Revision #155

''Part of the [[Using the iOS app|Loopa iOS app]] guide.''

'''Apple Health sync''' is the two-way bridge between Apple Health and Loopa. Turn it on and your weight, heart rate, blood pressure, glucose, sleep, water, steps and workouts flow between the two apps so every health app agrees. It's off until you deliberately connect it — Loopa never reads or writes Apple Health until you tap Connect. You reach it from the '''Apple Health''' row on [[Your profile and More]], or from the Apple Health card on [[The Plan tab]]. See [[Using the iOS app]] for the rest of the app.

''General wellness tracking, not medical advice.''

== Connecting Apple Health ==

The Apple Health screen opens on a header card. Before you connect it says "Not connected" and offers a '''CONNECT APPLE HEALTH''' button.

* Tapping it first shows a short "TURN EVERYTHING ON" primer, reminding you to tap '''Turn On All''' on the screen Apple is about to show so every category flows automatically. You can change any category later.
* Tap '''Continue''' and Apple's own permission sheet appears, asking which data Loopa can read and write. This is Apple's screen, not the app's — grant what you're comfortable with.
* Once you allow access the header switches to "Connected" and the app runs a first backfill of the last 30 days.

If your device has no Apple Health (an iPad, say) the screen says so and there's nothing to connect. If the permission sheet fails to open, an error with a '''RETRY''' button appears.

== What syncs, and which way ==

Once connected, the screen lists one row per metric, each showing its direction, when it last synced, its permission state, and a toggle to switch it off. The metrics are:

* '''Weight''' — two-way
* '''Body fat %''' — two-way
* '''Waist''' — two-way
* '''Heart rate''' — from Apple Health only
* '''Resting heart rate''' — two-way
* '''Blood pressure''' — two-way
* '''Blood glucose''' — two-way
* '''Steps''' — from Apple Health only
* '''Exercise minutes''' — from Apple Health only
* '''Water''' — two-way
* '''Sleep''' — two-way
* '''Workouts''' — two-way

Most metrics are '''two-way''': what you log in Loopa is written back to Apple Health, and what Apple Health holds is pulled in. Three are '''one-way, from Apple Health into the app''' — heart rate, steps and exercise minutes. Those are figures Apple computes and that apps aren't allowed to author, so the app only ever reads them (and treats Apple Health as the authority for your daily step and exercise totals, overwriting its own). Your weigh-ins, waist, blood pressure, resting heart rate, glucose, water, sleep and workouts, by contrast, are both read and written back.

Steps and workouts feed [[The Activity screen]]; heart rate, blood pressure, glucose and sleep feed [[The Vitals screen]]; waist and body fat feed [[The Measurements screen]].

=== Measurements Apple Health can't hold ===

Waist is the only body measurement Apple Health has a category for. Your chest, hips, thigh, arm and neck measurements stay inside Loopa — Apple Health has nowhere to put them. The screen's footer says as much.

== Conflict and priority rules ==

The bridge is careful not to double-count or overwrite the wrong thing:

* '''Your manual entries win.''' If you typed a value into Loopa for a given day, an Apple Health value for that same day and field is not pushed over it — the app's conflict rule keeps your manual entry on top.
* '''No echo loop.''' Anything the app writes into Apple Health is tagged as coming from Loopa, so it's never read back and re-filed. Likewise, values the server already marks as Apple-Health-sourced aren't written back out.
* '''Water is additive.''' Water pulled from other apps is counted once (tracked by an anchor so re-syncs don't pile up), and write-backs only top Apple Health up to the day's total rather than adding a duplicate.
* '''Steps and exercise minutes''' are daily totals that Apple Health owns; the app takes the latest figure and overwrites its own.

== Keeping it in sync ==

You don't have to babysit it:

* '''Sync now''' — the connected header has a SYNC NOW button that runs a full two-way sync over the last 7 days on demand.
* '''Background sync''' — the app watches Apple Health for changes and catches up on its own; bursts (like a workout that writes several metrics at once) are folded into a single catch-up a moment later. Automatic catch-ups are spaced out (about every 15 minutes) so they don't hammer your account.
* '''Cross-device''' — each metric reports its progress to your account, so if you use Loopa on more than one device the status lines stay consistent.

== Checking permissions ==

Because Apple deliberately hides whether you granted '''read''' access (it only tells apps once real data has actually arrived), the app can only tell you a category is "asked" versus "data is flowing". Two tools help when something looks off:

* '''Some categories look switched off''' — a banner appears when a metric seems blocked, with the exact path to fix it: Health app → your picture → Privacy → Apps → Loopa, or Settings → Privacy & Security → Health → Loopa. There's an "Open Health app" shortcut.
* '''Check permissions''' — this button opens a checklist with a row per metric: "Data is flowing", "Authorized", "Not asked yet", or a warning that write access was denied. Where a category was never asked, a '''Request''' button re-presents Apple's sheet for just that one.

If you skipped a category during the first connect, the checklist's Request button or the Health app is where you turn it back on.

== Turning individual metrics off, or disconnecting ==

Each row's toggle stops that one metric from syncing while leaving the rest running. To stop everything, the footer has a '''DISCONNECT APPLE HEALTH''' button — it halts syncing and forgets your opt-in, though your per-metric toggle choices are kept for next time. Reconnecting re-runs the permission flow.

== See also ==

* [[The Activity screen]]
* [[The Vitals screen]]
* [[The Measurements screen]]
* [[Weight tracking]]
* [[Blood glucose]]
* [[Using the iOS app]]

[[Category:The iOS app]]
[[Category:mobieusHealth]]