Why doesn't Garmin use multiple devices to fill in "My Day" activities?

The TrueUp technology is just not capable of doing it.

For Garmin there are two kinds of data:

- Activity data
- Fitness tracker data

These data are gather in different ways and can not be mixed up.

The Fenix 3 HR is my device for activities and it also works as my fitnesstracker,

When I use a chest strap for running it will use my HRM-Run for the activity and continue to meassure my HR periodically on my wrist for the timeline.

When I use my HRM-Swim for swimming, the wrist HR-monitor will be turned off because it can not meassure properly under water. The result is exactly the same as you have it with your edge. The HR is safed to the activity and on the timeline it looks like you were not wearing the watch.

Your Edge is not a fitness tracker, so it can not gather the data for the timeline.
If you´re wearing your Fenix 5X (Fenix as a fitness tracker, and Edge for the activity) while you ride your bike it should also show your HR in the timeline.

Best regards
Christian

Users' desire for more capability (at no additional and/or ongoing expense to oneself!) aside, the idea of Garmin Connect is not to stitch different things together to form a single, complete, seamless picture. Adding effectively independent timed activity records (e.g. separate runs and rides) to a calendar is easy, and does not require Garmin to review or analysis any of the uploaded data. On the other hand, the whole idea of wanting Garmin to detect that there is a gap in one picture (e.g. 24-hour tracking of the user's heart rate) from data uploaded from one device, and looking for other data it may have collected from other devices/sources to fill in that gap as post-processing, is not what Garmin Connect is designed to do or promises to deliver.

TrueUp works for metrics that are ‘dumb‘ accumulators, but it is not intended to merge time-based data series from multiple devices into one.

"For Garmin there are two kinds of data:

- Activity data
- Fitness tracker data

These data are gather in different ways and can not be mixed up." - This is dumb. Activity, Fitness... Fitness, Activity. Tomato - Tomato. As a customer, as a user, no one cares. We pay a lot of money for these devices, and then Garmin only provides half a solution to look at the data. Buy the device to record your activity/fitness/sport- but you'll have to use multiple different methods to analyze it.

"the idea of Garmin Connect is not to stitch different things together to form a single, complete, seamless picture." - Why not? WHY WOULDN'T the intent be to provide ONE, single COMPLETE, seamless picture? If all the data is uploaded and provided to GC, why not?

"On the other hand, the whole idea of wanting Garmin to detect that there is a gap in one picture (e.g. 24-hour tracking of the user's heart rate) from data uploaded from one device, and looking for other data it may have collected from other devices/sources to fill in that gap" - It doesn't have to look for anything... That data is provided when it's uploaded. It appears Garmin is only provided half a capability, half a product.

I completely agree with rose.johnp.
Why shouldn't GC be capable of doing this? Programming such a feature is definitely not rocket science and shouldn't be any problem nowadays.
They even can't use running and biking activities together (recorded on different devices) to estimate an overall training load and status, that's actually pretty poor for a company that is offering so many devices for different sports...

As a customer, as a user, no one cares. We pay a lot of money for these devices,

As a customer and a user, you ought to bloody care about what is actually being offered, down to the n-th degree of detail if your requirements are complex and exacting, instead of blindly assuming that every manufacturer and/or retailer in the market is aware of all your wants and endeavours to satisfy them as fully as possible with its products and services as a one-stop shop.

After all, it's their product but your “lot of” money. Nobody else will look after you but yourself, in the way you want your interests to be served. It is your prerogative to buy (and get partial satisfaction) or not buy (and not get satisfied at all), so why wouldn't you care?

and then Garmin only provides half a solution to look at the data.

The data that your Garmin fitness wearable devices collects, you can review in more or less its raw form. Getting the analysis and insights you want to derive from it is not Garmin's problem to solve.

Buy the device to record your activity/fitness/sport-

That's exactly where Garmin's products excel.

but you'll have to use multiple different methods to analyze it.

Yeah, and? You can reasonably say that what Garmin offers is only a partial solution for your requirements, but that does not mean its products are not fit for the purpose they were designed and marketed. If they fall short of fully satisfying your requirements, then it's up to you as the architect of your overall solution to work out how to close the gap at your own expense.

It appears Garmin is only provided half a capability, half a product.

Garmin is offering complete products, without promising it is a complete solution for all that you want to achieve with technology in relation to health and fitness.

No-one owes you a turn-key solution from a one-stop shop. No-one owes you seamless integration. No-one owes you a gap analysis between what can be bought off the shelf and what you would like, and no-one owes you service design work so you can tick all your boxes (preferably in a cost-optimised manner). As a consumer and user, it's all up to you.

Why shouldn't GC be capable of doing this?

Because you, as a customer, are not paying Garmin enough on an ongoing basis in exchange for service to make it worthwhile extending Garmin Connect's capabilities.

Programming such a feature is definitely not rocket science and shouldn't be any problem nowadays.

The level of technical difficulty is only a small part of the equation. How much you are prepared to pay for it matters a hell of a lot more, when it comes to whether someone ought to attempt to satisfy you.

TrueUp works for metrics that are ‘dumb‘ accumulators, but it is not intended to merge time-based data series from multiple devices into one.

For now anyway. From comments made by people who tend to be "in the know" with Garmin (DCRainmaker, among others) it sounds like that better integration of Edge devices is something that may be coming this year. Integration of this kind is something that may help them to sell more people on buying multiple Garmin devices so there could be a monetary case for it. Maybe it won't happen, who knows, but it's not outside the realm of possibility.

You do bring up an interesting point about paying on an ongoing basis. Depending on what was offered and the price I would actually consider paying a monthly charge for some kind of "premium" Garmin Connect if it offered more advanced features. Strava already does something like this so it's not unheard of. Just an interesting thought.

This has been an issue for me the past 6 months hoping Garmin would resolve this and I've got to rant. I have a Forerunner 935 and an edge 1030. I bike with the 1030 a couple times a week and use the 935 for running once or twice a week. The training status displayed on connect and the individual devices are useless because this lack of syncing within connect. I paid $600 for the 1030 and $500 for the 935 thinking they would sync together using connect as the central hub. Connect shows both devices in the app. It's not Garmin's job to keep track of their data and the overall workout picture? This attitude rubs me a tad wrong. I've been told here it could be a first beat licensing issue tied to a particular device. Well what the heck, I've paid $1100 the past year. Give me a license to use firstbeat on connect. I think this should have been a feature released a while ago.

The past week I purchased the 935 quick mount. I'm now going to use the 935 for everything. Run with it on my wrist and then bike with it mounted on my handlebar. The 1030 will now just be a large display. I won't use it to record anything.