Non 'foot-based' activites don't contribute to recorded distance since v9.20

I saw this mentioned on one of the version threads but I think it deserves it's own thread for discussion. As of v9.20 activities which aren't walking or running no longer seem to contribute to the distance recorded for a day. Following an injury I no longer run and most of my activities are cycling or paddleboarding related (SUP). My watch now basically ignores those and the distance graph on my watchface (actiface) is basically flatlining as opposed to the peaks and troughs it previously recorded.

Oddly enough, this isn't the case for Garmin Connect online which continues to consider all activities in distance reports and calculations.

I fail to see the sense in this (unannounced) change and I would like it back to the way it was, or at least an option to choose which behaviour is used.

0 jim_m_58 over 7 years ago

While I'm on the fence about this, I was talking to someone that made a good point with Swimming. Another non-step activity, and it's never showed up in total distance on the watch. I'm not sure if things like SUP did in the past.

0 Bandit over 7 years ago

oh yes, i am soooo angry about the change of calculating the distance. i already had a lot of discussion about this (stupid and silent) change. garmin just decided to change the way an important core value is calculated because they claim, that they received many requests to change this. funny enough that i did not read about this wish in this forum, where many people wish a lot of different things.

i do also mainly bike activities because of bad knees and used the daily distance for visual information about my overall movement/activity. i also used a watch face (digic watch) which showed the distance in graphs. this is useless for me now, because i am really not interested a lot in the distance i walked (alone) - and flat graphs.

because people have different preferences - and i am sure, that there are also runners, who do not want to have the distance of steps added to their "food-based" activity - the easiest way for garmin to make everybody happy would be the following:

1. add the option "account steps to distance" on/off under fitness tracker settings.

2. add the same option to the settings of EACH activity.

should be very simple to code and would give every single garmin user the absolute total control about the individual preferences. if i did not oversee something, there can't be a single user asking for something (regarding daily distance) to change.

0 PiotrekZ5 over 7 years ago

I have the same problem. My main activity is riding a bicycle and starting from version 9.20, the cycling distance has been lost. Bandit's solution is perfect and I vote for it.

0 thayermoeller over 7 years ago

I have the same issue but have been using the activity minutes as a proxy. Moderate activity is generally walking while the other one (high activity or vigorous, whatever it is called) is generally my cycling time. Not ideal but a kind of sort of solution nonetheless.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

This is a multi-sport watch, meaning there are multiple types of distances being recorded... in my case, swimming, cycling and running. As a triathlete, seeing the miles add up and correlated with my training plans is a desirable capability of the sensors and software. Garmin, please make this summary data accessible and visible on the watch face.

0 CarlosZuluaga over 7 years ago

Bandit's suggestion to add this as an option seems very plausible IMO. My primary sport is mountain biking. Therefore, not seeing my MTB activities reflected on the watch and training performance is a dissapointment.

0 smiths9762 over 6 years ago

Agree entirely!! My Forerunner 935 seems to have gained this new "feature" in the August timeframe (ver 11?). Actiface watchface for triathlon was wonderful, with colorful graph showing the multi-sport miles build up. Now this graph is a monochrome flat line -- useless. I can't imagine any users complaining about multi-sport activities being included. Garmin introduced a bug and is now calling it a feature. FIX IT.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

The same problem... Very bad idea to remove bike activity from total distance calculation. Agree 100% with Bandit's sugestion.

0 Bandit over 6 years ago

and the inkonsequent (i. e. sick) about this bad idea is, that the garmin stuff doesn't seem to share the same opinion about this bad decision. on the fenix only foot based distance is recorded, but in garmin connect online and apple health the full distance (incl. bike and more) is added to the total distance. i reported this several times to garmin, but they did not respond.

at least garmin should calculate and share this core value the same way to all platforms. i can't even imagine what they though, when they changed the way total distance is calculated.

0 smiths9762 over 6 years ago

FYI, I worked with a Garmin Product Support rep through many email exchanges regarding this issue. He was very friendly and tried to be helpful. Ultimately he came back with this response:

"I researched this a little further and it appears this change is one that was done by design, so it does not look like there will be an update at this time that restores that functionality for that device. However, it is possible this will be revisited and amended at a later date, but for now there is not a way to add that additional cycling and swimming data to the daily distance totals, and I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused."

He referred me to the Forerunner Beta team at [EMAIL="[email protected]"][email protected][/EMAIL] to complain about this choice. We should all flood that email box with complaints.