Editing swim activity deletes average pace

I have  similar issue. On nearly every swim my Garmin Forerunner 245 will miss atleast one lap.

As with other Activities I am finding Garmin is an aproximation of the exercise. Another example are gym reps. Even HR.

I have to manually edit every swim to correct the number of laps. But now if I change number of laps on the website the pace now becomes zero. This used to work ok.

The other swim gripe I have is that laps do not show up on the mobile connect app. They just show up as one big interval. Only using the website does it show the actual laps. As 1.1, 1.2 etc. Maybe I am getting confused between intervals, splits and laps?

This and other inconsistencies between the mobile and web app are frustrating.

I have started using the Export Splits to CSV, manually correcting in Excel and using my local data rather than Garmin cloud to track my swims.

Come on Garmin, no reply?

This has worked correctly for years and now it is broken. This is basic stuff, as from time to time the Garmin watches miscount a swim length. Please fix it!

KnightAzul

As well as fixing this I think Garmin should allow you to split or merge laps/intervals in Garmin Connect given the frequency it misses laps.

I took one of my Swims where I corrected the laps and Garmin is now showing null pace and downloaded the .FIT file.

I then used http://swimmingwatchtools.com to split a wrong lap, and downloaded the new .FIT file. Deleted the activity from Garmin, and uploaded the new correct .FIT file. Now pace is correct, and also laps are showing as correct. Its a bit of a pain to go through this, but the end result is good.

It comes to something when someone like Stephane has to write something that Garmin should include in Garmin Connect. Especially if you check the forums and lots of users are requesting it. I can only speculate why Garmin do not offer this functionality. 

http://swimmingwatchtools.com can indeed be used to split lengths, but this means you need to export, adjust, then reimport the swim activity. A cumbersome process. This is probably useful for the professional.

But, just editing the summary data with Garmin Connect Web or Garmin Connect App was a great way to do a quick correction, if you are only interested in the summary data, like me!

This is how is used to work:

If the incorrect measurement, such as the number of lengths for a pool swim, appears in the summary data then it can be corrected by editing the summary data. Any summary data which is calculated using the number of lengths will be recalculated, such as the pool swim distance and average pace. This only edits and recalculates the summary data which is a copy taken from the original activity data. It does not change the original activity data.

If only the summary data is important, this is a simple way to correct an activity where incorrect measurements were taken.

I don't understand why over the last few months this now doesn't work any more.

KnightAzul

Ok, after some investigation, it looks like the situation is the following...

From time to time the Garmin watches miscount a swim length. This will happen. Think crowded lanes, turn not registered, etc.

The options to correct this are:

You can edit the summary data with Garmin Connect Web or Garmin Connect App. This is a quick and dirty fix as it results in inconsistencies between the summary data and the original activity data which is shown in Garmin Connect. However, it could be enough for the casual swimmer. The main issue here is that you are at the mercy of the Garmin development team. What worked before, with all the summary data being automtically recalculated after an edit in Garmin Connect, now does not work. If you edit the number of lengths then the distance is automatically recalculated, but sadly now the average pace is not. This is a very poor show by Garmin.

You can export the activity FIT file, edit it, and then reimport it back in again. This is cumbersome, but now necessary, as this is the only way until Garmin wake up and fix Garmin Connect.

Once the activiity FIT file is exported...

You can use FitCSVTool which is a command line tool and part of the Garmin SDK. It can decode an activity FIT file to a CSV file, and also encode an activity CSV file back to a FIT file. Sounds great! But, and this is huge, there are Garmin proprietary messages and fields recorded by the watch which are not part of the Garmin SDK. When encoding with FitCSVTool these Garmin proprietary messages and fields are reported as unknown and ignored. Typically there are many them in an exported activity FIT file. Therefore when editing original activity data with the FitCSVTool all Garmin proprietary messages and fields will be lost. So you buy a top of the line Garmin watch which records lots of information and then the Garmin tool FitCSVTool as part of its SDK strips this information out. Useless.

Or,

You can use http://swimmingwatchtools.com by Stephane which allows you to edit the activity FIT file. It automatically recalculates data, and also preserves Garmin proprietary messages and fields recorded by the watch. This is easily the best solution and puts Garmin completely to shame.

KnightAzul