GPS drops

[ChoudhrySaab]

I've owned Charge 5 for almost a month now and till last week everything was fine but all of the sudden during my bike ride it dropped the GPS signal. At that point I was using Fitbit's built in GPS. When I got home, I changed the setting for Fitbit to use the phone GPS (also to preserve the battery) but even that didn't work and 3 minutes into my ride it dropped the GPS signal. I haven't changed anything since the time I got the watch and it's the same bike route. I've tried restarting as well. 

[CoreyMS]

Is your phone in some type of power saving?  It will kill the gps in power saving mode.

[Talahthas]

Welcome to the Fitbit community, @CoreyMS!
Sad to hear that you're having issues tracking your bike rides with GPS.
As both of your devices, your Charge 5 as well as your phone aren't able able to receive enough GPS signals to determine your location makes me believe that there is either a GPS outage or some obstacles distorting GPS reception. You might want to have a look here for GPS outages:

GPS Service Outages & Status Reports 

To generally check GPS reception I'd suggest installing a GPS checker app on you phone. There are quite a few available for Android and iOS devices in the corresponding app stores.

[ChoudhrySaab]

No, I haven't made any changes to the phone or to the watch settings so the phone isn't going in power saving mode. As mentioned before, the GPS drops and 5 minutes into the ride and then doesn't get connected and it's the same if I'm using Fitbit watch GPS or choose the watch to use phone GPS. 

[ChoudhrySaab]

Hi Talahthas, the GPS works fine on the phone as my Google Fit app is able to track my bike route without any issues. The problem is only with Fitbit dropping the GPS signal. Like I mentioned before, I haven't changed anything or any settings and everything used to work fine up until last week. Should I try doing factory reset on the Fitbit? 

[Talahthas]

Thanks for your feedback, @ChoudhrySaab. Before you go through the trouble of setting up your Charge 5 from scratch, I'd suggest setting it to "Dynamic GPS" and see if that will fix the issue you're having with it. More on that here:

Track and analyze exercise with the Exercise app 

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[ChoudhrySaab]

Thanks... I've updated my Fitbit to use Dynamic GPS. Let's see how it goes. 

[Talahthas]

You're welcome, @ChoudhrySaab!

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[ChoudhrySaab]

Just wanted to provide an update that even setting the GPS to dynamic, it still didn't work and stopped literally after 0.6km into my ride. This is super frustrating specially since it used to work perfectly fine before. 

[Talahthas]

Thanks for your update, @ChoudhrySaab.
Just for curiosity, could you please try tracking another route, ideally under open sky, to see if GPS is working there?

[ChoudhrySaab]

Yes, I've tried multiple routes and they're all on paved roads under the open sky. Google Fit app is able to track the GPS just fine. 

[Talahthas]

At that point, @ChoudhrySaab, though I know that there will be quite a few things to do for you, I'd suggest to first sync your device to not lose any data tracked so far and then to do a factory reset on your Charge 5 following what you'll find under "Erase Charge 5" following this link:

Update, Restart, and Erase 

I know that you know how to set up your device afterwards.

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[dz1234]

I want to second this. The GPS on my Charge 5 is really crappy. It essentially never works on its own and often doesn't work in dynamic mode. I have given up on using it on anything except dynamic mode (which is frustrating, since I originally upgraded to a charge 4 so that I wouldn't need to run with a phone). I typically spend a couple of minutes hoping it will gain a signal and about 80% of the time it doesn't, then I give up and just use the phone to track the run. On the rare occasion where it does manage to connect, it is fairly common for it to drop during my run. When it does manage to track, I get routes that make it look like I can run through buildings--while at the same time, I can track the same run with my phone and the route looks fine. Basically, the on-board GPS is crap and much worse than for my Charge 4 (which to be honest was far inferior to my phone as well).  

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If you decide to do the factory reset, I'd love to hear if it worked. 

[ChoudhrySaab]

Just wanted to provide an update on this matter. After doing a factory reset, the GPS is functioning fine now. My only concern now is that hopefully this doesn't become a regular issue where a factory reset is required on monthly basis for the Charge 5 to work as it should. 

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Yeah, factory reset seemed to work. 

[Talahthas]

Tanks for reporting back, @ChoudhrySaab!
Glad to hear that you now can enjoy your Charge 5 without restrictions.

[dz1234]

I did a factory reset on mine and it worked, but then stopped working for a week and then started working again. Having said that, it works in dynamic mode if I connect it while inside and phone mode, but the on-board GPS is still very poor. If I connect it outdoors in dynamic mode, it often either doesn't connect, drops during the run or gives me strange maps. My theory is that dynamic works fine as long as the charge gives up on using the tracker for GPS and only relies on the phone.  

[cltread]

Mine is doing the same. I think it's the internal GPS.   What should I do next? I did a reset but took my phone on my walk today and it seemed to work. I don't want to take my phone each time though for it to track correctly.

[JeffJordan]

I have finally given up on mine.  The reset works for a while then I will go for a run or ride on routes where GPS works fine but Charge 5 will tell me 1.5 miles in the GPS is not connected.  Keeps doing that until I reset again but in the mean time my data is not recorded with GPS. No mile splits - just steps and Heart Rate.  Oh and the Heart Rate it reports is worthless when compared to actual from chest or arm monitors (or my old Sense). I am massively disappointed with this product and am resigned to just using my older Sense which has a battery that only lasts 1 1/2 days now.  May as well get an apple watch with that battery life. 

From DCRainmaker's review (https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2021/09/fitbit-charge-5-in-depth-review.html):

Simply put – the Fitbit Charge 5 exhibits workout issues I haven’t seen in more than a decade of wearables testing. While the device contains built-in GPS and a built-in optical heart rate sensor, it doesn’t seem capable to get accurate data out of both those components at once. You have to choose between accurate GPS data, or accurate heart rate data.

How do you choose? By loosening the band. If the band is too snug, the GPS will loose signal (for the duration of the workout) – though heart rate accuracy is sometimes passable. If the band is too loose, you’ll lose heart rate accuracy – but GPS will stay locked on just fine.

No, I’m not kidding.

I’ve had late night conference calls packed with Fitbit engineers and employees to discuss this issue, and ultimately, this seems to be how the device is designed. The GPS chipset is under the display, towards the bottom of the device. That by itself is fine and normal, after all – it’s the antenna that matters. As with most wearables these days, the antenna forms a part of the case. As you tighten the band, the Charge 5 loses its view of the sky, and GPS drops out.

Instead, Fitbit recommends the Charge 5 be worn so loose that you can slide one full finger under the unit between your wrist and the Charge 5. Of course, to the surprise of nobody – doing that means heart rate accuracy becomes a non-starter. No company, including Fitbit themselves, have ever recommended a device be worn that loosely. In fact, even Fitbit’s own Charge 5 reviewer’s guide still states to wear it snuggly.

[dz1234]

I have also given up on the on-board (or dynamic) GPS. The crazy thing with the dynamic is that rather than defaulting to the phone, it will just give up and stop tracking my run. I just use the phone GPS now , which is stupid, because I originally upgraded so I wouldn't have to run with a phone. I admit that I haven't tried wearing it THAT loose, however. There is also clearly some additional problem, since the factory reset seems to temporarily fix some problems with the device.  

I will say that now that I'm resigned to not using the GPS the battery life is much better. I can read the screen too, so there is that--but otherwise the charge 3 gave me everything I needed out of the charge 5 and also had an altimeter and the added features are kind of useless. The ECG just tells me that I have a normal sinus rhythm (not surprised) and the EDA just spits out meaningless numbers.