Why my activity is not syncing

Trybe scores challenges from the activity your phone and your apps already record, so nothing has to be logged by hand. When the numbers stay at zero, it is nearly always one of the things on this page.

Start here

Strava does not count steps. It reports distance, active minutes and calories from activities you record. If you are in a steps challenge, you need Apple Health on an iPhone or Health Connect on Android — with or without Strava.

Nothing is syncing? Try this first

Four steps, in the order that fixes it most often. Most people never get past the first.

On Android

1In Trybe, open Connect health apps and tap Reconnect on the orange card. Allow steps, distance and exercise when Health Connect asks.
2If no screen appears, open Health Connect yourself — Settings, then Security and privacy, then Health Connect on a Samsung; or the separate Health Connect app — go to App permissions, find Trybe, and switch those on there.
3Check something is writing steps INTO Health Connect: Data and access, then Steps, should list Samsung Health, Google Fit, Fitbit or your watch’s app. If that list is empty, Trybe has nothing to read however many permissions it holds.
4Back in Connect health apps, tap Sync now. Your steps should appear within seconds.

On an iPhone

1In Trybe, open Connect health apps and tap Reconnect if a card offers it. Turn every switch ON in Apple’s permission sheet before tapping Allow — they all start off.
2If no card is showing, open Apple’s Health app: Browse, Activity, Steps, then Data Sources & Access, and check Trybe is listed and allowed.
3If you wear a watch, put its app above iPhone in that same list so the source you trust is the one counted.
4Back in Connect health apps, tap Sync now. Your steps should appear within seconds.

What each connection gives you

Source	Steps	Everything else
Apple Health (iPhone)	Yes	Distance, active minutes, workouts. Your iPhone counts steps on its own, and an Apple Watch adds the rest.
Health Connect (Android)	Yes, if an app writes them	Health Connect stores what other apps put in it. Samsung Health, Google Fit or Fitbit write your steps; Health Connect passes them to Trybe.
Strava (both)	No — never	Distance, active minutes and calories, from activities you record in Strava. Strava has no step count, so it cannot feed a steps challenge.

You can connect more than one. Most runners keep Strava for distance and their phone for steps.

Connecting on an iPhone

1In Trybe, open your profile, then Settings, then Connect health apps.
2Turn on Apple Health. Apple shows a permission sheet.
3Every switch on that sheet starts OFF. Tap "Turn on all", or flip each one yourself, then tap Allow. This is the single most common reason nothing syncs.
4Go back to Trybe and pull down to refresh. Your numbers appear within a few seconds.

Apple never tells an app that permission was refused — that is a privacy decision on their side, not something Trybe can work around. So if the switches on that sheet stay off, Trybe cannot tell the difference between “you said no” and “you did not move”, and it will simply show nothing.

Connecting on Android

1Make sure Health Connect is on the phone. Android 14 and newer have it built in; on Android 13 install "Health Connect by Android" from the Play Store.
2Open your step app — Samsung Health, Google Fit or Fitbit — find its Health Connect setting, and let it write steps.
3In Trybe, open Settings, then Connect health apps, and turn on Samsung Health (which is Health Connect).
4Health Connect asks what Trybe may read. Allow steps, distance and active minutes, then go back to Trybe.

Health Connect is a hub rather than a step counter. If no app is writing steps into it, Trybe has nothing to read — so check the step app’s own Health Connect setting first.

Connecting Strava

1In Trybe, open Settings, then Connect health apps, and tap Connect with Strava.
2Sign in to Strava and tap Authorise. Leave the "View data about your activities" box ticked — without it Trybe gets nothing.
3Strava may warn that heart rate data is not shared. That is fine: Trybe never asks for heart rate.
4Record your runs and rides in Strava as usual. They reach Trybe the next time you open the app.

Trybe reads your activities to keep score. It never posts to Strava, and it never shows your individual activities to anyone — only your total in a challenge.

If you wear a watch

A Garmin, Fitbit, Polar or Coros does not talk to Trybe directly. It writes into Apple Health or Health Connect, and Trybe reads from there. Two things have to be true: the watch’s app is allowed to write steps, and it is the source your phone counts first. An Apple Watch needs neither — Apple handles it for you.

On an iPhone

1In Garmin Connect (or Fitbit, Polar, Coros — same idea), open its settings and turn on writing to Apple Health. In Garmin Connect it is under More, then Settings, then Connected Apps, then Apple Health. Allow steps.
2Open Apple’s Health app, tap Browse, then Activity, then Steps.
3Scroll to the bottom and tap Data Sources & Access. Tap Edit.
4Drag your watch’s app to the TOP of the list, above iPhone. The order decides which source Apple trusts when two of them counted the same walk.
5Come back to Trybe and tap Sync now on Connect your data.

On Android

1In Garmin Connect, open the menu, find Health Connect, tap Connect, and allow steps. Fitbit, Polar and Coros all have the same setting under their own names.
2Open Health Connect (a separate app on Android 13, in Settings under Health on Android 14 and newer).
3Go to Data and access, then Steps, and look for App priority. Put your watch’s app at the top.
4If your phone keeps counting too, turn step tracking off in that app — for example in Samsung Health — so only the watch is writing.
5Come back to Trybe and tap Sync now on Connect your data.

Why the order matters: when your phone and your watch both counted the same walk, neither Apple Health nor Health Connect adds the two together — each picks one source per stretch of time. Put the watch first and you get the number you trust, without double counting.

Connected, but the numbers are not moving

You are in a steps challenge and only Strava is connected: This is the common one. Strava has no step count. Connect Apple Health or Health Connect as well — you can have both, and Trybe will take steps from the phone and distance from Strava.
Trybe only syncs while you have it open: There is no background syncing, on purpose. Open Trybe, and it reads the last few days at most once every five minutes. If you have just walked, give it a minute and open the app again.
Your watch is not the source your phone trusts: If both your phone and your watch count steps, Apple Health and Health Connect each pick one of them rather than adding both together. If the wrong one is on top, Trybe reads the wrong number. The section above sets the order.
Your watch has not caught up: A watch out of Bluetooth range uploads hours later, and some apps write yesterday’s run this morning. Trybe re-reads the last three days every time, so late data still counts once it lands. Re-reading a day replaces it, so nothing is ever counted twice.
You reinstalled Trybe: A fresh install holds no Health Connect or Apple Health permissions, even though Trybe still remembers that you connected. Open Connect health apps and tap Reconnect. On Android the permission screen appears again and one tap fixes it; on an iPhone, check the switches on Apple’s sheet are on.
The permission was turned off without you noticing: A phone upgrade, an OS update, or Android removing permissions from an app you have not opened in a while will all do it. Open Connect health apps in Trybe: if something is wrong, the screen says which and gives you the one button that fixes it. If Reconnect brings up no screen at all, open Health Connect itself, find Trybe under app permissions, and switch steps, distance and exercise back on there.
You said no twice on Android: After two refusals Android stops showing the permission sheet at all. Open Health Connect itself, find Trybe under app permissions, and switch the permissions on there.
The challenge started before you connected: Trybe reads back about a month when you first connect, so recent days fill in. It cannot see further back than that — Health Connect does not allow it.

One thing to know before you disconnect

Disconnecting a source deletes the activity Trybe collected from it, and the challenge progress that came from it. Standings change. That is deliberate — a disconnect that leaves your data behind is not a disconnect — but it is not what you want if you are only trying to fix a sync.

Still stuck?

Email hello@trybefit.co.za with your Trybe handle, your phone (iPhone or Android), which sources you have connected and which challenge is wrong. A screenshot of the Connect your data screen answers most of it in one go. More help is on the support page.