GPS doesn't work on my Charge 5

[dz1234]

My GPS has failed to connect on most days for the past two weeks. I typically wait several minutes and then give up and use my phone. I have it in dynamic mode and even that fails to connect. The few times that I have managed to have it connect, it has dropped during my run. It never was great (much worse than my phone), but it worked much better when I first got it a couple of months ago.

Moderator edit: clarified subject.

[ManuFitbit]

Good to see you around the community @dz1234 

Thanks for providing the details regarding your Charge 5.

Please, make sure to follow the steps suggested in this article. 

All devices with GPS sensors require a direct path to GPS satellites to calculate location. A weak GPS signal might affect the accuracy of your route and other activity data. Your device uses your step count to calculate distance until it finds a signal, so the total distance calculated for a workout may be slightly less accurate when GPS isn't available for the entire time. In particular, please make sure of the following: 

• That you are  in open sky and moderate trees
• Adjust how you wear the tracker when you want to use GPS 
• Make sure the Location in your phone settings is set to Always or All the time for the Fitbit app (if you're using connected GPS).

If the GPS is getting disconnected during your activity, the Charge 5 may track different information for the the distance.

If your GPS is still getting disconnected, make sure to try following the steps listed in this article to complete a restart, as this has been useful for other users experiencing something similar.

[kerrieBBOZ]

I’ve been having this problem more since the app update a few weeks ago. Since then there have been a couple more app updates which I thought might be fixing the problem (ie the tracker not even connecting to the phone gps for dynamic gps) but it hasn’t improved.

------

I’ve had my Charge 5 for over a year and usually it connects on the route I walked today, and I’m familiar with the usual fix articles but restarting a few times over the last few weeks since it started getting worse hasn’t helped.

[dz1234]

I have had charge devices with GPS for many years now. I know what a functional GPS looks like and this one just doesn't work. I tried restarting with no success. Clear sky, cloudy sky, trees, no trees, dynamic, on-board GPS...regardless of settings or conditions, it just doesn't work. Again today, I tried for 5 minutes twice to get it to connect and neither time did it connect. It is a clear day here today and it is the same route I have been running for many years without this kind of GPS trouble.

I will also say that even when it was working, the GPS was much less reliable than my phone and basically unusable unless in dynamic mode.

------

I have version 20001.188.58 on mine

[kerrieBBOZ]

I agree that is happening now but onboard gps actually did work for me for many months, although never as strongly as the phone connection, even when I had it on exclusive onboard gps (ie not dynamic) due to battery problems in my old phone.

It would invariable track my local walking route, but sometimes not connect until I’d been walking for a while, and usually the resultant route map had the line pinging all over the place, but roughly correct.

But the current issue got suddenly and dramatically worse after an overnight phone app update a few weeks ago and yesterday’s persistently not connecting even to the phone app gps is definitely new. And there have been a couple of phone app updates since then one that broke it, which I hoped would be a big fix for what appears to be some kind of gps synch issue during an exercise, but it appears that one of those has just made it even worse!

my tracker os hasn’t changed and is not the latest. It is 188.58 and my phone os is iOS 16.51 but I haven’t updated it recently either so it isn’t related to a new iOS either. I feel like it is an issue to do with the phone app not synching with the tracker and preventing the charge 5 from connecting to gps. Yesterday I tried tracking on my phone app only (ie not the tracker) after having failed to force the charge 5 to reconnect to gps by restarting my walk activity several times, and the phone app did connect to gps and did track the rest of the walk ok. So I tried the tracker again and same story. I restarted the app a few times as well but I didn’t try restarting the tracker during the walk, which would have disrupted the walk for my companion too much.

[LEENIE48]

I'm also having this problem,  for the last 6 days, doing the same walk as I do every day. I've tried,  toggling gps settings,  restarting fitbit. I usually use app on tablet when I get home but yesterday downloaded it onto phone and gave full location permissions. Still no map of my walk and still only recording half of the walk and therefore half of zone minutes, heart zone ratings etc. Please don't reply with answers you have already given in this post, I have tried them all!!

[dz1234]

Just an update. I tried to use the GPS for three different activities yesterday--a run, a walk and a "outdoor workout". Sunny day, no clouds and in all three cases, I couldn't get a connection. I was able to track in strava with my phone. I pressed start anyway on my fitbit and it didn't track the activity and after some time gave me the "GPS" screen that denotes that it wasn't tracking.

--------

Oddly enough, it worked for me this morning after failing for 2 straight weeks. It connected immediately--while I was still in my house. I haven't changed anything and there is no evidence of updates to either the OS or the app that I can see.

[kerrieBBOZ]

Same! Went for a walk today and it connected successfully via the onboard gps. Went on and off a fair bit but at least it went on!

But what I couldn’t test is whether it would connect to the phone gps when the tracker gps wasn’t connecting. ie it never showed the icon that it was using the phone gps. So the problem still could exist with the Charge 5 not able to connect via the app or phone gps during an activity, when the onboard gps fails probably because the device gps was connecting frequently enough not to give up trying. I checked it a lot during the walk and it indicated via the icons that it was either connected using the tracker gps or dropped off, but never showed the icon for when gps is connected via the phone.

[dz1234]

Mine worked again this morning--again connected right away and tracked my entire run. I had it in dynamic mode, so I don't know if it was working through the GPS or phone. I'm not sure why it works, but I think I had an iPhone security update in the last couple of days or alternatively, something about the alignment of satellites? I live in the NE US and run mornings--maybe you are in a similar location? 

[LEENIE48]

I live in Australia so no! Yesterday morning walk had two results recorded.  One with map of 3km route but no heart data, another with no map and heart data for 1.5km walk. At the same time! Wondering if anyone has tried returning to fitbit for exchange? 

------

Ok today it worked! Changed gps on fitbit to phone, opened app on phone and went to exercise, tapped little clock top right hand of screen,  waited for gps to connect, started walk exercise on fitbit. Bit of a palaver given up until a week ago all I had to do was start walk. Hopefully this will work, and maybe might help others too !

[kerrieBBOZ]

Just regarding whether the gps is connected though the watch or the phone during an activity, you can tell by the icons. If they are an unfilled outline they are not connected and if the icons are solid fill they are connected (the arrow and the device icons) And the right-most device icon is either a picture of a watch or a picture of a phone, depending on which is connected to the gps.

[LEENIE48]

Not sure we're using same app or device. Screen shot of my app. Icon of watch doesn't change regardless of options I choose on watch

 

[tanya42]

I am also getting the message to use the app tp  map the route and pace. I have previously been able to use the watch for that - and I want to be able to see my pace when I am exercising without having to get out the phone and look at the app. why did this change? 

[dz1234]

Thanks for this! I hadn't realized about the icons. It "worked" again yesterday and I was able to look for the icon periodically while running. I saw the phone icon every time I looked at it. I also tracked a walk yesterday and it initially connected and showed the tracker icon--it dropped during the walk and tracked no gps data--no idea why it couldn't have used the phone connection to fix it (phone gps worked fine).

[kerrieBBOZ]

Leenie48 I was referring to the icons on the Charge 5 tracker, rather than the app.

[dz1234]

Mine has stopped connecting again for the last two days. I'm also fairly convinced that the on-board GPS doesn't really work. The only times it has been successful in tracking activities has been when I had a phone with me and it is in dynamic mode. I have had it work exactly one time (out of about 6 attempts) to track an outdoor workout without a phone in my pocket.

[kerrieBBOZ]

Just an update, I have now established that the onboard gps no longer works and nor does it default to connecting to the phone gps in dynamic mode when the onboard (weaker) gps gives up. I have found that it does work if I set the device to use phone gps only.

I have been using my charge 5 onboard gps to track my local walks and some walks elsewhere as well for more than a year. Sometimes it defaulted to the phone app gps during a walk but mostly it connected using the onboard gps, although the route marking in the final exercise map was always pretty wild, it was close enough for me.

So something recent has broken it, and to me it was a change in the phone app, as my problems started immediately after a phone app update. And the common factor in problems in this forum thread as well as others, seems to be the device no longer communicating with the app correctly either during an exercise or in some other way. Some people have also had success deleting functionality apps like the ecg app, so I’m thinking the device gets stuck in loops during varying functions, due to this problem with synching, which can lead it into a battery drain death spiral.

So what is helping me is to turn off any further auto iPhone app updates and I won’t be allowing the firmware update either, if I get a choice when it eventually appears to me. And I’ve given up on onboard gps and using the device setting for phone gps only.

I am going to wait for the smoke to settle on all these app and firmware problems before I allow anything more to update.

I don’t wish to change tracker platforms due to not being able to export all my historical health data and tracked activities, and because I live in Australia, if my tracker bricks like so many others, I am going to pursue the legal right of Australian consumers for a remedy of my choosing which includes a refund or replacement, if a product has a major fault or does not last for the length of time that is reasonable for a product of similar value, regardless of whether it is still under manufacturer warranty or not. I believe the UK has similar consumer law protections.

So lest the moderators deem this post unhelpful to the topic I am including this information for the benefit of any Australian or UK customers who may not be aware that they have these legal rights and I’m screenshotting it lest I should ever need any evidence of any potential attempt to prevent customers from being aware of their rights under the consumer law in their jurisdiction.

[dz1234]

Here is my update. At the suggestion of another commenter, I had my phone app forget my device and reinstall it as though it is a new device. This worked....for about a week. Now it is back to failing to connect. In dynamic mode, I try to get it to connect and typically give up after a few minutes and then use Strava on my phone to track my run. Interestingly, sometimes the fitbit manages to connect during my run and track my run--though it results in rather "interesting" maps of my run, whereas my phone tracks perfectly. I also tried running in the other modes. It doesn't connect on either the phone mode or "on-board" mode. I have tried restarting the fitbit, which didn't fix it, but haven't tried the full reinstallation again.