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

[mlevi]

Think I'll check with the place I bought mine for the possibilty for a refund after used it for around two months. Then I'll probably go for an Apple Watch or Polar. Although it looks like Apple Watch doesn't record the heart rate correctly, but that might be due to some user error by my friend.

For the time being, my workaround is to use Strava and the "Correct distance"-button to get a valid distance, since I auto-upload the exercise to Strava as it's my main exercise app, even from before I got a Fitbit device.

There are often some kilometres in difference, but that is due to that I mostly do Nordic skiing at the winter, and that I track it as a "Run" or "Hike" on the Ionic. Haven't tried the bike mode yet, so perhaps I shall do try that just to see if the difference is reduced.

[Denodan]

My Gear sport works wonderfully and taking heart rates with old fashion and true method my hr's are within 1-3 bump.

[Tex52]

@mlevi

The first time I used my Apple watch on a run it appeared the heart rate was pegged, but it appeared to work normally the rest of the time. After further research and talking with my son who has had one for a while I found that the Apple Watch is the opposite of what fitbit recommends. They want the watch band very snug when exercising. I have ran 3 time since then and it appears to work fine after I did that. 

[the_one]

Update: I have been using my new Ionic for a month now and tracking is very accurate. I recently went to India and the watch tracked the run accurately there as well. Really pleased with my Ionic.

[the_one]

Further Update : I ran my first ever marathon - The Virgin London Marathon and the watch tracked each mile marker within 20 meter accuracy. Thank you Fitbit for the awesome instrument!

[Lukabex]

I went for a run with my friend today, she was using a £50 TomTom watch that is just pure GPS, no bells and whistles.

We ran 5km together, From the strava activity which is linked to both our efforts you can see that her £50 basic GPS watch tracked 5km at a 5:51/km pace and my £300 piece of junk Ionic tracked 4.8km at a 6:01/km pace. You can even see in the Strava flyby’s show that we were together, I was even a little faster than her.

Now I KNOW that GPS watches aren’t 100% accurate, I understand how they work. But this isn’t the first time the Ionic has been 10-20% out whereas other people’s trackers have been significantly better. Honestly I’m tempted to sell the thing on eBay and get an Apple Watch, because it’s ridiculous.

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[SunsetRunner]

Try jaygps app that you can get on the Fitbit store.

The GPS app on the ionic for some silly reason measures distance via your stride calculation

[Lukabex]

Does that mean if I were to take tiny steps it would calculate it as being longer?

does JayPS sync with the dashboard/strava? Mostly Strava.

[jrobbins]

The GPS in my Ionic has actually been pretty dang good when biking. I start a bike activity on my Ionic as well as using Wahoo Fitness on my iPhone. When all said and done over 15 - 20 miles the most they have been different is 0.4 miles.

[Lukabex]

Perhaps it is to do with the stride distance when running as soulwounder suggested? If it’s working well with cycling that’s promising, but when you’ve put a lot of effort on to a long run and your watch has messed it up it’s extremely frustrating. It’s definitely improved since I first got it (when I first got it it decided to put 20 seconds per km onto my pace vs mobile tracking) but you’d expect better accuracy from a device in this price range.

[bmw54]

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@Lukabex wrote:

Now I KNOW that GPS watches aren’t 100% accurate, I understand how they work. But this isn’t the first time the Ionic has been 10-20% out whereas other people’s trackers have been significantly better. Honestly I’m tempted to sell the thing on eBay and get an Apple Watch, because it’s ridiculous.

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This topic has been discussed at length in this thread: GPS Inaccuracies

Unfortunately you'd need days to read in full. But it starts within days of Ionic's release and peters out a month ago when competitive runners realized it uses stridelength times stepcount to measure distance and pace when running. This is the company's strategy and not a software bug.

All sorts of tests have proven this and it's been confirmed on chat sessions. All of this is posted in the thread.

Biking is different. It seems to use pure GPS to measure distance and pace.

[Lukabex]

If I’d known this before I’d bought it I wouldn’t have bought dropped £300 on the piece of crap.

[gladtobe]

For the last few weeks I have used my fitbit ionic and runkeeper. When I have adjusted the GPS on runkeeper then the ionic and runkeeper data are very nearly the same . The margin of error is now so small i could do my running training without my phone and runkeeper. However the issue of nor being able to access google music ( that I pay for) on my fitbit ionic stops me doing this.

The pace on the fitbit has proved useful and accurate over the last few weeks. Akin to my google watch.

So much better. Was thinking about taking it back but will keep if this continues

[Tunah85]

@gladtobe I wish I had the same experience as you.

When tracking my runs with both my phone (strava) and the Fitbit Ionic the Ionic continues to track the distance consistently short.

The difference is about 1.5% each and every time...

A 10k run will consistently read 150m short... a 5k run will be short by around 70-80m on average.

It is extremely disappointing that Fitbit hasn't fixed this issue... Recently I asked their support team for a refund (despite being past the 90 days) based on the fact their device does not perform adequately or as advertised.  They refused to refund me for my device, simply stating that a fix was in the works.

I tried to be patient and give the Fitbit team time to fix their mistakes, and that patience has NOT been rewarded. 

The GPS is still not as accurate as it should be, the HR tracking has major glitches (try leaving your fitbit in workout mode for the entire day... your HR will be 100-120 even when your just sitting!), and the device does not work well with any bluetooth headphones I have tried.

I am extremely disappointed and have left reviews everywhere warning off perspective buyers... I hope nobody gets stuck with this inadequate device... Get your refund while (if) you can.

[bmw54]

After months of totally Innaccurate stats, especially during road racing, my Ionic managed to perform well yesterday. Not perfectly, but well enough to be functional. At each of last fall's races Ionic understated distance by at least 33% and close to doubled my pace (both relative to official results in chip-measured races)

This is encouraging, hopefully GPS can stay connected beyond an hour and withstand long sleeves. If so, I might keep it.

Here are yesterday's stats:

[gladtobe]

My run yesterday was 8 miles long and took 1 hour 40 mins so it stayed connected for the whole run. 

Doing a 3 mile run later see if it keeps the accuracy up 

Btw someone mentioned a 1.5% difference,  to me that is acceptable. All gps watches will not measure exactly the same. 

[Tunah85]

While I agree 1.5% doesn't seem like a lot at first, over the course of a half marathon that's a 300m difference... which will put your time out by a good 90 seconds.

What is most worrisome is that ALL other GPS devices I have used, and others have used around me seem to fall within less than 0.5% difference... So the Ionic is definitely the outlier... It is ALWAYS under by 1.5% for me... Devices such as my Phone's GPS, Garmin, and the Apple watch all agree with one-another within a much smaller deviation.

Finally, don't let Fit Bit off the hook.  Just one month ago they admitted that this is a STILL a problem their engineers are working on.  This was after the most recent update.  FITBIT knows its a problem, they are just taking a frustratingly long time to fix it.

[Denodan]

Very true. Weather and more so solar activity can throw GPS well off. No GPS, unless military is accurate and can very day to day.

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@gladtobe wrote:

My run yesterday was 8 miles long and took 1 hour 40 mins so it stayed connected for the whole run. 

Doing a 3 mile run later see if it keeps the accuracy up 

Btw someone mentioned a 1.5% difference,  to me that is acceptable. All gps watches will not measure exactly the same. 

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[Tex52]

@Denodan,

Don't rationalize Fitbits shortcomings. I took mine back and got an Apple watch and it has been 100% accurate, with weather, sun spots or anything else. And it's actually a smart watch that is fully functional. Fitbit just doesn't care if your GPS works or not.

[SantiR]

Hello everyone! I hope you're all doing well. Thanks for your continued participation in this thread regarding Ionic's distance when tracking a GPS activity. 

Our team has received the feedback from everyone in this thread and is working to investigate these reports further. I will share updates from the team when I hear them.

Thanks for your patience and understanding. Keep me posted!