Connected GPS failure

[hawkyou]

I walked Bloomday a 7.5 mile race today. I used the exercise "walk" connected GPS feature. It only tracked 6.8 miles and the map is missing a large stretch. Not sure why this happened. Really sucks.

[LightChase]

This is also exactly what support told me.

Loose connection the watch stops recording the activity.  I kinda had to force this answer out of them backed up by using a garmin edge 810 at the same time as the new blaze.  The garmin worked, blaze failed misserably.

So I thought well, maybe its not great at biking so I'll go on a walk.  It did ok at that until the last ten minutes where it disconnected again.

I don't really see a use for this watch, it'll go back and I'l get a refund until something else comes along that fits the bill.

Shame really.

[jwebb72]

@SilviaFitbit @EmersonFitbit I'm having a problem with GPS connect's accuracy. With my phone in high accuracy GPS mode, the Blaze connects with full green bars but the distance is off up to a .125 mile every mile and the plotted route on the map is very jagged. With my phone in GPS only mode, the Blaze connects with single red bar only. I think that only cellular network location which isn't very accurate, is being sent to the Blaze and not GPS data. Distance is accurate and the plotted route line on map is very smooth and straight when initiating the exercise through the app. My tests are performed in the wide open country, no tall trees or buildings around. I'm running the latest software on the Blaze and latest version of app. My phone is a Motorola Moto E 2nd Gen running Android 5.1. Please help.

[Rich_Laue]

On Android hifh accuracy uses wifi, Cell punching, and gps, for location.
GPS only actually uses more battery then high accuracy,

[AndrewFitbit]

@hawkyou @LightChase @jwebb72 Have you tried using MobileRun in the Fitbit app while wearing Blaze to see how it compares? 

[jwebb72]

@AndrewFitbit I wrote this to you in a different thread earlier today, includes results from mobilerun.

@AndrewFitbit I too am experiencing inaccurate distances when using the GPS connect and my Motorola Moto E 2nd Gen 2015 phone running Android 5.1. My 2 mile run can be as much as .25 mile off and the plotted route on map is very ragged. Using Mobilerun through the app the distance is spot on and the plotted route on the map is nice and smooth. I did a test with my Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 tablet and I get the same accurate results as Mobilerun. I'm thinking there's a compatibility issue between the Blaze and my phone?? What's weird is that the only GPS mode on my phone I can use is "high accuracy" as when I try "power saving" mode I get a message from the Fitbit app that says to switch to "high accuracy" and when I try using "GPS only" mode, the Blaze will only get a red bar on the "Let's go" screen. Mobilerun on my phone and my tablet both work with full green bars in "GPS only" mode. Any thoughts? Customer service hasn't been helpful or even knowledgeable on how GPS connect works.

[AndrewFitbit]

@jwebb72 It does seem weird, I'll have to look into it a bit more. In the meantime, perhaps using MobileRun would be a good option.

[jwebb72]

Thank you @AndrewFitbit I appreciate it. I noticed that the Motorola Moto E 2014 was on the compatible device list but not my Motorola Moto E 2nd Gen 2015. Is it possible that my phone has changed somehow from the 2014 version enough to not be compatible? I only think this because GPS connect works fine with my tablet and using Mobilerun on my phone, so this leads me to believe some kind of communication problem between Blaze and phone. My phone also will un-sync sometimes and takes forever to re-sync.

[LightChase]

@AndrewFitbitMines gone back chap.  Was utterly useless as a fitness tracker and once fitbit acknowledged the blaze works like this it was game over for me.  The bottom line is these devices should just work.  Stopping exercises randonly because of a 3rd party system is a terribly poor design decision so I'm out and 150 quid back in my pocket.

[jwebb72]

@AndrewFitbit here's an example.

[Rich_Laue]

Here is one of my first test walks. 

 

Amd this one is after the firmware  update. 

I noticed while the lines are straight it has my walk shifted. 

Wroth both the phones GPS was set to hough accuracy. 

[mvan231]

I'm having this issue as well and it is very frustrating that fitbit won't do anything about it. Sometimes the entire run gets tracked and sometimes it'll cut corners and the map clearly shows where there is an issue

[GarethDPhillips]

I'd like to add to this post, as I am one of the many having this issue. It is now happening on 100% of my runs, at seemingly random intervals. Often I find that 50% of the run is missing as the Blaze disconnected at that point (mobile icon on my Blaze screen showing a red strike through).

I too am trying with support, but I am actually annoyed (very annoyed) that they aren't acknowledging this as a known issue, it isnt even listed as something they are aware of. 

I am tracking the run on my phone using another app, which is 100% perfect, so I know this isnt GPS related. What is the phone disconnected icon actually telling us?  There seems to be contradictory pieces of information; 

Is it informing us that the bluetooth connection to the phone is lost, or is it telling us that the phone has no GPS signal?  

I dont think either is true, as my other run tracker is able to track the run with 100% accuracy, and whilst the Blaze is showing the disconnected icon, I can see that if I open the Fitbit app, my steps update! Even though the connected GPS is still disconnected. Makes zero sense. 

One thing I am going to try is to stop the Fitbit app from syncing by turning off all day sync. I may also turn off always connnected. I wonder if the app polling the tracker whilst the tracker is trying to use connected GPS may be an issue?

I notice on Android that location services now use WiFi and Bluetooth scanning to improve the accuracy of Location. I will also try turning off that Bluetooth scanning (and possibly also WiFi) as that cant be a good thing. 

Other than that, I'm runnign out of ideas. I wear the phone on my arm, so its very close the watch. 

Could a loss of mobile data / cellular service cause this?  We need some more quality information from Fitbit support , or sadly my Blaze is also going back. 

[GarethDPhillips]

Im actually able to replicate this just sat at my desk at work, my phone is right next to my wrist. 

No other bluetooth devices are connected to the phone.

an app called GPS information shows a good "3D fix"

its been running a 50 min run and has disconnected twice (which is better than I usually experience as it often dies <5 mins in)

[mvan231]

---

@GarethDPhillips wrote:

Im actually able to replicate this just sat at my desk at work, my phone is right next to my wrist. 

No other bluetooth devices are connected to the phone.

an app called GPS information shows a good "3D fix"

its been running a 50 min run and has disconnected twice (which is better than I usually experience as it often dies <5 mins in)

---

I did the same thing and I have tried again last night while walking and it worked great. I ran it in airplane mode on my iPhone 7 and everything was good. I also ran it again going back from my end point to my home and it worked great with airplane mode off again. 

The only other thing I did was reset network settings at the request of the Apple support person I chatted with yesterday.

I am going to try a run again tonight and see.

To give further information, it seems that yes a loss of LTE / data connection can cause a loss in location information because it is used in conjunction with the GPS chip in the phone itself. I had quite a discussion with Fitbit support yesterday. 

[Rich_Laue]

When starting a run, does the Charte 2 show that it is connected to the GPS? 

As for indoors, usually this will not guve a good signal, sinc the GPS is a line of sight.

I also find that if tye phones memory is to full, then i have GPS problems on my Galaxy S5.

[mgeorgalas]

Same thing has been happening to me rather consistently.  I found that connecting my Blaze to my phone using bluetooth classic seems to help.  I am also able to start a run on my phone in the Fitbit app and on my watch at the same time, if the Blaze messes up the phone accurately records it so I just delete the Blaze workout and go with the one tracked with the phone.  This proves that the problem is actually with the Blaze and not with the phone's on-board GPS signal.

[GarethDPhillips]

That's useful info, thanks.

I had considered simply tracking in the app, or in strava (which fitbit
uploads to) but that made me think, why have the blaze at all?!

I actually want the heart rate info on the run, which you don't get if you
record the run in the app. That was a big factor in selecting the blaze.
That, and the in-run stats mean I really do want to use the blaze to start
and stop. Plus it's easier.

If I can't get some assurance that fitbit will fix this (an acknowledgement
of the issue would be a start) I will seriously consider an alternative
with GPS on-board, and remove this complexity.

Hoping for something positive. I'll keep trying to find a workaround, but
as I said previously, not sure what else I can try

Bluetooth classic sound interesting, when I was thinking this was a
Bluetooth connection issue I wondered why classic couldn't be used instead,
but now I'm sure it's GPS signal quality, I'm not sure how that can help?

I've turned off NFC on the off chance that reduces interference. I'll also
try wired headphones to further avoid interference. Other than possibly
having the phone in the band back cover facing out (GPS antenna is in the
back cover) I think I'm out of ideas.

I'm sure it needs a software fix to stop being so sensitive to fluctuating
GPS lock

[Dafauti]

 I am facing the exactly same problem...and now it has become quite often...expecting a fix soon from Fitbit...and also thinking of shifting to GARMIN if it does not get resolved.

[GarethDPhillips]

All,

Maybe pop a "Me Too" in this topic if you don't mind, I think it may be useful to have a consolidated list of people with this problem ?

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Blaze/Blaze-Connected-GPS-Disconnects-during-exercise-Pls-track-inst...

[mgeorgalas]

I thought about doing the same but I'm not sure how much of the Garmin data will sync with Fitbit.