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.

[habylab]

Yeah I'm with you DrWatson on this. I'm pushing myself more and more whilst running. Never had a Garmin, but those features are something I really long for. 

[rexxfan]

I've also found that when the GPS starts cutting out that it continues to do so (regardless of how faithfully I try to follow the knowledge base advice to obtain a solid connection). In those situations, restarting the watch fixes it. Sad.

[chromium]

Got the new update yesterday and just went for my first run in around 3 months. It tracked properly! It was only a 2.85 km run,  but even those don't usually track properly.

[twtw]

Oh, wow. Update of the phone app (which I think I've got) or the watch app
(which I haven't)?

[chromium]

Sorry I meant the actual watch OS

[rexxfan]

I wouldn't get too excited. I got the update too and still have drop outs on occasion. Maybe it got a little better but it's definitely not solved. 

[chromium]

I wasn't getting excited, I'm well aware it's most likely temporary. It was
my first run in 3 months though, so I was surprised that it worked properly

[rexxfan]

For what its worth I continue to experience occasional random GPS dropouts, even after resetting the watch yet again and following all the GPS advice on the FitBit knowledge base. Whenever it happens it can't acquire a signal again unless I restart the watch. Yesterday it even spontaneously rebooted itself in the middle of tracking a walk. The Pixel Watch 2 is just not reliable enough to be considered as a viable replacement for a dedicated tracker. IIt's just ebmarassingly bad at serious tracking. Maybe the next iteration will be better.

[MiniSumo]

I've just seen similar for the first time with a bike ride, the GPS location dropped about a mile in. Other measures continued, the next ride didn't capture the location at all, nor did subsequent walks.

I'm puzzled as to what's dropped out or why. This is beginning to feel like the most shoddy tech I've bought in years.

[rexxfan]

I've found you must restart the watch after the GPS drops out. It simply won't reconnect until you do. You'd think that would be easy enough for the developers to troubleshoot. Back when I was a developer I'd (figuratively) kill to have a problem that remained in the failure state once the bad thing happened since that meant I could get in and poke around looking for things that aren't the way they're supposed to be. The really hard problems are the ones that happen randomly and then disappear. That this problem persists after so many months is a pretty clear indication that FitBit just doesn't think it's worth their time (at best) or are just lacking the skills to properly pursue it (worse). 

[MiniSumo]

thanks @rexxfan 

I'd just restarted but had not tested to see if this had worked yet. I think this is yet another of the persistent problems.

It's a shame I didn't see the tracking had dropped sooner.

[rexxfan]

I've gotten into the habit of checking the GPS connection every 10 minutes or so. To do that I press the crown to return to the watch face and then click on the exercise icon at the bottom of the screen to return to the tracking details screen. The state of the GPS connection (connected, connecting) appears briefly at the top of the screen. As long as it continues to say connected everything is ok. If it says connecting it's time to restart again. I wish there was a way to have the GPS status appear at the top of the screen permanently but I haven't found a way to do that yet. 

[MiniSumo]

So I've gone about 10 days before loosing GPS data again. No wiser on the trigger but have noted it may have followed not recording automatic activity detection.

What really drew my attention to checking was a massive battery drain overnight. This is really poor, I can now imagine what driving you to frequent and checks!

[BeniValero]

I have been using the Google Watch "Pixel Watch 2" for a short time but the times I have used the watch's Fitbit to use the GPS it doesn't generate the map at the end of the walk, but it does tell me the Kilometer traveled "I understand that the GPS worked but it didn't recorded the map."
I used the Strava app to test the reliability of the GPS and it was as expected and with very good accuracy.

How do I have to see the map from Fitibit on my computer or mobile?

[Tap76]

Same problem. A few days ago a run with about 7 km tracked fine i stats but only about 1,5 km. on map. My last run i checked google maps on the watch a few times while running, and for the first time in a long time it actually mapped the run perfectly. This is annoying. 

[MiniSumo]

I missed tracking location stopped again today, this was during a bike ride. I'd about 50% on battery which would normally be enough to last another 20 to 24 hours but just 4 hours later I've a dead watch... I'm recharging as I type and calling Tech support 😞

This really isn't fit for purpose, something is very wrong.

[rexxfan]

Agreed. Something is very wrong. The battery drain after the GPS signal is lost suggests to me that it's some kind of hardware issue causing the GPS radio to flake out and end up in some kind of bad state that it's not going to get out of until you restart the watch. Like maybe some kind of interference causes it to lose the signal and then it goes into a recovery mode where it is continually trying to lock back on, but that doesn't work for some reason. Every time it has happened to me I look at the exercise display and there's always a "GPS Connecting" message but it never works. You can let it try for many minutes and it just won't acquire the signal. But if you restart the watch and start the exercise over again it invariably locks on immediately. So I really think my postulated failure scenario has merit. 

Lately I have been wondering if perhaps there's some kind of hardware conflict between the WiFi, GPS and (if you have it, which I do) cellular radio. To test this out I have taken to shutting both WiFi and cellular off before starting an exercise. It's too early to tell but there are places on my typical walking route where I have historically lost the GPS signal more often than not that I haven't lost one time since I started turning WiFi and cellular off. So it's promising but I've been disappointed before with various remediation efforts seeming to work at first but then failing again out of the blue. I need to keep trying. Maybe others can try as well to see if it helps. 

Of course even if the theory proves in, it's only a workaround. An actual solution to prevent the failure in the first place is sorely needed. But so far neither Google Pixel support or Fitbit support seems at all interested in pursuing it. At this point they just point fingers at the other. Google says it's a Fitbit issue. Fitbit says read the knowledge base because you are doing it wrong and if you only followed the KB recommendations it would work fine (I do, and it doesn't help). Then they point you back to Pixel support and around and around you go. 

So sorry to say yes, if you consider trouble free GPS tracking of your exercises at all important, the Pixel Watch is not what you want and you should look elsewhere. 

Maybe someday they will take an interest in fixing it but honestly I wouldn't hold your breath. 

I'm done trying to call them support about this but if someone in support would like to contact ME and work with me on seriously trying to track this down I would be happy to help. I can recreate the problem at will. 

[Rich_Laue]

Wifi, GPS, Bluetooth all use the same antenna 

[rexxfan]

There could still be some kind of contention issue when all 3 are trying to operate simultaneously. If and when GPS fails even though I have WiFi and cellular off then I'll admit defeat with this particular avenue of inquiry but so far that hasn't happened so it's still worth experimenting with i think. 

[nportelli]

Happened to me again too.  Got miles correct. map is effed.   it didn't used to do this.