Strava Segments not working? Let’s fix that!

Strava Segments is one of the coolest features within the Strava app. As you run and ride, your times on the most popular portions of roads and trails are recorded and added onto the Strava leaderboard.

Are Strava segments missing for you? Or maybe your times aren’t being added to the leaderboard. Here are the most common problems and the best ways to fix them.

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With a Strava subscription, you can use your segment times to keep track of your training and see how your progressing compared to others.

Why doesn’t my segment appear on the Leaderboard?

If your segments aren’t appearing on the segment leaderboard, here are a few immediate things you can try.

Check your activity’s privacy settings. Activities viewable only to you or only to your followers do not appear on segment leaderboards. If you would like your activity to appear on the leaderboard, click the edit icon and change the Privacy Controls to Everyone.

Your activity may be flagged. If your activity has been flagged it means it has been identified as potentially violating the segment leaderboard guidelines either by auto-detection or another Strava athlete.

In your Strava feed, you see a flag icon next to the activity title. Select the My Activities page from the Training dropdown menu. Any flagged activities is highlighted in red with a flag icon next to the title. 

If it’s none of these two issues, simply try refreshing the page or reloading the app. Every so often Strava takes a little longer than usual to analyze a ride’s data. It may just be taking its time!

My Activity did not match a segment that is should have

Each GPS device uses its own set of data points to record your ride. Even if you’re on a ride or a run with your friend who’s also using the Strava App, it’s unlikely both your routes match each other perfectly.

When you’re riding or running a segment, Strava chooses the GPS points from your file that fall closest to the segment’s start and end. Sometimes a segment is slightly shorter, sometimes longer.

Your GPS may occasionally drift causing you to miss either the start or end points of the segment – both of which are needed to record the activity. 

The only true way to get around this is by recording your data with a device that records more GPS points per minute.

How to manually match a segment

If a segment should have matched your activity but didn’t, from your activity page on the Strava website, scroll down and select the option Don’t see the segment you’re looking for?

In the analysis tool, select the segment that’s missing and copy the link in the address bar of the webpage. This link contains information about your activity and the missing segment. Paste the link into a support ticket and repeat this process if there are multiple missing segments. 

Strava’s support team states on their website: “Sometimes we can manually create the match but in some cases, we can’t.”

Activity matching to the wrong segment

Because Strava accounts for GPS drift to match segments, occasionally a ride or run ends up matched to the wrong segment or record an incorrect segment time. You may be able to remove an erroneous segment using the crop tool.

How to use the crop tool to remove unwanted segments

  1. On the mobile app, open the activity you’d like to crop and select the three dots in the top right-hand corner. 
  2. Select Crop from the menu options.
  3. Use the sliders to specify the portion you would like to keep. You retain what is shown in orange and remove anything shown in blue on iOS and in grey on Android.
  4. When you have made your selection, click Save.

How to hide and unhide segments

In areas with lots of different segments, only the most popular portions are visible. Segments with low popularity are hidden by default, but you can choose to unhide them on the Activity Details page.

By unhiding a segment you vote to increase its popularity. Hide a segment and its popularity decreases.

  1. To unhide a segment, go to the activity page that includes the hidden segment.
  2. Go to the bottom of the page and click Show Hidden Segments
  3. Press the Unhide button to the right of the segment row when you mouse over a hidden segment

And to hide an unwanted segment:

  1. Hover over the segment row in the segments tab at the bottom of an activity
  2. Click on the Hide button which appears to the right of the segment row.
  3. Pressing this button hides the unwanted segment.

Issues using Strava Segments with your Garmin Edge 1030

On your Garmin device, you see an alert as you approach each segment allowing you to use your energy wisely and put in maximum effort to race up that leaderboard. 

Why is my Strava Segment time different from my Garmin’s?

Garmin devices use a different algorithm than Strava. Remember your final time is always from the Strava recording so you may find that one or two seconds have been added or shaved off your time.

Why didn’t a segment show up while I was riding it?

During a ride, GPS signals may be poor. In this case, you may not be alerted on the road, but Strava can analyze the entire activity and determine which segments were ridden, including ones that were not shown in real-time.

Why are my segments not loading to my Garmin?

Your device may still be using Garmin segments, not Strava’s. 

  1. Open Garmin Connect and click on the three parallel lines on the left of the screen.
  2. Press segments and then choose add to the dashboard at the top of the screen. 
  3. Next, go to settings and press use Strava Segments
  4. After the change is made, sync your device with Garmin Express and your segment settings updates.

Summary

We think Strava Segments are a brilliant feature allowing you to compare your progress against your friends. But when things don’t go to plan they can often be incredibly frustrating.

These are the most popular issues we’ve found. If you don’t see a solution to your specific problem, feel free to reach out in the comments below.

3 COMMENTS

  1. I did the mammoth Grand Fondo and the last 3 miles .89 segment said I did a 25.46 Time which would’ve put me in fourth place in the 70+ but my name doesn’t even show up, I was wondering why thanks Howard Miller

    • Hi Martin,

      There is a hide/unhide feature available. However, when you hide a segment, it is hidden from others, and automatically its popularity decreases BUT it is not hidden from you. When you hide a segement, you will see a button to Show Hidden Segments at the bottom of all your segments.

      To Hide A Segment:

        Hover over the segment row in the segments tab at the bottom of an activity
        Look for the Hide button to the right of the segment’s row
        Tap Hide to stop seeing this segment listed under any activity on the site
        Once you hide a segment, you see a button all the way at the bottom of your segments to Show Hidden Segments.

      To unhide a segment, tap on the Show Hidden Segments button and tap on the Unhide button to the right of the segment’s row.

      Hope that helps!

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