Went out for a ride earlier this week and was out to set a new PB for a segment on my Strava. Got home after the ride and found the only thing recorded was a straight line. Checked the settings and went out for a ride today and again, nothing but a straight line. Ended up deleting the app and reloading it. Went out for a short ride and it seems that has corrected the problem. Will find out tomorrow when I go for a another ride. My phone crashed last week and ended up resetting itself and I had not given the app a second thought. I guess I should have.
Frank.

Tech always has bugs and quirks. Add in wireless and that's a whole new issue.

Ctrl Alt Del

Why don't you submit a support request to Strava? They fix such problems all of the time and give direct answers to any direct questions you may have.

This may/may not apply anymore, but I found the phone app buggy when battery save mode &/or data save mode was enabled. Sometimes it would only record while the screen was on, sometimes not. Sometimes it only recorded when background useage was allowed, sometimes not.

Arrrgh...One reason I bought a designated GPS bike computer.

My latest attempts with Samsung S8+ & current update have proved "not disappointing." So that's somethin'

A straight line?

That often indicates that Strava/Phone has crashed or was turned off, and recovered from the crash. So it connects the known points with a straight line.

So, for example, a couple of days ago, I stopped at one store. I apparently jostled my phone in the pack, and it shut off. Then at the next store I jostled it again, and it restarted.

Thus, for that ride, it shows the whole loop, but a straight line for the section between the two stores.

Do you have a handlebar mount for your phone?

I tend to like to keep Strava running in the background on my phone. So, should the phone screen get activated when I'm not aware, it takes a couple of button clicks for Strava to pop up.

Also depends on your phones battery saving mode. If it is on shut it off.

Thank you all for your responses. I did have it on the battery saver mode and have since shut it off. I did a small round the block ride and it seems to have cured the issue.
Thanks again, Frank.

ON - OFF - ON - OFF ..... with my 920XT yielded the following ---- actually took 90 miles of riding to generate (my computer is old and dumb and requires re-start action to complete the flow, hoping your's is better)

https://www.relive.cc/view/2451774101

ON at beginning and OFF when done for today's ride -----

https://www.relive.cc/view/2471651235

It sounds like you figgered it out. I was going to add that even Strava is garbage in/garbage out. Straight lines sure sounded like you weren't recording properly. I've had places where I lost GPS signal and got the dreaded 'straight line' too; but it wasn't Strava's fault then either.

Thanks all for the responses. Had it out yesterday and after changing the battery setting from saver mode it is working again. I crashed my phone last week, user error, and when I got it back I decided to try the saver setting. Lesson learned. Lost about 25 miles against my total so not a big loss but the timed segment I turned would have been nice to have recorded. Life goes on.
Thanks again, Frank.

Glad it worked out.

I don't have any high tech. But a friend and I went trail riding and she uses Strava (think that's the one). We ended up with a 2 mile difference in distance at the end of the ride (which was 6 miles+) (we both started at zero-me on my cyclometer and her on her app). I double checked my mtn.bike cyclometer against my road bike and both get identical distance readings (I know the road bike is correct-now I know the mtn.bike is also). Guess apps aren't foolproof.

2 miles in 6 is quite a bit.

I run both RideWithGPS and Strava on my phone. They usually differ from each other slightly... maybe 1/2 mile in 30.

I do a lot of utility riding, so one of the biggest differences seems to be how the apps deal with parking the bike and walking around for a half hour.

Once I had Strava go bonkers when I started it, and then didn't ride for a couple of days while it jumped all over the place looking for satellites.

I also had a descent once where it also jumped off the road quite a bit giving me very bad false readings.

I put the APP on a new phone and went through the settings and somehow invited everyone in my contacts to join Strava... some of them were pretty annoyed.

Diablo Wife somehow created a Strava account for herself from her Facebook page without realizing it and got hundreds of e-mails from those weird people that want the maximum number of follows.

Is it OK to laugh at this?

Even if it isn't OK....


-Tim-

What's Strava?

Strava is a free app that you can load to your smart phone and pc that allows you to track your rides. There is also a subscription version that offers more options. I like it as it allows what I am looking for in the free version. I have it phone mounted on the bike handlebar so it can "see" the GPS signal.
Google it and see what you think. Free to look.
Frank.

I would get a dedicated computer to record your rides and just have it auto upload to Strava. Use your phone as a phone and have it available for emergencies. If your going to rig it with a battery pack just to run it on your bike, you might as well just get a computer.

This is good advice but the reason I was running the phone on "battery saver mode" was more about me being an old tightwad and less about actually saving the battery charge. I am going to look into a Garmin for the bike as I think it would be nice to have a system dedicated to just riding.
Thanks, Frank.