Make Heart Rate Data export in Excel/CSV format

[Gypsylou]

Please add the heart rate data to the reports that can be downloaded/exported.  The ones for the activity and sleep are perfect but since I have a pacemaker I really need to have one to print out for my cardiologist showing how often I rise above the set pace.

Thank you

Mod edit: Title

[harrywakefield]

I returned my Fitbit because Garmin customer support told me that the Vivosmart 3 has this feature. While I can get some cheesy graphs, I can’t get any raw data. If Fitbit ever comes up with something I’ll buy it.

[Kwatson20]

If you do a search on 

How to Download Your Fitbit Second-Level Data Without Coding

You can find a way to get the data.  It's not pretty but it works.  To get it for a windows pc, open a cmd window and put the instructions there.

Hurl no longer exists.  You can figure out how to get json to xls format with a little work.

[ZeroPly]

I decided to go with a Garmin instead. I'm really not interested in monkeying around with JSON files in my spare time. Hope Fitbit gets this going sometime, because I really like the Versa. But not being able to get my HR data is an absolute deal breaker.

[harrywakefield]

Confirm that, with Garmin, you can get actual data and not just some cheesy report graph. I learned the hard way that Garmin Tech Support thinks that you can get the data. I was told this two times and neither time did the tech offer to help me extract that data. Note no Y axis label.

[Zuke2]

I produce my own graphs from raw Fitbit HR data already for several months. Can see 8640 measurements a day minus some 100 or 200 mismeasurments. Works great. Really don't understand all this fuzz. You might  view some months back in this thread. So many options for downloading your data... Some issues are difficult but downloading HR data is not.

Moderator edit: removed personal information

[Dr_C]

Hi Zuke2

I do not understand why you would not see the point??

Are you aware that the only way to extract the data required, is to do it yourself - the Fitbit software does not allow you to do this?

Are you aware that Fitbit state that this data is 'our' data and we should have access to it?

Are you aware that this has been requested from Fitbit (i.e., a simple and straightforward way of downloading the data for further analysis) for over 5 years now and during all of this time, the moderators have stated that it is under consideration?

The above 3 points are part of the problem but they do outline the problem people are upset about.

I think that it might be different and the feelings not quite so heated, if the company did not play part of its promo material on the point tat ... the data belongs to us.

I also am able to produce my own graphs and do my own analysis of my personal data (e.g., recovery rate) and have given details on this forum in the past - but that is not the point.  The company should be doing this and it has been requested. The company however, seem reluctant to discuss it except through the moderators, who of course can not really do anything other than pass on the customers thoughts.

[Gondwana]

Zuke2 is right. You don't have to extract the data yourself. Fitbit doesn't have to provide consumer-level software to give access to the data because many others have provided the software to do so (in conjunction with Fitbit-provided software at API level).

[Dr_C]

I have no idea why any customers of Fitbit would want anything other than to have this as a simple download from the Dashboard. It is not difficult to do and therefore, should not be difficult to do by incorporating it into the Dashboard programming.

In light of the 'play' the company makes about our data belonging to us, and in light of the fact that this has been requested for over 5 years now, why would there be any sense in customers being anything other than 'as one' in wanting this and working together to encourage Fitbit to provide this service.

To argue that they do not need to do this, because others have done this, makes no sense - it just lets companies off the hook. This is especially important in light of the promotional material they have which emphasises the importance of the data 'being ours'.

It is much better to ensure that the company has a unified voice from the customers, as we like their product and want it to be better.

And remember, not everyone is computer savvy - the easier this is done, the better.  Fitbit could even start adding areas of analysis of the data - that would be great.

[ZeroPly]

Zuke2, I work in IT, and if I spent the time, I'd probably be capable of putting together the kludges necessary to convert the raw JSON data and integrating it into my SQL/BIRT setup.

That said, I have plenty of other things on my plate right now, and if I'm spending $200+ on a watch, I don't want to take on a whole bunch of associated work. That's something Fitbit needs to do, if they want my business.

My second point is far more important. This is a request that has been pending for years, with hundreds (thousands?) of people asking for a simple enhancement that would take a competent development team a couple of days to implement. If Fitbit is apathetic or technically incapable of fulfilling this request, what guarantee do you have that your kludge will work when the next update comes out? Remember, this is not something that Fitbit is promising will work. So any day now, you might not be able to get HR data from your watch.

I have my Garmin watch on the way in, should be here on Wednesday. As I said, I really like the Versa, but I'm not interested in rolling the dice on a workaround that might stop working any day.

[harrywakefield]

Please research the Garmin product before you buy. Their customer service told me two separate times that the data was accessible. Not true! You can get some graphs, but not the data that supports the graph.

[ZeroPly]

Harrywakefield, I've used Garmin for my bike computers for years, so I'm already familiar with their data setup. The HR data through the website is simple - you can see a graph and overlay it on a couple of other parameters. That's all that most people would need. One thing I really want is waking PR, and that's easy to get just from the graph. But I'm not seeing any way to do it with Fitbit unless you start mucking around with the raw data.

I really like the look of the Versa, and all the features, but a simple zone clumping of HR is absolutely useless to me.

[SunsetRunner]

I agree with ZeroPly, I'm not in IT but as a scientist, I've been using and writing programs to manipulate and analyze data for almost 40 years. To echo the comments in this thread, I'm amazed that the various fitness devices don't already provide this capability. It would be very simple to provide an export capability. I assume that since years have gone by since this obvious request was made, that Fitbit is not interested in enabling their customers to access the data provided by the devices we paid for. Frustrating! I guess they (or someone) believes that such a capability would compromise their future business opportunities. (Personally, I think it would enhance them since more people would be attracted to the potential - but I'm a scientist).

How difficult would it be to write a separate Fitbit app that records the HR data and transmits it to the BT connected phone where it can be stored in a file (CSV?, other) and later transferred to a computer. I'd much rather have access to the raw HR data than to be constrained to their 'expert' apps that assume to know what I want to know.

Why? I'd like to be able to monitor how long after my workouts it takes for my HR to recover to resting levels. I'd also like to observe (graphically) how the HR reduces to a more moderate level after being pushed up to high rates. Neither is possible with the crude graphics I can get from Fitbit. I'd also like to correlate the increased heart rates with specific exercise activities in the gym; bench press, military press, leg press, sit-ups, lat pull, flys, maybe even power clean, etc.

If Fitbit has a way I can do this, please let me know!

[NeedData]

The broad market doesn't really want or need all of the data access but markets are not broadly homogenous, there are segments including one that wants more detail on the data. 28 years ago I bought my first heart rate monitor and did a lot of manual recording to find things like recovery rates after hard exercise. Unfortunately unless one also has time and skill to do programming using protocols that aren't guaranteed to be available going forward, things really haven't improved much in that 28 years except that it is glaringly obvious that the technology is easily there, just no interest by a main device provider. Sad.

Moderator edit: removed personal information

[Zuke2]

Exporting HR to excel is not that difficult. After I ve received the csv file like I told before I can make wonderful graphs and analysis. And of course Fitbit could do that too. You are fully right! But why do you want to wait if you can do it right now?

With some little help of some friends it is possible.

Moderator edit: removed personal information

[SimonKennedy]

While I agree more fine-grained heart rate data would be nice, for HIIT and other reasons, I'm personally more interested in being able to export my resting heart rate' for each day.  I've been tracking my weight, activity and sleep in fitbit for some time now, and it wb great to add CV health to that via some proxy such as daily resting heart rate

[Karamazov]

I bought the Fit Charge 2 recently just so I can track my HR recovery over time in an Excel sheet with pivot tables/charts. The feature of exporting an HR .cvs file is such a no brainer to me that I didn't even consider it could not be implemented yet. Seeing that it's not available yet after 4 years of request, I'm definitely returning this crap to the store. They just don't care I guess. Bye bye.

[Dr_C]

Let's hope that the moderators take note of this.


Moderator edit: removed personal information

[ZeroPly]

DrC,

There are 27 pages of comments in this thread. It was moved to "In consideration" in 2017. It doesn't take a competent company that long to "consider" something. I doubt there's anything the mods can do, so it's not fair to blame them - this speaks to technical or managerial incompetence at a much higher level.

I still like the Fitbit overall, but I'm not holding my breath for someone to get off their butt and listen to what their customers have been asking for - for literally YEARS. I bought a Garmin Vivoactive 3, I'm getting great data out of it, so I'm good for now.

Karamazov,

Recovery rate is one of the most important items I'm tracking. The 24 hour raw data the day AFTER an endurance event is invaluable in telling me how well I was conditioned for it. I'm also doing a lot of correlation work between different days. I just pull down the FIT files and convert them to CSV, or dump them directly into a SQL repository - very straight-forward on the Garmin side.

ZC

[Dr_C]

I am also looking at a Garmin at the moment - so could you confirm that you are able to easily get your HR data.


Thanks

Moderator edit: removed personal information

[ZeroPly]

John,

From Garmin Connect (HR screen), I click the export and download a bunch of FIT files. Then I use a converter to make those CSV. If you just want to use Excel, the CSV files have everything that you need. If you're doing something else, pretty much any analytics program will accommodate CSV.

There's also a FIT SDK available if you want to incorporate the conversion into a larger workflow. I'm getting ready to use that, since I use Python to manage my Garmin TCX/GPX files in general. That would allow me to import all the FIT data into SQL in one shot.

ZC

ZC

[harrywakefield]

What do you use to convert the .fit files?

[harrywakefield]

No, I can’t. I see one response that says you can export the .fit files to .csv files. I just asked what his process is and am awaiting the response. At present all I can get are graphs of daily HR data. I have attached a screen shot, but don’t know if it will go through. Notice lack of scale on Y axis.
If I get an answer, I’ll be happy to pass it along.

[ZeroPly]

I'm on the road, but will get the name of the utility for you when I get home tomorrow. You should be able to find it easily on Google - look for a Java converter that's drag and drop onto a batch file. There's also an online conversion tool.

ZC

[harrywakefield]

Excellent! Thank you.

[jules456]

Whilst I can download alot of the information from my Fitbit, there is currently no option to download heart rate data, even though it has been uploaded to the my dashboard. As I have a heart condition this would be a really useful addition to review following different activities and with my consultant.