Adventure Sync is one of the most valuable settings in Pokémon GO, and one of the most frequently broken. When it works, it turns your everyday walking into egg incubation and buddy candy without ever opening the app. When it doesn’t work, you lose a week of progress and wonder why your steps aren’t counting.
This guide covers how to enable it correctly on both iOS and Android, what you actually earn from each weekly distance tier, how it integrates with buddy walking, and the specific fixes for the most common issues. For optimising your phone settings around Pokémon GO more broadly, see the best settings guide.
What Is Adventure Sync?
Adventure Sync, introduced in 2018, tracks your walking distance when the Pokémon GO app is closed or running in the background. It does this by reading step data from your phone’s health platform — Apple Health on iOS or Google Fit on Android — rather than using GPS directly.[1]
Distance counted via Adventure Sync goes toward:
- Egg hatching — all egg types except certain event-specific eggs
- Buddy Candy — your Buddy earns candy at the normal per-km rate
- Buddy Hearts — walking hearts can be earned while the app is closed
- Weekly Adventure Sync rewards — cumulative distance thresholds unlock weekly reward packages
Crucially, distance doesn’t double-count. If you’re walking with the app open and GPS active, that distance accumulates via GPS. If the app is closed, it accumulates via Adventure Sync steps. Only one method counts at a time.
How to Enable Adventure Sync
iOS (Apple Health)
- Open Pokémon GO → tap your Avatar → Settings
- Toggle Adventure Sync ON
- The app will prompt permission to access Apple Health → tap Allow
- In your iPhone Settings → Privacy & Security → Health → Pokémon GO → enable Read access for Steps and Active Energy
Important: Low Power Mode disables the fitness tracking sensor on iPhone. If Low Power Mode is on, your steps won’t be counted even with Adventure Sync enabled. Turn it off before playing sessions where you want accurate tracking.
Android (Google Fit)
- Open Pokémon GO → Settings → toggle Adventure Sync ON
- The app will prompt Google Fit permission → Approve
- Ensure Google Fit is installed and linked to your Google Account
- In Android Settings → Apps → Pokémon GO → Permissions → Physical Activity → Allow
On Android, the most important follow-up step is disabling battery optimisation for Pokémon GO. Android restricts background processes by default, which can throttle the motion sensor that Adventure Sync reads from. Go to Settings → Battery → Battery Optimisation → find Pokémon GO → set to Unrestricted.
Weekly Reward Tiers
Each week, Adventure Sync tracks your cumulative distance. Rewards are claimable every Monday at 9:00 AM local time. Thresholds are cumulative — reaching 50 km means you’ve also hit 5 km and 25 km.[1]
| Distance | Guaranteed Rewards | Bonus Reward (one of) |
|---|---|---|
| 5 km | 20× Poké Ball | 3× Rare Candy, 3× Silver Pinap Berry, or 1× 5 km Egg |
| 25 km | 10× Great Ball + 3,000 Stardust | 3× Rare Candy, 3× Silver Pinap Berry, or 1× 5 km Egg |
| 50 km | 10× Great Ball + 20× Poké Ball + 5× Ultra Ball + 10,000 Stardust | 5× Rare Candy, 5× Silver Pinap Berry, or 1× 10 km Egg |
| 100 km | Everything above + 20,000 Stardust (total) | — |
The 50 km tier is the primary target for most regular players — 10,000 Stardust per week adds up to 520,000 Stardust per year just from Adventure Sync. That’s nearly two maxed-out Legendary Pokémon worth of Stardust without spending a single coin or using Star Pieces during the collection.
The 100 km tier is realistic for players who walk a lot (commuters, people who walk dogs, regular hikers). At 100 km per week you’re getting 20,000 Stardust per week — a meaningful supplement to any grinding strategy.
One important note: you must open the app before Monday 9:00 AM to sync your distance and claim rewards. If you don’t open the app before the cutoff, that week’s progress resets without a reward.
Buddy Walking Integration
Adventure Sync distance counts directly toward your Buddy Pokémon’s progress:[2]
- Buddy earns 1 Candy per km (based on its buddy distance tier: 1/3/5/20 km per candy)
- Walking Hearts can be earned via Adventure Sync — you don’t need the app open
- Best Buddy progress (Hearts milestone) accumulates through Adventure Sync km
- Buddy Excited Mood can be maintained through Adventure Sync activities
For Pokémon with high buddy candy requirements (Magikarp at 400 candies for Gyarados, Larvitar, Goomy), Adventure Sync is the fastest passive farming method. Set your high-candy-requirement Buddy, enable Adventure Sync, and let daily walking do the work.
Routes also integrate with Adventure Sync tracking — Route completion distance counts toward Adventure Sync totals. See the Routes guide for how to maximise walking value through Route chaining.
Common Issues and Fixes
| Problem | Likely Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Steps not counting at all | App not connected to health platform | Settings → Adventure Sync → reconnect to Apple Health / Google Fit |
| iOS steps missing | Low Power Mode is on | Disable Low Power Mode in iPhone Settings → Battery |
| iOS steps missing | Health permissions revoked | iPhone Settings → Privacy → Health → Pokémon GO → re-enable all Read permissions |
| Android steps missing | Battery optimisation throttling sensor | Android Settings → Battery → Apps → Pokémon GO → set to Unrestricted |
| Android steps missing | Google Fit not syncing | Open Google Fit and let it sync; confirm Physical Activity permission is granted to Pokémon GO |
| Distance shows but lags | Normal delay | Steps sync when you reopen the app — can take minutes to a few hours to reflect accurately |
| Weekly rewards not appearing | Distance not synced before cutoff | Open app before Monday 9:00 AM local time every week to trigger the reward sync |
| Eggs not hatching from Adventure Sync | Wrong egg type (some require GPS) | Confirm egg type — most standard 2/5/7/10 km Eggs hatch fine; certain event eggs may require GPS distance |
Adventure Sync and Battery Life
A common concern is battery drain. Adventure Sync uses significantly less battery than running the app with GPS continuously. It works by reading from the phone’s built-in pedometer (the accelerometer chip that runs at very low power) rather than keeping GPS active.
The net effect: leaving Adventure Sync on all day drains a small percentage of battery through the passive sensor, but it’s far less than even 30 minutes of GPS-active gameplay. For players who play in bursts, Adventure Sync fills the gaps between sessions without noticeable battery cost.
For the full phone optimisation picture — including battery settings that affect Adventure Sync accuracy — see the Pokémon GO best settings guide.
Maximising Your Weekly Distance
A few practical strategies for consistently hitting the 50 km threshold:
- Set it and forget it — enable Adventure Sync, fix the battery settings, then just live your life. Commuting, shopping, and errands all count
- Buddy switch on Sundays — put your highest candy-per-km priority Buddy as your active Buddy at the start of the week to maximise candy earned over the full 7 days
- Don’t open the app on long walks — walking with the app closed counts via Adventure Sync and saves battery; open the app only when you’re ready to actively play
- Sync before Monday 9 AM — set a Sunday evening reminder to open the app and let it sync your final steps before the weekly cutoff
- Use Routes on active play days — Route completion distance stacks with Adventure Sync totals and also earns Zygarde Cells, buddy hearts, and Mateo gifts simultaneously
Conclusion
Adventure Sync is one of the best passive income features in Pokémon GO when it’s working correctly. The combination of 10,000 Stardust per week at 50 km, ongoing egg hatching, and consistent buddy candy turns ordinary walking into meaningful game progress.
The most important setup steps: enable it correctly per your platform, disable battery optimisation on Android, disable Low Power Mode on iOS, and open the app before Monday morning every week. Once those four things are in place, Adventure Sync basically runs itself.
Hatching eggs with Adventure Sync is one of the most passive stardust earners in the game. Our stardust farming guide ranks every source and explains the Star Piece strategy.
Adventure Sync is the foundation of efficient egg hatching — but incubator strategy is what separates slow and fast hatchers. Our guide to hatching eggs faster covers the speed cap, incubator priority, and weekly reward thresholds.
Want to know exactly which Pokemon hatch from your Adventure Sync bonus eggs? Check our Pokemon GO egg chart for the full breakdown of every egg pool, including the exclusive Adventure Sync 5km and 10km hatch lists.
References
- Bulbapedia. “Adventure Sync.” Bulbapedia — The Community-driven Pokémon Encyclopedia.
- Pokémon GO Hub. “Adventure Sync Weekly Rewards.” Pokémon GO Hub.
I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.