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Vivofit no longer syncing/creating activities (from HRM)

Former Member
Former Member over 10 years ago
I have been using my vivofit with no issues until now. For my gym workouts I pair my vivofit with a garmin heart rate monitor that i wear on my chest. The readout on the vivofit shows me my heart rate accurately. When I am done with my workout, I press the button on HR until it tells me that it has disconnected from the HRM. When i go to sync, normally I would see a new activity with my HR data in it and data like calories burned. Since July 22nd (my last correct entry) the app no longer posts activities when I sync. The vivofit accurately reports my steps but not activities. I believe there was an update to garmin connect around this time.

Is there an issue with the latest mobile app? I am using a note 3. Until now, it has worked flawlessly. Now, I have to enter activities in manually with just raw calorie counts in order to get myfitnesspal to come close to accurate. Is anyone else seeing this problem? Garmin, is there a known issue with this? Right now I get no activity data. I may have to switch to the garmin fit app just to see if I can get HR data for my workouts which is a shame because I love my vivofit for the gym.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 10 years ago
    The workaround of using Garmin Fit works for me. It doesn't do much except create an activity and put in heart rate data. You have to monitor calories burned yourself and add them to the activity after the fact. Also, when you do this, the calorie adjustment sync in myfitnesspal works differently. With the vivofit, I would see a "garmin calorie adjustment" exercise in myfitnesspal that would be a difference between the estimated calories burned by myfitnesspal minus the calculated calories burned on garmin. This difference was never quite the same raw calories burned in an activity. For instance, If I did a 900 calorie activity, I might see a 600 calorie adjustment in myfitnesspal.

    With this workaround, when I enter calories manually (from the machine I use at the gym) it syncs 100% to myfitnesspal as an activity and not a "calorie adjustment". So, not quite same behavior as vivofit. I'm not sure which is more accurate but it seemed like there was more thought put into the vivofit method of calorie counting.

    Garmin please tell us you are working on this problem....
  • 0 over 10 years ago
    I find the lack of response from Garmin disturbing. Their CEO seriously needs to visit these forums to see how many problems people are having with just about all of their products.

    The best thing that Garmin can do is start communicating with their customers. Just give us some feedback that issues are being looked into!
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 10 years ago
    Do you still hâve the problem because I do?
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 10 years ago
    I have not tried to use my vivofit for activities since the issue first came up. I am currently using the Garmin Fit app. I got an email from support saying that they are aware of the issue and working on it. I have asked them to update us on the current status of this problem. Hopefully a fix and update the the connect app is coming soon.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 10 years ago
    I am having this exact same issue - with gym work outs and running.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 10 years ago
    Update: I have found that if you sync your vivofit with the desktop app that the activities from the vivofit will sync. Also, I have seen other posts in the forums that suggest that you must wait 10 minutes after turning off your HRM on the vivofit before syncing in order to get the activity. I have not verified if the 10 min wait will work with the mobile app.

    Garmin support, you may want to have someone find all these common forum posts and link to them in one sticky post or make this thread sticky and post links to others.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 10 years ago
    Jason,

    Re syncing with the desktop app (by which I assume you mean Garmin Express): I'm virtually NEVER able to sync through that. Maybe 1 time out of every 20 I try. I've unpaired my vivofit and re-paired. I've ensured that Garmin Express is up to date. I've made sure there are no other Bluetooth devices nearby. Doesn't matter. I always have to sync either through my phone or my tablet.

    However, yesterday, I tried (as you suggested) waiting about 10 minutes after turning off my HRM before syncing through my mobile app, and it DID work. Thanks.

    I still get a "double activity," though. One is the activity created in Garmin Fit, and the other is the "automatic" activity that vivofit creates whenever you use your HRM. This results in two calorie counts for a single bike ride. To compensate, I've created a "meal" that adds calories equal to the "extra" calories I get credit for in my duplicate activity. This backs out the duplicate activity calories burned.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 10 years ago
    KJISSACSON,

    Well that confirms the 10 min. theory. Looks like that is a requirement to getting the vivofit to work (although still unsure on mobile app). As far as the double counting, that is because you are using the Garmin Fit app at the same time as the vivofit. The Fit app will create an activity as soon as you hit the end button with data it collected. If you are also accessing the HRM through your vivofit then it will create an activity as well when you sync (assuming you waited 10 min). You can only use on or the other if you want just one activity without double counting. I use the fit app when I run outside because it will track gps location during the run. If I am in the gym, I just use my vivofit with the HRM because gps is not relevant.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 10 years ago
    Jason,

    Yeah, I know what causes the double counting--but for my purposes it's unavoidable. I want both the calorie count and the HRM when I go for a bike ride. And on bike rides, I use Garmin Fit because of the GPS. So once I put on the HRM (which Garmin Fit tracks), it also creates the "generic" vivofit activity. No big deal, as long as I adjust for it. But an annoyance nonetheless.

    Thanks.
    Ken
  • 0 over 10 years ago
    Add one more I have the same issue. This is not going to work for me.