Strava isn’t syncing with Google Fit? Steps to fix it

Both Strava and Google Fit have become leaders within the health and fitness industry, but what do you do if you find that your workout from Strava isn’t syncing with Google Fit?

I think we’ve all been there… an app freezes, a program shuts down, a smart device glitches. As consumers in this technological era, it’s bound to happen.

It’s frustrating when your tech devices fail or stall, but the good news is that there are often ways to resolve most situations. 

In this article, we’ll provide an overview of Strava and Google Fit, and then offer some troubleshooting tips to try if you find that Strava isn’t syncing with Google Fit.

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Overview of Strava and Google Fit

But first! Why do we love Strava and Google Fit?

Strava

Strava has been around for years as one of the leading community-based fitness trackers. If you’re an avid cyclist or runner then you’ve probably heard of Strava.

Strava also supports athletes and recreationalists that engage in everything from kayaking, to surfing, and ice skating (among many other sports, too!). 

It’s one of the most well-rounded fitness apps out there that allows you to log your workout. 

Google Fit

Google Fit is a diverse data hub for health and fitness enthusiasts. The app allows you to integrate data from multiple platforms, apps, and devices to be viewed in one comprehensive place.

For example, if you’re collecting sleep data from the Sleep as Android app, but also want to log your cycling routes from Strava, Google Fit allows you to see all of those different aspects of your health and fitness in one location.

It’s a super convenient tool, and many users have come to enjoy the features that it offers. 

Are your Strava workouts not syncing to Google Fit?

First, remember that the syncing of data between Strava and Google Fit is not instantaneous.

Your activity details are sent to Google Fit only when the data is uploaded to Strava’s servers and then downloaded to Google Fit from Strava’s servers. For your Strava activities to appear in Google Fit, this process often takes a few minutes or more (and sometimes, hours!)

1. Open the Strava app on your phone and select the You tab at the bottom. Choose the Activities tab at the top. Then, scroll down through all your recent activities feed–this helps update Strava’s servers and prompts them to download those activities to Google Fit.
2. Open the Google Fit app on your phone and choose the Journal tab. At the top, tap the Refresh button (two arrows in a circle) to update the app with your latest activity data.
3. Force close both the Strava and Google Fit apps on your phone (do this on Android in Settings > Apps > (Select Strava or Google Fit) > Force Stop. For Apple devices and some Android devices swipe up from the bottom of your screen until you see the app tiles, then swipe both Google Fit and Strava off the top of your screen.
4. On Android, try clearing Strava’s and Google Fit’s cache. Go to Settings > Apps > (Select Strava or Google Fit) > Storage & cache > Clear cache.
5. If your Strava workout still isn’t showing up in Google Fit, we have a workaround but it is very time-consuming and a complete pain in the you know what! 
   1. Open Strava and select either the Home tab or the You > Activities tabs.
   2. Tap on the name of a workout that didn’t sync to Google Fit and open its details, then choose the More button at the top (three dots.)
   3. From the list that pops up, select Edit Activity.
   4. Change the name of the activity or add something to the name like a character or the date–even a blank space at the beginning or end works! Just add something. In this example, I just added two blank spaces at the end.
   5. Wait a few minutes and then open Google Fit and select the Journal tab. See the activity is now there! Look for the Strava logo next to the activity.
      1. Tap on it to see more details and compare those to Strava to ensure it synced over correctly.
   6. Repeat for any additional missing activities–yes, this process is painful.

If none of these tips works for you, try re-pairing Strava and Google Fit.

How to pair or re-pair Strava and Google Fit on Android 

If the data-sharing features offered between Google Fit and Strava aren’t working, it’s a good idea to run through the process of re-pairing them.

Pairing allows the apps to share data back and forth. And that’s why going through the pairing process again often fixes data syncing issues.

The twist here is that Strava only syncs directly with Google Fit on Android devices. There’s a bit more of a workaround if you’re using an Apple device (more on that later.)

Let’s first walk through how to re-pair the two if you’re using an Android device. 

#1 Disconnect Strava and Google Fit

1. Open Google Fit > Profile in the bottom right and choose Settings in the upper right.
2. Select Manage connected apps. 
3. Look for and tap Strava from the list of third-party apps with access to your Google account.
4. Tap the Remove Access button.
5. Confirm you want to remove the app.
6. Now, open the Strava app.
7. Go to Edit Profile > Settings.
8.  Select Link Other Services.
9. Tap the checked box to deselect Google Fit.
10. Then confirm you wish to disconnect the services.

#2 Re-connect Strava and Google Fit

1. Open the Strava Android app.
2. Select Edit Profile > Settings > Link Other Services.
3. Checkmark Google Fit to start the pairing process.
4. Tap Connect.
5. Allow Strava to access your location. 
   1. We recommend choosing Precise location and While using the app.
6. Select your Google account or choose to add another and sign into that account.
7. If asked, allow Strava to read and write to Google Fit.
8. Tap Done to complete the process.
9. Verify that Google Fit is check-marked under Services.

From now on, any completed Strava workouts saved on Strava’s servers should automatically be sent to Google Fit. This does not apply to your past workouts, only to workouts from this point onwards.

#3 Verify that Strava now shows up in your Google Fit app’s connected apps

1. 1. Open Google Fit and choose the Profile tab at the bottom.
   2. Tap the Settings icon at the top.
   3. Scroll down to Google Fit data and personalization and tap Manage connected apps.
   4. Under Third-party apps with access to your account, verify that it now lists Strava and that it “has some account access.”

#4 Refresh Google Fit’s Journal

Google Fit usually works by integrating data from linked apps or smart devices. This information gets uploaded to Google Fit’s servers where you can then view it within the app – typically from the Journal tab. 

What we’ll do here is remove, then re-add the integrated app with a refresh to the data located within your Journal.

1. Once re-paired, open Google Fit and head to your Journal tab.
2. Press the Refresh button or swipe down from the top of the screen to refresh your journal data.
3. Look for an activity entry that shows the Strava logo. Tap it to see the exercise’s details, including workout active time, distance, calories used, move minutes, and pace from Strava.

There can be a bit of a delay for activities from Strava to appear in Google Fit. That’s because that activity is first uploaded to Strava’s servers and then downloaded to Google Fit.

Connecting Strava to Google Fit on an iPhone

The workaround for iOS users is to sync Strava to the Apple Health app and then sync from the Health app to Google Fit.

It’s not the most convenient, but if you’re set on using Google Fit to integrate all of your health and fitness data, this is the way to do it for iOS.

We hope that upgrades come soon for our iOS users that allow seamless syncing between Strava and Google Fit. 

First, connect Strava and Apple Health

1. Open Strav and tap the Settings gear icon in the upper right corner.
2. Select Applications, Services, and Devices.
3. Choose Health and tap the (+) icon.
4. Tap the Connect button at the bottom.
5. You’ll be directed to the Health Access page to enable data sharing. We recommend selecting the Turn On All tab at the top. However, if you want to pick and choose what data you share, just be sure to toggle on Workouts.

Strava syncs to Apple Health all your workouts, maps, GPS coordinates, and routes that you record directly within Strava.

And it also syncs to Apple Health any activities that you record with a third-party app that you previously connected to Strava, including popular apps like Zwift, Garmin, TrainerRoad, Peloton, or Wahoo. All of these activities also sync to the Apple Fitness app to help close your activity rings.

While all your activities logged in third-party apps that sync to Strava automatically sync with the Apple Health app, their route information does not. So you do not get a map or GPS coordinates of your route. 

Connecting Apple Health to Google Fit

Okay, you’ve made it this far. We have one more step to get Strava talking to Google Fit via the Apple Health app. 

1. Open the Google Fit app and tap Profile at the bottom right.
2. Tap Settings at the top right.
3. Under the Activity tracking section, tap Track your activities with Health.
4. Toggle on Connect Google Fit with Health.
5. You’ll then be directed to the same Health Access page as mentioned above to enable data sharing between the two. We recommend you choose the option to Turn On All.

It’s a bit of an initial setup, but once you link everything, it should work (most of the time!). 

To check, open Google Fit, tap the Journal tab, and look for entries from Strava or the Apple Health app.

Don’t see your Strava activities in Google Fit and find that Strava still isn’t syncing with Google Fit, despite going through all the steps to set up this communication?

Let’s look at some troubleshooting options below.

Try these additional tips if Strava continues to not sync with Google Fit

Here’s a list of more troubleshooting options to try if you find that Strava isn’t syncing with Google Fit. 

Check for app updates

If the Google Fit or Strava app is out of date, that could lead to syncing problems between the services.

So open the Apple App Store or Google Play Store and see if there is an update for either of these apps, and if so, update it!

Don’t forget to also update your phone’s operating system too. Newer version of Android and iOS usually help apps communicate better.

Force close the apps

There have been multiple discussions about how sometimes these companion apps only update and sync data to another server when the companion app itself is closed.

We’re not sure why this is the case, but the app you are trying to sync with Google Fit may be running in the background without your knowledge. This could be why you’re not seeing updated information appear in Google Fit. 

To force close an app on Android:

1. Open Settings > Apps > All apps.
2. From the list of apps, select Google Fit.
3. Tap Force stop or Force close.
4. Repeat for Strava.

To force close an app on Apple iOS:

1. Double-tap the home button to bring all of your open apps onto the screen.
2. Swipe right or left to find Strava.
3. Swipe up on the Strava app preview to close it.
4. Repeat for Google Fit.

From here, try opening Strava and Google Fit apps again to see if your recent data synced with Google Fit.

Remember, it could take several minutes or more to update. 

Try turning off Google Fit’s Track your activities 

On Android devices, Google Fit can track your activities on its own using your phone or device’s sensors to sense activities like steps and repetitions.

When you have Google Fit’s Track your activities on, it can interfere with data collection and integration from third-party apps and sources, like Strava.

When you disable Google Fit’s own activity tracking function, it relies less on its own app’s capabilities and may be more inclined to automatically sync with activity tracking coming from Strava, for example. 

This feature is currently available on Android devices only, you won’t find these settings in the Apple iOS app.

To turn off Track your activities in Google Fit (Android setting only)

1. Open Google Fit > Profile > Settings.
2. Go to the section Tracking preferences.
3. Toggle off Track your activities.

If even after all this, Strava isn’t syncing with Google, we’ve gone one more option for you to try – deleting all locally stored data by uninstalling and re-installing the apps.

Delete the apps and reinstall them

Sometimes, refreshing the code of the app helps gets these apps working and syncing again! We recommend you delete both apps (Strava and Google Fit) and then reinstall them via the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.

Since both Google Fit and Strava store your account information remotely on their servers, you won’t lose any of your history and activity data! This is because your data is cloud-based and is all stored online. 

After you reinstall them, you’ll need to sign in to your Google and Strava accounts and you may have to re-pair them again.

To delete Google Fit and Strava on Android

1. Open Settings > Apps > Google Fit.
2. Tap Uninstall and confirm you wish to uninstall it. Google
3. Repeat these steps for Strava.

To delete Google Fit and Strava on iOS

1. Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage.
2. Select Google Fit and tap Delete App. Confirm you wish to delete it.
3. Then repeat these steps for Strava.

After uninstalling both apps from your phone, open the Apple App Store or Google Play Store and reinstall both Strava and Google Fit.

Once reinstalled, open each app and sign in to your account if asked. Wait for your information to download and populate the app from the app’s servers.

Finally, open the Journal tab in Google Fit and refresh the page in order to sync your fitness data.

Hopefully, this does the trick! If Strava still isn’t syncing with Google Fit, may be time to contact Strava Support and Google Fit support. 

Finals thoughts on what to do if Strava isn’t syncing with Google Fit

Most users tend to be pretty pleased with Google Fit’s ability to sync data across multiple apps to be viewed in one place. 

Unfortunately, you may come across a communication issue at times. In most cases, you should be able to resolve the issue using these suggestions if you find that, for example, Strava isn’t syncing with Google Fit.

On the off chance that something more complicated is going on, don’t hesitate to contact Google Fit and Strava for additional assistance.