Hey Mark, first off, thanks for creating this app! Been using it consistently after The Moves app got decommissioned
I have a question and not sure if it’s a feature request.
When importing an Apple Health activity, you can choose to import the stationary bits or not. However the result is the same, it’s not saved as a continuous activity but with gaps in the activity, for instance when you have to wait for a traffic light (when biking or running). So these gaps could be just 10 seconds instead of a continuous workout.
this was a bit more elegantly resolved in arc app 3 I think. Wondering what your thoughts are on this!
For the workout import options, the new app is trying to be more clever and functional than the old, by respecting workout segments. The old app didn’t notice or care at all for them, it just imported workouts as one continuous whole regardless of the actual shape of it.
The problem there is that pause segments aren’t being imported in the intuitive way people expect. They’re being imported as “data gap” items, because that’s the technically correct way to do it (and everyone loves “technically correct” the best, right? )
So what we’ve got planned is to add some more options to the workout importing. One of those options will be to import the workout as one continuous item, same as the old app did.
The other option will be to choose whether you want the pause segments imported as data gaps (as they are now) or as Visit items. The latter would mean that each stop along the workout would show up as a brief Visit in the timeline. Which is a much better intuitive match for what I think most of us expect.
The two relevant issue numbers for this work are BIG-232 and BIG-205. Both filed for the next update, though depending on urgency pressures they might not make it into the next update but instead one later. But not too much later - plenty of people are asking for this improvement, so it’s high priority!
I use structured runs on occasion for interval workouts. While there aren’t any stationary gaps, each segment of the intervals are imported as separate workout segments. My 45 minute interval runs get to be too much to digest. I’m hoping they can all collapse down to a single running workout segment in Arc Timeline 4.
Heh. This one feels like a case of “be careful what you wish for”, with one of the most common requests with the old app being for the workout importer to do what it does now. Except now that it does import segments separately, all I hear is “oh I don’t like that; don’t do that”
But I think this one’s on me - I should’ve made it an option right from the start. It makes perfect sense that sometimes you want segments, sometimes you want one single item, and the importer itself isn’t going to be able to sensibly guess which is best for each case.
Anyway, yep, BIG-232 mentioned above is the fix you’ll be wanting. And that one’s filed for one of the next updates, high priority. So hopefully the importer will be soon offering you the option to import it in more sensible shapes!
Reviving this one gently. Back on 1 May you mentioned two planned fixes for how workout imports handle pauses (import as one continuous item like the old app, and pauses as Visit items instead of data gaps), filed as BIG-232 and BIG-205.
I know these things move with priority, so no pressure, just checking where they landed. I also checked the release notes through 1.7.1 and didn’t spot these in any changelog, so I assume they’re still in the queue.
I’m asking because I’ve now fully switched to Arc 4 on a new iPhone, and I’m still seeing it daily. A cycling workout gets chopped into pieces at every short stop. Yesterday’s ride shows a “Cycling 15 secs, 3 m” fragment and a “Stationary 1 sec, 2 m” gap, which are just traffic lights or waiting for traffic. I’d expect one continuous cycling item, not a timeline broken into little bits.
The other issue is the app marks these gaps as uncertain items, and they stay uncertain even after I review them, so the manual correction doesn’t seem to stick. Feels like slightly buggy behaviour.
I also tried importing the stop segment both ways (include it or not), and the behaviour is the same either way.
Could you share a quick status on BIG-232 / BIG-205? Even a rough “still planned / next update / further out” would help me know what to expect.
Happy to send screenshots or debug logs privately if that’s useful.
Thanks again for the app, and for keeping this on the list!
@N1kname Straight answer: neither has shipped. BIG-232 (import a workout as one continuous item) and BIG-205 (pauses as Visits) are both still open and both still High priority. The May estimate was the next update or the one after, and that hasn’t held. Of your three options, “still planned, not yet scheduled” is the accurate one — both are on the list, neither is attached to a build yet. What you’re describing is the case BIG-232 exists for, red-light stops included; I’ve added your report to it. And yes — neither of the current import options changes that shape; that’s what BIG-232 is for.
On what you’re seeing in the meantime: each imported workout comes in as a locked item per workout segment, so the few seconds of Arc’s own recording between two of those items sits outside them — that’s what the no-heart slivers are.
For the confirmation not sticking on those slivers: next time one shows up, confirm it from the Timeline Cleanup list, then open the item itself in the timeline afterwards — a screenshot of it at that point would show where it’s landed. Posting it here in the thread is fine.
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