In the last couple of weeks I've noticed a problem with run data imported to Strava from Apple Fitness. Strava reports the distance correctly, but the time – both elapsed and moving – is too short, so the pace quoted by Strava is too fast.
It's not the same as this issue previously reported by @Jeroentje, because I don't believe it relates to the difference between total time and moving time. Instead, I think the import process is breaking off prematurely, before Strava has received all the data.
An example: my last run as recorded by Apple was 4.88 km in a total of 31:40 minutes. The average pace shows as 6:29/km, which I know is about right. My Apple Watch has auto-pause turned on, but I didn't stop and didn't pause manually. So I'd expect the total and moving times to be very close.
Following import, Strava agrees on the distance and the GPS track, but says the elapsed time was 27:38 and the moving time was 27:26. I can well believe a difference of 12s, but not the difference between Strava's 27:38 and Apple's 31:40. Strava then calculated the average pace as 5:37 – the math is correct but that was absolutely not the pace I ran.
On looking closely at the Strava pace graph, I see it ends at 4.3 km. So I've lost 0.58 km of distance, which would neatly account for the "missing" four minutes.
The Strava pace graph clearly shows the points where I walked, and on moving the slider, the instantaneous pace readings are all correct as far as I can judge.
So the problem doesn't relate to total time versus moving time. Instead, the Strava import seems to have cut off four minutes (and 0.58 km) before the end of the run – but the total distance quoted in the headline figures is correct, presumably because it's coming from a different field in the Apple data.
Does this narrative make sense, and has anyone else seen anything similar?
