Blaze Connected GPS Disconnects during exercise - Pls track instances here

[GarethDPhillips]

I thought it may be useful to have a simple topic to track instances of this problem (the buzz on your wrist during a run, you look down, and there is a little mobile icon with a red line through it).

You will find that after the run or exercise, that the GPS tracking died right at the moment you got the error on the Blaze screen. 

SO. Rather than discuss the problem, or possible work-around in this topic, can you perhaps just leave a reply to say "me too" and also list your mobile device?  

This issue may be more common on android, but I'm not sure. I know of at least one person experiencing this on an iPhone 7, but I have a friend with an iPhone 6 who has NEVER experienced this. 

So I'll go first..... I get this on every run, randomly. I use a Google Nexus 5x (android). VERY frustrated. 

[Raz124]

Sorry, know this is a Blaze post but me too (on Charge 2) /w Google Moto G5 Plus (non-US variant), Android 7.0.

I have the Fitbit Notification Widget running to notification drawer, and Always Connected enabled from within the Fitbit app. Wi-Fi is off and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth scanning are also off (from within android Location menu).

The problem was occurring at any point during a ride (started from the unit, and marked as Connected GPS) but I've managed to improve the situation by marking 'Fitbit', 'Bluetooth Share', 'Fused Location' and 'Location Services' as 'not optimised' within the android Battery Optimisation menu [this stops Doze (Android 6 and upwards) from being too aggressive in killing off apps, tasks and connections(?) when the phone screen is off during the ride]. 

The unit and the phone still lose Bluetooth connection more often than I'd like but this seems to happen early in the ride and appears to be resolved by killing Fitbit app on the phone and restarting it (and then restarting the Connected GPS exercise). 

Having changed the battery optimisation settings, once my unit has shown a connection for more than a minute or so during the early part of of the exercise it tends to be stable all the way through until the end (10 to 25 minutes at present - haven't tested it on longer rides).

Wearing my phone in a pocket on same side of body as my Charge 2 seems to help. I'm also trying to get into the habit of closing down as many apps as possible (including Fitbit, which is then restarted prior to the exercise) just prior to pressing the button on the unit to start Connect GPS exercise (and then starting my ride). 

Much more faff than expected and because I don't want to lose exercise data (and infrequent king of the mountain segment achievements ) I'm currently having to run both Strava and Connected GPS at the same time for every ride, and then delete any duplicates if both Strava (always) and Fitbit (occasionally) manage to record the ride in full.

Fitbit support are sadly as useful as a chocolate fire grate - refer ad nauseam to the basic troubleshooting info and when that fails simply state that my phone is not on the 'supported' list. 

Will keep plugging away!

[mattkitson]

Thanks, I'll give the battery optimising a go.

Strava always worked perfectly on my phone, but I tend to use a separate
Garmin. Really the fitbit to phone is only a back up, but for £150+ I'd
expect it to work, it's really just an expensive watch at the moment.

They've sent me a replacement, which if anything is worse than the
original...

[Raz124]

Again, apologies for cross-posting on the Blaze section. 

I've been in contact with Fitbit about the flaky 'Connected GPS' connection between my Charge 2 and my mobile device and I thought I'd share the latest response (received 1st August 2017) from the Fitbit team:

We'd like to share with you that the Moto G5 has all the hardware requirements to be a supported device. However, it is currently not on our list of supported devices. This means that our Android team has not yet tested it for compatibility and added it to the list. Our team is always working to test and add more Android devices to the supported devices list, so keep an eye open for updates!

Some of our customers try to clean all out of memory of their phone on the "apps background running" settings. We believe that the issue is between the consistency of the Bluetooth connection between your Charge 2 and mobile device and we appreciate your patience and do apologize for the inconvenience knowing that it is important for your to keep track of your biking activities.

If you have any questions, let us know so we can help you more.

---

The fact that the Fitbit team recognises that the issue lies with the consistency of the Bluetooth connection between my Fitbit tracker and my mobile device is a positive - and hopefully means that they will develop a solution to an identified problem! I'd hope that any such solution would work across the full Fitbit range of Connected GPS trackers, without too much tweaking...

[mattkitson]

As an update, I've now had two replacements sent to me, both progressively worse than the original, this was a complete waste of a lot of money. I'm going to try and get my money back, I just don't want to deal with this any more, it doesn't work, it never has, it's useless.

[Jamie_Henshaw]

My LG G3 had problems.

Now my LG Stylo 2 does it.

Blaze stops communicating with phone after I start running.  I'm looking into other devices. Garmin, maybe.

[SunsetRunner]

Same with my Samsung A310 .
The Blaze is now almost 1 year and the "phone not found" started around June -17..
Before that it worked if not flawless close to..

Now it either doesn't find the phone at all or disconnects some minutes after activity is started..
I've read here that its seems to be sensitive for other apps running on the same time, might be a thing to test , but a real drawback if i'm not able to use Spotify at the same time i'm taking a run !!??

It's Sad.. 

[mathijssegers]

That would be rubbish since it worked before, why did they optimize it to
become broken? I mean I can try for a cycling run without music and report
back here, but I'm not even streaming from the internets.

[mathijssegers]

That would be rubbish since it worked before, why did they optimize it to
become broken? I mean I can try for a cycling run without music and report
back here, but I'm not even streaming from the internets.

[SunsetRunner]

This has started happening to me. My Blaze will just stop tracking and go back to the clock. The last two runs it has done it, at different times. I will try and keep my phone on the same side as my tracker and see if that helps. It’s incredibly annoying!

[Loodle]

Having the same reported issue. I thought it was my old phone (Droid Turbo) and found that the GPS on my phone was sketchy using GPS Status app. Got new phone, Moto Z Force, and seem to stay connected. Last two runs did not show map or splits after run, at some point GPS must have disconnected. Such a pain in the **ahem** to stop that program and start over. Going to go back to Runkeeper and see if it is better. 

[GinG007]

Just signed up to reply in this thread as I have been starting to get this issue with my Blaze also.

Had the Blaze since January with no problems, I would say over the last 6 - 8 weeks this is happening more and more.

The last straw was on my run at the weekend, 10 miles in and it disconnected...I had been pushing for many KOM on Strava and all the effort was lost!

I haven't contacted Fitbit as yet but seeing as other people have reported replacements being worse would it be worth while to try and swap for a Surge??

[Alwaysinshorts]

My Blaze randomly disconnects from my Samsung Galaxy S7.

Want to know how well you did for park of your bike ride? Great...

Not...

[MarkDe]

FYI, I had surge and loved it for running. Real GPS and not connected. Only problem was band quality getting bubbles in it. Had it replaced on warranty and same problem. GPS function is great and don't always like running with my phone. Was content with ugly Surge because it worked so well. Finally broke down and got blaze and very frustrated. 

[reallywhynot]

i have found that most, not all of the time if i sign out of fitbit on my
phone (galaxy s7) then sign back in before i run, my gps does not disconnect

[ThatGrrrl]

BLU life x1 user with very inconsistent GPS tracking. Disconnects in the middle of every walk and that's if I even take the 5-10 minutes pre-walk to try to establish a GPS connected exercise event. Exceedingly frustrating especially when a charge 2 user with the exact same phone has no issues connecting to gps, syncing data, etc. My blaze is a glitch machine and her charge 2 is problem free. Wish I had just gone with the garmin. I've convinced 5 people to jump on the fitbit bandwagon. Regrets. 

[RickSalas]

Me too HTC 10

[garisonr]

Me too. ZTE Axon 7

[SunsetRunner]

I´m having this same problem with my Fitbit Blaze & Samsung A5 2016 smart phone.

I bought my Blaze right after it was announced ~04/2016 and these connectivity issues started in summer 2017. So my conclusion is that the previous version of Fitbit App seems to be more stable with the GPS.

Could it be possible to download earlier version of Fitbit App somewhere and let Fitbit crew meanwhile to troubleshoot this problem and issue new repaired version of Fitbit App?

[GoGarmin]

Me too.  iPhone 6.  While biking, every time.  My Surge never did this.  Time to return and go Garmin.

[mathijssegers]

Went fine for a month or so, got an update yesterday, even rebooted my phone.

Again **ahem**ty GPS tracking on Charge 2 with my Moto G5 Plus.