Charge 6 - Built in GPS turns off

[FITDM]

Just bought a charge 6 but the built in GPS seems to be going off all the time. What could be the reason?

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[Julia_G]

Hi, @FITDM , if the GPS cannot connect after a certain amount of time trying, then it will turn off in order to preserve battery.  

It may have difficulty connecting in heavily wooded areas or near tall buildings, as in those cases the signal can be blocked.  It will work best where the there is an open view to the sky.  

You may find you have more success if you change your GPS settings to “dynamic”.  With the dynamic setting it will use your phone’s GPS signal if available (the phone is likely to have a stronger internal antenna for picking up GPS than the one on your watch).  Where the phone is not available the dynamic setting will revert to the Charge 6 GPS.  But note, if it loses GPS on either the phone or the Fitbit, it will not, unfortunately, revert to the other.  

For full information on using GPS with your Fitbit, please see this help article .

I hope this helps.  Welcome to the Community Forums!

[Triletics]

@FITDM it's like @Julia_G says...almost because Charge 6 will lose GPS anywhere. You may put it next to satellite and it won't matter. My Charge 6 never keeps connection stable and eventually GPS disconnects. It's just poor quality. I use 'Phone' mode because 'Dynamic' shows very similar behaviour to built-in GPS.

[FITDM]

Strongly agree! Very poor GPS. I might return it back for a refund

[MTGirl33]

I have the same issue with my Charge 6, and find it very frustrating. I've had various iterations of Charges for years and never have had this problem. I'm not running in new places, there aren't tall buildings around, and it doesn't seem to matter if skies are cloudy of bluebird--the GPS will connect for only a couple of minutes, then disconnect, then connect again, then disconnect again, etc. etc. until eventually it shuts off for the remainder of my run. Wonder if it has something to do with Google's acquisition of Fitbit... I'm so close to returning it (and the one I bought my husband) and getting something else. As a multiyear Fitbit fan, I'm disappointed and frustrated.

[Triletics]

The built-in GPS is probably the worst I have ever seen on Fitbit device. I usually run in "Phone" mode but switched to use built-in GPS today and 3 runs (it was one run but Charge 6 has no feature of marking manual laps so decided to stop and start activity to mark segments):

1) Connected and disconnected

2) Captured about 50m of run, never connected again.

3) Lost connection 8km in and gave up.

Trail runs under open and clear sky.

My initial very positive opinion about Charge 6 changed a lot since I got it and now I consider it the worst Fitbit I have ever owned.

[thor111]

I agree totally!  This is my second "charge" device (5 and then 6), and I've never had these problems.  Charge 6 just started randomly losing the gps signal.  So far fitbit support has been very poor.  Good luck with your watch.