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Apple Health Activity Ring does not fill after workout is completed on a Garmin device (Request for improvement on how Garmin Connect writes data to Apple HealthKit SDK)

Hello, I use my Garmin Fenix 6 for all my workouts and my Apple Watch 7 for daily use. When completed a workout, Garmin Connect synchronizes with Apple Health. Apple Health sees the workout data but does not fill the activity ring. Could anyone provide a solution to this? I see its a common problem among Garmin - Apple users. Garmin, please take care of this!! Thank you!

  • Based on your comment I went ahead and checked to see if they fixed something without telling us.  

    Active energy is still recorded once a day as a total with a single time stamp rather than a time range.  This is incorrect and will result in an overcount.  It should be recorded as the calories burned between a start and end time. (Other sources will either use the time range and total for an activity, or ranges as small as a few seconds to minutes).

    Floors climbed is doing the same thing as active energy.  No time range, just a stamp.(should be the time you started climbing until you ended with a count of floors covered in that time)

    Resting energy - same thing.. time stamp, not a range. (the reason this is so bad is because if ANY other data source writes any resting energy it gets double counted.  Basically Garmin is saying I'm burning over 2,000 calories in zero seconds at 10:59:59 each day.  If they gave the range as a full 24 hours it would be better, but still wrong, because that would show they assume that no other data source will ever write data.  The data should be written in periods from several seconds to a few minutes. 

    Walking/running distance - again, same problem.  I did not run 5 miles in zero seconds.

    Workouts are recorded with a. start and end time, but the calories and distance associated with them don't even get a time stamp, let along a start and stop for the sample.  Even if they simply used the start and stop of the workout with a single summary sample it would be an improvement, but what should be done here is heart rate, pace, calories, ground contact time, etc. should be written in one second intervals (assuming your watch is set to record every second).  That way the graphs would work, other apps could do an analysis, and no data would be lost. 

    So, with respect, while those may be working well enough not to cause you an obvious issue, all of them are wrong and for anybody who is trying to use more than one data source Garmin's Implimentation is causing issues.  

    Also, just for your own knowledge, all of the things you want added but aren't sure if it's an API limitation could 100% be done at anytime that Garmin wanted to.  HealthKit can handle all those (and many other Garmin metrics as well, (but not Bike power annoyingly enough)). 

    Now to go delete all the garbage the testing put in.....   I know you will not be able to tell us anything about Garmin's future plans on this, but would it be possible to tell us if you have shared our info yet and if so with who (looking for title, not name: e.g. development team, product manager, your manager) so that at least we have hope that progress may be being made?  Thanks! 

  • Walking/running distance is not correct.  There are times it dumps it in twice at the end of the day instead of incremental values like it should do

  • Hi, I also have same issue related to inaccuracy of synced active energy data from Garmin Connect to Apple Health. Here’s my detail:

    1. What Apple device do you own and what is the current sw? -> iPhone 11 with iOS 16.1

    2. What Garmin device do you use as current activity tracker? -> Venu Sq (non music)

    3. May we have permission to access your Garmin Connect account? -> Granted

    4. May we have permission to email you? -> Granted

    5. In what country do you live? -> Indonesia

  • 1. I own Apple Watch Series 3 and 6. IPhone 12 and 13 ProMax, Ipad proGen 1,2 and 4, Imac, Mac book pro and mac Book Air.. But, the question is Apple Health application connection to Garmin Connect application.
    2. I have Garmin Tactix Deltra Solar Asia, and Vivosmart 5, Garmin Edge 1030 Asia, Garmin Varia UT800, and Garmin Varia RTL515.
    3. Yes, you have my permission to access my Garmin Connect account. I'm not sure how but can you access via my id above?
    4. Yes, email me. I think you have my email address.
    5. I live in Bangkok, Thailand.

    My need is for Connect to sync the Blood Oxygen level and Respiratory rates to Apple Health. I think several people are having conditions of stop breathing during sleeping, which may lead to death; i.e. the Brain lacks Oxygen during sleep. I'm not sure whether there's a function in any smart watch to give some forms of notice should wearer stop breath momentarily; like for one or two minutes. This could be some form of ringing or vibration. This feature may save life.

    I'm contemplating on may be purchase Apple Watch Ultra, but currently researching what it can do.

    Thanks for your kind attention and considerations.


  • And I’m guessing the apple activity rings are still not closing with the Garmin workouts ?  I can’t check it yet until my new watch comes 

  • Sorry, but I didn't check that.   It used to be that you had to own an Apple Watch to close the rings as it would interpret the health data rather than your phone, however, recently Apple has backed off that a bit (part of letting Apple Fitness+ work without a watch) so I think in theory the data should close them now, but I don't know he math on that part.  Move ring should work even with the way that Garmin is doing it wrong as the calories are still logged as burned (although it will hit at night, and not after doing the activity).   I don't know if the exercise ring will close because although workouts are logged with a duration, the heart rate isn't properly logged with them, however, outside of the workout Garmin does record HR well (better than Apple does since Garmin records every two minutes and Apple records variably), so it might get picked up from that.  (since the rings give credit for high heart rate even outside of workouts.   Garmin of course, does not write anything to the 'stand hours' value, so that ring won't close.   (although there is nothing stopping them from adding that value to what they right).  Basically if Garmin fully and correctly implemented HealthKit you should be able to close all the Apple Fitness rings without every owning an Apple Watch...... but at the moment, all bets are off.

  • Hi all, I noticed today connect got an update .can anyone confirm if the fix for apple activity rings filling is in it ? I’m still waiting for my new watch to be delivered.

  • My apple activity rings updated for yesterday and today, but not historically. It also looks like the Apple activities are adding steps from the phone and my Garmin, therefore increasing the step count more than necessary.

  • Nothing has changed, as I would expect since there was nothing in the release notes, hasn't suggested we should see anything fixed, and it's only been two weeks since he indicated he would try to see if he can get something done.  (I would expect an actual fix to take months).   Steps is recorded more or less correctly by Garmin (although in 15 minute intervals).   If you have data from both your phone and a Garmin watch showing in Apple Health, you should know that the software is designed to resolve data conflicts by looking at the time stamp and then using the one you have set as a higher priority.  So, the raw data shows everything, but the metric shows the de-dupped value.  (although with 15 minute intervals coming from Garmin, there will always be some odd overlap resulting most likely in an undercount). 

  • 55 signatures and counting on the petition for better (and full) apple health sync! Please continue to sign! https://change.org/p/garmin-sync-with-apple-health