Why the same run shows twice in Apple Health
Two apps wrote the same run. Here is how to find which ones, how to stop it, and how Runtile merges duplicates on its own so your totals stay honest.
You finish a 10 km run and Health shows 20 km. Nothing ran twice. Two apps each wrote the same workout.
How it happens
Health accepts workouts from any app you allowed. The common pairs:
- Apple Watch Workout app plus Strava on the phone. Both recorded, both wrote.
- Apple Watch plus Garmin Connect when you wore both watches.
- A watch app plus Strava where Strava was set to write and the watch app was too. Strava avoids this for imported activities, but a run recorded in the Strava app on a phone while the watch also ran the Workout app still produces two.
Find the source
Health app, Browse, Activity, Workouts. Tap a run and scroll to Source. Do it for both copies. Now you know which two apps are writing.
Stop it at the source
Pick one recorder per run. Then in the app you do not want writing, turn off Workouts in its Health permissions: Health app, Sharing, Apps, choose the app, switch off Workouts. The app keeps working. It just stops writing runs.
Or let Runtile merge them
Runtile deduplicates on its own. Two runs whose start and end both fall within a minute of each other are treated as one, and the copy with the larger distance is kept. The import screen shows how many were merged, and Settings, Duplicates lists every merge so you can keep or split any of them.
Questions
Should I delete one copy in Health?
You can. Health app, Browse, Activity, Workouts, tap the duplicate, scroll down and tap Delete. Runtile removes its own record when a run disappears from Health. But fixing the source is better than deleting after every run.
Which copy does Runtile keep?
The one with the larger distance, usually the GPS device rather than the phone estimate. Heart rate from either copy is used when the other lacks it.
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