What is the Difference Between the "Move IQ" and "Auto Activity Start" Settings?

• What is Garmin Move IQ? 
• What Is the Auto Activity Start Feature on My vivo Watch? 

In short MoveIQ detects the activity, but appart from tagging it on the daily activity graph, it does nothing (creates no record in Activities). Auto Activity Start detects the activity and starts a fullfeatured recorded Activity of the detected type (including a GPS track at outdoor activities).

Personally I'd tell both of them are rather useless. You better start all your activities manually, because the Auto Start will make false detections, will fire up too late or too early, and equally for the stop. You better keep the controls, and start activities manually, keeping the auto-start maximally as a fallback option.

thank you. yeah, i also think this might have stopped an activity i was in twice in a row. i dont trust it. can it stop active activities by accident?

Monkee said:

can it stop active activities by accident?

Sure, you can, but it also depends on the model you own. On some watches you have to push the right upper button, which is close to the wrist when the watch is worn on the left hand, and hence can be pressed accidentally when you bend the wrist. The method to stop an activity may differ, though, on your watch. But then, you can also lock the buttons to prevent it. Or if your model uses the touchscreen for starting & stopping, then you can lock the touchscreen too.

no, i am saying i think Move IQ stopped my active activity. i was snowboarding and twice it stopped on me and i had to start it again. i had three activities at the end instead of one.

i had it set to lockscreen "on during activity" so the screen was locked. i cant imagine the unlock button was held then the stop button pressed both times. i've been snowboarding almost every day and this one day was the only day it happened. i turned off the "Auto Activity Start" and it hasnt happened since. well, i also turned on lockscreen for "all the time" which is annoying but i am paranoid it isnt working right. i have seen some bugs in the lockscreen code so far. i am guessing here though...

Yes, auto start will also auto stop an activity, otherwise it would always keep on recording indefinitely. Although I cannot tell you whether it can stop a manually started activity too, since fortunately my device does not have this feature :-) Turning it off is definitely a good idea.

so it happened again today on a walk... about 20 seconds after i started walking the activity turned off. i had to start it again. the buttons were not pushed, the screen was definitely locked and move iq and auto start were OFF. so it isnt that. it is some kind of bug. i ended up walking for 2 hours in two segments and it didnt happen again. the snowboarding time it happened in the middle then a few minutes later... i dont like this. i dont want to fragment activities when they shut off for no reason. hmmm... both of these activities use GPS. maybe it lost GPS? maybe that is why? it isnt move iq or the lockscreen, i know that for sure now.

Did it stop and save the activity, or just paused it? There is also the auto-pause option in the settings of most activities, sot that could be also a reason for pausing an activity. And if the pause takes too long, it may perhaps get saved after some longer time. Cannot tell exactly how long - I do not use the auto-pause either.

it made a long vibration then had the screen where you can discard or save the activity you just did... it ended. also the times when i was snowboarding, same thing. i dont know if the venu sq can pause activities. that is what i am using.

Monkee said:

i dont know if the venu sq can pause activities

I looked at your User Manual, and see that it indeed can: Using Auto Pause

Disable that option. Pause will time out after certain time and will prompt you for saving, if you do not resume within that time. On most Garmin watches you can select the option Resume Later, which does not have this limitation, but I do not see it in the user manual of Venu Sq, so can't tell you whether it is there or not.

I actually like the Move IQ feature and keep it on. I use it to keep some kind of record of "activities" (like general walking or cycling), which are not "excercises" that I would want to record properly. But it's nice to be able to check in the evening how long it took to walk to work, etc.