Ionic GPS Inaccuracies

[MP4]

Hi, 

I'm a new Fitbit user, bought an Ionic on Monday and I'm having some issues with the GPS. Went on a couple of runs (at a track) and the gps seemed to be completely out both on the distance travelled and pace per kilometre.

I'm a long time strava user so yesterday I went for a run with both the Fitbit Ionic going and the strava on my iPhone running at the same time. Here are the results:

Strava - 7.9km   @ 4:15/km

Fitbit - 7.2km     @ 4:34/km

The difference of 0.7km is quite big and the difference in pace is also worrying. I waited till both had connected to gps before starting the run and I run in London where gps signal should be good. 

Is my Fitbit Ionic GPS not working correctly? Any help/advice would be appreciated. 

Thanks

Matt

Moderator Edit: Updated Subject for Clarity

[SantiR]

@NikPark I hope you're doing well! That is very strange, thanks for reporting that. Have performed a restart on your Ionic already?

Also, there are some environmental factors that may confuse the Ionic GPS signal with the satellites; such factors like tall buildings, dense forest, steep hills, and even thick cloud cover can interfere. How was the environment when you performed the run? Check this helpful article for more details.

@Giampi71 I hope you're doing well! I'm really happy to see that your Ionic is tracking GPS activities accurately and that you are happy with it! Thanks for sharing your experience on this thread. 

@krkirkham Welcome to the Fitbit forums! I'm glad to hear you picked up a Fitbit Ionic! Great choice! Are you going to give a good review about it to your co-workers?  Let me know if you happen to experience any difficulties with the watch! 

Keep me posted! 

[SunsetRunner]

Just got the update last night.  For me the update process was painless - left the phone and watch plugged in for half an hour while I did something else, and when I returned it was all done.  

I tried the watch on a run this morning, and I'd say the results were positive so far.

1. I think the response of the watch display to a turn of the wrist has improved a little.  Is this true? I could be imagining it.  Anyway, it seemed better, and that actually is significant when I'm running - I previously often had to turn my wrist several times, or use the button to see the display, which is obviously no great hardship, but was slightly annoying as it would take my mind off the running for a second or two.

2. The split times are shown on screen much more quickly after the distance has been covered.  With the previous software,  it often seemed like I'd get a notification of my mile split at, say, 1.05 miles, but now it's much more immediate.  Again the improvement is significant, it was no great hardship before, but I'd have to keep checking the watch after I'd run the split to make sure I didn't miss the notification.

3.The watch is much more sensitive to changes of pace.  Before it used to take quite a while to "catch up" to the fact that I was actually going faster - I might have to run faster for 30 seconds before the watch started showing the acceleration.   Now it seems more or less instantaneous.  In fact, it might be that it now shows a faster pace than I'm actually going for a while, but it might just be that I have a tendency to start the splits too quickly.

4.On a similar note, at the start of the run, the previous software used to take quite a while to catch up to the pace I was going - this is where I felt the main problem I had with the Ionic was - I suspected any lost GPS distance for me was due to this problem.  Anyway, now the Ionic was up to speed after a few steps, so a vast improvement there.

5.The run I've done this morning was one I've done many times before, with both the Ionic and previously with the Surge.  I have got used to the places where I tend to get my half mile split notifications and I noticed my first two splits seemed to occur slightly sooner than normal.  I assumed this was due to the new software handling the beginning of the run better.  I expected the total distance at the end of the run to be a little more than I was used to, but it was actually the same.  So who knows what's going on there?  Anyway, it won't be until I do a measured race that I'll find out if that's sorted.

6.The current pace still has a tendency to jump around a fair bit - I'm plodding along at 8min/mile then suddenly it's 9.10/mile, hang on, 6.50/mile, no 8.45/mile etc.  Hopefully this can eventually get sorted out

So initial impressions very good, well done Fitbit and well done all contributors to this thread for not accepting rubbish

[Denodan]

For me still a lot of sync issue they still have not fixed. Weather app on android is still broken yet works on ios.

 I reset my watch as it took a reset to install.

Lots of my apps says update, go to update them and wont install and cannot install any watch faces so for me the update is far worse.

[weasellyone]

This sounds like a promising update. I was getting tired of my 5k parkruns consistently reading as 4.8k even though the GPS track looked correct. Had the update pushed last night but haven't installed it yet, hoping to install it tonight. 

Re the pace jumping around on the real time display I used to notice this with my Garmin 305 which was overall very accurate on distance, possibly just reflects how strong the satellite lock is? For me the main thing is that I can clearly see when I'm (accurately!) hitting 1k, 2k etc and see whether I'm on track based on that....wasn't really possible before as it consistently underestimates the distance I'm running and would have had me trying to run too fast. 

I also dislike the way steps are used to calculate distance though for other activities like hiking etc, stride length can change a lot depending on the terrain you are covering and not sure if the algorithm is capable of appropriately reflecting this. E.g. if you are recording a lot of floors and walking uphill you can be pretty sure the stride length is shorter than a walk which is recorded on the flat. GPS should always be used for distance unless there are portions of the track where signal was lost. 

Another activity I'd like to see included for GPS tracking is skiing- currently just using Ski Tracks on my phone but it would be good to have this integrated as an activity. I guess you could use the bike mode but I don't like logging the activity wrongly!

[groberge]

Well, I got the update last night and ran with it for the first time this morning.

I found that my 1/2 mile splits were a little later than when using MapMyRun but my overall distance was much closer than in the past.

MapMyRun had me at 5.00 miles and Fitbit had me at 4.97.  I took the .tcx file and uploaded it to MyGPSFiles.com and it came out to 5.00 miles so it doesn't seem to be perfect, but it's a great improvement.  I did notice that the lines on the map aren't quite as defined as on MapMyRun but that's probably just being nit-picky.

I'll try it some more tomorrow and over the weekend but I'm not sure if I'll be able to trust using the Ionic as my sole GPS when running.  I'll probably still have to use MapMyRun along with it just to confirm the distance.

[groberge]

Unfortunately, since the update my Ionic does not seem to sync unless I open the Fitbit app.  I could just be imagining it but it's gone as long as an hour without updating until I open the app and I've yet to receive a notification although I've been getting text messages.  Not a good trade-off.

[groberge]

Another run today.  6.00 miles according to MapMyRun, 5.95 according to Fitbit.

Looks like I'll continue using MapMyRun and will most likely buy a Garmin for my next sports watch unless there are drastic improvements before then.

Still not syncing as often as it did before the update.

I thought that I wasn't getting the notifications that I did before but I remembered that I had reset my Ionic connection to my Fitbit app so it got set back to default when I did that.

[Smackems]

My experiences seem to be similar to MattyW.  I've done a few additional runs since my last report, including a 14 mile run, and the results have been pretty good.  The 14 mile run's route I mapped on MapMyRun prior to going out and the FitBit stayed within .05 of the mapped distance.  MMR had 14.13 and the Ionic had 14.08. 

Big improvement.  The only "issue" is that the current pace tends to jump around a bit.  It's a little annoying, but typically settles back into what I'm actually running.  That might actually be the fact that it's using the GPS, but I don't know.  I would imagine that it's something that the engineers will continue to look into.  

[SunsetRunner]

there are also the silly little rounding errors that cause me to be annoyed - I wonder if they can add up to a whole .05 miles if they're systematic

i have my splits set to .5 miles as well.  The fitbit dashboard lists the average pace of the half mile splits and the mile splits - and they don't tally

here's my most recent run - with the new improved software

 my run apparently took 40:51 minutes. pace 8:49/mile distance 4.63 miles

so, in seconds that's 2451 seconds for 4.63 miles which is 529.37 sec/mile so that tallies ok

if i add up all the mile splits it comes to 40:49.53 - close enough

if i add up the half mile splits and adjust for distance it's 41:04 with every single pair of half mile splits being more than the mile split.  that's kind of a long way out.  What sort of weird programming logic would cause an error like that?

[Tunah85]

Just got the new firmware update and sad to say I am still quite disappointed with the GPS accuracy.

I am recovering from an injury, so I had a 10 min warmup walk, and 3x5min jogs with a minute of walking in between.

I wore my Fitbit Ionic, carried my phone using Strava, and then sent the Ionic TCX file to Runkeeper for comparisons sake.

Ionic Totals

4.31km -- 28:32 -- Average Pace 6:38/km

Strava Totals

4.4km -- 28:04 -- Average Pace 6:23/km

Ionic Data (pushed to runkeeper)

4.37km -- 28:32 -- Average Pace 6:32/km

Couple things of note... Somehow strava cut off like 20 seconds off of the first km (I pushed stava's data to runkeeper as well, and it corrected it).

Runkeeper corrected Strava's data by .01km (0.2% difference)

Runkeeper corrected Fitbit's data by .07km (1.6% difference)

A 1% error bar is way too much for people who are serious about training... and ALMOST the same error from before the update.

[Kierownik]

Took my Ionic for a run yesterday, my usual 10k route. Ionic was about 800m behind TT runner GPS running watch. 

[TomDNA]

RE: GPS accuracy after firmware update

After setting up my new Ionic in October, I checked the accuracy of the GPS at my campus Olympic track. After walking one lap of the inner lane, which is 400 meters, the Ionic recorded a distance of 0.25 mile. Note: 400 m = 1312.3 ft = 0.249 mile.

Last week, I updated my Ionic with the new Fitbit OS, and this morning, I repeated this exercise and got the same result.  Ergo, the GPS is working fine!

BTW, this procedure is a good way to calculate your walking stride length.

[Smackems]

Took a major step back during my 16 mile run yesterday.  I mapped out a 16 mile route beforehand, which was the 14 mile route I did last week with 2 miles tacked on to the end.  

I'd say probably about 5 miles in the watch just starts understating my pace significantly.  The GPS is still connected and I'm running down a road that's a hot-spot for runners.  Needless to say I finish the run, which the Ionic tracked at 15.3 miles, and upload it hoping to find that the GPS track somehow got lost.  NO.. The GPS track was perfect.  To make sure that I didn't plot the route incorrectly I loaded it into "Runkeeper" and it confirmed that I was correct.  So at this point I don't really have rationale for why the the watch is so incorrect.

I was really hopeful about the fix.. I really was, and I was seeing good results, but this just negates everything good I felt.  I have a Polar M400, it has no fancy features, but it's never wrong.  I've done hundreds of runs with that watch and I've never run into a time where the GPS is incorrect, the measured distance is wrong or anything..  I would be more understanding if the GPS track for this run was off, I actually truly hoped that was the issue, I understand that happens sometimes.  However it wasn't and now I'm as frustrated as I've ever been about this watch.  I just want to feel comfortable that when I go out for a run watch is going to track my run accurately.  I can't trust this watch and my patience has worn thin.  Honestly, at this point I wish I could just return the thing.   

[Frank00]

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@Smackemswrote:

...

I was really hopeful about the fix.. I really was, and I was seeing good results, but this just negates everything good I felt.  I have a Polar M400, it has no fancy features, but it's never wrong.  I've done hundreds of runs with that watch and I've never run into a time where the GPS is incorrect, the measured distance is wrong or anything..  I would be more understanding if the GPS track for this run was off, I actually truly hoped that was the issue, I understand that happens sometimes.  However it wasn't and now I'm as frustrated as I've ever been about this watch.  I just want to feel comfortable that when I go out for a run watch is going to track my run accurately.  I can't trust this watch and my patience has worn thin.  Honestly, at this point I wish I could just return the thing.   

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One of the hardest pills to swallow is probably that you didn't pay $300 for the Polar M400 and it does a better job tracking your run?

[Smackems]

Yep..  The M400 came in at $129.99 on Amazon.  Now it doesn't have any "smart" features, but those features don't really provide me any benefit if it can't do the basic task of tracking my runs accurately.  

[SunsetRunner]

Sorry yours is so problematic. Mine still seems much improved after the
update. I did a half marathon on Sunday and the ionic seemed to tally very
closely with the mile markers as I went round the course. I don't think I
noticed the last few, and at the end the ionic said 13.2 miles rather than
13.1, which I suppose is reasonably close, and the first time I've seen it
overestimate distance.

[Frank00]

.1 over a half-marathon distanced doesn't seem bad?

[Frank00]

Yeah.  That's one of the problems I experienced with my Surge.  When I saw they were releasing the Ionic, I was excited that a device would have music storage making one less piece of equipment necessary on a run, but I took a real wait-and-see attitude because I noticed a lot of issues with the basic fitness functionality of that device.  

Upon release of the Ionic, I saw they hadn't worked out the "kinks".

In the meantime, I found a earbud headset with great sound and 8GB of onboard storage and picked up a Vivoactive 3 for a fitness device.  The most important functions for me in a fitness device are the basic fitness parts.  The Vivoactive 3 has accurate GPS, accurate heart rate, counts reps during my weight workouts, etc...  Also, it doesn't just end and summarize my workout mid-run as my Surge would.

I'm not so concerned with "smart" functionality on a device lacking the basic fitness functionality.

It seems like they got the GPS issue mostly ironed out with the latest Ionic update for most people?  So that's a good thing.

[SunsetRunner]

Well not compared to previous results, no

[bbarrera]

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@Frank00wrote:

It seems like they got the GPS issue mostly ironed out with the latest Ionic update for most people?  So that's a good thing.

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if I understand correctly, Biking mode is still the only mode that uses GPS for distance. At Ionic launch Fitbit trumpeted 'class leading GPS' so I'm left guessing they use steps*stride for distance to reduce battery usage? Honestly still trying to make sense of it all.