 at the end, but ...934 has 3, presumably because I wasn't quite so quick at hitting the 2nd button and clearing the screen.

Pausing the watch stopped the steps, the activity's time and the distance (on the display, at least). They then carried on correctly when I unpaused the watch. In the files, the DistanceMeters numbers resume correctly after the block of 0.0s. Here is an example trackpoint from a paused section:

<Trackpoint>
    <Time>2018-08-21T16:16:10.000+01:00</Time>
    <Position>
        <LatitudeDegrees>51.18898665904999</LatitudeDegrees>
        <LongitudeDegrees>-1.4004533290863037</LongitudeDegrees>
    </Position>
    <AltitudeMeters>39.77442578750675</AltitudeMeters>
    <DistanceMeters>0.0</DistanceMeters>
    <HeartRateBpm>
        <Value>100</Value>
    </HeartRateBpm>
</Trackpoint>

What happens through the block is that DistanceMeters is 0.0 and all the other values keep changing.

It really looks as though pausing the watch does not stop the app recording data, except that it logs the distance as 0.0 while paused.

[DavidGould]

Here is a longer test

https://www.fitbit.com/activities/exercise/16336527630

If you hover the cursor over the pace graph and slowly move along, you see the marker on the map skip from 1.28 to 1.29, jumping over a big squiggle. The squiggle is where the watch was paused and I was wandering around my friend's garden and grounds. The data for the paused section has been stored; it's just that it does not contribute the the overall statistics (elapsed time, distance).

[Wizegeezer]

This situation also shows up when I do an automatic export to Strava.  As a result, the Strava results don't match the Fitbit results.  To get around this, I've given up using the pause function on my Ionic.