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

[GuillermoVilas]

I use to have a Fitbit Alta so had to calibrate my steps strides to have an adequate distance then I bought the Fitbit Charge 2 which should work fine combined with my smartphone.... It never did... Sometimes it was like 2kms of on a run of 10kms.

Now for the past 8 months I've been using a Garmin Fenix 3hr .. its dead accurate... Used with or without my footpath it's dead accurate all the time

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@MP4wrote:

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

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[waldobosman]

I did several runs with the Ionic, always the same route, and the Distance is everytime different, it ranges from 10.2k towards 10.9k, IF it can hold the GPS signal!

Due to this i have send back my Ionic and replaced it with an Polar M600.

This was my second Fitbit, and i'm really dissapointed in the quallity of it's products, specially the price you pay.

Goodby Fitbit, i surely hope you can get your act together and produce good quallity products for the price you asking.

[GuillermoVilas]

I agree with you, no precision at all.. both GPS and HR have serious issues. 

Its too bad because I really like the design of the ionic, no more Fitbit for me either. 

[SunsetRunner]

Hi Fitbit employees - I think what might help some of us to understand the situation a little better would be if you could get one of the engineers who is working on the problem to explain to us the complexities. 

My experience with the run app has been better since the update - but I know that the program is still using steps and stride length for the beginning of the run.  I tested it out again today - in my settings I entered an enormous stride length of 227in (as opposed to the 55 or so that it should be).  I started the app and waited till it said my GPS was connected and I then set off on a slow paced run - 9 min/mile or so.  Fitbit had me doing 2 min/mile near the beginning of the run.  I finished the first "mile" in 4 minutes, the next "half mile" was at 7.36 pace according to the watch, and after that it seemed accurate.  At the end of the run it reckoned I had done 5.25 miles, whereas I usually expect it to show ~4.63 miles at the end of that route.  I should say it seemed to take 6 or 7 minutes to stop using stride length, but it did so gradually - obviously using some sort of blend of GPS and cadence * stride length.  

When I look at the map of the activity in the Fitbit app the route looks right - so it doesn't seem to be missing out on GPS.

Now it seems obvious to me that somebody at Fitbit thinks it a good idea to do it this way - it's not the simplest solution - and it might well be a good idea, especially in circumstances where GPS connection is intermittent, but we on this message board are confused.  Why use steps at all?  And if it's such a good idea, why gradually stop using them over the first 6 or 7 minutes?  Do other GPS enabled fitness devices do this? Do you think the Ionic is more accurate than these other devices?  Did you test out your product at different paces etc.?  Could we have an option to just use GPS and see if we like it better?

[SilviaFitbit]

Hey everyone! Just as mentioned before by @SantiR Our team is aware of the issue you're experiencing with distance discrepancies and all your feedback is truly appreciated. The OS 1.2 introduced some fixes that helped to improve accuracy. 

If you're seeing discrepancies with Strava or other wrist based GPS device, this is expected as there will be some variance due to different algorithms. 

In case, you're still having issues with GPS, you may want to try this troubleshoot Why isn't GPS working on my Fitbit device?. 

Hope this helps! Keep me posted. 

[Tex52]

@SilviaFitbit

For those of us that are still having GPS issues it sounds like we are back at square one where Fitbit is telling us to read info on trouble shooting why our GPS is not working. We have already established that there is not anything wrong with the GPS but it is a software problem. I am not primarily using another program to determine that the distance is incorrect, I am using a known distance to determine that it is incorrect, not another program, but the other programs agree with the known distance. So your explanation that it is a variance between the algorithms is not correct. Here is how I plan to get the problem resolved. Most stores allow a 90 day return, so somewhere around the 90th day I will return the Ionic to that store with the reason for return being GPS inaccuracy. Then I will go to another store and buy another one and repeat. When Fitbit finally gets tired of reimbursing retailers for these watches maybe they will fix the problem. So far I'm on my third one. Enjoy!

[bmw54]

I have a possible solution for those who moved from the Fitbit Surge to the Ionic.

I've been discussing it in this thread: 

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Ionic/Ionic-vs-Surge-a-runner-s-perspective/td-p/2580000/jump-to/fir...

If you didn't dump your Surge, you may want to try running with it again. For me it was like a homecoming and erased all the drama we've been discussing here for the past 5+ months.

[Dickys3]

Come on Fitbit, it can’t be that hard surely to fix? If the gps is tracking the distance accurately, why can’t you release a software fix to show it properly???

i upgraded from a charge hr purely for the gps tracking. It shouldn’t be this difficult??

[crossd1111]

In case this helps debug the issue, I have two pictures of the exact same run, one tracked with the Ionic and the other with my iPhone. The iPhone is much more accurate, even inside an armband. This run was done less than a mile from the Fitbit office. Happy to upload the pictures if this would help debug, couldn't figure out how to do so in this forum.

David

[the_one]

I have been using Fitbit Ionic tracking runs for past few months and my Ionic GPS results have never been accurate. I can understand 1% error but the results are routinely wrong by 10 to 20%. I am training for a marathon with a particular time target and this expensive watch completed frustrates the purpose of tracking the runs.

Contacting Fitbit support, I have been repeatedly giving reasons like potentially running closer to building, tunnels, poor weather etc. Just to avoid any such issues, I headed out to a running track last night. The skies were clear and the track is in the open so no reason for Ionic to be inaccurate. I ran in the same track just to avoid any errors.  Just to avoid speculation, the watch battery was full, the software for both the watch and fitbit app are upto date.

please see the attached screenshot of the tracking results, it is horribly wrong! can someone from Fitbit urgently look into this and tell me what's going on? Is this an issue specific to my watch or is the Ionic GPS faulty altogether (I have seen numerous complaints on the forum.)

Moderator edit: subject updated for clarity

[the_one]

[bmw54]

Welcome to the Ionic. Your experience has been mirrored by many; for some history you might like to scan this thread:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Ionic/Ionic-GPS-Inaccuracies/m-p/2229217

It details a long and twisted path to nowhere. I'm also (Boston) marathon training and have switched back to using my fitbit Surge. In not one race or marathon training run has the Ionic been of value; it has failed each time I've really needed it.

Here's my comparison of the two trackers and my painful Ionic experience in detail:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Ionic/Ionic-vs-Surge-a-runner-s-perspective/m-p/2580000

Last week my Ionic finally put me out of my misery and died. I spent 5+ months trying to use it. I believe the hardware is good; the firmware, however, is simply not designed to be used by competitive runners. 

I'll update this post if my new Ionic works any better. But I'm not hopeful.

[the_one]

Thanks BMW, can someone from FITBIT please comment on this? How can I get my Ionic replaced?

[bmw54]

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@the_onewrote:

Thanks BMW, can someone from FITBIT please comment on this? How can I get my Ionic replaced?

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The problem is that your Ionic is probably working as designed. The design is the problem.

[the_one]

If the watch does not work as promised, this is surely an issue covered under the warranty. Can a Fitbit moderator please answer?

Could this be an issue when you run at difference paces within the same run? i.e. if the stride length changes for a faster part of the run than the average logged previously, does Ionic struggle to record the distance and pace?

[bmw54]

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@the_onewrote:

If the watch does not work as promised, this is surely an issue covered under the warranty. Can a Fitbit moderator please answer?

Could this be an issue when you run at difference paces within the same run? i.e. if the stride length changes for a faster part of the run than the average logged previously, does Ionic struggle to record the distance and pace?

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Yes, for me the issue has been that the Ionic's software measures pace and distance based upon stride length. It took me a while to figure that out, but it was the only logical explanation for why Ionic's route mappings were correct while distance (understated) and pace (overstated) were so terribly incorrect every time I raced.

Other posters disputed my theory (it does seem illogical for a device that accurately records GPS measurements every 2 to three seconds). But then I spoke with a Fitbit rep who confirmed the use of stride length and explained that they periodically use GPS to re-calibrate stride length. This is not true with my fitbit Surge, their earlier GPS tracker.

Maybe they thought the use of stride length would result in smoother pace readings on the watch. Or, perhaps more likely, they thought this would bridge over the frequent GPS disconnections the Ionic seems to suffer. 

Either way, the strategy results in totally inaccurate feedback when racing or doing speedwork.  Check the GPS Inaccuracies thread to see how myself and others have documented this and how Fitbit reps have responded. If you chat with Fitbit to try to get answers be ready to hear about how their 'engineers are aware of the problem and are working on it'. and be prepared to perform restarts on you Ionic with the vague hint that it might  start working better. It won't.

I think the issue is that Fitbit in large part is focused on getting the inactive population to get out and start moving. These people, for the most part, aren't using their trackers the way competitive athletes are and (I believe) have much lesser expectations. Most of them seem to love their Ionics.

I have a review of the Ionic fully drafted and ready to post to Amazon. Mine was pre-ordered, so there were no reviews.

[the_one]

This is a sad, sad situation. I feel cheated into paying a substantial sum for a sub-standard product. It must be shameful that the Moderators sit at their desks reading these posts but do not respond to the queries of their (so called) premium product customers.  

[MurryIvanoff]

As discussed in this thread, I've been seriously disappointed with my Ionic and just gave up on it. 

By design, it was never a really good running watch. You can see my points on it in the thread that I've linked to. 

Unfortunately if you want good data-driven running sessions (including tempo runs, farleks, good amounts of trail running) - simply get either Suunto, Polar or Garmin watch. I personally went with the Garmin Fenix 5 with the HRM-Tri sensor and I've been blown since how much running watches have actually advanced. Unfortunately non-specilized companies like Fitbit, Apple and etc. will never focus so much on athlete's needs (as it's a smaller market) and will possibly never create a watch that's worthwhile to be an important guidance in your training sessions. 

With a little bit than less a month of usage, I've managed to fix a few issues with my stride length, cadance and left-right feet balance that I would never even guess with the Ionic. 

[shipo]

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@bmw54wrote:

I have a possible solution for those who moved from the Fitbit Surge to the Ionic.

I've been discussing it in this thread: 

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Ionic/Ionic-vs-Surge-a-runner-s-perspective/td-p/2580000/jump-to/fir...

If you didn't dump your Surge, you may want to try running with it again. For me it was like a homecoming and erased all the drama we've been discussing here for the past 5+ months.

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I really don't understand comments like this; none of my three Surge trackers were anywhere near as accurate as my Ionic.

[Smackems]

Quite the opposite for me.   I never had the accuracy issues with my Surge that I do with the Ionic.