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.

[dmanley]

Ugh, this just gets stranger and stranger!!!

I'm going to record my activities with Google Fit rather than Fitbit and we'll see what happens.

[habylab]

@dmanley can confirm what? 

The file exported from Fitbit shows the issue, no GPS. Fitbit sync to Strava just pushes the raw file. It's why Strava and Fitbit have different values as Fitbit uses the stride length data, for some stupid reason, rather than solely GPS.

It's almost definitely a Fitbit Wear OS app issue as using Ghostracer does not have the issue I don't believe.

I just checked and 14 runs on Ghostracer have zero issues. These were with Pixel Watch 1. But as mentioned, I had the issue there also, although not every time.

[kristinlee1]

I had been having good results with location always on and improved location accuracy off but I took a walk yesterday and got the dreaded dotted line at the very end. There's no good reason for this. So disappointing.

 

[dmanley]

I'm currently going on the assumption that it's an app issue and the watch is handing off GPS tracking to the app and that's where it dies. I've turned off location permissions for the phone app after having 2 walks with zero GPS data. After turning off location in the phone app I had a successful walk with GPS.

This will likely be another red herring. 

[TomTomgbg]

Same issue with a WiFi version  

[habylab]

@dmanley people have this issue without the phone on them though.

[jdraket]

Just wanted to report back... I decided to open and use my replacement PW2 instead of selling it. I went on a short 1 mile walk yesterday and GPS tracked correctly with the new watch. Hooray! I'll report back once I go for a run (either today or tomorrow). I'm hopeful that the replacement watch works (fingers crossed).

I also called Google and asked them to somehow tag my returned PW2 so that it could get into the right hands for someone to use it to debug and solve this issue. I was assured that my issue was noted and that they were aware of this issue. Given how big Google/Fitbit is as a company, I don't have too much confidence that this will actually take place but we can hope that it will happen and that the issue will be fixed at some point. Please help us, @RodrigoMFitbit !

[dmanley]

@habylab Oh yeah, I forgot about that 😥

Everyone - have you had any success using Google Fit to track GPS exercises (walks/runs)?

I have multiple watches. I have the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic, I have a Garmin Fenix 6 Pro (and a Forerunner 935), I have an Apple Watch (v6, no longer use iPhone), I have a Fitbit Sense, and a Coros Pace 2 (I don't drink or party....this seems to be where I spend my "play" money).  I've never had this kind of issue.

[Zhihao]

Same problem here:  after a run with Pixel Watch 2 WiFi, Fitbit app doesn't show GPS data.

Temporary fix:  restart phone (Pixel 8 Pro) and watch and GPS data will be recorded and show up for a few days and then GPS data will stop showing again.

Related problem:  when GPS data is not available, my sleep data is also only in "basic" mode.  When my GPS data is recorded and displayed in Fitbit, my sleep data is the detailed sleep data.  And a restart of both phone and watch will address both GPS and sleep data problem.  It seems like the Fitbit app is not properly receiving or displaying the data.

Generic Fitbit running app problem:  I can't get the app to show my run to the seconds.  I only get minutes of run.  How is this acceptable for a fitness app?  Is there a way to make it show my run in minutes and seconds?

Thanks,

Jeff

[habylab]

That is so bizarre it doesn't show minutes. I use Strava for analysis, so hadn't noticed. How weird.

[bryan_kearney]

I was able to install strava and it just worked. Looks like I will be in a two app camp for a while.

[Yaffle]

I rebooted my phone and watch before taking my dog out tonight and you're right, it's tracked my GPS!

[jdraket]

Happy to report that my run tracked GPS correctly this afternoon. That is 2/2 GPS working on my new replacement PW2. Too early to tell but it seems that the first watch may have just had a hardware issue? I guess I would suggest everyone trying to get Google/Fitbit to replace your PW2 and see if it helps also. Maybe there was a bad batch out there with faulty GPS chips and we were all the lucky ones?

[chromium]

Sounding promising, keep us updated!

I've been in chat with fitbit support today, 10 minutes in and they asked if I tried turning it off and on again lol

Apparently they now need to forward my case to a specialist who will contact me via email.

Painful. I should just put a return through Google

So the specialist emailed me and all they did was send me this url https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1935.htm

Which is insulting

Time to cut the crap and return this lemon 

[RodrigoMFitbit]

Hello everyone. Thanks for taking the time to share the status of the GPS situation. 

Please note that I have reported this already. As soon as I receive more information, I will let you know. Please be so kind to confirm your app version. Thanks in advance!

[habylab]

Hi Rodrigo, already confirmed app versions. This is going on for too long now. Why is it taking so long for an update on your end? Thank you.

[bryan_kearney]

I got this from fitbit support after updating a screenshot of a walk with no gps data. Can someone translate this for me?

"Based on the photo you provided, please understand that when we release updates there some changes on the Fitbit app and this can be some of the changes that we have made.

We apologize for the inconvenience and we hope that you understand this. "

[ShawnPHX]

I believe it means "I don't want to deal with this customer or read about
their problems so I will make any assumption I can in order to quickly
reply back with a canned response" and Google is measuring the wrong
metrics to determine if they are providing a good customer experience and
driving away their customers

[dmanley]

I believe the translation would be "that's a feature not a bug." 

[bryan_kearney]

I am going to assume good intent, so I am hoping it is "dropping maps is a bug in the  last release". I will follow up tomorrow if I do not hear back.