No Charge 2 Heart Rate in Strava

[niconyc]

hey all. would really love it if fitbit charge 2 would work directly with strava for hr transmission. i had a basis peak and the hr would simply appear in strava without the funky back end synchronization. but barring that i just did a practice walk to see if my hr would be reported in strava. the back end synchronization worked - the activity was correctly logged - but the heart rate stats did not appear.

Moderator Edit: Edited thread title.

[SunsetRunner]

It's up to Strava to use the info it obtains using the Fitbit open API. Fitbit has nothing to do with whether they use it or not.

[SunsetRunner]

There's plenty of discussion about this on strava, and afaik the fitbit device will not share the heartrate data directly with another app: all recording has to happen though the fitbit app. then there's some kludgy sync with strava, so other data like powermeter/cadence will be difficult to synchronize. also, it does not seem that fitbit will enable gps if i'm cycling, so this device really doesn't work for cyclists - it's aimed at runners and walkers. I thought I could use this as an alternative heart rate monitor while cycling. Maybe there's a workaround, but I don't see it, so I'll just return the device and get something that works.

[niconyc · Accepted solution]

Hey all, after using my Charge 2 much more I've realized the kludgy back-end synchronization is actually pretty good.  Some quirks that I've discovered: 

1) I've had excellent success logging my exercise using the charge 2 only - push the side button until you get to Bike then tap the device (not the button) hard-ish to change among the available activities.  The activity list is customizable on the fitbit app on your phone.  When the activity you want is displayed on the device screen, push & hold the button until the activity starts.  Don't do anything with your phone except bring it with you and keep it within about 20 feet (so the bluetooth sychrnonizes and your GPS records your location & altitude).  

2) If you log the activity on your phone (using the fitbit app) AND your device both, it will create duplicate activities.  You should only log it using one or the other, not both.  

3) My heart rate is only recorded if I manually start logging an activity.  The automatically detected activities do not seem to record your heart rate.  I don't know why.  Maybe it's because the automatically detected activity was a walk and it only records heart rate for a run?  I don't know. 

4) If you log a walk or something other than a Run or Bike, Strava won't recognize it.  So even if you are just going for a walk but you want Strava to record it, log it manually using the push-button method on your device described above and select "run" as the activity. 

After you've finished you need a good data connection on your phone for the activity to synchronize.  It will take a few minutes but if you want to force it, open the fitbit app to synchronize your device, then once it appears there it usually appears immediately in Strava too.  

I've been very satisfied with the way it works after I figured out these quirks, but it would've been nicer to have a clearer explanation of the way they did it somewhere.  I hope this helps someone else figure this stuff out because it does work quite well if you do it properly.  Cheers !

PS - I've successfully used the fit bit charge device "bike" mode button to log bike rides that synchronize GPS and heart rate data into Strava.  I don't do anything on my phone at all, I just select "bike" on the charge 2 and hold the button down to start the logging, and when I finish I hold down the button again to stop logging.  It synchronizes all my GPS data, speed, location, altitude, as well as all my heart rate data and imports it into Strava.  It took a while to figure out but works well now.  

[SunsetRunner]

Thanks for the response @niconyc - it worked. I got gps and heart rate recorded. But the sync with Strava still leaves me baffled: I can't see any way for the title of the ride, or whether it's public or private, or a commute, to be set?

[Markneley]

Thank you! That helps to clarify things.

[genewildish]

This is great information. I paid for Strava Summit and was disappointed to see no heart rate activity when I rode this morning. It's surprising that such a fundamental and basic integration requires so much experimentation, trial, error, and posting on the customer forums in order to figure out. I will try this on my way home and see how it works.

[jgormley]

Watch was Bluetooth connected to phone.

Phone gps was on. 

I recorded a bike ride on the watch only, not the app.

I used the button to get the run, then bumped it to bike.

Held the button to start recording.

biked....

Held the button to stop recording.

Syncd to the website.

Exported the workout to a tcx file.

Imported the tcx file into strava.

Heartbeat was there along with everything else.

[jgormley]

Nice work!

I just wish this answer was easier to find.

Never knew you could record on the watch.

I should have RTFMd

[AlvaroFitbit]

@jgormley Welcome! It's nice to have you on board! Sorry for the late reply.

Happy to hear that you were able to record your data and transfer it to Strava. The feature's name is Connected GPs and you can read more about it here.

Let me know how it goes.

[msfarid]

Hi 

how you get that file from Fitbit then how you upload to strava?

[jgormley]

view the bike ride on the fitbit web site.

click on the ... on the upper right

export tcx file

import that into strava...

[Glaciertrekk]

I came here  looking for basically the same information because I have a new charge 4 and it seems very inconsistent at recording auto recognized exercise.

 Personally, I wish the tracker would record all the same information for all exercises. It’s frustrating for me that it records GPS for some activities and not for others especially with this one since there’s a built-in GPS. 

I also have widely variant and inconsistent information regarding steps and mileage. Where I used to never have issues recording my exercise with other apps and syncing  with Fitbit, Now it seems my charge 4  gets confused. If I use another app like Strava or MapMyRun, now  my Fitbit will actually delete that amount of steps and mileage from my activity though my heart rate and calories burned stays accurate. 

 I like recording exercise on other apps and use the Fitbit more as a final day analysis, but this is getting more and more difficult. 

However, all that being said, this fix posted from quite a few years ago seems to be still relevant today. It has helped me a lot with syncing between Fitbit and Strava. Four years later, thanks for taking the time to  post it.

[jgormley]

Glad it helped you.

I have switched over to the new Samsung Galaxy Watch 3.
Expensive but works well with Android phones.

It will record workouts w/ heart rate without a need for a phone.
Not sure if it records hr for all workouts, since I use a bike most of the
time.
I linked the Samsung Health app to feed Strava and it has worked every time
so far.

The cheaper Galaxy Watch Sport 2 works well also.
You can get an open box from Best Buy for $200.

No more fighting with sync issues!