Poor GPS data with Connected GPS

[captainlader]

Anyone else seeing this? The last few days I've recorded my bicycling trips both with strava android app as well as with the blaze tracker connected to the same phone. The resulting GPS track from the strava android app is far superior - some tracks from the blaze are so useless that they cannot be used for anything - the stats (distance, speed, time) are way way way off.

I'm using a Galaxy S6 smart phone, it could be the bluetooth chip that's getting old. But I have no problems streaming music to my stereo, so I find it a bit strange.

I guess I will try out MobileRun which will give me better data since the GPS data is not transferred to the phone over bluetooth, but rather handled directly in the Fitbit app? I guess heart rate accuracy could then suffer, since this has to be transferred from the tracker to the phone. 

Thanks for any insight you might have into this 🙂

[AlejandraFitbit]

It's great to see you here @captainlader and thanks for the information provided.

If you are having issues with the GPS signal, I recommend taking a look at the My Blaze GPS is not working post and follow the instructions provided there. After these steps, test your device.

Let me know the outcome. 

[captainlader]

Thank you for your answer Alejandra!

When I've tracked my rides I've often seen either the "Phone not found" or the "Check Fitbit app". What I do to resolve this is to make sure bluetooth is on, enter the app, and wait for the watch to say "Let's go!". Now I start the recording. I also meet your listed requirements. The bluetooth transfer seems to be inconsistent / dropping out, although the phone is placed in the top pocket of the backpack for the whole bicycle ride.

Yesterday morning I tried to track my bicycle ride with the Fitbit app / MobileRun and the Strava app, and the results were much better. Although the GPS track points were not as detailed on the MobileRun track as the Strava app, they had good integrity, not all over the place as my recordings done via the Blaze watch.

The big problem with using MobileRun is that you cannot select bicycle as the exercise type. When the ride is synced automatically to Strava after completion, it's synced as a "run". I beat all "King of the hill" records, resulting in angry users which think I have cheated, if I do not act fast and edit the type from run to cycling in the Fitbit recording uploaded to Strava.

So I'm a bit at a loss here. The only thing left to do is to try with another phone, then I will be exhausted for options. My "hope" is that my phone has a bad bluetooth chip, or that there is some secret bluetooth power saving options enabled (I haven't found it) somewhere.

[Loodle]

I have had similar problems tracking runs. Do you use any other Bluetooth devices at same time? I have had better luck if I don't pair my Bluetooth headphones until after starting tracking on Blaze. Also opening Fitbit app first. Overall though, it has been super frustrating and I believe that there is a firmware issue since the last update.

[captainlader]

I'm not using any other bluetooth devices. But I did notice that Nearby device scanning was turned on. Unfortunately, I did not see any difference turning it off.

But you're saying that this is problems you've had recently, after the latest firmware upgrade? That's "good" news I guess, it means that they can fix it 🙂

My next step is to try with another phone, to see how that goes ...

[Loodle]

Yes, the latest firmware release made the GPS unreliable. In fact, they even sent me a new Blaze and still have the same issues. As far as them actually fixing the issue, I am not very confident.

[tommo_e]

This is still a massive issue with my Blaze. It seems the latest firmware update (17.8.402.1) has completely fudged the GPS pairing. I have used the Strava app on my Samsung Galaxy S7 directly and had no issues mapping my rides etc. It seems when I try to use the Blaze it maps the first 0.5 miles and then decides that's enough! Very poor. At his rate I certainly will not be renewing to another Fitbit- It's garbage!