Uploading your Polar workout to Vitality?

[darrenma007]

Hi,

I recently bought a Polar Loop + H7 HRM band. Excited to get going and sync my Vitality account to earn points I tried to link my account. However it seems that Vitality doesn't integrate with the new Polar Flow system yet?

To try use what I have, I just left off the Loop and used the HRM with the Polar Beat app on my phone to record my workout. I sync'd this to www.polarpersonaltrainer.com instead of flow.polar.com. I did this hoping that Vitality would then pull across my workouts. Seems it still doesn't work.

Last resort was to export my workouts from polarpersonaltrainer (which comes in gpx and xml files).
I'm able to upload the gpx file which doesn't carry the important data like heart rate only movement data. When I try to upload the xml(this file has all the heart readings) but it doesn't work.

Basically my question is: how am I supposed to be uploading my workouts? What am I doing wrong?
Is using the HRM and cellphone app a combo that can work the way I'm expecting?

Thanks in advance.

 

[PSY85]

Hey man.

I have had a Loop since March / April and have bene fighting with Discovery NON stop regarding the intergration of this product.

Long story short... The loop captures both ACTIVITY (Steps / Standing / Sleeping / etc) and Fitness (When you use the H7 strap)

The Fitness integration DOES work, I have tested it and have been earning points when using the HR monitor.

However,

They are still battling, SINCE JUNE to get the Activity Data working and integrated with Vitality so that you can earn points for doing 10 000 steps a day or more.

I've made a big woohaa about this due to the fact that I feel mislead by both Polar sales people and Discovery Vitality when they ENSURED me that I can earn the points I wanted for purchasing this device.

I have sent them a log extract in an Excel sheet that I pulled from flow.polar.com, and they then rewarded me for all those days that I exceeded 10 000 steps.

Discovery has passed the buck, and are now basically pointing the finger at Polar, but the fact of the matter is that Discovery never even looked into intergration of the Loop until I started moaning about it... This after Polar showed and demo'd them the Loop in Q4 of 2013. ABSOLUTELY PATHETIC DISCOVERY!!!

Here is some email feedback that I received from someone at Polar SA.

On Wed, Sep 3, 2014 at 5:25 AM, <service_centre.ihf_products_cc@polar.fi> wrote:

Morning PSY85

Our telephone discussion from late last week refers.

I had promised to call you Tues this week (yesterday) but unfortunately I only received an update from the support/development team quite late yesterday (yes they do keep strange hours).

I am travelling this morning and will be in meetings for most of the day, so I thought I would drop you a mail to reassure you that I have not forgotten about our conversation.

The update is that the testing of the latest fix is still in progress in the sand-box environment and has not been published in the production environment as yet. It appears that there is still problems, however the next deadline for feedback to us is now Thurs this week, and I will share this feedback with you when we get it.

Seems this development for the multi time zone implementation is a little more challenging than expected.

I will keep you posted.
Sorry once again for the most recent delays, I can only assure you that this issue has all our development teams attention.

Thanks
Peter

Peter Figg
IHF Products cc
Polar South Africa

Tel: +27-(0)11-805 1028
Fax: +27-(0)11-805 5498
Postal address: IHF Products cc
PO Box 4021 Halfway House 1685 South Africa
Web: www.polar.fi/za

 

[Electric]

Really??
I was going to buy one for Vitality as they endorse it.
So they endorse a product that doesn't even integrate with their system??
What a waste of time.

 

[PSY85]

Really??
I was going to buy one for Vitality as they endorse it.
So they endorse a product that doesn't even integrate with their system??
What a waste of time.

If you want INSTANT rewards for your steps, I suggest you get a Fitbit or one of the APPROVED / and functioning devices.

Like I said, the FITNESS data works 100%, but you need to buy the H7 HR Monitor additionally to get that function going, so that's a pretty *** one as well, as that is another grand or so ontop of the Loop's price.

The polar Beat app works WELL with the H7 strap, and is FREE... so maybe consider just getting the strap if you want to record your fitness data, but obviously you wont be rewarded then for doing 10k+ steps a day.

 

[Electric]

The thing is I step but mostly workout 3 times a week.
I want both to be recorded.

 

[PSY85]

Yeah man... I feel you....

The only thing I can suggest then is to jump on the moaning bandwagon with me to get them to sort this **** out!

Discovery and the communication that they have provided me has been SHOCKING to say the least...

Should I name and shame and post it all?

 

[PSY85]

Hello PSY85

Sorry for my slow response, we have just moved offices to new premises, so, as you can imagine, things have been hectic for me and this is the first time I get to start working through my in-box, after working the last two weekends and the public holiday, to get the move to happen.

But of course none of this is your problem so I apologise for only getting back to you now.

The latest update we received from our development/support team up North was :

"We have been struggling with the fixes. I realize that this causes problems with our partners and their implementations and i have no words to express how sorry i am about it. There just seem to be too many moving parts at our end and the fixing is taking ages as so many components with different deployment schedules are involved.

Currently the status with the activity data fixes is that some components involved in transferring and composing the daily activity data for AccessLink have already been fixed. Proposed fixes for remaining components have been approved and implementation has begun. We have "not later than" release date set for the fixes, the date is the 17th of November 2014. If we are able to make it earlier we will let you know."

I trust that you can see from the response, that the development/support team are taking this seriously, and are also very embarrassed (as I am) that this design/implementation short coming existed and also that it is taking so long to resolve.

The integrated nature of our ecosystem with many live "moving parts" that are also being improved/further developed requires detailed coordination between the various development teams to make sure that all "fix's" are correct;y implemented and integrated into the developments.

It is my hope that the Nov 17 date is the worst case scenario, and that all efforts are being followed to bring the completion date closer.

I will call you later to have a chat.

I am sorry for the not so great news, but I can assure you that every effort is being taken to expedite the resolution of the issue.

I can only thank you for, ask for more, patience.
Thanks
Peter

Pretty poor service from Discovery and Polar all round...

But hey, this is Africa... what else can we do?

 

[darrenma007]

Yo PSY85,

I also placed a ticket with Discovery about this issue. In the end they just told me that integration into the new Polar Flow system will be coming shortly. It's been about 4 months now and it still doesn't work although I have seen some upgrade to their workout tracker program.

I also feel a bit mislead about buying this product. I remember trying to take it back to Totalsports Fourways but because you cut the strap they don't take it back. Albeit staying healthy shouldn't be about gaining points, it sucks when you buy a product you believe will 'kill two birds with one stone' and find out that it doesn't even really kill one.

In fact what I've resorted to for recording workouts is to link my heart strap to Endomondo via my mobile. This basically cuts out half the functionality of the Polar Loop and distorts your Polar loop data to such a point that it's kinda worthless. All my Loop does now is count steps and inactivity alerts.

Even if they integrate their system now, I wouldn't use it because all my data now lies with Endomondo.

 

[PSY85]

I've sent an email to Barry Sundelson :Chief Operating Officer: Vitality

Let's see how they respond to this.

 

[Duan]

Has anyone had any luck with this? I have been fighting since April 2014 with Discovery and it is like talking to a brick wall...

 

[The_Hobbit]

Hey man.

I have had a Loop since March / April and have bene fighting with Discovery NON stop regarding the intergration of this product.

Long story short... The loop captures both ACTIVITY (Steps / Standing / Sleeping / etc) and Fitness (When you use the H7 strap)

The Fitness integration DOES work, I have tested it and have been earning points when using the HR monitor.

However,

They are still battling, SINCE JUNE to get the Activity Data working and integrated with Vitality so that you can earn points for doing 10 000 steps a day or more.

I've made a big woohaa about this due to the fact that I feel mislead by both Polar sales people and Discovery Vitality when they ENSURED me that I can earn the points I wanted for purchasing this device.

I have sent them a log extract in an Excel sheet that I pulled from flow.polar.com, and they then rewarded me for all those days that I exceeded 10 000 steps.

Discovery has passed the buck, and are now basically pointing the finger at Polar, but the fact of the matter is that Discovery never even looked into intergration of the Loop until I started moaning about it... This after Polar showed and demo'd them the Loop in Q4 of 2013. ABSOLUTELY PATHETIC DISCOVERY!!!

Here is some email feedback that I received from someone at Polar SA.

Anyone developed an emulator yet?
Edit an .xml file, upload, score lol

 

[rajiv]

I take it this hasn't been sorted out yet? They were supposed to sort it out by fourth quarter last year. How hard can it be?

 

[Duan]

nope, not sorted out yet, I am returning mine.