Wrong activitiy type in Report

Seven years later, same problem with the current model.  This is really the worst software I've ever struggled with.  All my custom activities turn into walks or runs when I try to look at the stats, and the only answer customer support ever has is to update the App.  I have.  It just gets worse.

4662339 said:

Seven years later, same problem with the current model.

Hm, that's strange. I just tested it - I recorded a brief Running activity, synced it to GC. It (correctly) appeared in the Reports in the Running section. Then I changed the activity type in Garmin Connect to Cycling, and went to the Reports again. The activity disappeared from Running, and is now (correctly) listed in Cycling instead. So no problem at all.

First of all I do not understand why you record cycling as running, especially if you have a current watch model, as you wrote. Are there still models without the Cycling activity, or did you just mistake and started the wrong activity? Or do you rely on MoveIQ and the Auto-Activity-Start features, and the activity was wrongly detected? If it is that case, I really recommend disabling those options, a keeping it under the manual control instead.

If you really have to change the activity type subsequently, could you please describe exactly step by step what you do to change the activity type, and where you the see it wrongly listed in the Reports? Best would be a video, but if you described it and accompany with some screenshots, it may hopefully help too.

My situation is slightly different.  I have activities customized on my watch such as Kayaking where I have changed some of the time fields to suit.  When they appear in Connect, they are listed as walking or running or something else. (The same custom activity is judged to be different things by this not-smart app!)  I correct it in Connect, but the next time I sync my watch my corrections are gone. 

In addition, every time there's a firmware update to my watch all of my Custom Activities are reset.

I write software for a living and it's obvious the watch firmware, Connect, and Express apps are not talking to each other correctly.  Also, User-inputed data should always be prioritized to over-write any machine learning algorithm or "smart AI" input.

4662339 said:

I have activities customized on my watch such as Kayaking where I have changed some of the time fields to suit.  When they appear in Connect, they are listed as walking or running or something else. (The same custom activity is judged to be different things by this not-smart app!)  I correct it in Connect, but the next time I sync my watch my corrections are gone.

The type of the activity will be always saved under the type of activity it was logged in. At custom activities, it will be either the type "Other" if you did not copy any existing profile, or the original activity type, if you based your custom activity on another profile (for example walking). You can change the type on the recorded activities in Garmin Connect, and if you save the change, it will stay so even after syncing. On the other hand you cannot change the type of the profile, so the next activity recorded with the same profile, will have again the original type.

So the best is using the right activity type from the beginning. If not available for your watch, you may be able to find it in the Connect IQ store. Or you can use an universal app for assigning the activity type on the watch. For example these ones do it (and there may be others):

• Any Activity | Garmin Connect IQ
• Any Sport PRO | Garmin Connect IQ

And since you are a software engineer, you can also change the activity type directly in the FIT file of your custom activity file, if it is not possible to do in any of the previously mentioned ways. The FIT file format is documented at developer.garmin.com/.../

4662339 said:

In addition, every time there's a firmware update to my watch all of my Custom Activities are reset.

I have never seen that either, and did not even see anyone posting about it here on the forum in the last years. What watch do you own?

Normally, custom settings and custom activities are reset only after the master reset to factory defaults, or during a firmware downgrade (not at upgrade!). However, you can backup your custom activities (in the folder //Garmin/Sports), and put them back, if it really happens on your watch.

Forerunner 245.  I have the same issue if I use the default Acitivities: when I'm looking at the report, those Activities are changed to what some AI thinks they should be, not what I entered them as.

And clearly from this seven year old thread, I'm not the only one with this problem.

Yes, I could code to manipulate the .fit files directly, but at this price point should I have to?

4662339 said:

And clearly from this seven year old thread, I'm not the only one with this problem.

The thread is absolutely unrelated to your problem. The user in the opening thread was recording Cycling activities as Running intentionally (because his old device did not have the Cycling profile, so he had no other way to record cycling), and then although the Activity was changed to Cycling in Garmin Connect (and stayed recorded as such), it was skewing the stats in the Reports part, but nothing else (it was not changed in Activities!). There is no such problem anymore since many years. I verified it again yesterday.

Your problem is completely unrelated to the problem in the opening thread, and has nothing to do with that issue. I do not know where your problem comes from, but never heard in years about something like that. There is no AI changing the type of the activity. It can only happen if you do not start activities manually, but rely on the MoveIQ and the Auto-Start features, as I mentioned previously. Disable those features, and start your activities manually, selecting the sport you are going to do yourself, and it will never get changed.