Health Connect guide
Why some run data is missing
If your synced run is missing a route map, elevation chart, or cadence — here's why, and what you can do about it.
Two reasons data goes missing
There are two distinct causes — and they're not the same problem.
Cause A — The data type doesn't exist in Health Connect
Running-form metrics — Ground Contact Time, Vertical Oscillation, Vertical Ratio, Stride Length — have no record type in Health Connect's data model. No vendor can expose these through Health Connect, even if they wanted to. This is a platform ceiling.
Cause B — The vendor chooses not to write it
Elevation, GPS route, and cadence all have valid Health Connect record types. The gap is entirely a vendor decision about what to sync. When your Samsung Galaxy Watch run is missing a map, it's because Samsung chose not to send route data to Health Connect — not because Health Connect can't handle it.
This is the more important distinction: users often assume "Health Connect doesn't support this," when the accurate statement is "your watch brand chose not to send this to Health Connect."
Vendor breakdown
What actually syncs through Health Connect
| Data | HC supports it? | Garmin → HC | Samsung → HC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Distance | |||
| Heart rate | |||
| Calories | |||
| Speed / pace | |||
| Power | — | ||
| VO2 Max | — | ||
| Elevation gained | ✗ | ||
| GPS route / map | — | ✗ | |
| Cadence | ✗ | ✗ | |
| Ground contact time | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Vertical oscillation | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Stride length | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Samsung source: Samsung's own developer documentation publishes an explicit table of what Samsung Health writes to Health Connect. Elevation, route, and cadence are absent from that list.
Garmin source: Garmin's support documentation explicitly lists running power, cadence, and sweat loss as excluded from Health Connect sharing.
Null (—) means unconfirmed but likely available; ✗ means confirmed absent.
Get full data
Connect directly for the complete picture
Direct integrations bypass Health Connect entirely and pull data from the vendor's own API — route maps, elevation, cadence, and everything else your watch records.
- Polar — live now. Full FIT data including route, elevation, cadence.
- Garmin — live now. Full run data from Garmin Connect.
- COROS — coming soon. Direct integration in development.
Full GPS route visible on every directly-integrated run.
Elevation profile with total ascent and descent.
Steps per minute throughout your run.
Common questions
Health Connect FAQ
Is this an Activ.run bug?
No. The gaps are caused by vendor decisions about what to sync to Health Connect, and in some cases by Health Connect's own data model not supporting certain metrics. Activ.run reads everything that's available.
Can Activ.run work around this?
No — there's no technical workaround for data a vendor doesn't write to Health Connect. The only path is a direct integration with the vendor.
Will this improve over time?
Possibly — vendors may choose to sync more data in the future. But Activ.run can't influence those decisions, so direct integrations remain the reliable path to full data.
What about COROS?
COROS direct integration is coming soon. Like Polar and Garmin, it will pull data from COROS's own API — bypassing Health Connect entirely.
Get the full picture.
Connect your watch directly and never miss a route map, elevation chart, or cadence reading again. Free on Google Play.