Complete Guide: MFP, Gear Wearables, Gear App, & Samsung Health

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GBO323
GBO323 Posts: 336 Member
edited December 2017 in Social Groups
My original post: community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10621211/mfp-samsung-gear-wearables-gear-app-and-samsung-health-app-the-ultimate-sync-guide#latest


I am always looking for the best "Eco-System" and with my Samsung Note8 Phone, Gear S3 Frontier/Gear Fit2Pro, and MFP....here is what I have gathered and learned by tweaking. I hope this helps others. It is long, but full of helpful information.

What I needed: A food diary tracker(MFP) that utilizes activity that only comes from a Wearable device and to keep the phone pedometer from adding more steps/movements in. Since I have two trackers I wear at different times, I need them to be easy to switch out, yet keep my steps totals in the Samsung Health (SH) and MFP App consistent.

WHAT IS NEEDED:
MFP App installed
Samsung Health (SH) App installed
Samsung Wearable...Gear S2, Gear S3, Gear Fit2, Gear Fit2 Pro. There is a way to AutoSync if you have more than 1.
Samsung Gear app (for your Wearable device(s) to sync).

PAUSE PHONE STEP/MOVEMENT TRACKING:
I have two Wearables... Gear S3 Frontier and Gear Fit2 Pro and only want the Wearable(s) to feed steps to SH and MFP and NOT from the phone pedometer sensor, so here's how to do that.

Go in the SH app to Me>Steps>Mobile Phone>...Menu(Top Left)>Pause Counting Steps.

This will stop the phone's pedometer from counting steps and movement. BIG WIN! So, with the two Wearables (S3 and Fit2 Pro), I can now select "All Steps" and it will show me all steps knowing it's just feeding from the Wearables and not the phone pedometer counter. This also helps MFP to not read steps made on the phone via SH as well.

WHY?
I want to see the steps I'm earning to come only from my Wearables. While I do understand that Samsung has tweaked the phone sensor to cancel out steps that are also reported by the Wearables, I don't want any accidental steps to count.....and I tend to want my Wearable steps and app steps(SH & MFP) to all match. For those using their Wearable with MFP, this will also stop the dual step counting so what your Wearable shows, MFP shows...If you swap out Wearables during the day, the steps already earned won't be synced back to the replaced Wearable, but SH/MFP will continue to count what you've already earned with what you're about to earn. So your daily total stays intact.

AUTO SWITCH
Using 2+ Wearables, there is an option in the Samsung Gear app to activate that auto-switch so it can sense which wearable you have on and will begin to track steps from that one. This negates having to go in and pick which device you want data from every time you swap them out. It simply knows which one you are wearing and pairs to it. Unfortunately, the steps that are on your SH app may differ if you didn't start/end the day with the same device. However, the SH app will have the total from both Wearables so you aren't losing your daily step grand total.

To enable AUTO SWITCH, open the Samsung Gear app and go to SETTINGS>Top Right Menu>Auto Switch and tap ON. The Wearables you have paired with the phone up will show in this screen as well.

Ok, so we have paused Step Tracking on the SH app and learned how to activate the Auto Switch for those who have 2+ Wearable Gear devices. Onto the SH app settings.

SAMSUNG HEALTH & MFP SYNC SETUP

In SH:
1. Go to SETTINGS>Data Permissions and tap MyFitnessPal.
2. Tap the information you want to sync across. For best experience, tap ON and then select all the options.
3. On the SH Main screen, tap the Steps area. If you have 1 Wearable, select it. If you have 2 Wearables, select ALL STEPS.
4. While you are in the Steps screen, tap the top-right menu and select SET TARGET and enter in your daily steps goal. This allows the Wearable to vibrate when you have reached your goal for the day.

In MFP:
1. Go to MENU and tap APP AND DEVICES. Select SAMSUNG HEALTH. For best experience, tap ON and then select all the options. Tap DONE.
2. Go to MENU and tap STEPS. Select SAMSUNG HEALTH and ensure the checkbox appears.

Now you are set up. To make the sync happen, open SH and swipe down to sync steps....then I open MFP Home screen and pull down to sync, then open my diary Diary. Once I see the white spinning circle in the task bar, it takes a few moments to a couple of minutes. The step count on your Wearable, SH, and MFP will be in-sync and MFP will add exercise calories based on your activity.

It took me almost a month to find all of this and I hope it helps anyone with a Samsung Wearable who wants to use MFP instead of SH to track food and activity.

If you have questions or others tips/steps, please do share! If this was helpful to you, click on one of the post buttons and let me know this was worth 30 days of digging. :)

-Glenn

Replies

  • TomHayward78
    TomHayward78 Posts: 20 Member
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    That's similar to how I have everything setup, but I use sync S Health to MapMyFitness for all exercise data.
  • ptcurran22
    ptcurran22 Posts: 1 Member
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    This post should come in the box with the Gear Sport. Awesome stuff!

    Do you guys find it a better experience to track run/exercise in endomondo/mapmyrun/mapmyfitness and sync to Samsung Health or the other way around?

    Side note... I know Under Armour has a lot bigger problems on their hands like profitability, but they really need to streamline all these apps.
  • ginachappa
    ginachappa Posts: 1 Member
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    Thanks for the info, I have a question if you have a clue... Putting Endomondo in the equation as well - I have it on my Gear Fit 2 and whereas before having Gear Fit 2 I used to have Endomondo connected to MFP and the exercise was synching, now I disabled Endomondo-MFP but left the Endomondo-Samsung Health and Samsung Health-MFP connections. It went a bit crazy till I realized that I had to disconnect the Endomondo-MFP as it was loop Synching...
    My question is how can I only have 1 time upload of each exercise tracked with Endomongo on Gear Fit 2 rather than tens/hundreds of the same one???
    Also, is there a way to delete the multiple synch entries from the past 1 month???
  • tmoneyag99
    tmoneyag99 Posts: 480 Member
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    I don't see "Samsung Health" On the list of apps for MFP. What am I missing.
  • mszatny
    mszatny Posts: 4 Member
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    Anybody have anything like this for using Gear and MFP within iOS ? I finally have downloaded the MFP app onto the Gear Fit 2 Pro, but can't figure out how this get synced to the full iOS App or to S-Health (running on iOS)

    Thanks
    MS
  • futmom
    futmom Posts: 23 Member
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    Thank you so much! I was trying to figure that out last night and didn't know about the data sharing part.
  • mutantspicy
    mutantspicy Posts: 624 Member
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    ginachappa wrote: »
    Thanks for the info, I have a question if you have a clue... Putting Endomondo in the equation as well - I have it on my Gear Fit 2 and whereas before having Gear Fit 2 I used to have Endomondo connected to MFP and the exercise was synching, now I disabled Endomondo-MFP but left the Endomondo-Samsung Health and Samsung Health-MFP connections. It went a bit crazy till I realized that I had to disconnect the Endomondo-MFP as it was loop Synching...
    My question is how can I only have 1 time upload of each exercise tracked with Endomongo on Gear Fit 2 rather than tens/hundreds of the same one???
    Also, is there a way to delete the multiple synch entries from the past 1 month???

    I'm not using endomondo but rather UA Record. Its doable.
    The good news is you can be very selective about what syncs between the aps. It is possible to sync only steps from S health and the sync workouts from UA record. UA record is basically mapmyfitness, and endomondo in one ap.

    So when you sync Shealth to MFP uncheck exercise in both directions.



    When in MFP you need sync Mapmyfitness ap and UA record ap, then go to steps and sync Shealth.

    In UA record you sync to MFP. DO NOT SYNC UA record and Mapmyfitness to Shealth or else you'll get double readings.
  • xtooxlegitx
    xtooxlegitx Posts: 1 Member
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    Sorry if this is a stupid question, but here goes. I followed your info because I didn't understand why my steps could transfer to MFP from S Health but not the exercises. Got MFP to read exercises too because of this thread, but when I switched it to read exercises, my step calories in MFP went from 512 burned (reading S Health steps) to 0, but still showing 11,000+ steps. Did anyone else have this problem?
    Thanks in advance!
  • mutantspicy
    mutantspicy Posts: 624 Member
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    Sorry if this is a stupid question, but here goes. I followed your info because I didn't understand why my steps could transfer to MFP from S Health but not the exercises. Got MFP to read exercises too because of this thread, but when I switched it to read exercises, my step calories in MFP went from 512 burned (reading S Health steps) to 0, but still showing 11,000+ steps. Did anyone else have this problem?
    Thanks in advance!

    Yep! This happens. Most of time the step count calories are listed, but when you log a workout, the step count remains but the cals disappear. For one thing, I don't consider my step count as part of my calorie refeed, because I think of it as part of my activity level. However, The calories from steps should come back closer to midnight. Its usually around 11pm eastern when the calories adjustment calculation gets sorted out. I think what it is doing is trying to subtract steps that happened during the workout. There have been a couple of occasions where the step count loses sync with MFP due to website connectivity issues tho.
  • KimberlyCapone
    KimberlyCapone Posts: 42 Member
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    Crazy good info here, thanks so much for posting!