Watch-app records a Hike session and my Hike activity's unrelated CIQ datafield is also running?!

Clearly it's a bug. I've seen it reported in device forums (like Fenix 7) in at least 2 forms:

- as you described it: the user runs a CIQ device app and a CIQ data field is also active

- the user runs a native activity and a CIQ data field (e.g. Stryd Zones) from a different activity is active

In both cases, the CIQ data field is not visible on the screen (obviously), but they can tell because the CIQ data field records developer FIT fields to the activity file.

I think socorsu might have seen this behavior.

hum no, i can't remember reading this type of feedback before.

I will track it and comeback here if i find more information.

Sorry, my mistake!

I tested this with jim_m_58 's Hike2+ ( https://apps.garmin.com/apps/116a5b59-29ae-4397-a70e-907d7e5f8e44 ) and it doesn't reproduce the bug, so I'm starting to think that maybe this only happens if the DF and the App belongs to the same developer? That would be super strange. Or maybe it depends on the way you record the session in the app? jim_m_58, how do you record the session in Hike2+?

function onShow() {
    session = ActivityRecording.createSession({
    	:name => "Hike",
    	:sport => Activity.SPORT_HIKING
    });
    
    session.createField();
    session.start();
}

function onHide() {
  session.stop();
  session.save();
}

Are you doing something different? Because I don't even see Hike2+ listed as an CIQ app there (I guess this is because it doesn't add additional fields to the fit?) nor my datafield from the Hike activity.

Noting magic or special.  Back when I wrote Crumbs (the pre-cursor of Hike1 which was the pre-cursor of Hike2) in 2015, I based it on the RecordSample at that time, and I don't think the RecordSample has really changed since then.

I have DFs I wrote on the same devices where I have Hike2 and no issues.

I don't use onShow/onHide to start/stop the session.  I do that based on an input delegate - press start to begin the recording, press start again, you get a menu to resume/save/discard.  I can see the way you do it could be an issue.  With the recordSample, onMenu is used to start/save

There is a setting in GC to use the generic name or the name from the device.

So I see

There are no FitContrib fields in the app, I tend to only use them in data fields..

flocsy🤠 said:

Plus I do record custom fit fields in both. I think that also might play a role, as I didn't see Hike2+ being listed as a CONNECT IQ app in the recorded activity, so either it should've and then it's another bug, or it only should list there CIQ apps that contribute to the fit file, but doesn't include data fields that only display things.

jim_m_58 said:

There is a setting in GC to use the generic name or the name from the device.

I think the point is about the section of the Connect activity page which displays 3rd party app(s) (with links to the store) that were used during the activity (and under what circumstances those apps will actually be displayed), not whether the user is able to have the app/device activity name show up in the Connect activity name by changing a setting.

To me it is indeed interesting to note that a CIQ data field which records custom FIT fields to an activity will be listed in the activity this way, but a CIQ device app which records an activity (but no custom fields) will not. It feels like an oversight (or bad design to me). As a user, I would expect any CIQ device app that records an activity to be listed, not just device apps which also record developer fields.

But the reality is that only apps which record custom fields are listed in this way (regardless of whether the app type is device app or data field). [I did notice this behavior years ago, and I'm fairly sure it's always been this way]

I did notice that if you use fitfileviewer.com to look at FIT files where CIQ apps were involved, the "Developer Data Id" section (containing the CIQ application store ID and version) is only available if custom fields were written. It is not available when a device app recorded an activity with no custom field - on such an activity, there is no reference to the CIQ app at all, except that the app name is populated in the name field of the Sport section (which is ofc also used for the native activity name, which means that there's no way to use this field to definitively tell whether the app was recorded by a built-in activity/app or a 3rd party app). And even if you could guess that the activity was recorded by a 3rd party app (due to having a name that doesn't match any native activities), you'd only have the app name, and not the unique store ID (or app version)

So it seems that the problem isn't really on the Connect side, but it's a consequence of how activities are recorded.

TL;DR Connect IQ app info (i.e. the store ID and app version) is only present in the FIT file when custom fields are recorded.

It isn't possible for Connect to display said app info unless it's present in the FIT file, obviously, which is why CIQ device apps which simply record an activity - with no custom fields - aren't listed in the Connect activity page. I think this is either a design flaw or implementation issue, but clearly the fix is more involved if it's on the device side, and I don't expect this to ever change tbh.