How to directly sync Apple Watch workouts to Strava

With the Strava app downloaded to your phone, you don’t need an additional smartwatch or GPS tracker to log your runs or bike rides. But if you do wear an Apple Watch to track your workouts, the process of syncing that data to the Strava app is relatively easy, and you don’t even need to use any convoluted workarounds.

Strava allows for automatic syncing and manual imports, giving you control over what workouts you share. And that’s good, because sharing your routes and stats with friends and fellow athletes is the whole point of the app, and you should have control over what Strava knows. So, with that in mind, here’s how to connect your Apple Watch to Strava.

Strava

How to connect Apple Health to Strava

The first step to syncing workouts from your Apple Watch is connecting the Apple Health app to Strava. To get this set up, follow these steps:

1. Make sure all of your apps are up-to-date, then open the Strava app.
2. Tap the You tab from the bottom menu, then tap the Gear icon in the top right corner.
3. Select Applications, Services, and Devices and then Health under the services section.
4. Tap the big “+” at the top of the screen next to Health.
5. Press Connect at the bottom of the next screen, Turn On All. If for whatever reason you just want to only read or write information to the Health app, you can toggle those individually below.
6. Tap Allow in the top right corner.

Now Strava should be allowed to see what current and future activity gets recorded in the Apple Health app on your iPhone, including information your Apple Watch collects.

Apple, Strava / Pocket-lint

How to automatically upload Apple Watch workouts to Strava

Just because Strava can see into the Health app doesn’t mean that your workouts are automatically uploaded to the app. This might seem annoying, but ultimately it means you’ll be absolutely sure of what’s getting shared, and it’s very easy to turn on automatic syncing or manually import.

To turn on automatic uploads:

1. From the You tab in Strava, tap the Gear icon in the top right corner.
2. Select Applications, Services, and Devices.
3. Tap Health.
4. Toggle Automatic Uploads to on.

With automatic uploads enabled, any workout you track with your Apple Watch will be uploaded to Strava without having to open up the app. Of course, for older workouts, or if you’d prefer to pick and choose what you include, you can manually import workouts fairly easily too:

1. From the You tab in Strava, tap the Gear icon in the top right corner.
2. Go to Applications, Services, and Devices.
3. Select Health.
4. Scroll down to the activities at the bottom of the page.
5. Manually tap Import next to each to add them to your Strava.

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How to directly sync Apple Watch workouts to Strava

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Can Strava see third-party app data in the Apple Health app?

While setting up Strava’s connection to Apple Health and your Apple Watch isn’t difficult, there are some limitations to the integration to be aware of. But to understand them, first, you need to understand the Health app. The Health app in iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS is really a catch-all for all the health and fitness data your devices collect. You can view health information there, share it with your doctor, and even do rudimentary step tracking, but the Health app’s biggest function is as a depository for information other apps collect.

Strava is unfortunately limited to the information you collect with Apple’s apps and devices directly, so if you used Nike Run Club to track a workout, it won’t be able to be imported by Strava, automatically or not. If you only use the Apple Watch’s Workouts app, that might not be a problem, but it’s worth keeping in mind if you use any specialized third-party health and fitness apps.

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Can I import old workouts to Strava?

You can import some old workouts into Strava, but not all of them. Specifically, Strava can only display the last 30 days of exercise information for manual import. If you have any particularly memorable workouts that happened over a month ago, they won’t be able to be added to Strava for sharing.