[Solved] Stand-Alone Walk/Run Tracker Syncs to Health and/or Health Vault???

[RumoredNow]

I've been waiting, but I guess it isn't coming.

When we had the Health and Fitness App it was an excellent tracker for a single session (user start/pause/stop) walk or run. No GPS needed so I could use it indoors. GPS option so I could really get details and map when using it outdoors. It just worked. Well it seems Health App will not be adding that back. They would rather we buy a band.

OK, I have a Band. Now I'm getting off of Band. I just want to wear the watches from my watch collection. As nice as Band is, I'm under utilizing it and can't get with wearing 2 devices. So no fitness tracker. No smart watch.

What I want is to take a walk in the mall (so GPS is out), start/pause/stop the App, have it calculate data for the session and sync it to Health or Health Vault so I have it right where I keep my other data. Adding GPS outdoors is a bonus, but not mandatory. I'm fine if it just reads Sensor Core.

Anyone?

 

[Gregg Le Blanc]

If you still have Microsoft Health installed, you can enable access to Sensor Core. It will record steps and work with the Health / HealthVault integration as well.

It's supposed to pick up the slack when you don't have a wearable on. Or, at least it seemed to work while my Phone / Band combination was misbehaving.

 

[RumoredNow]

Thank you... Yeah, Health counts steps.

But it does not do what Health and Fitness used to do. Track a specific Walk/Run with or without GPS as an option. I also used to send it to Glance and I could see my progress for the session live as it went on with just that "glance" at my phone.

It's session capture I want. Not daily steps overall.

 

[RumoredNow]

Nobody is tracking a walk/run session and getting the data folded into Health/Health Vault without a separate device from their phone?

 

[Gregg Le Blanc]

It looks like Runtastic might do what you're looking for.
I don't know if MapMyRun or one of those would either.

I have Runtastic Pro, but I've not actually used it. I see it asks to keep your phone unlocked and uses the GPS.
It also has playlist stuff, which looks nice.

Maybe look at the related apps to see if they help out?

 

[RumoredNow]

Thanks for the recommend. I'll check that one out soonest and report back.

 

[RumoredNow]

I can't see that Runtastic syncs to Health or HealthVault. I gave up on that as a dead end. I want one aggregation point. Juggling multiple accounts and databases does not appeal to me in the least. It is 20motherloving16, for crying in the mud. It is supposed to be easier, not harder to do this stuff.

So the big advertised Apps you see all lack native support in Windows Phone: Strava, RunKeeper, MapMyFitness...

MapMyFitness has an official MapMyWalk App on Windows Phone, but the POS won't let me log in or connect... Useless and I told them so when deleting my account.

I went to my dash boards on the web. Health didn't really show me anything that looked useful. I did dig deeper into HealthVault. There I discovered an App named Livescape. Livescape? - Stay in shape, lose weight with the ultimate fitness tracker for Windows Phone!

Connects to HealthVault. It actually reads from (it got my stride length and a whole lot more) and writes to HealthVault. It's almost scary just how much it read. Sensor Core readings for walk/run, GPS as an option. full flavored and very deep. $4.99. There is a trial mode. I just used my Bing Rewards and bought the thing. Caveat: only works for US/UK. Sorry everyone else, but I'm trying to get mine.

I'm impressed so far with the way the App looks, navigates, etc. It seems to be a well thought out App that has more features than I'll probably ever use...

Livescape is an activity and nutrition journal for Windows Phone that features GPS tracking and the ability to count steps. Keep a log of your daily activities. Calculate the number of calories burned. Track your weight, calorie intake, and monitor your Nutrition Facts from day to day. Import Nutrition Facts using your phone's camera with the help of OCR. Review your trends using any of the built in graphing features, synchronize with Microsoft? HealthVault?, and share your progress on Facebook and Twitter!

It even has that FaceTwit stuff for those who care.


I'll test drive some features and report. I plan on a walk today to see how it goes. Maybe in the mall with no GPS (seems likely) or a walk outside with GPS. I'll try our some other things as well.

 

[Gregg Le Blanc]

Nice! I forgot all the criteria.
I've seen LiveScape in the marketplace, but I hadn't tried it.
Sounds like a great find!

 

[RumoredNow]

Well... It doesn't seem to want to run under lock. I enabled that during setup and now can't find anything about it in the App settings.

They have a "soft lock" feature which is a workaround. It opened 3 more Apps in my pocket during "soft lock." Not sure of the accuracy either.

Still investigating. Might be worth a free trial to some who want to play with it.

More later.

 

[RumoredNow]

Moar LiveScape.

I did another short walk yesterday with the "soft lock" and no issues this time. Not sure what the difference was, unless it was how roomy my pockets were the first time? More room in the pocket may have made the phone brush against my leg more vigorously.

I did find and confirm that the option to run under lock is checked. I may try it today and see if using GPS makes it work under true lock. Possibly not today though as we go to the gym and swim on Wednesday.

The reports are pretty detailed after the day closes out. I continue to be impressed. I'll have to keep an eye on the live tile and see how useful it is or is not.

It doesn't really add anything usable in Health, nothing showed back on the Run category at any rate... I do appreciate the sync with Health Vault and so far it seems way more powerful than Health in terms of useful data aggregation and reporting. It has already taken the spot on Start I had Health in and now Health is just tucked in a folder.

The only shortcoming is that the LiveScape tile doesn't show steps taken for the current day. It seems to want to close out before reporting. So if you meter a walk, that gets shown. But the day's steps don't show as they have not closed out yet.

It would be nice if Health would report to Lock (and thus to Glance) in detail as it should. It did in 8.1, but seems to be borked in 10. That way I'd still have my steps showing live.

 

[RumoredNow]

OK... Went to the gym yesterday. Ht the pool, did some aquacise. Weighed myself. Took my BP. Entered it all in LiveScape. There is a tab on the top of your today page that is labeled HealthVault. Tap that, tap sync. open HealthVault and it is all updated.

The amount of activities inside this App is incredible and you can add a custom one like I did with aquacise. I input my time in. Later at home I looked up an average calorie burn and put in my estimate.


Here's another thing. When poking at the App earlier yesterday I had disabled then enabled "run under lock." Did another small test last night and now it seems to run under lock just fine... Gotta do a real test on it soon. The "soft lock" has failed on me 2 out of 3 so I'm hoping it was just a glitch and run under lock is possible.

LiveScape does not report to Lock Screen or Glance. Not even an option. Then again, under W10M, Health fails to report even with the option. Bad API?

If LiveScape showed my Daily Steps it would be perfect (assuming tracking under lock is sorted), or nearly so.

Previously I had too many layers. Band + Health + HealthVault. Band tracking sessions, Heath aggregating and reporting some data, HealthVault aggregating and reporting other factors. Then they added weight input to Health, but only weight. What's the point when I'm inputting weight and BP into HealthVault? Grrraaagh. A major factor in my ditching Band. To many pots to stir.

Now it looks like I can input everything into LiveScape and have it track my sessions (with lots of different activities to track), aggregate my data and report back to me. 2 taps and it all goes to HealthVault. When Health will report my daily steps to Glance, I'm all set. Only one App to ever open on an ongoing daily basis and just an occasional sync of Health to keep it all going.

Moar simple operation and upkeep with moar powerful information capture. I like that.

 

[RumoredNow]

Update: Yep, running under lock is borked with W10M. I read somewhere from the dev that he is trying to go UWP. I believe it is a solo effort so it may take a minute. This may solve the works under lock issue.

Further testing has "soft lock" working for me just fine.

At $4.99 I can still recommend this App. It solves so many things and is one of the most feature rich Apps I've ever seen.

I'm marking this Solved.

Thanks for the help, RumoredNow.

Oh, my pleasure RumoredNow. Glad you got it sorted.

Me too.