datlas 

Yes, I know there is a separate "Electronics" forum but I suspect more Strava users in here...maybe even someone who has the same problem and found the fix.

I use the basic Strava App on my iPhone. At ride start, I push "start" and turn off phone. Phone goes into pocket. At ride end I push "stop/save" and it has worked GREAT for years...until...

I upgraded my iPhone's iOS about 2 weeks ago.

Now, my rides are cut off after a few minutes. I imagine there may be a setting I have to change so this does not happen.

Any ideas?

BillyD

Cough up some dough and buy a Garmin.

canklecat

Yeah, for the past few months Strava also quits unexpectedly with my older iPhone 4s on iOS 9.3.5, the last OS available for the 4s.


I used to be able to run multiple activity apps simultaneously -- usually Strava, Cyclemeter and Charity Miles. No problems until fairly recently. Now I can rarely get Strava to record at ride at all, even running it by itself so there's no competition with other apps.


Probably just a paranoia-inducing coincidence, but the glitches in my GPS apps being occurring right about when the tech media were reporting on Russians spoofing and hacking GPS, around late spring or early summer 2017. Who knows.



I've reset the phone several times. It might help for one ride, then the glitch reappears.


I've stopped using Strava to record rides. I use Cyclemeter, which is more reliable, and transfer the data to Strava later. However Cyclemeter prefers to be the last app running. So I'll start Charity Miles first, then Cyclemeter. If I stop to consult a map, take a photo, etc., Cyclemeter will quit, so I'll need to restart it.



Cyclemeter's paid version includes voice prompts so I know it's running. I set the voice to update my current speed, average speed, distance traveled, etc., at intervals of 1 to 3 minutes, or every quarter mile to full mile. I can't always hear the voice over the wind and road noise (I don't use ear buds or an external speaker) but the beeping and voice are just audible enough to let me know it's recording my ride.


Give the free version of Cyclemeter a try. It's reasonably full featured. The paid version unlocks the auto-pause/resume feature, and voice prompts. So if you stop to rest for more than a few seconds you'll need to remember to pause Cyclemeter. However when you upload the Cyclemeter data to Strava, Strava does pretty well at eliminating long delays and calculating only our actual ride times.


Wahoo Fitness is a decent freebie too, and includes auto-pause/resume. While Wahoo Fitness shows very little data in the app it records full data, which will appear when Wahoo Fitness data is transferred to Strava. It's a good, low resource app and has generally been very reliable, although I don't use it often anymore.

FlashBazbo

For the record . . . iOS11 has destabilized an awful lot of apps -- including Apple's own mail app (and Strava and Garmin Connect).


It has also made the Shimano eTube app pretty precarious to use. It now has a tendency when upgrading firmware to shut down the system. You have to disconnect and reconnect the bike's battery to make it work again. EDIT: Shimano eTube for Tablets now works fine. It's a HUGE improvement over the hardwired eTube setup. There's a new update for the app, but it is also recommended to leave the Tablet plugged in during eTube work -- just in case.

datlas 

Surely you jest.

TenSpeedV2

I did just this, and there were no regrets. Was running Strava on my phone, and for the most part it worked. Did the longest ride I had ever done, and at the end, pull the phone out. 0 miles. If it didn't happen on Strava, it didn't happen obviously. Picked up an 810 for myself after working a bit of OT as a present. Well worth the money, and no worries if the Strava app records or not. Guess how many rides didn't record since I got the Garmin? 0.

FlashBazbo

There's a downside to moving from Strava on your phone to a Garmin. When I ride with my Strava-using friends, the same Strava segment appears to be a little shorter for them than it is for me on my Garmin 820. Even when we're riding side-by-side, they usually get credit for a time maybe 4% to 5% faster.


We're not sure why this is. Maybe the phone is timing them off of cell towers while I'm being timed off the satellites? Maybe Strava is giving their users a little "boost?"

memebag

Get new Garmin using friends.

WhyFi

Cough up some dough and buy a Wahoo.

Phones are just less accurate; it's more of a problem with shorter segments.

FlashBazbo

We ride in a very rural, hilly/mountainous setting. Cell towers probably aren't as close together as they should be for accurate placement.


The first time we noticed the difference was on a 4-minute segment. The person I was pacing -- the one using Strava -- ended up with a time 12 seconds better than I got from my Garmin. It was a segment I have the KOM on and I was helping coach her on maintaining her 5-minute pace. She got the QOM and got too close to the KOM. (I won't be pacing her again -- at least on any Strava segments.)

WhyFi

Yeah, typically, phones use an 'enhanced' GPS because their non-enhanced GPS is crap. The 'enhanced' bit is some cell tower triangulation to supplement their satellite tracking. It still isn't as good as a Garmin (or the like) in the best of situations, but with hilly terrain, which can affect cell reception quite a bit, it's even more of a crapshoot.

datlas 

The responses in here have been SO helpful.

The problem persists, so I contacted Strava and they have a ticket opened.

I am not holding my breath for a solution. It's annoying because the app worked quite well until I updated the iOS. I suspect Strava will tell me it's an iOS problem/bug and Apple will tell me it's a Strava App bug.

Maybe they will both tell me to cough up some coin and buy a Garmin.

canklecat

It's mainly how the apps/sites interpret the GPS data. I've simultaneously run Strava, Cyclemeter and Wahoo Fitness on the same phone (months ago when all three would run together -- that hasn't worked reliably the past couple of months).

Each shows slightly different speeds and distances, and the map route traces each look slightly different. And when there's a GPS sync error, each app differs in guesstimates of my likeliest route, speed and distance.

Incidentally, GPS sync errors may be the single most common challenge to getting consistent data from any GPS device and app that interprets the device's data. GPS errors appear to occur more often than we realize, although the apps tend to smooth out those errors with guesstimates about the most likely data between recorded GPS data before and after sync errors occurred.

Generally, Cyclemeter showed me faster and riding a bit farther than Strava. But when the Cyclemeter data was transferred to Strava, Strava then interpolated the data differently, usually showing my average speed slower and distance shorter.

Strava explains this in on their website. I don't have the link at the moment but it's readily available via Google. Cyclemeter claims it's more accurate than Strava. But there's no way to determine any of this without a calibrated speedometer/odometer and accurate maps, including calculating your own grades/elevations if you don't trust the existing data. I don't see any reason to distrust the existing data for most areas, though. I've manually estimated grades on some routes I ride often, using iPhone apps to calculate the angle at various places on climbs (two of my bikes have horizontal top tubes, close enough for this purpose). My measurements matched the available maps and Strava data.

WhyFi

Not really. What we were talking about is one specific site (Strava) and accuracy differences between different GPS data gathering devices. You're talking about how the data from one device is interpreted differently by different sites. I know what you're talking about, though - Strava, for instance, only looks at GPS data and ignores things like wheel-based speed sensors so that, among other things, will result in their numbers always being a little different.

Steve B.

I’ve had no issues with iOs 11 thru 11.1.2 and Garmin Connect.

Steve B.

Hit and miss with various Garmins. The 810 was probably the unit that killed it for a lot of users who said Never Again.

I’ve seen current users on the 820 being very satisfied. 1030 not so much, 520 and 1000 seem to be really good units currently. You can also get a 1000 for about $360 currently.

After 18 mos. on an 810, than 3 with a Bolt, and now a 1000, the 1000 is a better unit then the Bolt if using maps or navigating. Battery life is not quite as good (10-13 hrs., vs 12-15 on the Bolt) but it’s otherwise a great unit, in my experience.

SethAZ 

You probably have your Garmin set to "smart" recording, where it updates the data less frequently, depending on whether it detects that you're changing direction or speed. You can change the settings to force it to record the data every second if you want, and it might affect what you think you're seeing with your friends on those segments.

It's not iOS, but I did have some troubles with the Strava app on my Android phone during a hike I wanted to record where I didn't have a Garmin handy. I believe that the problem was related to the fact that my Android phone was set to a power saving mode, where it reduced the frequency and power use of any app that wasn't running in the foreground. I got really spotty recording out of it. I think that when I started the activity and then locked the screen and put the phone in my pocket, the power saving mode prevented Strava from running actively like it needs to to provide accurate and timely gps calculations and recording. It's possible that iOS has introduced similar power-saving features that could be causing what the OP is seeing.

FlashBazbo

Never. I always keep it on the "every second" recording mode -- in part, because I always use a power meter. (I haven't figured out why anyone would buy a device, then set it to "smart" recording to throw away data points.)

SethAZ 

I'm with you on this one. If I were doing some all-day endurance thing where battery life were a potential issue I'd consider using smart mode, but on the 1-4 hour rides I do I'll never run out of battery, and since syncing my rides simultaneously recharges the device, it's just not an issue. Still, took me a while to realize that "smart" mode was actually the default setting on my device and then manually change it to every second.

FlashBazbo

Which device(s) are you using?

Steve B.

iPhone 6S and a Garmin 1000

My Bolt would lose the BT connection frequently. To the point where when I finished a remote ride and tried a save, it would never upload. I would have to kill the Wahoo app, relaunch then do a save. This was Wahoo’s recommendation.

datlas 

Just in case anyone is following or finds this thread, I did want to give an update.

I reset the phone and the phone's GPS which did NOT work.

Someone suggested I delete the Strava app and reinstall it. Seemed simple enough to try. That SOLVED the problem. I don't know why but it's working now.

/end thread

Bomb Komodo

If you can pony up the coin, it's a much better solution in the future (maybe a christmas gift?). I got a garmin with heart monitor and cadence/speed sensor, and my cycling has improved a lot. I personally just use the 520 and set it up to see heart rate - cadence- speed-distance from top down.

Before that,I was doing the phone/strava thing. Not nearly as optimal, but glad you got it fixed.

diphthong

^glad the garmin setup's working for you now but for many of us that have (or have had) garmin units
(pick any model), we've had issues with them working/interfacing properly. i've sent back a 510 unit (they
always send back a refurbed one) 3 times and just today managed to restore the current refurbed one after
an e-mail, some black magic and stripping all the data/files from it. garmin, from what i hear and read, is the
best of what is a crappy industry and could use a ton of improvement. originally got one because i liked longer
(70-110 mile) rides and using strava on the iphone drained it to high heaven. that plus the gps wasn't super
accurate. the garmin solved that but the durability (without being dropped/crashed/submerged) is, imho, about
1-2 years before issue(s) arise. with my recent purchase of an iphone 7, the phone battery and gps are no longer
issues where they once were. i would likely (devolve?) into tracking rides with strava on the iphone 7 along
with a lower tech cateye wireless computer to gauge speed and mileage if the garmin acts up again.

BillyD

Please don't call me Shirley.