You open the Google Health app, you see a Start button, and it looks like the thing you are supposed to press before a walk so that it counts. This article says what that button actually does, because one version of it earns you nothing at all.
The two buttons do different things
| Start The app tracks you while you exercise. | Counts. eFit reads it as a recorded session and awards eFit Minutes for it. |
| Add or Log a workout You type in something you already did. | Does not count. eFit stores it so your challenge organizer can see it, and scores it as zero. |
We cannot tell a typed-in workout from a real one, which is the whole reason typed entries are excluded. Anyone could type in three hours of walking. Your device recording it is the evidence.
Why your steps need no button at all
Your phone counts steps whenever you are carrying it, and a watch or band counts them whenever you are wearing it. That counting never stops and never needs starting. eFit reads the daily total, so the only thing you have to do is keep the phone on you, in a pocket or a bag. A phone left on a desk counts nothing.
Pressing Start does not add steps either. A tracked workout earns eFit Minutes, and your step count comes from the all-day counter whatever you press. So anyone who starts a workout hoping the steps will appear will see no change.
When starting a workout does help
Start a workout for exercise your step counter cannot see:
- Swimming
- Cycling, indoor or outdoor
- Rowing and elliptical machines
- Weights and strength training
- Group workouts where you stay in one place, such as spin
Three things decide whether it earns anything:
- It has to be tracked while you exercise. Press Start when you begin and Stop when you finish.
- It has to run at least 5 minutes. Anything shorter is ignored.
- Start it on your watch if you have one. A watch measures your heart rate, and minutes at a vigorous heart rate count double. A workout with no heart rate behind it earns 1 point a minute.
Two limits worth knowing: a single workout counts for at most 3 hours, or 90 minutes when it carries no heart-rate data. Yoga, pilates, and tai chi count at half rate. Meditation and stretching do not count, so avoid labelling a walk as one of those.
When a day is missing
If you are pressing Start because your days keep arriving empty, the button was never the problem. Something between your phone and your Google account has stopped, and no workout entry can bridge it. Work through the article that fits:
- Your Activity Shows on Your Phone but Not in eFit
- Google Health Is Not Syncing With Apple Health, if you use an iPhone
- Refresh My Activity, to pull the last few days in again once the phone side is working
- Your Activity Tracking Window, which explains why a working tracker can correctly show zero
Repairing the connection starts your activity flowing again from that point. It does not reach back and collect the days already lost, because Google never received them.
If you cannot connect at all
Some accounts are blocked from sharing health data with any outside app, including accounts issued by a school or employer and accounts a parent manages through Family Link. Google refuses the sign-in, and there is nothing you can change in eFit to allow it. Anyone under 13 is blocked outright, because Google does not let a child account share health data with any outside app. If that is you, no setting in the Google Health app and no button in eFit will turn it on, so go straight to the paragraph below and speak to your challenge organizer. Google Will Not Let You Sign In explains how to tell.
Tell your challenge organizer about the missing activity, and keep workouts out of the app’s manual entry. Your organizer can record your activity against your account so that it counts toward your Activity Score, and some organizers switch on a form where you file your own activity for them to approve. Either route gives you real credit. Typing it into Google Health gives you none.