Strava API Troubles

Posted on | by Ben Lowe

Api ProblemsAs a number of you may have noticed, since the site going down last week there has been a significant increase in the number of errors encountered around the site, in particularly on the update page. For some reason, since the site going down, the veloviewer.com server no longer has access to Strava’s API. This could be because either my hosting company has blocked those requests from being made or Strava has blocked requests from that server. At present I’m not sure which.

Strava are currently looking into it from their end but weren’t specifically aware of calls from my server being blocked. I’m more inclined to point the finger at my hosting company but they seem less than willing to investigate the problem. Once confirmed that the restriction isn’t at the Strava end then I’ll press much harder for my hosting company to diagnose and resolve the issue.

I’ve got a work-around by using one of my other websites to act as a go between for the Strava API requests but it seems a little less reliable than the original requests from the veloviewer.com server. Maybe because its a Windows server rather than Linux (I have no idea really)?

What this seems to be resulting in is a number of you getting a lot more errors popping up, especially on the update screen. All the people who have been in touch had been using IE and switching over to Google Chrome has sorted the issue out. Chrome is much faster at running the JavaScript that the update process heavily uses which might be the reason why it performs more reliably. Also, you could just been hitting the server when lots of other people are so maybe give it an hour or so and try again. VeloViewer is getting remarkably popular which is stretching it’s capacity somewhat!

So, if you’re getting lots of errors then try switching to Google Chrome and see if that helps. If not then post a comment (or send me an email) including your Strava id.

I’ll make sure the new, V3 update process is more resilient to errors from the Strava API. Until then, sorry for any inconvenience.

0 thoughts on “Strava API Troubles”

  • raceshape says:

    When are you going to move to a real webhost? A shared host blocking an ip with a lot of outbound traffic isn’t all that surprising.

    • Ben says:

      I’ll be looking into it properly when I get back from Norway later on in the week. I’m not that surprised, just thought they might let me know if they were going to do it rather than just switching it off! What is your setup for raceshape? Who do you use? I’m currently thinking of getting a virtual server from somewhere but setting one up securely is a bit out of my area of expertise. I’ve been holding off doing anything as I wasn’t sure what was happening with the V3 API. Now that I’m set up with a key I can commit a bit of money to my site (if my wife lets me :-).

  • matt mccluskey says:

    Still getting errors, even with Chrome (on PC with Windows 7). 1-50 placings button won’t load, but anything above 51 will update.

    Safari (on my Mac) hasn’t got a clue what to do with the data, iPhone gives errors, so does iPad.

    Just FYI.

    • Ben says:

      I’m afraid you’ll need to use the 1-10, 11-25, 26-50 buttons. If you’ve got lots of segments in the 1-50 range then it often struggles to cope if the server load is high. The new update process will be far more robust. I promise. Just need to find the time to write it!

  • Rob B says:

    Seems like the problems with IE are not due to slowness of JS execution. I get the errors almost immediately (both at home and at work; at home I was able to successfully use Chrome, no such option here at work). For example, the Velobici rankings page just pops up an immediate error. So I think it’s something specific about the JS coding that is going awry, rather than an intermittent network-related issue.

    • Ben says:

      Hi Daniel. Just uploaded your latest 5 rides without problem using Chrome. Make sure you clear your cache in case it is using any old files.
      ETA for V3 will be some time in May although there will be some Beta testing possibilities before that. I’ll write a blog post about what’s going on soon.

  • Spells says:

    I’m getting problems using update in both Chrome and IE: “err1b: Oops! There was a problem, sorry.”

    • Ben says:

      Hi Thomas. I’ve just added your latest 10 rides, updated placings 1-25 and checked for new segments in Safari on my iPhone without a single error. I reckon you’ve got a caching problem. Clear out your cache or ctrl+f5 on the update page and see if that helps.

    • Ben says:

      try it again now and let me know if it works (ctrl+f5 the update page to make sure you’re running the latest code). I’ve recently moved the api calls to a different server and maybe hadn’t moved all the supporting files. Looks to work now for me.

  • Rob says:

    Hi Ben, I rode last night (16th April) and logged 2 PRs on Strava. The rides loaded on here but PRs have not. Is this due to the same problems?
    Thanks, Rob

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