Setting up and
troubleshooting AuraVelo.

What it asks for, and why#

Each prompt appears the first time you use the feature that needs it, not all at launch. Decline any of them and the rest of the app carries on working.

• Location, to record your route and draw it on the map. It is asked for in the background too, so recording continues with the screen off and the phone in a pocket.
• Bluetooth, only when you first open the Sensors screen. Never asked for if you never pair anything.
• Motion, to read the barometer. This is what makes elevation gain accurate rather than guessed from GPS.
• Apple Health, in two halves: writing rides as cycling workouts, and reading your weight, height and age for calorie estimates plus HRV, resting heart rate and sleep for the readiness card.

Rider profile and units#

Your weight matters more than you would think: it drives the calorie estimate, the fuelling reminders and the climbing maths. Set it in Settings › Profile, or tap Fill Profile from Apple Health.

The same screen holds Save Rides to Apple Health, which is off by default. Kilometres or miles, and the temperature and elevation units that go with them, live in Settings › Units.

Getting it on your wrist#

There is no pairing step inside AuraVelo. The Watch app installs alongside the iPhone app the way any Apple Watch companion does.

1. Install AuraVelo on your iPhone.
2. If the Watch app does not appear on its own, open the Watch app on your iPhone, scroll to Available Apps and install AuraVelo from there.
3. Start a ride on the phone, then open AuraVelo on the watch. Heart rate starts streaming across.

The first time it runs, watchOS asks for permission to read heart rate. That prompt appears on the watch, not the phone, so it is easy to miss if the watch is on a charger in another room.

What wins when you wear both#

If a Bluetooth heart-rate strap is connected and delivering readings, it takes precedence and the watch stays quiet. The watch fills in when there is no strap. A chest strap is the more accurate of the two at high intensity, so this is deliberate rather than arbitrary.

A smart trainer broadcasting heart rate sits below both: it is used only when nothing dedicated is connected for that measurement.

How does it work?#

AuraVelo speaks the standard Bluetooth Heart Rate Service protocol, the same protocol that every chest strap uses. A watch in broadcast mode advertises that identical protocol. It appears in the scan list under whatever name it advertises.

The setting has a different name on every brand. Look for wording along these lines:

Once broadcasting, add it in Settings › Sensors exactly like any other heart-rate sensor.

Sleep, HRV and the readiness card#

Readiness reads overnight recovery signals out of Apple Health. An Apple Watch, a Garmin, an Oura ring or a number you typed in yourself all count the same. So the question is not whether AuraVelo supports your brand, it is whether your brand writes to Apple Health.

That part varies a great deal, and it is worth knowing before you go looking for a setting that does not exist:

Check what is actually arriving in the iOS Health app, under Browse › Heart › Heart Rate Variability and the equivalent for sleep. If nothing is listed there, AuraVelo has nothing to read either.

What AuraVelo can talk to#

• Heart rate 180D
• Cycling power 1818
• Speed & cadence 1816
• Smart trainers FTMS
• Battery level 180F

These are the standard Bluetooth cycling profiles, which is why the list is about capabilities rather than brand names. If a sensor advertises one of them, it pairs. Anything speaking only ANT+ will not, since iPhones have no ANT+ radio.

Battery level is read where the sensor publishes it and shown beside each saved sensor, so a fading coin cell is visible before it strands you.

Pairing something new#

1. Wake the sensor. Straps usually need skin contact and a little moisture; pods wake when the wheel or crank moves.
2. Make sure it is not already connected to something else. A sensor held by a head unit, a turbo app or another phone will not appear.
3. Open Settings › Sensors. The first visit asks for Bluetooth permission.
4. Wait for the scan list to populate, then tap your sensor to add it. It is remembered and reconnects on its own from then on.

To remove one, swipe left on it in My Sensors. Scanning stops when you leave the screen, so the app is not sitting there hunting for radios during a ride.

Wheel size, for speed pods#

A wheel-mounted speed sensor counts revolutions. Turning that into speed and distance needs your wheel circumference, set at the bottom of the Sensors screen in millimetres. The default is 2105 mm, which suits a typical 700 × 25c road wheel.

If your distances read consistently long or short while using a speed pod, this is almost always the reason. Measure it properly if you want to be exact: mark the tyre, roll the bike one full revolution with your weight on it, and measure between the marks.

Smart trainers#

Trainers speaking the Fitness Machine Service pair like any other sensor and can supply power, cadence, speed and distance.

Where a trainer overlaps with something dedicated, the dedicated sensor wins: a real cadence pod is preferred over the trainer's estimate, and a chest strap over the trainer's heart-rate passthrough. The trainer fills whatever is left.

A sensor does not appear in the scan#

• Something else is connected. This is the most common cause by far. Bluetooth sensors generally allow one connection at a time. Close the turbo app, put the head unit away, and turn off Bluetooth on the other phone in your pocket.
• It is asleep. Pods wake on movement; straps wake on contact. Spin the crank or touch the electrode.
• Low battery. A dying coin cell often advertises weakly rather than not at all, so the sensor flickers in and out of the list.
• Bluetooth is off or blocked. The screen tells you which, and offers an Open Settings button when it is a permission rather than the radio.
• A watch is not broadcasting. Broadcast mode usually has to be switched on for each session, and many watches drop out of it when the activity ends.

Readings freeze or drop out mid-ride#

Reconnection is automatic, so a brief dropout usually resolves itself within a few seconds. If a number sticks:

• Check the range. A phone in a rear jersey pocket with a chest strap on the far side of your body is a surprisingly effective radio shield.
• Check the battery level shown next to the sensor.
• Forget the sensor and re-add it. This clears a connection that has got itself into a bad state.

No heart rate from the Apple Watch#

• Open AuraVelo on the watch during the ride. The stream comes from the watch app running, not from the watch merely being nearby.
• Answer the heart-rate permission prompt, which appears on the watch face and is easy to leave sitting there unnoticed.
• Check the fit. A loose strap is the usual cause of a watch reading nothing at all.
• Remember that a connected Bluetooth strap takes precedence. If you are wearing both, the watch is meant to be silent.

Elevation looks wrong#

Climbing is measured with the iPhone's barometer, which is far steadier than GPS altitude but needs the Motion permission. If that was declined, elevation falls back to weaker data. Turn it on in the iOS Settings app under Apps › AuraVelo.

Planned routes and hill profiles use terrain data rather than your barometer, so a small difference between the profile you looked at beforehand and the climb you recorded is normal.

The phone is running out of battery#

The screen is the expensive part, not the GPS. AuraVelo dims the display after a spell without touches and wakes it again at a tap, which is where most of the saving comes from on a long day.

Recording carries on with the screen fully off, so for a long ride you can lock the phone and put it away. The Live Activity keeps distance and time on the Lock Screen without waking the full app.

The screen misbehaves in the rain#

Water on a capacitive screen produces phantom taps. Arm rain lock and the screen swallows every touch, so drops cannot press anything. Hold the droplet to unlock it again. Make sure you dry the phone screen before disabling rain lock.

iCloud sync is not bringing rides across#

• Both devices need to be signed in to the same iCloud account with iCloud Drive turned on.
• Sync is off until you switch it on, in Settings › Data.
• Give it a connection and a moment. A large library takes a while on its first pass.

Your bikes, routes, places and settings are end-to-end encrypted, so only your devices can read them. Recorded ride files use iCloud's standard encryption. Turn on Advanced Data Protection in iOS Settings if you would rather Apple could not read those either.

Rides are not showing in Apple Health#

• Turn on Save Rides to Apple Health in Settings › Profile. It is off by default.
• Check the write permission in the iOS Health app under Sharing › Apps. Health permissions are granted per data type, and it is easy to allow one and not another.
• Only rides recorded after you turned it on are written. Earlier ones are not back-filled.

Anything already saved to Health is managed in the Health app from then on. Deleting a ride in AuraVelo does not remove the workout there.

A bad power reading has poisoned my records#

The power curve keeps your all-time best for each duration, and only a higher figure ever replaces one. That means a spike from a miscalibrated meter cannot be ridden off.

Reset it from Settings › Data › Storage. Your rides are untouched, and the curve rebuilds from the next ride recorded with a power meter.

Sending a ride to Strava, Komoot or anywhere else#

Open the ride and share it. You can choose GPX, TCX or FIT, and it goes wherever the iOS share sheet can reach: another app, Files, AirDrop, email.

GPX is the most widely understood. FIT carries the most detail. TCX sits in between and is what a few older training sites prefer.

Bringing a route in#

AuraVelo registers as a destination for GPX files, so the route arrives from whichever app you found it in.

1. Find the GPX in the other app, in Files, or in an email attachment.
2. Tap Share, then choose AuraVelo.
3. It lands in the import inbox, ready to ride or edit.

Routes shared from another AuraVelo rider come in the same way, as does a plain link.

Backing up, and moving to a new phone#

Settings › Data › Back Up Everything writes a single file holding your whole library: rides, bikes, routes, goals, places and settings. You can protect it with a passphrase of at least eight characters.

Restoring shows you what the file contains before it changes anything, and gives you control over the awkward parts: whether rides you already have get replaced, whether rides you deliberately deleted come back, and whether settings are overwritten.

Your library also lives inside the app's own storage, which is covered by your normal encrypted iPhone backup. Restoring that backup onto a new phone brings AuraVelo with it.

Downloading an area#

Recording never needs a connection. GPS keeps working and the ride is written to the phone as you go. Only the map tiles need the network, and recently ridden areas are already kept automatically.

Download an area on purpose when you are heading somewhere new and expect to be without signal. There are two ways in, both from Settings › Maps › Offline Maps:

• Choose an area on the map. Pan and pinch to frame it; the download size is shown as you go.
• Around a saved route. Pick a route and it covers the corridor along it.

What it does, and what it will not do#

If a hard impact is followed by you stopping and staying still, AuraVelo sounds an alarm and counts down, with the delay set to 30, 60 or 90 seconds. Cancel it and nothing happens.

Turn it on in Settings › Safety. It stays off until you add at least one emergency contact, because without one there is nothing for it to do. Contacts are stored on the phone as a name and a number only, are excluded from backups, and never leave the device unless you send a message yourself.

There is a Try It Now button on the same screen. It runs the alarm and countdown exactly as a real incident would, without preparing any message, so you know what it sounds like before it matters.