Google Pixel Watch 2 GPS data missing

[DrWatson]

Just took my Pixel Watch 2 LTE for its first parkrun today and recorded on it on Fitbit exercise. I don't have data on the watch but it was connected to my phone by Bluetooth. It only tracked just over the first KM of the run before the GPS cuts out. Final distance is correct (estimating from stride length?) but there is no map tracking beyond that point. Any solutions?

Moderator edit: Subject for clarity.

[Globy13]

 same problem here midway drop of GPS. Improve accuracy off. Not with my phone

[habylab]

This shows to me it's not really anything we can do. If there's some setting we need to change it's too magical for us to find. It has to be a bug in the app. I may try a factory reset, see if that helps.

@Changgo if Garmin did a Wear OS watch I would be all over it!

[DannyKK]

I’ve been waiting for google for a week since my complaint got escalated.

meanwhile my garmin 255 is amazing. If you want the smart watch nice display go for the 265 but my priority is a fitness watch. I still get all the notifications from my phone but gps works and the battery lasts for weeks. I can’t see any benefit of getting wear OS.

[bryan_kearney]

I just got the above from support, that it is a feature to not show maps. Can anyone confirm if this is the correct road map? 

[ShawnPHX]

It's support being terrible. The map feature still exists and works fine outside the issue we are having with the GPS cutting out. 

That said most of us are encountering an issue where the GPS suddenly stops working in the middle of a tracked exercise and the map is there it just is incomplete. If you are not seeing any maps at all you might be having a different issue.

[nuttyprofessor]

I've had the issue where no GPS data is logged either in Fitbit or Google Fit. On occasion the tracking stops mid way through a walk. I've tried the suggestion of rebooting the phone and the watch - this is working so far and it even restored GPS data from previous days that I couldn't see previously. 

Looks to me like a software issue, the watch GPS is working.

Complete rubbish that Fitbit/Fit no longer shows maps...Support seems woeful 

[jdraket]

Just reporting back... I went on a run yesterday and my replacement PW2 dropped GPS less than a mile into my run. It recovered but I'm afraid that I may have jumped the gun concluding that the replacement watch was the solution. Sigh, only time will tell if the replacement is a dud as well.

For those keeping score, that's 3 total activities with the replacement PW2; 2 tracked correctly, 1 had a GPS drop. With my original PW2, only 3/10 activities tracked GPS correctly.

[dmanley]

Actually that's unpleasant but good(ish) news pointing to the issue being software rather than hardware.

Now, they just have to figure out what the glitch is and fix it!

[Yaffle]

I'm on day 4 of it working now after restarting my phone and watch. I'm not sure how long it will last for though

[chromium]

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@Yaffle wrote:

I'm on day 4 of it working now after restarting my phone and watch. I'm not sure how long it will last for though

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Hmm, I don't even take my phone on my runs though, do you?

[habylab]

@dmanley given I had this issue on Pixel Watch 1 and we've had Wear OS 4 since then I doubt it will be fixed soon. I may trawl back through my Strava to find when I didn't get the issue to help pinpoint things.

[jdraket]

@RodrigoMFitbit I'm disappointed to report that another run with my replacement PW2 dropped GPS this afternoon. It is looking like this watch has issues just like my 1st one did. So now that makes 2/3 runs with my new watch that have dropped GPS. Please help us solve this issue!

[Yaffle]

• Yes, I take my phone when out with the dog. The last couple of walks the GPS hasn't tracked again though. It tracked successfully 4 times

[habylab]

@RodrigoMFitbit any update please?

There's a health services update just out, done that, hope there is a fix there. Should be a system update this week too.

[jdraket]

@RodrigoMFitbit Yes, please update. My replacement PW2 dropped GPS again on my run this afternoon so that makes 3 out of 4 runs with my replacement watch that have dropped GPS. Not good! Please help!

[habylab]

I had my first ever tracked run today. I can't believe it. 

I'm trying to think what, if anything, I did differently. Drawing a blank. Health Services updated prior to the run so an update to that or that process restarting may have helped.

I did disable location in the Fitbit app as well but that may be a placebo, as could this run be. 

I'd need half a dozen plus consistent tracked runs to be happy.

[ShawnPHX]

I wish I had tested it earlier but I tried my replacement PW2 today and it was the first successful full GPS map I've had out of dozens failed on the original. This was around 7.5 miles. The only option I preemptively changed from all the default settings (and I had done this on my original PW2 as well) was set location to always allow on the watch for Fitbit. 

The battery drain issue also appears fixed after an exercise.

[Yaffle]

Mine has just tracked for the first time in a few days and the only thing I did was to restart the watch before I set off.

[Zhihao]

After going back and forth between gps tracking and not tracking, I can conclusively say, if after getting up in the morning and I don't see DETAILED sleep data in my phone's Fitbit app, then my subsequent morning run won't be tracked.  And if I restart my watch and phone, then my run will be 100% tracked.  This appears to be a software issue to me since these are different functions but do involve transferring of data from watch to phone.

I don't carry my phone while running, and I always wait for the GPS connected status before begin my run.  And I also lock the watch so I know I wouldn't accidentally pause or stop my run.

[ShawnPHX]

Another update on my replacement PW2: 

Another successful 7.5 mile hike with GPS tracking working perfectly a day later. The watch and phone has not been restarted in I think about 2 weeks. Battery continues to work fine. For those interested I do carry my phone with me. 

I never had a successful track with the original after trying everything on this thread and two successful tracking in a row with the replacement.