All Day Heart Rate From Strap

I want all-day heart rate to come from, or at least have the option to come from, an Ant+ strap.

I have the strap paired, and if I record an activity the heart rate is recorded from the strap. I know this because I turn off the OHR and I can see the heart rate chart in the activity. I can also see the current heart rate from the strap on the HR widget with the OHR off while wearing a strap so it must be picking up the signal.

However, if I turn off OHR then my all-day heart rate chart is blank for as long as it is off even if I am wearing the strap and even if I record an activity.

Is there a way to make the watch use the strap and record all-day heart rate from the strap? What I want to be able to do is put my watch in my back pocket while on the bike and not have a big blank spot in my all-day heart rate chart.
  • Your description doesn't match the behavior of my watch. If I'm in an activity and recording the heart rate with my heart rate strap that data does indeed show up on the all day timeline.

    You do realize that when the heart rate strap connects it automatically turns off the optical heart rate, right? There is no need to manually turn it off.
  • I have read on here that it should chose the Ant+ strap in preference to the OHR but since I was having issues I turned off the OHR to make sure the strap was the only choice. I will try some more troubleshooting since yours doesn't behave this way, but here is a chart showing what I'm talking about. I was wearing a strap during all the times where the chart is blank and the strap is paired with the Fenix.
  • Do you record the cycling activity on the fenix? Or do you just want to have it in your back pocket but record the activity on a different device?

    It's not possible to take all day HR from the strap UNLESS fenix is the device one that's recording the activity, too. In that case all day heart rate is complemented with the activity HR from the strap.
  • Do you record the cycling activity on the fenix? Or do you just want to have it in your back pocket but record the activity on a different device?

    It's not possible to take all day HR from the strap UNLESS fenix is the device one that's recording the activity, too. In that case all day heart rate is complemented with the activity HR from the strap.


    Thank you - that explains the problem. What I wanted was to record on the Edge and not the Fenix since the Edge is my primary biking computer. If I record on both, just to not have big gaps in my all day heart rate, then I end up with two activities which then get synced to Strava and Golden Cheetah unless I remember to delete one quickly (or change which device syncs). Not optimal but now I know how to deal with it. .
  • You probably want to record on both anyway to get accurate figures for training load, not just all day heart rate.

    I think the neatest solution I have seen to this issue is to have the Edge and Fenix syncing to different accounts. No need to delete anything then.

    But supposedly there is better integration between Fenix and Edge coming later this month, although I'm not sure whether this will be in the form of a device firmware update, an update to the GC app, or just in the backend server software for GC.
  • Thank you - that explains the problem. What I wanted was to record on the Edge and not the Fenix since the Edge is my primary biking computer. If I record on both, just to not have big gaps in my all day heart rate, then I end up with two activities which then get synced to Strava and Golden Cheetah unless I remember to delete one quickly (or change which device syncs). Not optimal but now I know how to deal with it. .


    What if you discard the Fenix activity instead of saving it? Takes the same amount of "clicks". But I am not sure if that'd "erase" the HR data for purposes of all day HR or not.
  • What if you discard the Fenix activity instead of saving it? Takes the same amount of "clicks". But I am not sure if that'd "erase" the HR data for purposes of all day HR or not.


    I'll give that a try tonight during an indoor workout and report back - thanks for the ideas in this thread.
  • You probably want to record on both anyway to get accurate figures for training load, not just all day heart rate.

    I think the neatest solution I have seen to this issue is to have the Edge and Fenix syncing to different accounts. No need to delete anything then.

    But supposedly there is better integration between Fenix and Edge coming later this month, although I'm not sure whether this will be in the form of a device firmware update, an update to the GC app, or just in the backend server software for GC.


    Thank you. I'm going to try a few things but may end up creating separate Edge and Fenix accounts. Hopefully they make some changes to make the integration better when there are multiple devices. I track all my training load in Golden Cheetah so that won't be a limiting factor for me.
  • I tried multiple scenarios to try and come up with a decent solution. First I went on a bike ride and recorded the whole activity on my Edge 520. For the same time frame I also recorded the first part on my Fenix and saved it, recorded the middle part of the ride with my Fenix and saved, but later deleted it, and recorded the last part of the ride but discarded the file on the Fenix without ever saving it.

    The result was that no all-day heart rate shows up in my chart. I guess the Edge heart rate overrides the Fenix's but doesn't register as all-day HR????

    This morning on my drive to work I wore my Ant+ HR strap, put my Fenix in the passenger seat and recorded a "yoga" activity. Then at work I recorded a couple activities wearing my Ant+ strap with either my Fenix on my wrist or in my back pocket. I also deleted the Yoga activity after it was uploaded to Garmin Connect. In each instance the all-day heart rate shows up and stays in the chart even if I delete the activity (see attached chart). So without the Edge recording, the heart rate recorded in an activity with the Fenix shows up in the all-day HR.

    It looks like if I record with my Edge the all day heart rate won't update even if I also record with my Fenix. Also, another problem popped up which is that if the Fenix is in my back pocket apparently the Ant+ signal is too weak (see attached chart) and there are numerous dropouts - my Edge records from a strap just fine even if in my back pocket. I recorded another activity with the Fenix on my wrist and held it behind my back in the middle of the activity and had multiple drop-outs while behind my back, but it was fine for the rest of the activity (see attached chart).

    If Garmin Connect would just use the HR from the Edge to fill in gaps when the Fenix isn't recording HR that would fix the whole problem, but it doesn't look like that is possible. I guess for now I'll have my Edge not sync and record with the Fenix too on my wrist and just deal with it (first world problems). ciq.forums.garmin.com/.../1330418.jpg