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Setting up a FreeStyle Libre 2+

This walks through the whole thing from nothing. It assumes you have never worn a CGM and have never heard of LibreLink or LibreLinkUp.
Libre 2+ only. Vitality Tracker has been built and tested against the FreeStyle Libre 2+. Libre 3 and 3+ have never been tested and should be assumed not to work — Abbott changed how they communicate. If you own a Libre 3 and want to try, nothing will break, but please do not rely on it.

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The part that confuses everyone

You will end up with two Abbott accounts, on two different email addresses. That sounds like a mistake. It is not — it is how Abbott’s system is designed, and getting it wrong is the single most common reason set-up fails. LibreLinkUp is a follower app. Abbott built it for carers. It cannot follow an account unless that account invites it — and an account cannot invite itself, which is why the second email is needed. So you are going to follow yourself. Your LibreLink account invites your LibreLinkUp account, LibreLinkUp accepts, and from then on LibreLinkUp can see your glucose. Vitality Tracker then signs in as the follower.
Vitality Tracker only ever uses the LibreLinkUp account — email #2 and its password. It never sees your LibreLink login, and never touches the sensor directly.

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Before you start

  • A FreeStyle Libre 2+ sensor. In most countries you can buy these without a prescription; in some, including New Zealand, availability without a diabetes diagnosis varies, so check locally.
  • Two email addresses you can receive mail at. A + alias often works — [email protected] — but not always, so a genuinely separate address is safer.
  • About twenty minutes, plus the sensor’s one-hour warm-up.

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Step 1 — Apply the sensor

Follow the instructions in the box. In short: clean the back of your upper arm with the supplied wipe, assemble the applicator, press firmly, and it is done. Most people are surprised by how little they feel. The sensor runs for 14 days.
Apply it at a time of day you will want to repeat in a fortnight. The replacement will be due at roughly the same hour.
Install FreeStyle LibreLink from the App Store or Play Store.
1

Create a new account

Use email #1. This is your main Abbott account.
2

Start the sensor

Hold your phone against the sensor to activate it. LibreLink will tell you it is warming up — this takes 60 minutes, and no readings exist until it finishes.
3

Wait for the warm-up, then check you see a number

Once LibreLink shows a glucose reading, the sensor is working. Do not continue until you have seen one.

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Step 3 — Install LibreLinkUp and create account #2

Install LibreLinkUp — a different app, by the same company.
1

Create a new account with email #2

This must be a different email from the one you used in LibreLink. If you try to reuse the first address, Abbott will not let you follow yourself.
2

Note the password

This is the password you will type into Vitality Tracker. Nowhere else.
Back in LibreLink (account #1):
1

Open the menu and find the sharing option

It is usually Menu → Connected Apps → LibreLinkUp, though Abbott moves it between versions. Look for LibreLinkUp, Connections, or Share.
2

Add email #2 as a connection

Enter your LibreLinkUp email address — account #2 — and send the invitation.

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Step 5 — Accept it in LibreLinkUp

Open LibreLinkUp (account #2). The invitation should be waiting; accept it. You may also get an email with a link.
This is the checkpoint that matters. Open LibreLinkUp and confirm you can see your own glucose reading in it. If LibreLinkUp shows a number, Vitality Tracker will work. If it does not, Vitality Tracker cannot fix that — the connection is between you and Abbott, and it has to be working first.
It can take a few minutes after accepting before readings appear.

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Step 6 — Connect Vitality Tracker

1

Menu → Settings → CGM Integration

Tap Connect your Libre 2+.
2

Enter your LibreLinkUp details

Email #2 and its password. Not your LibreLink login.
3

Pick your region

Choose the closest. If you get it wrong, Vitality Tracker follows Abbott’s redirect and corrects itself — the field is a starting guess, not something to agonise over.
4

Tap Connect

Within a few seconds the row should read Libre 2+ connected, with your email and Last fetched just now underneath.
Your first connection pulls about twelve hours of history, so the Live Dashboard will have something to show immediately.

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If it does not connect

Nearly always the wrong account. Vitality Tracker needs LibreLinkUp credentials — email #2 — not LibreLink.Confirm by signing out of the LibreLinkUp app and back in with the same details you are typing into Vitality Tracker. If LibreLinkUp rejects them too, the password is wrong. If LibreLinkUp accepts them and Vitality Tracker does not, tell us.
The credentials are right, but the connection from Step 4–5 has not completed. Open LibreLinkUp: if you cannot see your own glucose there, the invitation was never sent or never accepted.
Check the bottom line of the CGM Integration panel. CGM data is present means readings are arriving. If it says No CGM data yet:
  • Is the sensor still warming up? The first hour produces nothing.
  • Can LibreLinkUp itself see readings right now?
  • Has the sensor expired? The panel shows which day of 14 it is on.
Abbott sign-ins expire after about three months, and Vitality Tracker normally renews itself quietly using the password you gave it.This message means renewal failed — usually because you changed your LibreLinkUp password, or switched on two-factor authentication. Tap the row and sign in again.

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About your password

Vitality Tracker stores your LibreLinkUp password in the iOS Keychain or the Android Keystore — the same protected store your phone uses for its own saved passwords. It never leaves your phone. It is kept because Abbott sign-ins expire. Without it, your glucose would simply stop one day with no explanation; with it, Vitality Tracker signs in again before that happens and you never notice. You can remove it at any time by tapping the Libre row and choosing Log out.

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Replacing a sensor

Every 14 days. Vitality Tracker reminds you twelve hours before it expires. When you apply the new one, start it in LibreLink exactly as in Step 2. You do not need to redo any of the LibreLinkUp set-up — the connection follows the account, not the sensor. Vitality Tracker notices the new sensor by itself and ignores its first hour of readings while it warms up.

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Next

Alerts

Set your high and low thresholds — and understand what they can promise

Sharing with Apple Health

Publish your readings to your other apps