After a week's holiday when I didn't manage to fit in any runs I was looking forward to my run on Monday. It was a break in the rain when I set off so all was looking good. Ten minutes into my run it started to rain, getting heavier and heavier. Now rain is ok but without my cap to keep the rain out of my eyes I could hardly see where I was going!
Next thing I realised was that I somehow seemed to have lost the drawstring from my leggings and the weight of the phone in my pocket was trying to pull them down.
Then I realised that runkeeper had not been giving me the usual time and distance messages so I had no idea how far I had run or how much time had elapsed.
After what I estimated had been about thirty minutes I ended my run and checked runkeeper - it hadn't recorded anything, giving a message of 0 and 'done'
Hoping (for some strange reason) it had sorted itself out, I set off on my run yesterday. And, what a surprise, exactly the same problem with the tech as on Monday! Not sure if it's runkeeper or my phone.
Has anyone else who uses runkeeper had similar problems? and if so, how did you manage to get it sorted?
Written by
Leotigris
Graduate10
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Hi Leotigris. Totally sympathise. I took to wearing a stopwatch as a backup when I was having tech issues about a year ago. Fingers crossed, I haven't had any trouble since then. I use an Android phone and the Runkeeper app. Here are the things I always check pre-run:1. I make sure phone Battery Saving/Power Saving is turned off before I start. Runkeeper reminds me to do that if I forget.2. I make sure phone Mobile data is on (because WiFi won't work beyond the house). Make sure phone Location is turned on. Allow GPS.
3. I start music or podcast during warm up to make sure I am listening to what I wanted.
4. Before I start the run, I check that Runkeeper has me located correctly on the map with a blue dot and I check there is good GPS signal (there's a little indicator near the bottom of the map).
5. I press Start and start walking. I make sure I hear the announcement 'Activity has Started' over the top of my music/podcast. If I don't hear that announcement, then I know there's a problem. See point 8.
6. Keeping my phone in my hand, I watch Runkeeper for a few seconds to make sure the timer at the top of the screen starts counting.
7. The last thing I do is I blank my phone screen by pressing the side power button briefly, then I put it in my pocket. A blank screen means Runkeeper can't be accidentally cancelled or triggered while it is in the pocket.
8. Go! If a tech issue has occurred, I always carry on regardless. I put the tech out of my mind by telling myself very firmly, 'the run is my priority for the next 30 minutes'.
Thanks RollingPea, I do most of that already but I usually put my phone in my pocket as soon as it has started. This morning I watched it for a while first hoping that would work but no, it only recorded the first few seconds as I found when I finished my run later. I knew that it had stopped as I didn't get any of the usual distance/time notifications during the run.
I wonder if putting the phone in my pocket was the cause of the problem> But if so, why has it started to do that now? It's just weird, and annoying.
The thing here is to defend your health and running activity. Put this tech issue in a mental box where it can't get you down, or worse, stop you running. Sometimes app settings are altered when the phone updates, or a setting button is inadvertenty switched on/off by a user while they are doing something else.So what can you do? Keep the phone in your hand to find out if it stops working after a certain distance. Or is it the act of putting it in your pocket that sends it to sleep?
If you are a bit sick of it, maybe run app-free for a couple of weeks, just to regain the joy.
You could try another app for a while, eg Nike Run Club, or WithU. It's quite fun comparing apps. If you prefer Runkeeper, you might need to uninstall the app and then reinstall it to make it work again.
But before you do anything else, have you tried turning your phone off completely? Then turn on again. This has worked for me a few times when various apps got stuck.
Thanks RollingPea for all your excellent suggestions. I was toying with the idea of trying another app but before that I will try the trick of turning the phone off completely and restarting it.
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