Dont understand difference between Time/Moving Time/Elapsed Time

From the faq:

http://connect.garmin.com/help/faq



Garmin Connect provides three Time measurements on the Details page:

Time

Time is the recording time reported by the device. For Fitness devices, this should equal the Time value reported on the device. For other devices, this should equal the amount of time elapsed from the actual Start and Finish time of an activity.

Avg Speed/Pace is based off the Time value.

Moving Time

Garmin Connect calculates Moving Time by removing the amount of time when the user is stopped. This is helpful for customers who upload activities with a Garmin device that either don't have AutoPause or have AutoPause turned off. For those who have AutoPause turned on or hit the Stop and Start button in the middle of an activity, the Moving Time should be very close or equal to Time.

Avg Moving Speed/Pace is based off the Moving Time value.

Elapsed Time

Garmin Connect calculates the Elapsed Time by the amount of time elapsed from the actual Start and Finish time of an activity. This is helpful for customers with a Garmin device that have AutoPause turned on or hit the Stop and Start button in the middle of an activity. For those who don't have AutoPause or have that feature turned off on their device, Elapsed time should be very close or equal to Time.

Yes, you can tell you have Autopause turned on. The FAQ listed in the above post does explain what happens.

"Time" in your case is your moving time as calculated by your Edge 800 probably using the speed sensor.

"Moving Time" is the moving time calculated by the Connect website. In this case it's analysed the activity and trimmed another 33 seconds off.

For whatever reason, the method Connect uses to determine the stoppage time doesn't quite come out the same as your device when auto pause is on.

Just think of it this way. "Time" is the time from the device. Both "moving time" and "elapsed time" are calculated by the website.

Auto pause on means Time will be roughly the same as Moving Time
Auto pause off means Time will be roughly the same as Elapsed Time

"For those who have AutoPause turned on or hit the Stop and Start button in the middle of an activity, the Moving Time should be very close or equal to Time." Not true. I have AutoPause turned on, and Moving Time and Time are substantially different. It is still totally unclear why anything more than time as reported by the device and moving time (time reported by the device minus stopped time) is required.

"For those who have AutoPause turned on or hit the Stop and Start button in the middle of an activity, the Moving Time should be very close or equal to Time." Not true. I have AutoPause turned on, and Moving Time and Time are substantially different. It is still totally unclear why anything more than time as reported by the device and moving time (time reported by the device minus stopped time) is required.

I agree. I have found when auto pause is turned on, the Moving Time and Time are very different. Obviously this will vary depending on how many times auto pause kicks in but regardless i have found always a difference.

This thread was from 2012, but I'm seeing the same issue today. When I did a little more investigation on my recent runs I found why this is happening, at least for me. Hopefully it's something Garmin can fix.

I do intervals when running, e.g. the Gallaway "Run Walk Run" method. For my long runs I do 30 seconds running, 30 seconds walking, repeat until the end. I do this by a training program which just repeats 30/30.

When I go into the run details and call up Splits, the time is 30 seconds for each split, but the moving time for each (other than the first) is 29 seconds. So my last run (10.5 miles) had 240 splits. The first showed a moving time of 31 seconds, all the rest showed a moving time of 29 seconds. Yet I never stopped moving during the run. I did this once with autopause one, and once with autopause off. (two weeks apart, not one right after the other ;-) ) This gave me a total of: Time: 1:59:38, Moving Time: 1:55:39. A four minute difference. But again, I never stopped moving. I also see the same in my shorter runs and other intervals, e.g. my 45/30 has 44 seconds, then 29 seconds.

I'm using a Garmin Forerunner 235. Does Garmin Support read through here? Is there a better way to send this info to them? When searching the forum, I couldn't find a thread that said these was a known issue, just where people said there was a difference, but couldn't figure out why.

Does Garmin Support read through here?

I don't know, but Garmin Support staff are not obliged to read posts in this forum, let alone respond and/or offer support to product owners who post here.

Is there a better way to send this info to them?

https://support.garmin.com/support/sw/escalateForm

Thanks. I submitted a report yesterday, and answered their request for more information today.

So they sent me two parts to the answer. The first is just the cookie cutter definition, and the second basically says "yeah, it's going to be wrong." I had suggested that if the moving time was within 2 seconds of the actual time, they set it to the same as the actual time, but guess that is being ignored. Ah well. At least now I know to just ignore the moving time altogether. At least until I stop doing intervals (which may be never...) ;-)

Thank you for contacting Garmin International. I am glad to assist you today.


The following information explains the different between Moving time, Total time and Elapsed time.


Garmin Connect processes the data of an activity in many ways to help you fully evaluate your activity data.

Below are the more in depth descriptions of various time and pace/speed fields:

Moving Time: includes only the time you were moving
Time: includes time moving and time not moving (if Auto Pause is off)
Elapsed Time: includes time between when timer is started, stopped, and reset (includes Auto Pause or manual stoppage of the timer)
Average Pace/Speed: Pace or Speed for entire duration of an activity
Moving Pace/Speed: Pace or Speed that only includes time spent moving (does not include Auto Pause)
Best Pace/Speed: Best Pace or Speed throughout the duration of an activity
Being aware of the differences between the various timing fields will assist you in utilizing them fully in evaluating your training.


Moving time is not data recorded by the watch. It is processed by Garmin Connect an this data is always going to be incorrect. It is for devices that do not have Auto Pause as a feature or when not running intervals.

So they sent me two parts to the answer. The first is just the cookie cutter definition, and the second basically says "yeah, it's going to be wrong." I had suggested that if the moving time was within 2 seconds of the actual time, they set it to the same as the actual time, but guess that is being ignored. Ah well. At least now I know to just ignore the moving time altogether. At least until I stop doing intervals (which may be never...) ;-)

Thanks Nighthawk700 - that's the most thorough answer I've seen to this question that has nagged so many of us for years and years now.

Thanks Nighthawk700 - that's the most thorough answer I've seen to this question that has nagged so many of us for years and years now.

Agree, and second GT-SPORTS thanks to Nighthawk700. That confirms what many of us thought, but unfortunately that doesn't make it right nor stop it from being rubbish.