Official: Suunto is discontinuing Movescount

Spot on – as a Suunto Ambit user I am to say the very least disappointed with the company’s plan to seemingly brick my watch next year. I have three friends who have bought Suuntos on my recommendation as up until now i have been delighted with mine.

Ok so where do we vote or how do we tell suunto that we want the web version also?

No way, this can’t be true! I have a Suunto Ambit 2 Sapphire. I remember choosing the Sapphire version to have a long-lasting watch. Indeed there is no single scratch on the display, only some minor scratches on the INOX barrel.
This is absolutely unacceptable. They can’t do that!
Is there no way to connect the watch via cable and a USB / microUSB adapter to a phone?

For Linux users, there is openambit. It’s a software that replaces moveslink. It saves the moves directly to the computer and they could be uploaded to strava for instance. However you cannot set parameters on the watch with it.

Very dissappointed. If this watch is bricked through making software obsolete, I will switch brands, no question about it.

I’m disappointed about this. I have an early-generation Ambit and find Movescount useful. That said, the Ambit’s bias toward whatever heart rate reading it picks up, no matter how erroneous or downright crazy, aggravates the hell out of me and is almost enough to make me seek another watch. I’m almost 63 and my watch has reset my maximum heart rate to 178, 196, 187, and 194 just recently – and it evaluates my workout based on that heart rate. I know my RHR and calculate my target heart rates, enter them, and the watch resets to some crazy heart rate every time it picks one up – which is almost every workout. Suunto could update the software or firmware or whatever it is to correct this – but they won’t. I can’t be the only person reporting this.

Well as a Suunto Ambit 2 (that was recently replaced) user, this sounds very strange as the warranty is 2 years ahead, and I was convinced by the support that they will be still actively selling that watch for a few years in the future.
One workaround would be, to let their mobile app support ANT+ as a lot of smartphones have it built-in.
Other to open their API for external developers, so that one could make something better.
But still we’ll loose one of the nicest features, to plan a route/POI on a nice convenient desktop site.

Overall I feel betrayed by a company, for which I have given so many positive reviews online and offline to my friends, who did buy a handful of Ambit and Spartan models.
So thanks but I am selling my Suunto Ambit 2 Sapphire watch, which was by far a remarkable piece of hardware, in order not to have a unusable watch in less than 2 years. With that move I have no choice left but to go with a Garmin, something I was refusing the last years, but now am actively taking that option.
That was my last Suunto product, so thank you Suunto, movescount.

I’m on my first and last Suunto product. I paid an arm and a leg for an original Suunto T6. The training manager software that came with it was very good. Then I lost the CD, changed computers, and they discontinued support for it moving everything to Movescount. Movescount is a shadow of the Suunto training manager software. Now my watch won’t store heart rate information – all it stores now are ascent/descent times which are wildly inaccurate. User guide is no help, as it hints that data is stored according to what items are connected when the training manager mode begins to record. Their customer service is useless – one way communication only. Their website is no help. I wasted my money on this watch – I’ll never buy another product of theirs and I’ll tell everyone who asks me about my experience.

So is it the case that all my training history on Movescount will be lost in 2020? That’s really poor. Does anyone know if the history data can be transferred to another application? If not, I’m ditching Suunto and going to Garmin.

The Suunto app doesn’t compare well with Movescount. There is no facility for entering tags and therefore can’t record mileage on different trainers etc. I’m going to work out what system I can transfer my history to, and then ditch Suunto and buy a garmin.

Ok I had My Suunto Spartan Sport Wrist HR Baro Stealth, such a long name 🤣, 2 weeks, first downloaded the Suunto App, works great, looks great, my Chinese smartphone doesn’t sync 100% to the app, no WhatsApp and Facebook messages. Then downloaded the Movescount app. and whooow..! such a great app, excellent in Mac, a lot of info there, and so many capabilities, but now I read that they will shut down. Why..?

That would be the end of my relation with Suunto. I have an Ambit3 which is a great watch. I ONLY used it in combination with the desktop Movescount web app which is very good, although it does not offer the Workout Planner. That was the only reason for me to download the mobile Movescount app, but I never used it because it won’t pair my phone to my watch (my phone is quite old). If Suunto becomes mobile-only sadly I’ll have to bin it forever. Can someone advise on other brands of comparable quality that still provides a non-mobile web platform?

I have a Traverse watch and will be able to sync it I will not be able to change the sport modes. I’m VERY cross… They have caused material damage to the functionality of the watch (the reason I bought it). Not as bad as the pre-bluetooth watches but still negative. Support is useless and I’ve sent them an invoice for half of the cost of the watch. I’m going to follow up on it. Not sure how far I’ll get but I’ll never buy one of their watches again… These guys don’t listen/don’t care. Shocking.

We should all invoice them for half the sales price of the watch. When they don’t pay or formally reject the invoice we should raise an open debt with the firm.

You can make routes (on a web app) on sports-tracker.com. If you have used sports-tracker.com before switching to Suunto App then you get two entries (Suunto bought sports-tracker).

Suunto was taken over by Amber Sports. Amber Sports is hold by a chinese consortium.
And in China people are most interested in app shit. Maybe they are not really interested
in looking up their traing data.
For me, this app is absolutely nonsense because I want to look up my training data on a
big computer monitor and not on a tiny damned mobile display.
If they really want to make mobile only I will sell my Suunto watch or if no one buys I will throw
that shit to garbage and ban that name Suunto out of my brain memory and buy a Garmin instead.
This is really not userfriendly what they do, but they seem to me mainly interested on Asian markets and
they dont seem to care about the rest of the world.
I really hope that this app only boomerang will hit them directly in their silly faces.

As a suunto 9 owner, I absolutely agree . A web app is mandatory. Suunto has to listen their users.

Frankly. I’m selling my Spartan WHR Baro with chest strap and I guess i’m going to throw my M5 in the bin or just use it to tell the time, since it’s value just went from low to none.

Movescount had some nice features, being able to route on a computer and have the routes upload directly to the watch via the movesount app was nothing short of a holy grail feature. And the privacy controls were good.
The new app is another bloody social media pest and keeps pushing features in my face
that i neither want nor need.

So yeah. Time to give polar another shot. since I have to buy a bloody map or carry a phone or satnav I might as well get optical HR that works as a trade.

Also, I’m not going to support a company that chooses to make fully functional products obsolete in this fashion. It reeks of naked profiteering and shows a disregard for their users i find disgusting.

i have an older ambit, this is my second suunto. if my phone becomes a legacy phone with no way to download and easily download my activities, my upgrade will definitely not be a suunot considering the pretty penny i paid for it.

Suunto’s new «mobile only strategy» is a major disaster. For all Suunto owners as well as Suunto itself and its shareholders. Many of my sports friends, my children and my wife are now switching to Garmin Fenix and then using Garmin Connect as their central online platform. And I am now also considering going back to Garmin. This is a great pity, as I was actually very satisfied with the Suunto watches (Ambit 2 -> Ambit 3 -> Suunto Baro HRM). And as a multi-sportsman (incl. windsurfing, surfing, snowboarding, skiing etc.) I cannot use Strava etc. as a central platform in a meaningful way.

The Suunto app is a nice gimmick, but certainly no replacement for an useful analysis and management tool for all sports data of the last years for me. Especially since the Suunto App does not allow me to export and save my data in a standard format.

Unfortunately, Suunto does not allow itself to be convinced by its customers, which is a very big management mistake (and all Suunto owners have to pay for it). Because the combination of Movescount and Movescount app (+ rubitrack as backup for all cases) was almost the optimum for me.

It’s a great pity, but it’s not the first time that a company ruins its important brand and thus burns its investment and the investment of its users. Shit Happens!

I am shocked reading all the comments here and really think I made a wrong choice to buy the Suunto 5 (mainly due to my good reasons on my Suunto Ambit3 Run with HR support). Never really used the terrain planning on the computer but I could imagine the agony for those advance users if Suunto App is not going to support web based! For me, I try to transfer my movescount data to the new Suunto App. Despite spending my last 3 hours following diligently with their instructions, I could not get it to work! Now sending to customer’s service and hope that I could get some positive help. Don’t even dare to power up my new Suunto 5 watch yet as I don’t want this new watch confuse the new Suunto App (?). Such a pity that such a good brand goes down the drain with such wrong directions from the new management.

This is extremely unfortunate. After every run or ride, I connect my Ambit 3 to my Windows desktop and view the huge beautiful map on my 42″ monitor. I hope this ability is not lost, as it would force me to get a new watch that would not likely be Suunto.

I’m a bit late to comment, but I agree with everyone.
For the first time, today, I was unable to create a new route or edit an existing one in movescount.
I do a lot of off-track hiking and climbing and being able to created detailed tracks, especially in areas with lots of cliffs, is crucial. You can’t get anything close to this on a phone app.
Then there are waypoints, real-time altitudes as you plot a route, etc.
I’m going to see if I can put the suunto app onto my ipad. This would at least give me a larger screen to work with, but it’s still lacking.
As I write this I’m trying to sync my ambit 3 with the suunto app and it keeps failing. It’s stopped on 3/14 Activities and I’m desperately trying to get a new route into the watch. This is frustrating as hell.
I’ll never buy another suunto product for as long as I live. They had something perfect and sold out and now it’s broken.

Apparently, Suunto are listening to users (the most popular thing on the forum is to have a web interface – so we’ll see), so make sure you vote on features here and add a comment.
https://forum.suunto.com/category/13/feature-suggestions

When I bought my Suunto Ambit 2 I did one run with it and I put it almost immediately back in box. Why? I went over the limit I set for my heart rate, but I didn’t get a warning. But before I returned it I read the signal for going over your limit only comes after 2 minutes. My trainer said this is deadly during a marathon. Fortunately I learned very quick how to make an app to get a signal as soon as you go over your limit. So if apps are no longer possible you’re stuck with this 2 minute delay. I also have several apps who count down from a starting distance and also apps who change the heart rate limit during the run. I even have an app that counts down a distance or time according to the day of the week and sets the heart rate limit also according to the day of the week. So I need only one sport mode for an entire week.
I suggest the person how made this decision about the delay gets paid with the same relative delay : he’ll be paid at the end of December 2030 for the work he did in January 2020. I haven’t decided about the pay for the person who decided to discontinue Movescount, but probably much later then December 2030.
I also bought a Garmin Fenix 5x last year because I could buy it at a 50% discount (earning “coins” by running and then you could buy discounts with these coins in our country). I bought it because Movescount doesn’t have the possibility to program an autolap in your app (read: the simple autolap of always the same distance is not enough for me for an interval). Today I’m always using my Garmin when doing interval because you can make a simple workout and play with different set distances and/or times for your laps. The programming of an app is much more difficult then on Movescount. But I was also a bit disappointed about certain things. But if Movescount disappears I’m thinking those disappointments will not matter anymore.
I also looked at an interval training on Sportstracker. What a disappointment! You don’t see the laptimes you did. You only see the programmed laps they can show you: 0,5km, 1km, 2km, 5km or 10km. Plus times of your laps are only to the second. I also looked at my yesterday run of 20km. I added the lap times of 1km and I also added the min/km. Guess what. Also a big disappointment. They should be exactly the same, but no 1h27’33” vs 1h27’55”. 22 seconds difference. Plus my real time was 1h28’07”.

I have an ambit 2 s and tried making a route today on my computer. Wasn’t able to pull any info other than km which was useless for my mountain hiking. So annoyed if I can no longer use my watch as intended. It was very expensive when I got it 5 y ago.

Hi. So what’s the status on this “great idea”. My Suunto Ambit2s has its memory full and I can’t even find a way to delete the records. I love the hopeful wording these companies use to kick their customers out of the picture while giving them no alternative whatsoever. Suunto is no more.

The main reason I like my Suunto Ambit is the route planning (with ascent/descent data) capability on the web based platform. If that disappears, I will likely not use a suunto watch. Also, my data is not syncing on the new suunto app. Its super frustrating. Points off for Suunto. I am now looking at garmin and coros.

No web app??? This is a step backwards!!! Suunto, please listen to your users. It is utterly ridiculous not to have a web app especially when you are taking Movescount away.

If Suunto is serious about not having a desktop/web app then I will be ditching my Suunto and buying a Garmin.

Despite being a graet fan off Suunto for decades, i too seriously doubt my next sportswatch will be a Suunto, if by then they have not developed a web version of the Suunto app. and like many others, apparently, i probably wouldnt have bought my current Suunto 5 in the first place if i had known in advance. Reading in the other comments that they have been taken over by a Chinese company gives me little hope that they will change their minds. Being a runner i had also bought a Stryd power footpod at the same time, and their app is available on pc and mobile alike and they perfectly sinc with eachother. It even automaticaly includes maps of the runs that my Suunto gathered. So for the runners amongst you this might be a partial solution as i would recommend trying power based running to anyone.For me i was an eye-opener.

So my £300 Suunto watch is useless Suunto get a web based synch app sorted out… as far as I know, they only support iPhone 12 or something. It reinforces the manufactures desire to get people to continue to upgrade every 8years or so to the next big thing. not environmentally sound of suunto or tech manufacturers to continue this endless chase to the upgrade when tech is working fine.

Thanks Blaz for this article, very informative, and for the Comments that it generated, that are equally very informative. Happy to see I am not the only one in that situation. I have searched the web for similar stories to understand what is going on with Suunto.

Suunto told me (with their online chat) in early October 2020 that they decided that change (closing of web-based platform) based on “feedback of their customers” and “general trend of digital services”, to which I replied “does it mean you do not consider me as one of your customers?”

I am (was) an Ambit3 user, and discovered in Sept 2020 about the closing of Suunto web-based service (movescount). After chatting with Suunto through their online chat, it became apparent they would no longer provide that service. This is a big no-no for me : I don’t use Phone to manage my activities, I use a computer with a nice big monitor and a mouse

Once it became apparent they would no longer provide that service, I had to go find some other watch supplier.
Now I got another watch (Polar), which is doing the job nicely, i.e recording my bike activities and putting them on a web-based platform, where I can upload and store those wherever I want.

I understand Suunto’s point, to only provide a phone-based application, but that ‘s not what I want.

It is kinda sad story since I was satisfied with my Ambit3 and attached to it.

You can download your activity form the new Suunto platform and then upload it to https://quantified-self.io/. Then you’ll be albe to see the laps with the distance you did and not those fixed lapdistances. You will also be able to see the maximum heartrate for each lap.

A while ago I think somewhere in july I could fill in a feedback with some negative comments. I got a reaaction on 10/08/2020 asking me to sent me some examples concerning the missing of the maximum heartrate per lap. I sent the mail with the exampls on 17/08/2020. On 29/09/2020 I got a mail telling me they are working on the bug. Today I still can’t see the maximum heartrate per lap.
At first you couldn’t see the maximum heartrate also not on https://quantified-self.io/. I asked about this and a few days later I could already see it. As far as I know this site is managed by 1 person and it’s not even his main job.

Good summary! I don’t like this transition at all! Movescount has a lot of details that the app are missing, as you pointed out. For example, I’m used to tag all equipment I have used during the excersie in order to ceep track of service etc. This is not possible in the app (correct me if I’m wrong). I would also like to see the exercises on a computer instead of a small smartphone screen. I hope the’ll create a web version as well.

Hello. I recently converted to the Suunto Link app, for my Ambit 2 which is great! It is working, it does sync moves, settings and routes. I also run into the first serious issue. After some syncing, the watch display showed : “Sync your moves. Memory used 77%” message. For the last dozen or so moves, I have been using the Suunto Link, so I guess it does not delete the old moves like Movescount2 app used to do.
Is there someone else with the same problem?

P.S.: I really have to agree that I am pleased that Suunto finally made a solution for the old time lovers of the still working an functional Ambit watches.

I like you am more than concerned the Movecount Web Page is to be discontinued, as an owner of a Traverse I rarely use the App, as a Hiker i carry out all my route planning on my PC it has work flawlessly over the last 4 years I have owned the watch. I love this piece of tech and cannot imagine planning routes on my smartphone, if Suunto persist in making the Web page redundant I will never buy from this company again, I have also recommended this watch so some of my fellow Hikers who now find themselves in the same position, and as a result are having to look at alternatives such as Garmin at further expense.

Today I realized what bs is coming to my suunto experience. I have an ambit 2 with saphire glas that had cost me a fortune. In 20 days I will not be able to use it at all anymore, because the Suunto app won’t run on my iphone. I will not buy a new iphone just to use my ambit watch. I will throw the watch hard on the ground and that’s it with Suunto. And anyways, what do they think? To synchronize my moves I would have to attach the watch via USB to my mac, then connect with the suunto app on my smartphone and then what. Ho would I get my .fit-file to my Mac to import it into my Golden Cheetah Software? Why don’t they make an app that will run on my mac? Or why do they have to discontinue the web application? It’s already there and it’s good! It seems they just want to save money and increase profits. But those won’t come from me!

I wouldn’t have bought a Suunto watch if I had found out before that they do not provide software for evaluating your exercises on the PC. Now I wonder whether I will throw this new watch to the bin because using a smartphone for stuff you could do on a decent screen is not my cup of tea.