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Wrong data shared with Apple Healthkit

Former Member over 10 years ago

Last week I discovered a bug in the latest version of the GC iPhone app. Specifically, the app shares the wrong data metric for Active Calories to Apple's HealthKit. Instead, the app appears to send a sum of Active and BMI calories. The following image should clearly illustrate the issue.

I attempted to informed Garmin of this issue, by contacting customer support via email. I also took the opportunity to suggest some improvements on how sleep data is displayed. The interaction left me utterly frustrated, and with an incredibly low opinion of Garmin.

First response:
Thank you for contacting Garmin International.
Please collect and send some log files from your Garmin Connect Mobile application so that we may further research this issue:

The email went on to instruct me on how to provide logs from my device, in order to help troubleshoot the issues I was having with logging my sleep. WTF? I never claimed to have any trouble with sleep monitoring. I only made some suggestions. And, of course, that response did not address the primary reason for the email I sent: the Active Calorie bug.

So, I replied with a request to actually read my email and address the issues raised.

Second response:

In order for us to test out your issues and answer you questions we need the logs requested in the email. We also need some screen shots for reference. We cannot offer support for a problem we cannot recreate therefore we need the data requested. I am sorry that you are disappointed in the sleep chart data. I have submitted you suggestions about the sleep data to our second tier.

Sigh. Keep in mind, my first email DID contain a screenshots. Already not impressed with the responses I have received, I replied with an even more detailed description of the Active Calorie issue, and a brand new set of screenshots.

Third response:
Thank you for contacting Garmin International. When viewing your information in your HealthKit on your phone there is a possibility that what you see will not be the same as what you see in the Garmin Connect Application. What the HealthKit app does with the information that it gets from Garmin Connect we unfortunately can not trouble shoot due to the HealthKit app is a third party site.

Seriously?

This last response from them has me convinced that their email customer support is automated. If not, the department is staffed by morons. In any case, Garmin can kiss my future business goodbye, as I do not appreciate making an effort to help them better a product, only to be dismissed like I'm the idiot.

-phil

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

I will be glad to assist you. The only calories information that is sent to HealthKit are the calories that appear on the steps card as you displayed in your first screenshot. The calories consumed, active, and net you displayed in the second screenshot do not interact with HealthKit. Please let me know if I can assist you further.

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

The HealthKit API is currently setup to accept two calorie based metrics: Active Calories and Resting Calories. There is no option for Total Calories.

When configuring GC Mobile to share data with HealthKit, the following metrics are available:

- Active Calories
- Steps
- Walking + Running Distance.

When the user enables the sharing of Active Calories, GC Mobile shares Total Calories, as you have freely acknowledged. Therefore, GC Mobile is sharing the wrong Calorie metric, and SHOULD be fixed asap.

-phil

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

I got a garmin vivofit today, and I immediately see the many problems that people are highlighting here in the forum- with Apple healthkit and with myfitnesspal.

This one regarding the incorrect total calories being sent to Apple healthkit as active calories is obviously wrong and clearly something that can easily be fixed. It is amazing the amateurish attitude from garmin on this.
It's a simple fix. Will take about 15 mins to solve, then issue out an app update and job done.

If they can't do that within a day of the issue being found - it should have been caught in testing anyway - then I despair at the prospects for the support and improvements of the app in the future. It is mediocre and needs so much (and simple) work.
But addressing the problems that people are finding and doing it immediately should be a given expectation for all users.

So garmin, please fix this misreporting of the active calories to Apple healthkit. And while you are at it - how about adding the setup for all the other parameters possible to can be sent over. There is so much more it can report over. Sleep data and reading of weight data to name too. Shouldn't be much of an effort.

0 robca2 over 9 years ago

Still broken :(

Almost a year and it's still sending active + resting calories to Healthkit. Plus data is often duplicated and sleep data isn't sent. :(

0 adammiarka over 9 years ago

Bumping this thread as it's still an issue with the latest release of Garmin Connect for iOS (3.2). When will Garmin acknowledge that HealthKit integration is a complete mess. People rely on the data going into HealthKit to be accurate. If Garmin took as much time to address the software issues as it does releasing products, maybe we'd be in a different situation. But as of right now, the quality control on their software side is horrible.

0 stockae92 over 9 years ago

Yep, still seeing duplicates in the calories and I have to manually delete them. :(

0 Former Member over 4 years ago

I still have same issue in June 2020: 1239 kcal is in Health app synchronized from Garmin Connect.

And 606 active kcal in Garmin Connect app