Blaze GPS maps my path as a straight line

[spicycake]

I've had my Blaze for about 4 months now. I like it a lot and haven't had any problems out of it until the past week or two. Whenever I go for a walk and track it using my phone's GPS, it shows the path I walked as a perfectly straight line. This is completely wrong because I make a loop around my neighborhood. It's the same path I've taken several times before, and it used to plot perfectly. Now the last 3 times I've used the phone GPS, I get the straight line.

I don't know what to do to fix it. I'm thinking it has to do with the fitbit app. Ever since I updated it late last month, the app no longer syncs unless bluetooth AND GPS are on. And if I'm near my computer (which I also use to sync my fitbit) it won't sync at all no matter what. This never used to be an issue.

I can work around the syncing thing even though it's aggravating. But the improper mapping is driving me nuts. Anyone have any ideas on a fix for this?

[Rich_Laue]

Can you post a shot of the gps path, @spicycake?

About the update, was your phone recently updated to the android marshmellow?
Fitbit needs some info about the tracker being synced, and marshmellow requires the location settings to be on. This is not gps. Turning on location services does not turn on the gps, and the fitbit app does not request your location during a sync.

Now let's look at syncing through the computer, do you have all day sync turned on in the app, even with it off it is possible that the Blaze is still connected to the phone. A Bluetooth device cN only connect to one host at a time, if the blaze is connected to the phone then it cannot connect to the pc. Solution would be to turn the phones BT off, but this is really not needed since a sync only happens when the data from the tracker gets sent to the fitbit server.. Both the phone and the pc gets its data to display from this server, not the tracker, and it does not matter how the data is synced.

[spicycake]

Here's a screen cap of my gps path. The milage and calories burned are roughly the same as all the other times that I've walked this route. It's just the image that's wrong I think.

As for my phone, I did download the system update around the same time I started having problems with the fitbit app. But I had also updated the app itself. So I just assumed it was the app's fault, I guess. Do you think the phone update may be why the GPS isn't plotting properly?

[Rich_Laue · Accepted solution]

This is not what i expected to see. Was either point your start or stop possition? 

I would do a shutdown of both the phone and the blaze. Go to your settings menu. 

[spicycake]

The start point is correct, but the end point is wrong. I go in a loop and up a few side streets before returning to the point I started at.

If I shutdown my blaze, will I lose any of my stats for the day?

[Kait5991]

@spicycake If you restart your blaze, you will not lose any of your stats for today!

[AngelaMa]

Welcome to the Community @spicycake! Thanks for sharing the screenshot of your app, I would like to know if after the advise from @Rich_Laue your app is still showing a straight line? @Kait5991 thanks for your cooperation. It's great to see you here! 

Keep me posted! 

[spicycake]

As far as I can tell, shutting down my blaze and my phone, then turning them back on seemed to fix the problem. I wasn't able to walk very long, but after the shutdown I stopped getting such super straight lines.

Before shutdown: I was on a college campus for this one, walking over a pretty large area, but I stayed around the same 3 buildings. I did NOT cross any highways or golf fields like the map shows. Map is waaay off.

After shutdown: Same college campus several minutes later. Walked in a bit of a loop for a couple of minutes. This looks more accurate. I haven't tracked my path walking here before, but the map seems to be showing me within the small range I walked.

[spicycake]

Never mind. Tried it again and am getting straight lines again.

[MarterSmith]

I am having the same issue.  My maps are all haywire.  It looks like I walked 20 miles instead of 3.  This is driving me crazy.  I love my blaze, but this has been happening since July 20th.  Need a solution.

[spicycake]

I wish I hadn't hit the solve button so quickly.

Ugh, I guess I'll have to see if I can find any fitbit compatible apps to track my walks now

[MikeF]

It would be interesting to use your phone to track a walk and see what the plot turned out like. That would at least tell us whether the Fitbit end of things has a problem or whether it's the phone itself.

[beckiwf]

Did you manage to get this issue sorted?

I've been having these crazy gps map results since july too.

[MikeS1971]

I used to have the same problem. Posted about it here:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Blaze/Connected-GPS-Crazieness/m-p/1503240#M26601

[MarterSmith]

This issue has been resolved when the app updated. Everything works great
now.

[spicycake]

The app update didn't fix anything for me. I'm also afraid to update my phone because that's when this entire problem started. So I feel like accepting another software update will make things worse.
I think the update has somehow weakened my GPS signal. No matter where I start from, my Fitbit always shows one red bar on GPS tracked activities.

[beckiwf]

Same here, I logged a run on endomndo it was perfect, yet my fitbit was aweful. I always get the red bar too. 😞 it worked great when I first got it.

[spicycake]

I don't know if this will help anyone else, but I think I got my problem figured out. In order for my Blaze to connect to my phone's GPS with full bars, I had to make sure power saving mode is OFF. Also, check mobile data and make sure background data is not being restricted.
I tried this 3 times so far, on different days, and my maps are back to normal.
I didn't use to have to do this before I updated my phone's operating system, so that indicates that it is in fact a phone issue, not a fitbit issue.
Hopefully I can update a week or so from now to say if it's still working.

[MikeS1971]

---

@spicycake wrote:
I don't know if this will help anyone else, but I think I got my problem figured out. In order for my Blaze to connect to my phone's GPS with full bars, I had to make sure power saving mode is OFF. Also, check mobile data and make sure background data is not being restricted.
I tried this 3 times so far, on different days, and my maps are back to normal.
I didn't use to have to do this before I updated my phone's operating system, so that indicates that it is in fact a phone issue, not a fitbit issue.
Hopefully I can update a week or so from now to say if it's still working.

---

Did other GPS distance tracking apps behave the same way as the FitBit sofware on your phone?

In my case, all other distance tracking apps which used the phones GPS followed my routes exactly while FitBit did not.