This past weekend SportTracks enabled support for automatic sync with Garmin Connect. This rounds out the ‘big three’ when it comes to endurance athlete sites and Garmin Connect Auto Sync (including Training Peaks and Strava). There are of course other more fitness-focused sites out there that are equal or larger in size, but none of them focus on the endurance athlete as much as the three noted.
This automatic sync means that as soon as your Garmin device workout syncs to Garmin Connect, it’ll show up a few seconds later on SportTracks. This uses the same backend functionality that was introduced this past summer for the other sites. Note that while this is Garmin device focused, SportTracks told me they’re eager to get such setups in place with Polar and Suunto once those companies are ready to do so.
Finally, note that there are some differences here from other sites that have enabled sync. Specifically that SportTracks can sync your entire history (not just 30 days), as well as showing advanced Garmin-specific metrics like Running Dynamics – which are found on the Garmin FR920XT, FR620 and Fenix2.
Setting it up:
With that introduction out of the way, let’s get things cooking.
1) To start, you’ll go ahead and begin by clicking up top in the upper right where the bell is and select ‘My account’, then choosing ‘Sharing’, which should take you here.
2) Next, you’ll see the option to connect to Garmin Connect. You’ll want to click that little logo.
3) From there it’ll zip you over to Garmin Connect for you to authorize that you want to allow SportTracks access. Clicking ‘Yes’ would be a prerequisite to success.
4) Then you’re given the option to import your entire Garmin Connect history to SportTracks. To do so, you’ll click the little checkbox. There’s some duplicate detection logic, which I’ll cover in a moment.
5) In my case, I figured ‘Why the heck not’, and went for it. It’ll then prompt you for your Garmin Connect username and password.
6) With that, it’s now connected. It’ll show you the last time it accessed your account below that.
7) From there, a few minutes later it’ll start syncing your old workouts in the background – working backwards from today. As a general statement, this will take a heck of a long time. Approximately forever. Don’t worry, you can go about your life until it completes.
How long it’ll take to complete will depend on how many activities you have in Garmin Connect. Note that they have a duplicate detection feature that prevents duplicates if an activity start time is +/- 3 seconds. This will prevent activities they you already have in SportTracks from getting copied over again from Garmin Connect. So while that’s good, it’s always possible a few might slip through.
Finally, note that it’s a one-way sync, it does not send activities from SportTracks to Garmin Connect.
Doing an activity:
Next, you’ll go out and do an activity. This part is pretty much the usual. It supports any Garmin device that uploads to Garmin Connect, so you can use a Garmin Forerunner watch, or a Garmin Edge device – or the Garmin Fenix lineup. Doesn’t matter really.
For those devices where you have Bluetooth Smart or WiFi, that’s where things shine though, because it’s all automagic once you sync.
That means that after I completed my run and walked into the house, I immediately found my run already on SportTracks, due to the automated WiFi upload. In this case, I was using the FR920XT, but the same would have been true of the FR620 too.
Now interestingly, and this is where SportTracks shines a bit, they actually do enumerate the various new Running Dynamics metrics – something that virtually none of the other big sites do. So for example, you’ll see my Ground Contact Time there (that’s offered on the FR620, Fenix2, and FR920XT):
And of course all of this data gets pulled into your various summary analytics data. For example, here you’ve got the last few years of my Garmin history that was pulled over – all now visible.
And if you look at features for the multisport athlete, they have a much cleaner interface for swimming support, such as pool swims as seen below. Something that Strava simply doesn’t support at all.
Note that like other Garmin Connect sync services there are some limitations here. For example, sites like SportTracks are unable to actually see any tweaking of activity names on Garmin Connect or any other settings there for new incoming workouts. This is because they simply get sent the raw .FIT file straight from Garmin Connect. So you’ll have to manually update the activity name on SportTracks if you change that.
Desktop Sync Option:
Now SportTracks also has a desktop app, in fact, it’s what initially drove me to using them years ago. As a desktop app, it’s pretty much the king of customization and devices with plugin offerings and all sorts of ways to show unique data for athletes.
With that in mind, you can actually sync directly to their online option and thus in turn get your workouts from Garmin Connect as well. To set that up, go into Settings > CloudSync.
Then click the ‘Get Started’ option, which starts a wizard to access your online account (or create one if you don’t have one):
Next, you can ‘align’ categories from the different categories on SportTracks online versus desktop. Think of this as mapping the workout types:
Then, you’ll see a ‘Start Sync’ button, which will begin the sync process from their online site. This will go about its business for some time, depending on your interweb speed and total number of activities.
Once that’s complete, you’ll see all your workouts just like normal in the desktop app:
And just like before you can work offline without any issues since everything is copied locally.
With that, go forth and sync. Note that this will be the last post I do on the Garmin Connect sync relationships – mostly because I’ve covered all the major ones. For example, Endomondo recently went live (I don’t use the service though, so I can’t comment there too much), and then MapMyFitness should go live within the next week. Of course, this is in addition to Strava and Training Peaks back this summer.
Thanks for reading!
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Well lookee there, we have the same password!
SportTracks is great for the people that don’t use it. Have been using the Deskop app for years and love the sporttracks.mobi site. Very excited about the new synch.
I cannot see the option in my Sharing tab there. Might this be a Pro feature that the regular user cannot see?
Sporttracks.mobi is simply excellent. Not only because of all the data they present to you, but also the look and feel. I love its responsive design which makes it look good on any device.
The only thing I miss from other services is the social part with ablity to browse other members activities etc. It’s always fun to see where others run or bike to find new routes.
How about a comparison /review of the big 3? Sporttracks, Strava, TrainingPeaks. Comparing swim,bike,run, other fitness, and social perhaps?
It’s something I’m tempted to do from time to time, and I know folks would appreciate it. It’s one of the areas I’m always hesitant on because the apps change so quickly. So what I write one day can be out of date the next. It shifts slightly less so with web apps than mobile apps, thus, it might make a bit more sense.
+1 on that request! I prefer sport tracks over the other platforms because simple looks better and easier navigation, but cannot find pre maid training plans (the main reason i use those platforms is to import workout plans to my cal and device).
How about a quick overview of what each service attempts to offer to differentiate itself from the others?
Longtime Garmin user, but I’ve never used/transferred data to any of the other sites/apps.
I’m curious what value there is to be gained from each before I go to the effort to download the apps, create accounts, import data, etc.
I keep hoping Garmin Connect itself will add more value, but that’s a slow moving train.
It’s absolutely awesome to see this released. Tapiriik was good, but having native support can’t be beaten. I love sporttracks.mobi – huge thumbs up to Aaron and the team.
While the syncing and the speed of it is perfect I would recommend that Garmin uses a delay (or an option to delay) of a few minutes before allowing the sync. What happens now is that workout titles and comments entered into Garmin Connect will not be synced to Sportracks. This will make everyone use Garmin Connect as a pass-through pipe rather than a data depository. With Tapiriik sync all titles and comments were transferred over. Now, I really don’t want to enter everything twice…
Ray’s already explained that. The other services get the fit file from Garmin, just as it came from your device. They have no way of knowing what changes/titles/etc. you’ve made in Garmin Connect. It’s just like a manual upload, except you don’t actually have to do one.
I don’t use GC for anything other than pass through. If you’re using ST, I can’t see why you’d need any titles, comments etc on GC.
I also only use GC as a pass through – but to both Strava and now ST. It would be nice to be able to change the name once (in GC) rather than twice (in Strava and ST). But that is a small price to pay for the more seamless integration compared to Tapiriik. Nice to see this functionality, now I’m just waiting for the MMF sync…
I actually like how things are now. I sync to strava, but mostly for the social stuff. I dont want everyone there to see my comments, so I use TrainingPeaks for that, where I also keep things private.
The way this sync works is actually perfect for me (may not be for others, though…).
I used to upload from my FR110 into Garmin Connect, Strava, Endomondo and Sporttracks.
Now I can just let Garmin Express sync my watch when I connect it, and GC will automatically send the “raw” .FIT file to all those sites, in seconds. It’s fantastic.
I never liked syncing activities based on file exports, as there are always things that may be pre-processed, like smoothing. This way I know for sure the actual FIT file from my watch gets sent to every site.
Kudos to Garmin and all others!!
Hello Ray,
there used to be this plug-in for ST3.1 (the desktop application) whereby you could import everything from Garmin Connect straight into the app.
This no longer works, and I guess it is related to garmin limiting access to their API.
I suppose this is going to reactivate that plug-in back door for the desktop app? or we have to go through the mobi app for this to happen?
thansk
6co
I’d defer to Aaron or others on that specific plug-in, but speaking broadly… Yes, the API changes likely would have killed that (short of them finding the other backdoors). However, the new platform does require it be a B2B type connection from Garmin to a single entity. How that entity then makes the data available is more flexible though.
Me again with another question:
I like to use GC as a simple repository for EVERYTHING I do with my Garmin watch. I recod sailing acitvity or even record game drives!! – obviously not very athletic…
But I use SportTracks for the pure athletic stuff.
The problem with the Sync, and with any sync in general is that you end up with two exact same databases.
Even if I delete my game drives or sailing from SportTracks, they will just keep coming back with teh automatic sync.
Am I right??
Thanks
6co
It won’t re-sync the ones you’ve deleted. It’s a one-time thing.
How does the altitude correction work? I am using a FR620 and the altitude measurements are extremely bad. Therefore after my upload via Garmin Connect I am correcting them in the TrainingPeak platform. This is very important since rTSS is calculated considering the altitude profile of a run as well. For me this is one of the huge downsides of the FR620. I am really considering now again to buy the V800 but I am waiting for the TrainingsPeak connectivity solution from Polar.
At the moment ST doesn’t support elevation correction – it’s one of my only my issues with it. As the raw file comes from GC, it won’t have had any corrections and will be as it was out if the watch.
This is on the list of requests for ST, but I’m not sure what the time frames or plans for development are. Aaron?
There’s a plugin for the desktop app for ST that does elevation correction (usually in the top something lists, and free). With their cloudsync the raw synced stuff would come done, you can then apply the correction and it’ll sync that back up again. I use this for the FR620 all the time, because it’s absolutely horrible at elevation. One run, my home (start and end point) fell into a 60m deep hole while out running in just 30 minutes! The E510 I use for cycling, on the other hand, is pretty accurate (I do have the end of my driveway configured as a location for it to calibrate to on the way out and in).
Really like the mobile site! I think they have done great work! The additions of the Running Dynamics is a great one! Hopefully they add multisport activities to be seen as one just like GC did some days ago.
The last missing piece, at least for some people, is to make it easy to add friends. Strava has been ignoring swimmers for too long and I’ll be happy to end my premium account with them and start using SportTracks as my main site.
Along these lines, do we know when the MapMyFitness integration is coming? Its been a while since it was announced and (unless I missed it recently) never was heard from again
I asked this afternoon and they said later this week, so let’s just call it sometime in the next week.
Yaay – another great addition to Sporttracks. Love ST3 and Mobi.
Is sporttracks and the app for the desktop free? As I can’t find a free one.
No, it’s paid. You can use the desktop app in free trial mode, but it won’t enable Cloudsync, so you can’t automatically sync your workouts (though you can simply manually import them).
beginnertriathlete.com also added Garmin Connect automated sync earlier this week.
I miss to import the training data to the desktop version directly from garmin connect.
With Garmin Express which I use to sync my 910XT and my Navi the trainings get directly uploaded to Garmin Connect. If Sporttracks would access Garmin Connect directl yit would be one step less to do.
Ray,
If I went out and got myself a Wahoo Ticker X used that and my garmin swim at the same time. Then dumped both the swim and HR metrics into SportTracks separately can I somehow sync them or work it out to get HR swim data?
Do you think we can expect Nike+ site will use also this automatic sync?
Ray, can you comment about import of new multisport activities in both mobi and the desktop app? IMO, not being able to have a decent “triathlon” activity type is the major downside of ST3.
Awesome job as usual!
It splits them up – same as other apps (Strava, Training Peaks, and until last Wednesday – Garmin Connect). Suunto and Polar do however keep them tied together, as does Magellan.
I’ll defer to Aaron on any future plans there for making a multisport activity.
Thanks for the very fast reply!
I have been a mobi user since it was beta, and I am very happy with its development so far. This looks like a natural next step.
Yes ST is great, it offers great analysis and trend review etc.
Ray, any rumours from anywhere around ios8 Health synch?
I’ve been watching as companies (like Garmin, for example) add support for it. That said, many companies (including Garmin), are playing a bit of a cat and mouse game there with Apple and Health Kit stability and features. I suspect it may be another month before apps (and Apple) finds there way and things stabilize.
But, I’m watching it and as things stabilize I plan to write something up, just not yet sure what that something is.
Hi Ray
Have you see 2Peak, nice sync with Polar, Suunto and Garmin sites.
Jose
SportTracks.mobi is great!! and now with this seamless integration with GC even better! I love to see all my swimming metrics data well displayed, and the best part is that you can drag the mouse and select lengths and watch your data for any group of lengths you like to put together.
Hmmm…..
Connected up to Garmin and left it overnight and it didn’t sync a single activity – do I have to enable something else in Garmin besides authorising when asked?
You probably didn’t check the ‘import my entire Garmin Connect history’ option, did you?
Yep. Most certainly did 🙂
I’ve tried deleting the link, and creating a new one, but that hasn’t helped either.
Yeah, me, too. I checked the box, but this morning there’s only yesterday’s ride. Maybe Garmin noticed and refused to allow it?
Shoot an email to support if you haven’t yet. Workouts seem to be flowing in by the second, but we’re investigating a few support cases that seem to fail sync.
It now seems to have pulled in 1 workout, that being my most recent one.
How long is the entire import likely to take? When Ray said in his review ‘Approximately forever’ I kind of assumed he was joking :-p
Last I checked, I have a month’s worth, so it does progress.
In my case, it took about a day or so from what I saw (roughly). Which, is way faster than what Tapiriik took, which was about a month.
Ray,
What are your thoughts on Mobi vs desktop? I’ve used the full paid desktop version for years, and therefore have hesitated to pay the subscription fee for Mobi. Does it bring anything additional to me, or just the web accessibility? If I just need to look up an activity quickly, I could always use Garmin Connect…and have ST desktop for the full log.
You can use the 45 day trial and then decide for yourself.
I was also hesitating at first but found out I like the mobile site and the ability to check my workouts from mobile phone etc. But I got a discount for $35/year – check their facebook as they use to have such an offer from time to time.
I think I can answer this one.
Beyond the basics like – we’ve integrated most of the popular plugins (Training Load for one), you don’t need to manage your data and install updates or backups, deal with new PC installs, accessible anywhere (log your Gym workout on your phone), and now the Garmin Connect integration…
The biggest differences come with the things you can do with an online logbook you simply cant with a disconnected PC logbook. So for example, when you plan workouts you can publish to iCalendar and show your schedule right there alongside your personal calendar. You can get email reminders sent for your scheduled workouts. You can share workouts with friends or coaches and they can see the route and have possibility to fully explore your details just like you can (zooming on sections), and of course commenting on when you bonk on your hill climb.
For analysis we’ve got a few features not in the PC app like interactive segment based zone analysis, but really the strength is the data publishing – the PC app still shines for it’s pure customizability – to the point it’s a bit overwhelming for newbs.
What is the best way to share your workouts with a coach? I think emailing him each workout individually is not a good option, and I see no other way unless coach also pays for an account.
Any advice, Aaron, Ray?
Hi Fran! Sorry for the late reply to your question. In SportTracks.mobi, you can invite your coach to activate a free coaching account. This enables them to fully plan your training calendar, deeply analyze your workouts, leave public or private notes on any of your workouts, and exchange private messages. Instructions for how to do this are here – link to sporttracks.mobi
Nope, import all from Garmin Connect feature does not seem to work over here in the Netherlands. I get new workouts synced and all, but no history. Something seems to be still off?
Is sporttracks.mobi always so slow to calculate effort and update the training load graph? Or are their servers heavily taxed with all the people doing a full career import? I’m on a trial account. I like how it can give an effort to any kind of activity and how polished/simple the interface is, but the snail’s pace limits its usefulness compared to Golden Cheetah, which I’m also testing out.
Yeah, ST.mobi is getting slammed right now with Garmin mass-history imports even with the pre-scaling prep we did.
Currently we have training load calcs and imports running in the same priority queue… so those are getting stacked up. We’ll be making a change to prioritize training load calcs in a separate queue probably over the weekend or early next week. Moot point to you, your data should be flushed by then.
Under normal conditions, first time full history training load calculations usually clock in around 5-20 minutes to calculate (with 1000> workouts). Incremental (one or a few new workouts) usually within a minute, often faster than 20 seconds.
Thanks for your patience, we may throw some more metal on it this afternoon depending on queue lengths.
Thanks for the reply. 🙂 I’ll stay patient with it. I have been able to see a couple cycles of training load graphs as I add workouts, but I started to get impatient as I was playing around with the future workout “what if” scenarios. I’m still early in my trial period, so I’ll stick with it and see how things improve.
Thanks again!
Training load seems to be calculating and displaying nearly instantly now. Thanks!
LOL. Europe went to sleep. Aaaaaaannnnd…. the job queues are flushed =D
Could also be cause the site isn’t working. Just tried connecting to garmin connect and after authenticating there it came back to your site with an error forcing me to login to your site again. Second try had the step where it connects to garmin connect end up just redirecting in an infinite loop 🙁
Fixed it by authenticating directly to the garmin connect web page and then launching your site
Hello SportTracks.mobi fans.
Maybe a silly question, but here goes…I have been fiddling and importing for a little while now that I have started my 45 day free trial.
What would you guys & gals say is the advantage of using SportTracks over say just GC or Strava for that matter?
I must admit, I am not really seeing what’s so attractive about SportTracks.mobi….
Thank you.
When I started my training log I was using the ST desktop app (I use it still as it, with all of its plugins, has many capabilities which any other app does not offer.) Whey I considered to move online, it was the easiest solution to move to sporttracks.mobi as it offers two-way synchronization with the desktop app.
And what sporttracks.mobi offers for me over the other sites? Great view of swimming workouts, training workload calculation and continuous improvements of the whole site.
I think SportTracks 3.1, the desktop edition is the best software ever. I have it with many plug-ins and I love it.
I see no to little interest of moving my database online, other than back up really…
But for the desktop version, it is better than anything else out there
IMO
6co
Agreed its totally worth the small cost, & the plugins are great, nothing comes close in terms of flexibility & actual usable data imo.
For me, at least, there’s one easy answer. When you put a cross country skiing track on Strava, it treats it as basically equivalent to laying on the couch and watching TV. OK, granted, maybe the way I do it they’re right, but it certainly doesn’t feel that way when I’m doing it. On my Strava training log, a day of cross country skiing is a “rest” day, although if you tag it “Nordic skiing” it’s cross training. Enough of my history has flowed to SportTracks by now (looks like all of 2009 and later is there now) for me to see that cross country skiing is treated on the same basis as cycling. So there’s that. Of course, Strava has segments (which I care nothing about) and equipment tracking, so those are pluses for them. The reason I signed up to SportTracks in the first place is the photo above where Ray shows the pairing page, and it shows Withings. So now my Withings account is paired to SportTracks as well, and they get all of the weight data, including fat mass (not that I trust that measurement all that well). They don’t get blood pressure or the ludicrous step count that the iOS Withings app takes using the phone’s accelerometer, though.
To me ST Desktop was he best application by far to track your workouts. A little long to learn it inside out and find the right plug ins but in the end very powerful. I am glad to see the online platform is improving so fast and is quickly becoming the best online website for tracking and reviewing workouts (Training load, swim workouts, interval view, critical power…). The synchronization bewtween desktop and mobile site is also very well done with no conflict…
Only thing i would like to see is this Effort number to appear in the desktop app. TRIMP and TSS are different from Effort from what I understand.
In my workouts does not apear the option to view my Kcal?
It apears in Kjoules :(….
Its possible to apear in kcal??
Ray, in your opinion worth paying a subscription?
Ray, Do you see any downside to setting automatic sync? Right now I manually upload to both Garmin Connect and Strava. It would simplify things a bit but not a huge time saver since I want to name my Strava activities.
No major downsides that I can see. I love it, especially for Training Peaks since it shows up there immediately.
The only downsides that I have are (in general, not specific to ST):
1) Inability for it to keep/,mark GC private activities private on the destination platform
2) Sometimes I forgot an activity is sync’d to TP, so forget to add comments for coach
But, #2 is more of a me-issue. #1 though is something I think that Garmin needs to work with entities on exposing that data. I’d like them to follow the Suunto model where the data is sync’d over following my defaults and then I can tweak them after. So in my case activities would sync to Strava marked as Private, and then I could simply unlock them as applicable.
It’s a bummer that Garmin broke the API the Sporttracks Garmin Connect plugin utilized, and is charging the $5000 API access fee to developers. I’m a paid owner of the Sporttracks desktop program and just want to pull data from the device into it. But I have no interest in paying another $59/year just to be able to pull data through Garmin Connect and through Sporttracks Mobi into the desktop app. Cabling up to the laptop would be nice to avoid, but not at that price.
I’m with you. I paid for a years subscription for st.mobi and its nice, but it doesn’t add anything significantly that I want or need, except getting at the data from my Fenix 3 it appears.
I mostly don’t share my activities, don’t have a coach, am not obsessive enough to need to view my workouts on a mobile device, and anyway I can do that through Garmin Connect mobile app on Android which I need to get notifications on the Fenix 3.
I seriously considered buying a new watch other than Garmin for this reason, and would have loved to have written a letter and told them so… sadly Garmin Fenix 3 is so far ahead of the competition…
I have been using the SportTracks desktop app as a personal training log for about six months and I haven’t needed for the sporttrack.mobi plan as I use Strava to publish my trainings. I do have Garmin Connect history dating back to 2009 and I wanted to have this in SportTracks as well so I signed up for a free trail at sporttracks.mobi and synced it with my desktop app through CloudSync. Then I set up Garmin Connect sync like Ray described on this page. All activities (except those already uploaded from my computer) were synced to sporttracks.mobi. So far so good. The problem is that CloudSync doesn’t pull them through to the desktop app. Am I missing something? I have tried signing out from CloudSync in the desktop app and then logging back in. CloudSync works for all new activites I add on sporttracks.mobi, it just doesn’t sync the old ones (Dec 2009 – Sept 2013).
I have found a solution, but it’s quite cumbersome. If I edit an activitiy on sporttracks.mobi (e.g. adding a location) that was imported from Garmin Connect, it is synced to the desktop app.
I would ask on the SportTracks forums. I have had trouble with sync between ST3 and ST.mobi and you can get pretty good help pretty quickly there.
Hi Ray,
One thing that is missing here is a discussion about the fact that Effort in ST.mobi to be different from the usual Training Load form ST3 desktop so it is not only a matter of sync your current ST3 with mobi.
Could you please talk about that?
Thank you,
Quick note to SportTracks fans, we’ve now enabled autosync to Movescount for Suunto users as well. It works the same way as Garmin Connect. Read details at our blog:
link to sporttracks.mobi
… more sharing services to come …
Hi guys
How come that I can´t find the “Cloud Sync” option in my ST3 desktop-version? I have a paid version of both ST and ST-mobi?
Besides – since I startede using garmin-connect and file-import from ST-mobi to my ST-desktop it seems that my laps disappear in ST-desktop?
Casper
-Casper you can get SportTracks tech support by posting on our forums or via email.
So, I read carefully through the comments, and had already asked on the sporttracks forum with no reply, I take it that you cannot import from a Fenix 3 to Sporttracks desktop EXCEPT through the Garmin Connect sync to the st.mobi site?
Ouch, my bad for buying a Fenix 3.
@Mark The SportTracks PC app supports data import of all Garmin devices, including the Fenix 3. Navigate to the folder on your PC where the Garmin Express stores your FIT files, select Import > File and import it directly. Done.
You’ll find the files here:
C:\ProgramData\Garmin\GarminConnect\Device-UnitID\Upload\FIT_TYPE_4
Hi Ray and/or Aaron,
I like ST mobi as well. I would be happy about a road map. Is something planned?
I’m just curious what features are planned 🙂
Kind regards from germany
Stephan
Hey Stephan,
We don’t plan to publish a roadmap. Our process/priorities changes too rapidly. We enthusiastically encourage our athletes and coaches to give us feedback here:
link to sporttracks.uservoice.com
About 80% of our feature development time is driven by user requests or ideas that we have added to the board. The other 20% going to necessary infrastructure/workflow/architecture improvements.
You can submit your own ideas, vote on ideas, comment or subscribe to get updates on progress.
The roadmap for big-picture features roughly follows the top vote count. We also allow some time to add quick features (< 1 day) that people requested. Those are flowing in constantly; the website is updated weekly.
We're currently working on #1 on the list: Major improvements to workout planning – allowing structure (intervals) and new goal types (heart rate, power, etc), and integrating that to watches.
One problem with this process, as we mark things completed they become hidden, so it's hard to see everything we added in the last year. The best source for that is the articles on the blog tagged with features:
link to sporttracks.mobi
You'll also see announcements on Facebook, Twitter and our newsletter.
Thanks for asking!
Hi Aaron,
thank you for the quick and detailed answer!
I think the possibility with the “voting site” is very good. I look forward to more functions…
Regards
Stephan
Not working for me, it imported all data from garmin (3 days ago) however no sync of new activities. I’m missi g the last three days in here. The supoort guys say its garmin, however I do get al, the activities in strava and training peaks. Not. a happy camper so far.
ST3 still rocks, it was a stupid decision to shut it down. It would have been wiser to offer a ‘new contract’ for those who paid a lifetime right to use it than announcing the end of lifetime.
Sporttracks.mobi is a big step backward, but it is not my business, so I don’t worry about its low level of real capabilities.
Finally Sporttracks team went mad during the attempt to defend their decision. They are simply lucky that everybody is lazy enough to test them during a legal action.
Final thought: enjoy ST3 until you can and from that point accept that life is about waves of good and bad things.
Legal action? what did miss?
Like it or not, the days of one-time paid desktop apps are over. And in a niche market like this, they’re simply not sustainable.
And sports tracks mobi is actually very good price, I stopped using the desktop app a while ago & quite like mobi. Only 1 or 2 things i miss & i don’t really like the colours they use but overall it’s my favorite for analyzing my workouts.
just wondering what they did to warrant legal action?
Weird zombie thread rez but ok. ?♂️
I’ll take the opportunity to update readers on the SportTracks Garmin sync since this article is a half decade old. SportTracks now syncs from Garmin Connect:
– completed workouts
– health scale metrics
– activity tracking such as steps and active time
– sleep tracking including detailed sleep phase analysis
I’m also happy to leak some internal plans which will be announced in the next few weeks – we are in the final process of adding synchronization of your training plan from SportTracks thru to your Garmin Connect calendar what eventually lands on your watch – seamlessly.
Hi Aron
Could you describe how to make the sync from Garmin Connect to ST?
Best regards
Casper
I guess Rodrigo meant that all of those people who bought a lifetime license to use ST3, which license was offered by the owner of ST3, namely Zonefivesoftware, have the right to use the software forever.
I have the same conclusion, by the way.
And certainly any companies have the right to stop supporting a software, but maybe (and this word is important, because it is a legal question) does NOT have the right to make the software deliberately unusable parallelly with the tricky act of announcing its EndofLife.
I mean the problem is not the EoL, but the decision that not let people to use the already installed copies of this desktop software, since it will not properly run after EoL due to the licensing process, which will require an internet connection to some server operated by Z5Sw.
Again, i am not a lawyer or that sort of, but if ST3 could properly run after EoL, it would be fine even without any supports, but I think it is not kosher to kill a product with lifetime licenses sold.
Just think about the former versions of Windows. You get no support, but your windows XP works provided you make no modification of your PC.
Just think about ST3. It was clarified by admin in their website forum, that one should assume it will not work after the day of EoL.
So I am not sure what Rodrigo meant, but I would have meant what I write above.
Btw I was a ST3 user, who is a Mytourbook user.
“Like it or not, the days of one-time paid desktop apps are over. And in a niche market like this, they’re simply not sustainable.”
DCR,
It is not the mistake of the users that the software owner made a ‘financially not sustainable deal’ with them selling the right to use the software forever.
It was a deal, a contract where the software owner had any right to evaluate how much he should ask for the licence considering that it is a one-time amount.
And it was not mentioned, but people paid money for the right to use various plugins to the plugin developers. Some of them were real purchases, some of them just thankful donations.
So the total investment of many users were not just USD35, but can be equal or more than USD/EUR 100.
Anyway my way of thinking is quite close to that of Z.
The real difference between us may be that I am definitely more furious, because letting people use ST3 forever is something which must be legally obbligatory for zonefivesoftware Ltd or whatever.
I don’t see the difference between this and Windows XP support. They’re not saying they’re going to break anything, but rather, that the’re not going to maintain online services tied to the plug-in registry or issue other fixes.
I get that might impact plugins future, but not the app itself.
There’s nothing saying they’re preventing you from using the app forever. Nothing. Where are you seeing that?
I saw it here months ago
Admin (that is Aaron or one of his colleagues) said: “
Postby admin » 2019.05.03, 15:32:39
fishyweb wrote:
“Maybe I’ve missed something, but I’ve not seen any specific confirmation of whether ST3 will cease to work next April”
The ST3 Windows PC app will end-of-life on March 31, 2020. You can find the announcement details here: ST3 End of Life Notification. At this time we do not intend to offer licenses to any native Windows software after that date. After March 31, 2020 you should not expect the software to continue to operate.
link to zonefivesoftware.com
There were more questions toward admin to clarify it more deeply, but it never happened.
The majority of those ST3 users who wanted Aaron to clarify it had a fear that Zone5software would not change the licence check method which needs internet connection and a running server maintained by Z5Software.
They included me even begged to Aaron to publish a new releaseof ST3, which would not include that licencing check.
Aaron/admin was clear, no new release. So the whole shutdown of ST3 and the way how it is managed seems to be an enforcement for the ST3 clientele that they have to change to mobi. And not because of the lack of support, but due to non-running ST3.
That is what you must missed, Ray.
Ok, gotchya. I didn’t realize the license registration validation/server is being turned off – perhaps Aaron can clarify. In that case, yeah, that’s pretty sucky (and definitely not in-line with traditional software company practices on EOL).
I am happy that you got it, because it is why it is not a zombie thread rez,
And you know, Ray, if there were a ST4 where the only addition is a local license validation method and the only removal is the distant validation, Aaron can ask users for some money. And since ST3/4 has a real value for people, otherwise there would not have been such a rebellion due to the EOL, the majority of them would pay.
Certainly it would be a one-time payment again.
By the way I guess the businessmistake was not to release any ST4 or ST 5 earlier packed with those additional features, which are part of mobi. Each of these releases would have meant a new chance to collect money as it was at the time of people’s switch from ST2 to ST3.
I do think that mobi cannot successfully compete with the same sort of ecosystem of all of the big hardware-driven companies. At least in the long term. But there is much smaller competition in the desktop world. Yes, I know, there are much less desktop fans than online believers. But (again) there can be a desktop program with additional online features as it was ST3 in the transition period.
Time will tell…
Another jewel from a rebel-mate placed in the official ST3 forum:
Re: Garmin Forerunner 235
Postby texmurphy » Fri Sep 06, 2019 2:14 pm
admin wrote:
For older devices (pre 2017) you can continue to use a manual FIT file import until end of life in March 2020.
@Admin – ZoneFive continues to add uncertainty to the End of Life for the ST3 PC product. In the quote above you assert that we will be unable to do any .fit file imports after EOL March 2020. Has ZoneFive placed a hard EOL into the ST3 product code? Please clarify this, thanks.
link to zonefivesoftware.com
Poor texmurhpy, cannot he still see what is going on here?
Any feedback from Aaron may be?
Instead of waiting for clarification here check this one: link to zonefivesoftware.com
Both the ST3 forum domain and the ST3 licensing server will be shut down.
Full stop.
Hi Guys,
I know for a fact that the ST3 and Old Man Biking´s full package plug in, especially the “Waypoint and Courses”, the only one I’ll miss, work without Internet connection so they are not dependable of any server.
I believe the problem I’ll occur only for new installations, either for changing the machine or for some .NET, Windows changes that make them not work properly.
Is that it?
Marcos, not exactly.
First of all you will get a trial mode due to shutdown of ST3 server. Because of that the number of plugins will be restricted to 2, yes two.
So even if OMB will keep its licensing check work, and it would make you able to use all of his plugins you bought, you cant do that as a consequence of the decision of Zonefivesoftware guys.
By the way it would have been much fairer and more transparent if Zonefivesoftware/Sporttracks team had literally announced the shutdown of the servers back in April.
Users had to push them for months and months to confess that EOLis not just the lack of support, but practically a very high chance to kill the software itself.
And as I see there is not a slightest willingness to remove the present remote license check and let people use the software until the moment you Marcos described, I mean change of the environment.
I’m confused.
I run ST3 today without any Internet connection therefore there isn’t any kind of server check.
Thank you,
Try to launch it several times w/o internet. At least for a week and at least for 5-7 times.
As admin wrote on ST3 forum, there may be some grace period, or number of grace occasions.
Anyway I do get trial period from time to time if I launch ST3 too fast after booting and there is no internet connection yet.
I dont know the exact algorithm, Marcos. But you will see after 31/03/2020. 😉
@Marcos (and others) – Please be advised the poster Zoltan above is *NOT* a representative of SportTracks and has no knowledge of the operation of the software. He has spread false information and bad advice for some time, to the point he became only one of two forum users in 10 years of moderation that we had to put in approval mode to make sure he didn’t keep telling people WRONG things in his posts that we had to keep going to clean up. The other was personally abusing people so that tells you how rare this is.
I apologize if I am direct about this, but the dude has uselessly eaten up a lot of our moderator resources with misinformation. It’s been very tiresome and causes confusion for users like you. I’m not sure why he keeps doing this or what his motivation is.
You can read the end of life notice on the SportTracks website since over five months ago. Nothing has changed since the announcement. We’ve also been doing regular email blasts to users still active with ST3 informing them of alternative products, how to export data and how to migrate to other solutions.
If something isn’t totally clear on our website or email notices, don’t hesitate to contact support via email where you can help with *CORRECT* information.
Hi,
I am not a rep of ST3. So it is true.
Sometimes I may give bad advice, false imformation. It was never my intention, just checked the hundreds of my posts on ST3 forum, but maybe it is true that recenty I gave bad advice. If so, I am really sorry.
You put me under moderation due to false information and/or bad advice. It seems to be false. You wanted to control me, it seems to be true.
You even did not allow to publish my posts only about asking the others whether they are also under a moderation. Whether the whole forum engine changed or is it just me who is affected.
What is a harm of this asking post? Huh? Truth?
My motivation? To make you tell the exact story, and to make it clear whether you were legally fine when announcing EOL with the very high chance (it is that you also said under the name of admin) of almost immediately non-working ST3 instances.
There were many questions on zonefivesoftware (Sporttracks) web forum about licensing issue after EoL, and the answers of admin(s) clarified that one should assume that his or her ST3 will not work. But not more. It was just repeated and repeated.
I dared to guess the reason is that there will be no connection to any servers which could confirm the validity of your license code when you launch ST3.
Maybe it was just a speculation from me months ago, but you confirmed it just a couple of days ago on ST3 forum. So partly I made you tell the exact story. A small success.
Back in June or so I went further and I made a polite post about the legal background of how the copyright of a software should be handled in the Anglo Saxon world, namely in the US, when it is legally dead (after it has reached its end of life). I even asked whether any attempt of reverse engineering of a ‘dead’ software is as illegal as that of a living one, or is a ‘dead’ software something which is dead from the legal point of view, too, and there is no copyright protection any longer. So it was just a question of curiosity.
My post was immediately deleted by your team, and even after I politely inquired about the whys and I explained that I asked and not stated, nor motivated I people to break any laws, my post was never restored. Moreover since then all of my posts are controlled by the admins meaning that even my posts, which is about just simply asking other users whether their posts are controlled, too, before showing up, has been not allowed to appear.
You have the right to control it, but it is more than strange. Maybe you also have some fear, that my questions about the legal stance of a software being after EOL can highlight something that you dont want?
You know first I thought that there were some unlucky coincidents and it is the reason that these of my posts were never approved by the admins, but I made some other posts (just as simple tests) and all of the othere were approved.
I became quite frustrated, because it is not the old Z5SW that I got gamiliar with 10 years ago, and since I live in Eastern Europe I dare to say that this behaviour ofyour team is like a total censorship, which was one of the typical characteristics of the former regime of my country before 1989.
It is my side, my statement.
And anyway a late thank you, but thanks for advising MyTourBook.
No “Z”… I won’t abuse Ray’s blog using it as a support forum nor will I waste my time litigating your poor behavior…. If Ray wants to provide you with a platform that’s his choice.
Hi Dude!
First you are very unpolite to people. And if someone argue with you you say that you don’t want to abuse Ray’s block. Funny approach.
But I would not expect more for someone that sell a software as “LifeTime” then do everything to avould that people can keep on using it.
So what does it mean when the sofware is “dead”. Is the copyright gone? Can we reverse engineer it? Is it ok if we remove the licence check?
I guess you will not bather to answer the question here… But you can not remove it here….
Huh… not sure about that statement.
To me, cloud based apps like Strava are also addressing a niche market and I don’t really see the advantage compared to a good ole’ on-prem software. I’d say it’s actually worse as it offers way less features. Compare data analysis in strava vs GC, you get the pic….
But maybe 70% of the athletes are fine seeing their total weekly/yearly hours, miles and gain and they dont need a gashouse of a PC app.
But again, they dont see the point of paying for such little features and like you said it well in this post link to dcrainmaker.com
“[…]users continue to realize Strava isn’t providing new feature value for their continued monthly/annual membership fees (which is the entire premise of subscription based servers: ever green features).”
Time will tell !
My above reply was meant to reply to DCRainMaker’s comment :
“Like it or not, the days of one-time paid desktop apps are over. And in a niche market like this, they’re simply not sustainable.”
Yeah, with 40 million users – I think Strava is well past the ‘niche’ labeling.
Unfortunately, desktop-only endurance sports focused software is about as niche as we get these days. I frankly don’t even know how WKO stays ‘in business’, except perhaps for the fact that they ‘borrow’ lots of code/bits from TrainingPeaks (who owns it), so it’s sustainable in that model perhaps. And perhaps because there’s still a raft of coaches that use it. Whereas ST lacked that coach/athlete model at the same scale of TP/WKO.
I’m not denying that they have a lot of users, they’ve definitely done a great job attracting people, my point is that how long will they live if users, like you say, realize that they can pretty much stay with the free version ? and of those 40 million users, how much actually pay for it already?
And on top of that, though maybe those 40 million users don’t realize or care that Strava “owns” their data, I do !
In the end, I don’t know if a cloud-based app is more sustainable than a desktop app. But I don’t have the figures to show if people actually mainly pay for services like Strava, and all the “freemium” sites
Hi Ray,
I think is not about niche or any other but the fact we paid for a stand alone software and they are going to stop it to function. Period.
But talking about niches, as far I know, no other software is capable of perfoming Old Man Biking Plugin “Course and Waypoints” as follow:
1) import a gpx file with waypoints
2) if you want, it can add all those waypoints within less than 50 meters from the track to the course as course_points (TBT)
3) add course_points (warnings) any where you want in that course, no map dependable (for off road use)
3) it can also automatically create turns (no need for a map) when direction changes by more than xx degrees , summits after an ascent of at least xx meters and valleys after a descent of at least xx meters.
4) TBT icons and actions are Garmin compatibles.
5) export as tcx or fit, but fit files are not customized for newer Garmin’s so you need to take a .tcx and use MacBadger CourseTCX2Fit tool in order to correctly run it on Fenix line.
If anyone anything capable of that, I’d appreciate.
Tks,
I definitely agree with several of commenters here and here is what “admin” said in 2015 about ST3 license
“The PC license is for lifetime of the 3.x software. It grants a use of the software for as long as you own it. Even when we release 4.x, or 5.x, we don’t force payment or upgrade, you can continue using the 3.x version for life.”
It’s black and white, “lifetime”, “continue using ST for life”. not sure what Mr Aaron doesn’t understand.
I am posting the source link of this but also attaching the image as Z well stated that admin censures the ST forums very well and very quickly. I have seen several of posts removed over the time for reasons that were not officially explained but my guess is that it was nailing facts that the “admin” was not wanting to hide and not and admit publicly. As a matter of fact, I have seen Z’s posts before being removed. I am from Europe as well and when Z made this comparison, it was bone-chilling “former regime of my country before 1989.”
link to zonefivesoftware.com
During my 6+ years of owning and using ST, I’ve always publicly stated and advertised that ST was the best software available but I didn’t realize the poor behavior, customer service and communication that would follow the EOL of ST and I mainly agree with Z and Marcos (and many others).
At the end of the day, considering this poor behavior, censorship and non respect of the “lifetime” license of ST, I think it may be a blessing in disguise that ST won’t work soon as it doesn’t deserve more publicity and use anymore considering this type of behavior.
For sure, I feel a bit bad to “hijack” Ray’s blog but at the same time considering the censorship on the ST platform, I can understand that people are talking about ST’s EOL here as Ray doesn’t seem to be censoring (at least not as much, I dont know his policy).
I am not sure where “Z” had a poor behavior like Mt Aaron states. What did he do or say that was so bad ? asking you why you wouldn’t respect your initial contract of “lifetime use” of ST ? wow…
He is just asking questions and help as, like most of us, we got “the rug swept under our feet” with the EOL announcement, I think it should be understandable.
And I hope you offer a better customer service on your .mobi platform which is supposed to be the *bright* future of ST……
Sure, Ray may be right that pc app are not sustainable but I think customer service should always be respected, just like a contract.
I am assuming we are all grown-ups and we can keep this conversation polite and civilized, at least this is my intention in case it is not clear
Re Frederic,
1. first of all thanks for your words, Frederic, it gave me really a lot. Not just in terms of logics, but also as regards emotion and morality.
2. Re ST3 team before EOL announcement::
to be honest even my former experience with ST3 team was a bit mixed. I would never call them as non-supportive, no never, but from time to time I felt some sort of cynism when it happened that some people proposed something which were not in line with admin’s way of thinking. It was just simply strange and a kind of boastful approach.
But summarizing it: ST3 worked and I agree it was the best available software for data miner fitness people.
3. Re who was the value creators of ST3:
Let me highlight that ST3 team could be praised not for all of the developments of ST3, the majority of the functionality came from the plugins, either they were free (donation based) or for payment (limited usage without payment). Zonefivesoftware just created a useful evironment launching ST, and it was really a must in order to let plugin-developers to create plugins. But without those plugins which were developed by anybody but ST3 team itself, the clientele of ST3 would have been just a fraction.
4. Re EOL
Announcing EOL seems to be a simple and blunt attempt to ‘slip out’ the responsibility of the former contract. I guess the legally fair way would have been the liquidation of the legal entity owning ST3 and those lifetime contracts, and thereby the situation is clear: no company, no support, just the end, my friend.
5. Re mobi:
But ST3 admin needed the clientele of mobi, so why to liquidate Zonefivesoftware if he can kill ST3 without hurting mobi. I have two reasons not to use mobi. For the time being it is not good enough to use. And even if In the long term it will be a robust and perfect solution of recording sport acitivites, no way, because I lost my truth in this small group of people called ST3 team
6. Re communication
What was really strange that even if admin made a relatively lot of communications about EOL there were some points where he seemed to try to evade the simple statements for a long while, but afterr some time he said something which was more than a hint. I remember how much texmurphy tried to get a straightforward statement from admin.
7. Re censorship:
I could just repeat myself and Frederic’s words, but dont wish to bone-chill anybody any more….
8. Re Ray’s blog, his behavior and the hijacking
Thanks, Ray. It was really a sort of impolite way to make this thread here, but it is goo to see that you do no believe in censorship. Let me point to another place where some frustrated users may find a way how to make their lifetime software works after EOL date: link to the5krunner.com
But I agree with a post made in that thread, that is we do not know yet, whether plugins will work or not.
9 To Mr Aaron A. who labelled me
I believe in karma. I am quite sure you made things which were useful for other beings, including ST3 :-), so the consequences of these deeds must be enjoyable for you some time or other, but as all of us you must have made things like EOL 🙂 which were ….
Z as Zoltan aka Tisztul_A_Visztula
The reality: link to zonefivesoftware.com
Mobi is inferior to ST3 in terms of quality, but superior as regards the capability to collect more money from users. 🙂
Well done,
Karl Marx
LOL
Hi Aaron,
I’ve tried your forum and support but the statements were not clear enough that’s why I’m still confused.
There is no current substitute for Old Man Biking “Waypoints and Courses” plug in and even if there were I paid for the ST3 and OMB and you have no right to cease them to work.
Thank you,
It seems that it is not Z’s behaviour is what is poor. He just wanted to know what sort of rights those software buyers who bought lifetime (!!!!!!) licenses have after the software owner who sold these licenses has artificially defined the end of Life.
Maybe he should have given up to fight for that piece of information earlier.
But I looked for this name “Zoltan” on ST3 forum and found a user signing his posts with it. And Dios mío, he indeed made more than 500 posts for 8-9 years. Asking and helping, asking and helping.
So for me his story version about what has happened on ST3 forum with his nickname is more credible. Not every service provider loves active and transparent clients.
But the conclusion is really that it makes no sense for anybody to try to use ST3 if its owner is not for it any longer. And it is independent from whether its closure was done in a legally correct way or not.
And having seen this special phase out of ST3 I say STmobi is not for me. And it is independent from the capabilities of the latter.
ST3 RIP!
Hi,
More relevant info about the practical future of ST3 here link to the5krunner.com than in the official ST3 forum.
Long live ST3, mobi can ……
Tomorrow or within 2 weeks from tomorrow we will see what happen.
For the people that lost their SportTracks installer, on the website of computerbild.de the download is available: link to computerbild.de (it’s not the most recent version, but it’s better than nothing)
For the people that lost the installer, on the website of computerbild.de the download is available: link to computerbild.de (it’s not the most recent version, but it’s better than nothing)
Mechgt kindly made his plugin, Power runner, open-sourced: link to github.com
Interesting article! I agree that Sporttracks is clean and got mid-ground where it doesn’t show too much data once and has limitations in customization. The question that arises is, as a self-trained athlete, how much information is required. I used TrainingPeaks, Starva, SportsTrack & WKO5 with my Garmin connect for my runs and tried different platforms. When RUN2PB coached me for the run used finalsurge+starva; now, when I am self-coaching use TP plans+starva+Sporttracks. End of the day primary focus will be on the training plan then data, so I am looking to move to Today’s Plan to explore their running plans.
Any idea what’s become of the SportTracks folks lately? They still collect my subscription fee, and the site still works — but there’s been no recent innovation, no blog posts, etc. I get the feeling they’ve put the site into “cash cow” mode and have stopped any meaningful work on it.
It’s a shame, because I still like the reporting capabilities better than Garmin Connect. I’m kinda surprised they didn’t get acquired by one of the hardware manufactures seeking to improve their web/mobile experience.
Nope, but the representative (maybe also owner) of Sporttracks, Aaron, was active here in 2019 to defend themselves at the time of closure ofmthe pc version. See post no 105 as an example. Maybe he will react now too and defend themselves again. 😉
Your right! there has not been any innovation the last couple of years. Even not simple things like add an e-bike type of activity for example…
Well my subscription was up for renewal again back in July, and I saw zero innovation or activity since my original post here in 2022. After several years as a loyal subscriber, I canceled.