What are your top issues / pet peeves with Cronometer?

edited February 2021 in Bug Reports

This is an informal poll (I'm not affiliated with Cronometer, just a passionate user).

What are the issues in Cronometer that bug you most, on a daily basis? (Not talking about feature requests, just issues.) Mine:

  1. Jumbled order when adding foods, instead of adding them at the end of the list, especially via pasting, but also via Add Food in some situations. Makes timestamps kinda pointless and more work than not having them (not renewing my Gold because of that).
  2. Search shows foods I've never had above foods I did have
  3. Slow startup time of the Android app.

Comments

  • I suppose the fact that your list shows such minor items speaks volumes at how good Cronometer is.

    Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.

  • I suppose the fact that your list shows such minor items speaks volumes at how good Cronometer is.

    Minor issues? Have you clicked on link #3?

    The fact that you call these minor, speaks volume about how good of a Cronometer fan you are :)

    But anyway, if they're so minor, how come they haven't been fixed in years?

  • App integration. Withings disconnects daily, Fitbit records exercise twice. (Not sure if these are Cronometer issues).

    Overall, I am happy with the app. I can find the foods I eat, make recipes for common meals, track total and net carbs.

  • Doesn’t track steps or water

  • Doesn’t track steps or water

    That's not a pet peeve. Those are features, and you can track water. Steps are probably tracked through a bunch of integrations.

  • Pet peeves:

    1. When adding ingredients for a new recipe, the page will suddenly refresh when I'm searching for an item. It takes me back to the Diary window so now I need to go back to Custom foods and start over again. The workaround is to continually save after each ingredient is added.
    2. The list for Custom foods is not in alphabetical order. Actually, I'm not able to tell what specific order the program uses. Also, the list has a maximum number of items that is visible. I need to enter a search string to find a food item.
    1. Horizontal barcode scanner and screen rotates when rotating phone. (open milk carton) Maybe this could be fixed by app locking rotate temporarily.
    2. Default "serving" size marked to 100g and not the net weight of single serving product.
    3. Search should be smarter with partial match. Not showing most used custom items on top.
    4. No offline login mode
    5. Full volume ads at night.

    Few others, that are more like feature requests. Anyway, not missing too much from MFP.

    1. I can't sort favorites alphabetically on desktop. At least, I can't figure out how to.
    2. On Android, when I open the app for the first time that day, it displays the prior day's diary. I then tap next the next day button, and it skips 2 days (so that it is now displaying tomorrow's diary page). If I try a different approach, and pull down to refresh, it will still not show me the current day's diary.
  • @dewitt: I have the same issue in the Android app around midnight. If I add a food to the current day, but the time is just a bit after midnight, it lands in the next day. I have to move to the next day and then back to the current day, to add the food to "today".

  • edited May 2021

    I use Android, I agree with all of the above, plus:

    • the lack of fraction and unit support. Having to calculate and enter decimal fractions of limited serving size options is awkward at best, when the app really has all the information needed to figure out what I mean if I say I had a third of a 284ml can of soup that has a serving size of 1/2 cup (and it it knows calories in 1 tsp then it should be able to figure out calories in 1 cup, for example, even if that is not explicitly a known serving size; other apps can do this!).

    • when searching for food it should display the calories of items found, so I do not have to click on each similar item to find the one I am actually looking for.

    • similarly, recipe lists should show the calories contributed by each item, and support re-ordering of the list, as the diary does.

    • when editing an item and trying to change the serving size it messes up if there is a number involved. For example, if the serving size was "11 pieces" and I want to change it to "10 pieces", it actually saves as "11 10 pieces", which then messes up everything, so I have to start from scratch.

    • there should be a search function in the Foods page, so I can find my custom food or recipe easily.

    • Custom foods let you edit a copy directly then save it, but recipes make you save a copy, which you have to then re-open to edit and re-save. Why the difference?

    • the profile section of the settings page shows the current value for all items except weight, why?

    • the calories chart on the website shows total/exercise/net calories, but the one in the app shows protein/carb/fat calories. I would prefer the former in the app, or the option to choose.

    • lack of any offline mode. I should be able to manipulate my diary and custom foods/recipes without a network connection, it can sync up later.

    • sometimes the diary progress bars don't add up, it will tell me I have exceeded 100% for each of protein/carbs/fat, but still have calories left for the day.

    • general instability. Aside from the slow start-up, it is by far the most unstable app on my phone, numerous times I have had to restart my phone to get it to even work.

    I have used other apps, even subscribed to one of them for a while, but I like this one better, in principle, and for a free app I can tolerate the inconveniences, but these things hold me back from subscribing, quite frankly.

  • the lack of fraction and unit support

    Yes! I have suggested this several times for liquids. Cronometer has "240mL" serving sizes, but not 1mL - while it does have 1g for all foods. When you've measured 100mL, you need to do the math manually to enter whatever fraction of 240, 100 is.

    when searching for food it should display the calories of items found, so I do not have to click on each similar item to find the one I am actually looking for.

    Another excellent idea. Or at least show the ⭐ next to favorites.

    Sadly it looks like development is headed in all sorts of other directions, so I won't hold my breath that any of these pet peeves will be resolved, but let's hope that @cronometer will at least acknowledge this thread.

  • That sucks. I second the issues with syncing. More than once, I have added foods to my diary via desktop browser. Later in the day, I pull my phone out, check what macros are left, & eat dinner accordingly, only to find out the app wasn't showing updated numbers and my diet is then off.

    Also agree with universal serving sizes of 1oz/1g/1mL,etc. A lot of pork loin/chops seem to have that issue (offers 3oz, g, entire roast, but no 1oz).

  • My list:

    1. Cannot search enter data without exporting, searching outside the app, then using the date to find the information in the app. I do this to find specific events.

    2. Nutrition scores don't work as expected. Subscores don't add up correctly. Also they don't have major and minor components but weight everything the same. Cannot exclude items from the scoring if you don't track it. Something are tracked in the database but are listed. Also missing recommendation for several item.

    3. Only pull exercise events not total steps from samsung.

  • Lack of support for more nutrients like boron, inisotol, coQ10, the K’s separated, chlorine, etc. Seems like such an easy ask for things commonly found in supplements.

  • Apple Health Timestamp accuracy. Right now it get logged at 12 midnight instead of the time it was logged in Cronometer. I am coming from another app and they logged in Apple Health was using the same timestamp last the app.

  • edited June 2021

    YAY EVERYONE ALL OUR PET PEEVES GOT RESOLVED WITH THE LAST UPDATE!!!

    Cronometer doesn't care about what users want

    No seriously, has anyone seen any of their issues resolved with this update? (I stopped using Cronometer)

    Or is it another case of priorities beyond our understanding?

  • When typing something into the search bar, or adding a new custom food; it takes up to 4 whole seconds for it to register

  • @Lector what do you use now?

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