Strava Authentication Update

Yesterday (30th September 2019) I released an update migrating over to Strava’s updated authentication process.  The first time you revisit VeloViewer after this date you will be re-prompted to allow VeloViewer access to your Strava data.  The number of options that users agree to allow access to has increased and below I will explain why VeloViewer requires the options being asked for. Currently VeloViewer will only work if you leave all of the options selected even if you don’t chose to use all of those features within VeloViewer.

Update: If you’re here for the fix for your Explorer Tiles not loading up in the Strava Route Builder please scroll to the bottom of the post for the solution.

This is the new Strava screen to allow VeloViewer access to your data.

  • View data about your public profile (required) – So VeloViewer knows who you are.
  • View your private non-activity data such as segments and routes – Lets VeloViewer get the details of any private Segments or Routes you have created. Nobody else will have access to this info.
  • View your complete Strava profile – VeloViewer needs this to get your bike/shoe info and Club details. Also things like weight and default display preferences.
  • Edit certain data on your profile – This option is required to let VeloViewer star/unstar segments. Useful for quickly setting up which segments you want to appear on your GPS unit. VeloViewer doesn’t edit anything on your profile. The other things this option allows are the editing of your weight and FTP but veloViewer doesn’t currently offer this ability.
  • View data about your activities – Pretty fundamental for using VeloViewer. Lets the site get your list of Activities. By default, you will be the only person who will be able access and view your public Activity data on VeloViewer. PRO users can choose to share access to their public Activities in the Options section on the Update page.
  • View data about your private activities – By default private activities are not sync’ed into VeloViewer, you need to opt-in in the Options section on your Update page. Note that even if you go on to make your VeloViewer data visible to other users, your private activities will never be shared along with data from within your privacy zones.
  • Upload your activities from VeloViewer to Strava – This one is only required to allow VeloViewer to upload images to your activity. This is never done automatically but you can upload any image using the buttons on the main Summary page and you can also upload 3D/2D images on the Activitiy Details page’s 3D tab.

Functionally nothing has changed in VeloViewer to how it worked on the 29th September and as far as I know the permissions are equivalent to what they were prior to the 30th September but Strava now do a clearer job of explaining what they are and break them up a bit more.

I have an item on my to-do list to allow you to deselect a few of these and continue to use the site but it will require a bit of work for me to be able to record those choices and how to handle the restrictions that would impose.

If you decide to make your non-private Strava data available for everyone to see in VeloViewer (check the box in the Options section on your Update page) then you will be prompted again by Strava to authorise VeloViewer access but just for “View data about your activities”.  This is to allow me to access the Strava api with a more limited permission to get your activities’ data with the privacy zone data stripped out.

Explorer Tiles not loading in Strava Route Builder (Chrome Extension)

The most likely cause of this is that you have “Block third-party cookies” enabled in Chrome’s settings here: chrome://settings/content/cookies

If you add “veloviewer.com” to the “Allow” list at the bottom of that page then when you reload the Strava Route Builder it should now work.  Let me know if you are still having a problem.

Thanks to Noel in the comments!

0 thoughts on “Strava Authentication Update

  • Hello,
    I’ve been away from riding for a while (crash). As it happens I’ve come back to Strava & Veloviewer just as you rolled out your changes. Now I can’t see the Veloviewer squares in the Create New Routes section of strava. Nor can I turn them on, the button just stays grey.

    Help!

    Thanks,
    Marcel Proust (aka, Mark)

    • Hi Mark
      If you are using the Chrome extension, the new version is 1.21. In order for the extension to get your completed tiles to show in the Route Builder you need to have an active session on VeloViewer. So basically you need to have opened up the VeloViewer website shortly before using the Strava Route Builder. So if you don’t see the completed tiles as you would expect, just connect to VeloViewer in another browser tab and then refresh the Route Builder and all should be good. You will see a message telling you this in the options side bar in the Route Builder.
      Edit: Also, try disabling any ad-blocker type extensions you might have. There is a good chance they might stop the info getting through about the explorer tiles.

      • Hi Ben,
        I have the same problem, but the fix is not working for me. I still don’t see any tiles. Also reopening the browser, deleting all cookies and cache don’t work. Any suggestions?
        Thanks!
        Lieuwe

      • Hi Ben,
        I have the same problem as Mark, and I’ve followed all possible steps to try and get the tiles back in the routebuilder. but logging out and in of everything, and/or trying different browsers, on different computers doesn’t seem to do the trick.
        So I’m stuck with the greyed-out option in the routebuilder. I’ve even contacted Strava support about this, but they referred me back to the developer of the chrome-extension (you).

        so, more of the: HELP!

        regards,
        Thomas Kamps

      • Hi Ben,
        I have the same problem as Mark, only it won’t go away with the instructions you posted.
        i have tried logging out and in of both strava and veloviewer, uninstalling and re-installing the extension, and even resetting my browser, but nothing seems to do the trick.
        so now i’m stuck with a greyed-out veloviewer explorer slider in the strava route builder. could you please look into this some more and possibly provide a solution?

        thanks in advance,
        Thomas

      • Robert Lindhout says:

        Hello Ben,

        I have the same issue as Mark. I’m using version 1.21 and Crome version 77.0.3865.90. I can see the plugin in the route builder, but I’m unable to turn it on. It is “grayed out”. Loggin on to VeloViewer and reloading the routebuilder (F5) does not do annything.

        Hope you can help, as I love this feature!
        Robert

    • Another thing to check: Try disabling any ad-blocker extensions that you might have when viewing the Strava Route Builder. I have to load an iframe in the background with a page from veloviewer.com so it can inform the code in the Chrome Extension how to access your data. There is a chance an ad-blocker might stop that iframe from loading as the domain for the content is different to strava.com

  • Graeme Taylor says:

    Hi Ben,
    I’m having the same issue here.
    I’ve tried all of the advice above including switching off Ad Block Plus and still no improvement.
    Any ideas when it’ll be updated or fixed at your end?
    Cheers,
    Graeme

  • Hi Ben, same problem here. I’m using v1.22, and Chrome version 77.0.3865.120 (Official Build) (64-bit). Tried everything mentioned in the other posts, without success. Is it possible to get the previous version of the veloviewer plugin? Cheers!

    • That’s the one! I wish I’d checked the comments earlier as it would have saved me a few days discovering the same thing myself! I’ll update the extension to catch the situation and provide some help text here. Thanks for working it out and letting us know 🙂

  • Damian Riordan says:

    Hi Ben
    Same issue as all of the above and I’ve tried all the solutions suggested to no avail. I have also updated version to 1.22. Any more suggestions?
    Cheers
    Damian

  • Hi Ben. I’m running v1.24 and still getting the problem. Sometimes (mostly but not always) I can clear it by 1) closing down all chrome browsers and starting a new Browser, 2) log into VV 3) log into Strava.

    Thanks

    Phill

    • Hi Phil. That issue *should* be fixed now. Please email me if you’re still having any problems as it will require a but of investigation (at your end unfortunately) to work out what the issues are in your browser.

  • I’m not seeing Explorer tiles in Brave (Chrome fork). I’ve enabled third-party cookies and made sure the internal “shield” is allowing third-party cookies but still same issue.

    In Developer console I get “vvext not set” which appears to be related to explorer tiles.

    • Extensions are a hack at the best of times so it doesn’t surprise me that it might struggle in spin-of browsers. I’m afraid I’m only going to support the latest version of Chrome with this.

  • Hi Ben. Just some feedback. It certainly seems to have been behaving since your last post so many thanks for this.

    Regards.

    Phill

  • Nicholas wild says:

    Hi Ben,
    I`ve been having a problem with seeing veloviewer tiles on my strava route planner. They are there but dont update regularly. Was lagging by about 24 hrs but recently no update for more than a week. I`ve got cookies enabled.
    Any ideas,
    Thanks,
    Nick.

    • You need to head to your Summary page after updating your data in VeloViewer in order for the site to build the explorer tiles file which is then used by the Chrome extension. SO make sure you do that then you should see the latest tiles in the Route Builder.

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