Troubleshooting the iPhone MFP App

KevinYoukillus

Ok Fitness Family, here we go...

I've spent the better part of the last two weeks or so really getting to the bottom of why my MFP App was slowing down, freezing, and finally dumping to home screen on me, and I think I have a workable solutions... I worked with MFP Tech Support and did lots of my own testing. Here are some guidelines for iPhone users who experience this issue. All this info pertains to iOS10 and the most current version of MFP at time of writing (21Oct2016).

1. Always login with Facebook, if at all possible, for every UA app you have installed. I think the biggest cause to the slow, freeze and dump problem is MFP App client-to-server login identification as time goes on while the app is open. If you login with email and password, link up your Facebook and go with that login method consistently. I will cover the Facebook to MFP link/delink/relink process further on.

2. Always logout and close MFP App when you are done using it, even for just a few minutes. Do not allow MFP App to hang in your background on the phone, as this seems to cause the app to lose login credentials with the servers. I found the App slow, freeze, and dump issue to occur most often when coming back to the app after it had been sitting in the background for more than say, 5 minutes or so.

3. Switching from Cellular Date to Wifi can cause client-to-server ID problems, so be mindful of when you switch to a Wifi signal. It is a good idea to logout and close MFP App while switching to and from Wifi, and then reopen and login once your new signal is established.

4. When you are having trouble, the Apple Health Kit is the first thing tech support will tell you to disable, but it's a persistent little built-in Apple product, and somehow will ghost-connect to all UA apps (MapMyRun, UA Record, etc.) if only one of your UA apps somehow has Apple Health Kit sharing turned on. Go through Settings>Health Kit in the MFP App and any other UA Apps you have, and be sure to disable/disconnect the Health Kit everywhere you can. Here are a couple places to start:

a) In the Health app itself, under Health Records > Data Sources & Access... make sure MyFitnessPal is not listed there.

b) Also, in the Settings app on the iPhone, under Privacy > Motion & Fitness... make sure Fitness Tracking is toggled off.

5. Syncing is bad. Never, ever, ever tell MFP to sync. Instead, click to your profile and then back to the newsfeed home, or log out and log back in to force a new data load. It's quicker and cleaner. Syncing seems to exacerbate the login identification issue.

6. I had an old MapMyRun account from years ago that wouldn't log in using Facebook no matter what I tried, and I think that email/password login was confusing the big UA login servers. Finally, I posted a workout from MapMyRun to my Facebook and the connection was made, and things got smoother. Can't stress logging in with Facebook enough.

7. I installed all the UA apps (total of 6) so I could to run tests. I noticed when I ran UA Record and MapMyRun alongside MFP, I had much greater stability. If you are having unresolvable issues with MFP, it is worth a shot to run UA Record and access MFP via clicking "Nutrition" on the UA Record menu, as the login info seems to carry over and hold the login server ID stable. I have success with stability when I run UA Record and MapMyRun concurrently with MFP. MapMyFitness also seems to share a login credential with MFP, as workouts logged into MFP will show up on MapMyFitness.

8. Enable Background App Refresh for all UA Apps you have installed, just to be sure. To save battery, I normally disable Background App Refresh for everything except a few apps that I use a lot, but Background App Refresh seems to help MFP work smoother.

9. It's a good idea to delete and reinstall MFP at least once if you are having issues, but don't think that will actually work. It's a step. IMPORTANT: Every time you reinstall MFP, login with your Facebook (or email & password if you are relinking to FB) and go straight to Settings>Health Kit and disable all Apple Health Kit sharing.

10. Sometimes, for whatever reason, the Facebook security token for your MyFitnessPal account tied to your email might be expired. You can fix this by unlinking and then relinking your Facebook account. Here's a walk through:

a) To unlink your current Facebook login, log in to the desktop version online at www.myfitnesspal.com (you can use your phone's Internet browser) and click Settings > Facebook/Twitter sharing settings > Disconnect.

b) This is a good opportunity to delete MFP from your phone and reinstall it if you haven't done that in awhile. BE SURE TO DISABLE APPLE HEALTH KIT ON FIRST MFP LOGIN.

c) Since your Facebook sharing is currently disabled, you will need to login with email & password at this point. Login and disable Health Kit.

d) Find Facebook Sharing under Settings>Facebook Sharing. Click the "Connect" button for Facebook and relink your account. Once you are connected to Facebook with a new security token, take a moment to post a status update from the MFP app to Facebook to ensure the token gets used and doesn't expire within 48 hours or whatever. Your new MFP login identification credential is now linked to Facebook, and this should clear up the slow, freeze, and crash issue.

11. When all else fails, logout of everything, close everything, and RESET NETWORK SETTINGS on your iPhone. Here's a walk through:

Please note that resetting your network settings will sever and delete any saved WiFi passwords you have entered for any of your network connections, work, home, etc. P lease be sure you know these passwords before taking the following steps. (I made a note of my Wifi password in the Notes app on my phone so I have it easily ready to cut and paste every time I reset my networks settings.)

Go to your iPhone's settings.
Tap General.
Tap Reset.
Tap Reset Network Settings. (Make sure not to tap "Reset All Settings or Erase All Content and Settings")
If you are prompted for your iPhone passcode enter it.
Tap Reset Network Settings once more.

Resetting network settings, at least on LTE cellular data, clears up all issues for me, at least until I log back into Wifi, then things get a little hincky again.

There are a few more tips and tricks to getting the app to work right on iPhone, I will edit this blog entry up as time goes on.

Cahgetsfit

That idea all very helpful and wonderful. However - have you found a way to get the email notifications to actually tell us what people said again?

Discussion had dropped sooooo much after this function was disabled because it's too time consuming to go figure out who answered what and where. 10 mins of clicking between emails and mfp to read "well done" under someone's diary for the day. Groan.