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.

[DannyKK]

Go onto Twitter and message @madebygoogle directly. they helped me and were sorting a new watch (although i gave up and sold it on)

[Rrangar]

I got the December 2023 pixel watch update and did 2 runs and a walk. They were tracked without issues. Maybe a fluke. Will report after a couple more runs.

Didn't do anything else like reboot phone or disable Bluetooth 

[Tukk]

Still not fixed. Fully updated PW2 but GPS tracking failed after 5 minutes on my last run and never came back. Also had it partially fail on a run last week. 

It's so frustrating to see failed tracking when I'm trying to get better at running...

[Nnniiccck]

I received a replacement 2 days ago. I went between Fitbit and Google support and it ended up being replaced on the Google side after some back and forth on who has ownership of the issue. In addition to not tracking GPS data my watch was also restarting itself at random times while being sedentary as well as tracking outdoor activity.

Has not restarted yet since I've set up the new one, and I it properly tracked over 2.5 miles of outdoor GPS tracked activity. Time will tell if this is actually remedied but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. 

[chromium]

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@Nnniiccck wrote:

I received a replacement 2 days ago. I went between Fitbit and Google support and it ended up being replaced on the Google side after some back and forth on who has ownership of the issue. In addition to not tracking GPS data my watch was also restarting itself at random times while being sedentary as well as tracking outdoor activity.

Has not restarted yet since I've set up the new one, and I it properly tracked over 2.5 miles of outdoor GPS tracked activity. Time will tell if this is actually remedied but I'm keeping my fingers crossed. 

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Good to hear, currently trying to get a replacement myself and being bounced around between Google and Fitbit. Hoping it'll fix both my GPS and sleep tracking issues.

[Walkiestracker]

I am having the same issues. 

I have had a brand new Pixel Watch 2 for less than 2 weeks. All up to date. No apps installed. Have tried clearing playstore cache and rebooting etc multiple times for various issues. 

Out of 12 days of tracking walks, only 6 have recorded a GPS map route. 2 more have partial recordings, then have dropped GPS halfway through the walk. One is wildly inaccurate with zigzag lines across the map. The remainder have failed to record any GPS data at all. (Meanwhile my 4 year old Garmin Venu worn on my other wrist is tracking those same GPS routes flawlessly). 

I am also experiencing these additional issues with the Pixel 2 watch:

• Randomly restarting when I am sedentary.
• If I play or record any kind of audio on my phone, my watch battery drains very fast. E.g. I used voice recorder on my phone for approx 40mins yesterday and noticed that my watch had drained by 50% during that period. Additionally, I listen to audiobooks on my phone to fall asleep to at night. During times of insomnia, that might be for an hour or 2 across the night. When I do so, I wake up with a dead watch battery. Note that automatic media controls are turned off on my watch. AoD is off. Adaptive brightness and 10 second screen time out is on and sleep mode is on overnight. I have noticed during the day that anytime I do anything related to audio on my phone, the moving soundbar image is displayed on the watch face when I wake it up. (I would turn off the Bluetooth on my watch, but then most of the watch's features would be disabled!)
• Any period of being sedentary during the day gets recorded as sleep. E.g yesterday, I was sitting playing a computer game for about 1.5 hours and my watch though I was sleeping! (I was very tense and stressed throughout as well funnily enough, so heart rate was not restful). 
• Recording any workout seems to cause significant battery drain. I manually record a daily walk and yoga session each of approx 1 hour duration. I cannot get my watch battery to last longer than 12 hours inspite of virtually no other usage (I get less than 10 notifications a day - most of them are the watch's stress alerts. I don't play music through the watch or use any apps. I am yet to set up Google assistant, so that is not yet in use). I haven't used Google maps or Google pay yet, so there is literally nothing else going on to drain the battery. I am having to charge it 2-3 times a day. 
• 3rd party watch faces seem to cause significant battery drain inspite of troubleshooting and using battery saving settings, forcing me to stick with boring stock face (have uninstalled them and cleared the cache on watch and phone and rebooted). Note I don't have any watch face creator apps like facer installed. 
• Overnight skin temp and sp02 often displays as "no data available" in fitbit app after syncing. 
• Sleep times are inaccurate (but most smart watches are). 

Do I have a faulty watch? Or is everyone else experiencing the same? I am finding this watch really stressful so far! 

[dbpalmer4]

Just found this forum after bouncing around across Google Fit, Fitbit, and Pixel forums. What a mess. 

My new Pixel 2 watch has not worked at all for the reason I bought. It has failed to record GPS entirely on multiple runs using the Strava app and in Fitbit app. In others it misses a huge portion of the run segment on the map + time recorded, but records the correct distance, returning silly measurements like 2 minute miles. I don't trust it to record segments and won't keep trying without a clear response from Google. 

Separately, the battery life seems completely random - sometimes it takes 15% of battery overnight, other times it sucks down 60% and dies overnight. The Oura ring is a much better option. 

I can flawlessly record runs on my phone. I bought the watch to sync my heartrate for activities, but it seems like I would be better off with a heart rate monitor.

I think I'll try for a refund if Google doesn't push a fix soon. I've owned Nexus and three Pixel phones. I was really excited about the watch. 

[han7]

Today I had the same issue with my Pixel Watch 2. In the middle of the city, cut out after 3ks and then GPS does not reconnect at any point during  my 8km run. Very frustrating, will try and ask for a replacement. 

[habylab]

I personally haven't had an issue since December now maybe. Hopefully is fixed

[Rrangar]

Me too. The December update fixed it.

One thing I do is wait for gps lock before starting the run

The fit bit app is horrendous. Strava import makes up for it (more accurate distances and time, snowboarding actually shows # runs!)

[rexxfan]

I am up to date and still have the problem, so congrats that the December update seems to have helped you, but it didn't help me at all. Just about every walk I have done in January has failed to track on the GPS. Today's nearly 8 mile walk tracked for maybe a block or two before cutting out.

[ShawnPHX]

It really makes me wonder if there could be multiple root causes going on. I managed to finally convince support in late November to swap mine out for a new one. My first watch I never had one complete gps track and would often stop as soon as one mile or less plus some battery issues. The new watch worked perfectly from day one and I have not had a single drop in gps on it.

[rexxfan]

I just contacted Google support, who of course fobbed me off on FitBit support. I resisted suggestions to try additional troubleshooting and stated that its my opinion its simply broken hardware and insisted on a replacement. Supposedly that is in the works, but time will tell.

The FitBit agent I dealt with yesterday on this issue said they would follow up on our chat via email. So far, no email. Somewhat worrying.

[Tmetcalfe]

I have been for two runs recently with PW2 only, using Fitbit to record manually. I waited for gps to connect, and set off.

When I returned, my watch showed accurate/entire distance and time elapsed, but when I synced to my phone, the fitbit app showed entire distance, but less/inaccurate time elapsed, and part of map missing.

This is then synced automatically to Strava which shows the FULL!! map, but reduced distance and time.

I have logged feedback with google and spoke to Fitbit support who told me to turn it off and on again.......

Are there any (real) solutions?

[twtw]

Has anyone had any success?  I've contacted Fitbit and they say to do a reset, which unsurprisingly doesn't help.  Pixel hardware support have indicated it is a known issue but outside their scope, one for Fitbit.

Ridiculous that they can't get a core part of the customer value proposition right!

[jdraket]

My PW2 has worked great ever since the last update. Tracks GPS on my runs now reliably. It was a very disappointing first few months but they finally fixed it. Maybe all our complaining on this thread actually did some good?!

[rexxfan]

If by the last update you mean the one at the end of 2023 then that update did not help me with respect to the GPS. I still regularly had the GPS drop out in the middle of an exercise. I contacted Pixel hardware support as well, fully intending to try to get my watch replaced since I had seen folks reporting that their GPS issues went away when they replaced their watch. Like others who have attempted to get the Pixel team to address the issue, I was also fobbed off to Fitbit support. In the end all they did was point me to a knowledge base article containing tips on how to get the GPS to work more consistently. I was annoyed but have followed some of that article's suggestions and have had better luck since, although it still drops out on occasion, just not as much. I suspect there is some fundamental weakness in the GPS hardware built into the Snapdragon W5 chipset, or else with the antenna implementation that can be remediated somewhat by following the advice in the knowledge base article. I'm reminded of the "You're holding it wrong" debacle from the early days of the iPhone. Since I got the watch for no extra cost when pre-ordering my Pixel 8 Pro, I'm going to forget about trying to get it replaced and just chalk it up to yet another case of half-baked Google hardware and hope that the next generation is better. I do wonder sometimes if they might have been aware of these shortcomings when deciding to give the watch away for free with pre-orders but that's probably overly conspiratorial thinking on my part.

In any event the knowledge base suggestions that seemed to have helped the most are the ones to raise your arm vertically while the GPS is attempting to connect and to wait for 30 to 60 seconds after the connection is made for it to stabilize. There also seems to be something to the claim that it takes the GPS some number of days to get accustomed to the GPS satellites available in your area. To that end I periodically open the FitBit app in various locations around my town (both inside and outside a building) and initiate a walk (from the long list of exercises, not the quick start). I just wait for the GPS to connect and then cancel out 30 to 60 secoinds later. The idea is to give the GPS as much experience making a connection in as many different types of environments as possible. I may be kidding myself but my overall sense is that it has helped somewhat.

Best of luck to you all.

[sato20011]

fix THE G.. dam GPS PW2 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭🙏🙏🙏

[Zhihao]

I am all up to date but still have the problem.  I just do my daily runs as usual and if I see missing GPS data, I restart the watch and I get the GPS again for the next few runs again.

I also got asked by Fitbit directly for permission to access my log to help them troubleshoot.  I told them yes, go ahead and by all means.  

Asking us to hold up our arm before a run is ridiculous.  It looks like we all really want the watch and Fibit to work, but at what point do we say enough is enough.  Cut our losses and move on...

[anarchyscd]

I tried and tried on the fitbit app and it was terrible, with no strava integration. Strava would never get a GPS fix. So, I hard reset the watch to factory, checked for updates, THEN reinstalled Strava and it has been tracking my runs flawlessly since.

I won't touch the fitbit tracking app ever again, and when the free 'premium' membership expires, it can stay that way.