Strava not showing swims

[Pd1972]

Hi

Setting aside the Strava watch app which doesn't seem to work at the moment... I can't get my Strava account to show swims recorded of the Fitbit. Runs and bike rides show up fine but swims are just not there (the swims do show on the Fitbit App). Has anyone else managed to get swims to sync? If not, could it be that the data format that Ionic is using is just not compatible with Strava for swimming.

Also.. any chance of being able to set a difference measurement unit for different sports on the watch itself - I want miles for bike rides but metres for swimming - instead I get the watch reporting in yards for swimming but the App reporting in metres.

Phil

[koobeenz]

I believe the FitBit sends the GPS coordinates with timestamps to Strava, and Strava interprets those into your run or bike. GPS doesn't work under water, so you don't have the coordinates to send. They could probably send Strava the accelerometer data, but that would be a change to how the link works. I'm speculating, but maybe it will be a future update

[Pd1972]

I think you're right but I reckon it's the Fitbit-Strava that's causing it
not the watch. My old Fenix would sync non GPS swim data with no issue.

[bbarrera]

Unfortunately, Fitbit only allows exporting activities with GPS. I reported this a couple years ago and it’s still hasn’t been addressed by Fitbit. 

[beatrider]

So ionic is not able to automatically upload a tracked swimming exercise to Strava?

Thank you in advance

[koobeenz]

Correct

[jowanale]

bummer......

[Rumpfuttock]

So, I assume this will work if you are swimming outdoors. Not really an option in the UK in winter, unless you're one of those cold water swimmers.

[bbarrera]

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wrote:

So, I assume this will work if you are swimming outdoors. Not really an option in the UK in winter, unless you're one of those cold water swimmers.

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I don't think so, Fitbit doesn't support GPS and HR while swimming. Apparently those are not tracked accurately while in the water.

If you wanted a map in Strava, you could try manually tracking as bike ride, as a workaround. Once its in Strava you can edit and change Sport from Ride to Swim. The Ionic run and hike modes will look for steps, and use "stride x steps" for distance - you might get a proper map and distance in Strava, not sure. Oddly the Ionic only uses GPS for maps when walking/running/hiking, and there is no general purpose GPS tracking mode, and that is the reason I suggesting tracking as a bike ride on Ionic.

[Duke552]

The GPS is not the criteria for sending data to strava

Other watch send swim record without any GPS

[bbarrera]

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@Duke552 wrote:

The GPS is not the criteria for sending data to strava

Other watch send swim record without any GPS

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@Duke552 Yes, other vendors sync activities with or without GPS. 

Fitbit only exports if the activity has GPS. I reported the issue over 3 years ago and it still hasn't been fixed.

[LynnHC]

The tcx file that you can export from a swim activity is next to useless for any website that allows you to log training.  It needs to be improved.

[LynnHC]

If you are looking for fitbit to improve the export file from swim activities, please go and vote on this improvement:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Generate-meaningful-TCX-for-swimming-data/idi-p/...