Connected GPS mileage and pace inaccurate

[Christine_R]

I just used the connected GPS for the first time on a walk and the distance and pace were way off throughout the walk.  After I finished and synced everything tracked but the distance was short by a mile and the pace was really slow.  This is a known distance for me and walk I have done many times so I know that the stats are innacurate.  I never had a problem before the Blaze, I used the mobile run feature in the app and it worked fine.  Am I doing something wrong???

[SunriseGirl]

This exact same thing happened to me the first time I initiated connected GPS from the Blaze. I have since tested the walk twice and got it to work....the Fitbit app needs to be open on your phone and at least running in the background for the entirety. Also, make sure you have several green bars showing connected before you tap go. Some are still having issues despite having done this but hopefully it will work for you.

[matt9013]

This seems to be an issue with the Blaze.

Some suggestions would be to make sure you have a strong GPS singal before you start the activity and

try walking/running/hiking with GPS activated and see if over time it corrects itself. Some people are saying once they use GPS a few times it calibrates itself and corrects any issues.

Hope this helps.

[DavS]

I'm still having trouble with this ... it hasn't corrected itself at all.  Sometimes it is better than others. Each time I try it the fitbit app is running in the background and I make sure I get multiple bars before I start.  This only occurs when the walk it initiated through the Blaze; if I initiate the exercise through the fitbit app itself it is dead on (but I don't get stats from the exercise on the Blaze that way).  Any other software I've tried on my phone to track the distance of the walks is also correct.  It is only going through the Blaze that it gets messed up.  I initially thought it was using the stride information for distance instead of the GPS, but when I change the stride it doesn't seem to make any difference.  I hope they can get this sorted out soon, because I get shorted somewhere around 20% of the distance if I use this function of the Blaze.

[ChaneRZ]

This has been a aprobelm since the Blaze came out.

[JohnRi]

This is my only gribe with the Blaze.  I've posted a few message about it too.  It's just not accurate.  For me in a 3 mile walk yesterday, off by .1 of a mile.  A 5 1/2 mile walk, off by 1/2 mile Saturday.

My surge was dead on accurate.  So this is very disappointing.

On the plus side, I have to walk further, and harder to get the same results.  So there's the upside!!!

[ChadX]

I've had the same problem.  Getting shorted about 20% on runs (pace is off about 20% as well.). Tried turning off the phone GPS on the Blaze but no change. If I go through the Fitbit app, it's accurate.  Need a firmware update soon.

[SunsetRunner]

@Christine_R what model phone do you have? For Connected GPS to work accurately (from what I've seen) you need to have the location settings for Fitbit to "Always on": Settings -> Privacy -> Location Services -> Fitbit: make sure "Always" is selected. As for accuracy, my tests have shown pretty good results between my Garmin Forerunner 620 and Blaze w/ connected GPS:

Garmin Results                                                     Fitbit Results

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[ChadX]

It's a iPhone 6 Plus. I do have those settings correct. I heard back from Fitbit and will likely do a hard reset. Like mentioned previously, from the phone, the data is accurate.

Sent from my iPhone

[SunsetRunner]

I'm just adding my voice here to the discrepancy in mileage of the Blaze. I had the Flex before and decided to upgrade to Blaze. So far, having issues with FitStar not syncing and wonky mileage. As to the wonky mileage, I walk the same loop everyday. Here's what I got today. Both of these are for a walk today at the same time. The top mileage is what the Blaze logged (under the 'Walk' function) and the bottom mileage is what the Fitbit app logged. As you can see, mileage and pace is wildly different. Seriously considering returning the Blaze. 

[SunsetRunner]

I have been having the same information, and I even contacted FitBit and they say it is not a problem with the Blaze, but it must be my phone.  Even though the FitBit app and other apps work fine, it is just the Blaze that gives the wrong distance from Connected GPS.  FitBit even sent me a replacement Blaze incase it was a hardware defect, still the same problem.  They will not admit there is a problem, just keep putting it off as the phone.  I'm not happy with FitBit.

[SunsetRunner]

I've just gone for a walk to see if I can replicate the problem, walking "there and back". "There" was using the Blaze's connected gps and showed 1.41km, 11'14" pace (and 112 avg bpm). "Back" was with the Fitbit app, showing 1.44km, 11'14" pace (and 135 avg bpm).

Given those figures, and I'm not going to quibble about 0.03km, I'm more than happy and can't see any reason to fault it.

[SunsetRunner]

@SunsetRunner I'm glad you're works, my walk is 4.38 km and my Blazer using connected GPS gives me distances from 3.6 - 4.3 km, most often is 4.1 km. At times almost a kilometer lower, that is not good.

[tungsten74]

Until recently my Blaze data and data obtained from tracking the route on mapmyrun was also +/- 0.03kg, very acceptable. However recently the Blaze has gone haywire showing a 6.5km run when it was actually a 4.5km run with a pace an Olympian would be proud of . This confirmed by several others on the run with me using various trackers/phones etc.,  

[joneseva]

I've experienced this exact same situation.  My problems began after completing a FitBit Update.  

[tungsten74]

I tried a walk yesterday to monitor data against tracking the route on a map. However it seems there is still a problem, while the mileage was about right 1.82 miles (+/- 0.12 miles) the map produced was completely wrong it showed only part of the route, 0.3 miles but was showing that 0.3 miles as 1.82 miles!

previously over the last 6 months I have been very happy with my Blaze and the data it recorded, but the last few days it's been completely useless. I noticed there was an application update on the 7th March 2017 is this the reason for sudden bad data?

Seems to be a GPS problem.

[OleMarius]

I have in many post here been documenting how inacurate the GPS are. My phones google map is darn perfect almost, while FItbit who use google map add 5000 extra meters on my runs.
Fitbit has been broken since day one and even after 1 year, there is no fix for this since fitbit has other consern it seems