FIXED: RunKeeper integration broken (for good?)

This issue was fixed (for the time being) in version 2.56 released on September 18th - but the overall situation is still the same.

For some weeks now, the status of the RunKeeper integration has been that it has been working for most users most of the time. But for some days now, it seems to have been broken for good.

The problem is that Asics now appears to me making an active effort to block RunGap and other apps from accessing your hard earned data in an automated way. 

RunKeeper used to offer an API called "Health Graph API" to 3rd party developers which could be used to reliable read and write data from/to your RunKeeper account - but this API has been discontinued. I have reached out to Asics and received the following reply:

"Thank you for your email -- we're happy to clarify. Our team made the decision to stop accepting new registrations for our Health Graph API, as we want to direct our limited resources towards best serving our current partners. Going forward, we will only be supporting clients we have specifically built a partnership with on our end.

We’re very sorry for any inconvenience this causes!"

This means that RunGap needs to rely on undocumented methods which is somewhat hit-and-miss.

As long as Asics allocates their "limited resources" to this stupid cat-and-mouse game, it is becoming increasingly time consuming to keep the integration up and running and most likely RunKeeper support will be completely removed from RunGap.

Apparently RunKeeper love their users so much that they can't image them leaving and believes that making their service a remote island is the best way to stop users from moving away from their platform. If you disagree, you might consider moving along and switching to another service.

The good news is that you can still download all your historic RunKeeper workouts in GPX format and import them to RunGap via e.g. iCloud Drive or DropBox. Then you are free to export them to whatever services you want to try instead.

Going forward, you can also keep sharing your new workouts to RunKeeper by setting up a (free) Garmin Connect account and have that automatically push new workouts to RunKeeper. You can then use RunGap to share workouts to Garmin Connect and have them forwarded to RunKeeper.

Uploading workouts indirectly to RunKeeper via Garmin Connect has the added benefit that RunKeeper will honor the original speed and distance values, rather than recalculate them using an algorithm that gives "unique" values that does not match any other app on the planet.

I am working hard to fix the integration one final time - but most likely this is a permanent good bye to RunKeeper. R.I.P.

Thanks for your patience.

This issue was fixed (for the time being) in version 2.56 released on September 18th - but the overall situation is still the same.

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6 Comments

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    Mathieu Gielen

    Thanks for the clear explanation and suggestions! I guess this means goodbye to Runkeeper for me. For some years now they’ve disappointed me with their glitchy support for Apple Watch. I have tried Strava (too many privacy concerns) and Runtastic (forgot why I was unhappy with it). Can anyone recommend a good platform? I’m using Apple’s own Activity app now, which has very limited functionality for tracking progress over time.

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    Andrew J Stivers

    Goodbye, Runkeeper. Cancelling my auto renew subscription right now...

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    Dean Yeazel

    That's a bummer. Still looking for an iPhone/Apple Watch app that I like for running.

    You should talk to https://tapiriik.com/ . Their sync is still working.

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    John Haggis

    Thanks for the update and explanation. So often with apps you get left in the dark when there is a problem. I preferred using Runkeeper to Strava but everyone I know uses Strava. Guess I will be too from now on. Goodbye Runkeeper.

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    Dyrector

    I wrote RunKeeper Support. This is what they said:

    “Thanks for reaching out to Runkeeper Support!

    Happy to clarify. We have not changed anything on our end with the RunGap-Runkeeper integration; RunGap has access to changing how the apps connect with each other, unfortunately we are not able to make any changes or adjustments on our end. Feel free to contact RunGap for additional help!”

    There seems to be a lack of communication/understanding somewhere, doesn’t there?

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    Paul Allen

    I mainly use Runkeeper as the watch app shows the details of the run that's being recorded on the phone, also it has nice audio announcements. I can't find any other app that does that - Strava no longer has Bluetooth HR and is an independent watch app, Wahoo doesn't have a watch display and the audio announcements are horrible.

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