Connected GPS with Charge 3 is not accurate

[SunsetRunner]

Hello,

After having a great experience for the last 9 months with my Charge 3, the connected GPS has started playing up badly for the last week with incorrect distances measured with weird\sharp deviations along the way (that I didn't make).  I don't know if it has coincided with an update, but nothing else has changed.  I've tried restarting both my phone and Fitbit at least 2 times each and I've also uninstalled and re-installed the Fitbit app. 

I've had 1 run out of 7 record correctly in the last week.  For example today I completed a 9.7km track that registered as 7.28km.  The only thing different about the run that did record correctly is that I ran it in the morning - the rest were afternoon runs. I've even tried correcting the distance of a couple of runs on Strava and the distance was much more accurate (with the weird deviations though unfortunately - so still incorrect)

I use a Nokia 6.1 that has worked great with the Charge 3 since I got it.  Next time I'm just going to record the run with Strava and see what happens.

Is there an issue recently introduced with an update?  I get so many updates I don't know if there has been an update in the last week or 2.  Is there any more I can do to troubleshoot the app?

Thanks.

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[SunsetRunner]

Ok I just checked dates and the Android app update on the 18th.  This is when the first innaccurate GPS run occurred.  So assuming I received the update on the same day it was released, I'd say this update may be the cause of my problems.

[Jcagno]

Same issues here.  GPS is off, heart rate is off, and pace is off.  Its messing up all of my stats.  I have the charge 3 as well.

[SunsetRunner]

What type of phone do you have?  I haven't noticed any issues with my heartrate.  But because the GPS is inaccurate, the pace is inaccurate too.  Hopefully someone can let us know when this will be fixed since it seems to be introduced in a recent update.

[Jcagno]

Galaxy S9.  Help desk walked me through some things this morning, but doesn't look like the notification issue got fixed.  Will have to wait till tomorrow morni g to see if the other issues were resolved.

[Cryptonomicon]

Same problem here after the latest app update. 

[SunsetRunner]

How do we know if they know about this problem and if they're working on it?  I haven't had 1 accurate run for a while week now.  This morning's 5km run was measured as 3.2km with the connected GPS.

[Neilpace]

Same here. If I manually start tracking, it says that I have gone 30% further than I have, although the actual map shows the correct distance! And the walk appears twice in my exercise log. Charge 3, also since the last update, Nokia 8. Clearly bollocksed up the software.

[SunsetRunner]

I recorded a short run at the same time on both Strava and Fitbit to show how bad the connected GPS is with the Fitbit app at the moment (The Strava recoding is the correct one below).  Strava shows a shorter duration as it auto-paused when the person I was jogging with stretched.  Excuse the markings - just trying to anonymise a little.  The fitbit really is useless for recording activity at the moment.

Fitbit 1.97km:

Strava 2.97km:

[AdamH0]

I too have been having this issue with Charge 3, Android 10 on Pixel 2XL.

My runs have been coming up 10% longer than before, and also when I run the pace is shown as being way faster than expected. Including occasions when I was being told a 4:30 min/km pace, and my running partner was getting 5:30 min/km.

Some runs have had weird zig-zags and double backs, that I can assure you were not real. See thjs snipped from strava. This is two laps of a course, the green dot is the start.

Some of the distance issue could be because of the erroneous double-backs.

I have had similar issue on routes where no double backs are visible.

I contacted support and they told me to manually set my stride length... I haven't done this as the automatic stride length looks completely as i expect in the app.

They also suggested the problem was because the SmartTrack recorded the run at the same time as i manually triggered it from my watch. I did disable smarttrack to experiment but still had issues.

[Cryptonomicon]

Typical bs answers from Fitbit support, just like the last few times this has happened after an update... 😞

[Vicky2410]

Same issue here. Ran the same lap within 2wks. Once it recorder as 5,4k, second time it said 4,4k. It actually is 5k. Because of the 4,4k my health score has dropped. According to fitbit I'm getting less fit, even though I run more. Pfff..

Has anyone received a solution to this?

Thought that connecting with a running app might help with the accuracy. Not tested yet.. Anyone tried this? 

[Cryptonomicon]

I've got my fitbit connected to Runkeeper, but these last few weeks that just means that fitbit sends incorrect running data to Runkeeper. So my statistics in Runkeeper are just way off now....

[Vicky2410]

@Cryptonomicon so that won't work. 😕

[SunsetRunner]

I've been using Strava instead of Fitibit - which is still accurate on the same phone, so it's definitely not my phone GPS that's failing.  It's less convenient and doesn't include heart rate data, but at least it's fairly accurate and reliable.  Can't afford to upgrade to a Garmin, so I'll just hope the app get fixed eventually.

[LostEchoes]

I understand this obviously does not apply to all of these issues (as some mentioned testing it with Strava on the phone and working fine there, so that's not for you), but maybe the others would like to make sure that they don't have their phones on any kind of Power Saving mode. It does cause the phone's GPS / Location to not work properly. Just my 2 cents.

[AdamH0]

In my case I've checked that 'battery optimisation' isn't enabled for Fitbit (had disabled this some time back).

The issue for me coincides with several Fitbit app updates, and also the phone updating to Android 10. It's difficult to disambiguate which one is the cause.

[SunsetRunner]

Another day another Fitbit recorded run that's 2km short even with the latest update.  And once again Strava is accurate.  This is a basic advertised function of the device - the main reason I have it.  It's almost been a month of my Fitbit not working.

[nicholasBhu]

Same here.  Almost a month.

[SunsetRunner]

Another week and it's still not fixed.  I even uninstalled the app and installed an old version (2.89) and it was actually worse than ever.  This makes me think maybe it's not the app, but possibly the Charge3 firmware?  I'd add my phone to the equation, but other GPS apps work just fine - eg Strava.