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

[bbarrera]

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@Frank00 wrote:
Just for the record... The Vivoactive 3 also works with the bike sensors, foot pod and the chest strap HRM.

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and even my Varia rear radar, but sadly, no power meter support. 

[AndyLB]

I've been using my Ionic for less than a month but the GPS location is off by over 1200ft.

Not 1200ft over a total run but the watch is placing me over 1200ft away from the location I'm at and shaving nearly a mile off my run. Is this normal? I've seen a lot of people with similar issues and I'm trying to figure out if there's a fix or I should just return it and get a different watch?

Below is an example. The route is 5 miles long measured on google but the Ionic is regularly entire city blocks off location and for a good portion of the run about a quarter mile away from where I actually am. 

Moderator Edit: Updated Subject for Clarity

[SantiR]

@AndyLB Welcome to the Fitbit family! That is very strange! Where were you running?

Usually, when GPS is not accurate is because the signal got blocked by any reason: being underground, near many tall buildings, or as a result of atmospheric effects. Check this helpful article for more details.

Is this the first time this happens to you? I'd recommend trying another GPS exercise to check if this continues to happen.

Alternatively, please perform a restart on your Ionic. 

Keep me posted! 

[MFLitchfield]

I've had the ionic some launch and interestingly enough gps is the only thing I don't have a compliant about. In general it has been +/- 1% of the expected. I've run one 5k and one 10k since getting the device (weekly runs not counting) and they have come in at exactly the expected distance.

[AndyLB]

My Ionic has been regularly off by a block or so. I went through a restart before my last run and this was the result that happened. I'll try another restart before my next run.

The area I'm in is a suburban part of Los Angeles. Not many tall buildings around.The weather was also clear.

[Runnermike]

I am having same issues. Ionic always under by about 10 pct versus other devices. Has Fitbit discovered an answer?

[tonny123]

Nope. Fitbit got your money so they don't care anymore.

Btw, I did some more tests before I sent my watch back to shop and GPS functionality is even funnier implemented than I thought. I did a car drive and decided to measure distance with my Fitbit Ionic watch. I think I'm still very naive in my assumption that a GPS watch can be used to measure a distance using GPS but not how frequent you can wave your hands. In the run mode watch decided that my 10.5km drive was 0km with 3264'04" pace. In the bike mode watch measured 18km drive as 11.89km one. So watch can ONLY measure distance when you run and maybe ride a bike. Not like 99% of other GPS watches that can measure whatever: run, bike, drive, flight, skiing, skating, kayaking...

[samgillespie]

@MattFitbit @MatthewFitbit  Do we have any updates on a possible fix in a upcoming firmware release?

The only benefit I can see currently is that I am in fact running further that it seems according to my tracker. However the frustration i have is that i spent a considerable amount of money on my Ionic and have to use other apps/technology in order to measure my pace properly. I would have been better off sticking with my blaze and Iphone combination. Thanks

[tonny123]

@samgillespie As far as I tried, Fitbit Ionic was rather spot on regarding pace/speed/distance during running. Garmin FR 935 reported exactly the same distance in the end. My Samsung S6 is reporting distance that is shorter than the actual one so you have to run couple of hundreds meters extra in order to get same distance with it. Another thing is that Ionic has too small screen and number of data fields shown could be more customizable. But it's fine. What pace measurements do you think are wrong? Can it be that some of the devices are showing average pace or actual pace with different polling interval in between? Also, do you want to run further or do you want to run correct distance? I personally prefer my GPS watch to report the exact distance. If you do run same trail all the time despite GPS accuracy you can compare runs to see if you are improving your time or not. Considering how unreliable Fitbit Ionic is can be better/cheaper just to stick to the normal stopwatch 🙂 (minus HR-data of course which accuracy I haven't checked yet)

[bmw54]

Tonny123 reported: I did a car drive and decided to measure distance with my Fitbit Ionic watch. I think I'm still very naive in my assumption that a GPS watch can be used to measure a distance using GPS but not how frequent you can wave your hands. In the run mode watch decided that my 10.5km drive was 0km with 3264'04" pace.

What he (she?) has confirmed, once again, is that the Run app uses stride length to measure pace and distance. In the car: no strides. no distance. 'infinitely' slow pace. 

I understand that fitbit has shown wisdom in blending GPS and step-count. This allows them to measure distance when you aren't able to get a GPS connection before starting a run. Or when GPS loses a connection mid-run. 

But it would be nice if they explained that to us and provided an app that uses actual GPS data to calculate distance, pace and stride-length. Then they could fall back to stride-length * steps during GPS disconnects. This could be fertile territory for an app developer.

[samgillespie]

Thanks @tonny123 the issue I noticed versus the Blaze/Iphone set up i was using before was that on my regular parkrun the Ionic was consistently measuring the course at 2.9 miles and the first mile was stretched to a point about 200m to 300m further down the course, now at the risk of sounding sarcastic which is not my intention. the parkrun course is measured at 5k or 3.10 M it hasn't shrunk and all other devices i have including my under armour record equipped running shoes using my phone for GPS are measuring it about the same. The outcome is that i have to rely on the pace notes from my shoes as based on this sadly the Ionic is not accurate in giving me a mile split time. I have found this to be the same in most of my regular routes and have passed on all sorts of data to fitbit to assist.  

[tonny123]

@bmw54 Stride measurement makes sense when you have no GPS data to use and you are using steps on order to guesstimate traveled distance. When you already acquired GPS location and you have constant and stable connection to the satellites - it's really superfluous (or maybe even stupid?) to require stride information.

It could be MUCH easier if Fitbit just admitted the problem and promised to fix this ASAP. Right now information on their webpage as well as shops selling their products has absolutely no information about it. It's a common sense that GPS watch should be able to track distance based on GPS. But Fitbit developers think otherwise. Also "let's go" phrase before acquiring GPS location is just misleading. It should require GPS connection and don't have any gimmick requiring step counting. I guess average Fitbit user is not familiar how GPS connection works so for them current solution is probably "good enough".

[MattyW]

Yes, to be honest I find it absolutely incredible that they don't just sort
it. The reason I bought the ionic is that I thought it would be a better
sports watch than my surge. When the Ionic first came out there was a
problem showing the split times on running cues - they ionic showed the
current pace when the cue came up, rather than the average of the previous
split. They fixed that with the update, but I reckon it should have taken
literally 5 minutes to fix. We get left here on these message boards not
really knowing what's happening. For all I know the GPS errors are just a
silly programming mistake which they've fixed and will roll out the
solution when they make the next update. However, it's also possible that
fitbit think there is a good reason to implement things as they are, but
they haven't explained it to us, or it maybe that they're not really fussed
about it and we're just a minority of overly fussy users who care about 10%
differences in speed and/or distance whereas most of the users are much
more concerned about the next clock faces or which new coffee shops we can
use without carrying a cumbersome credit card or tenner with us.
Personally, I was a reasonably happy fitbit user before the ionic, but I
can't see myself buying another one or recommending them to anyone else,
but I suppose they might sort everything out soon and I'll rave about it to
everyone.

[Frank00]

The bottom line is this is a $300 step counter.  That's sickening.

[tonny123]

@Frank00 It's a 300$ step counter that you can use with different wrist straps! I bet your 5$ step counter from Ebay doesn't have a 60$ leather band as an option 🙂

[tonny123]

@Frank00 I wanted to add that you can use apps and wireless payments but then I remembered that most of the apps are not available outside US and wireless payment system doesn't work with most of the banks in my country. So yeah, step counting and sleep tracking are the only features. And it's an attractive accessory of course. Especially with optional 60$ wristband.

[Frank00]

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wrote:

@Frank00 It's a 300$ step counter that you can use with different wrist straps! I bet your 5$ step counter from Ebay doesn't have a 60$ leather band as an option 🙂

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You make a good point!  

[Frank00]

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wrote:

@Frank00 I wanted to add that you can use apps and wireless payments but then I remembered that most of the apps are not available outside US and wireless payment system doesn't work with most of the banks in my country. So yeah, step counting and sleep tracking are the only features. And it's an attractive accessory of course. Especially with optional 60$ wristband.

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And... If everyone simply measured their running stride daily and kept this constant while running, this whole GPS mumbo jumbo would be a non-issue. 😉

[Tim76]

I raised a ticket directly with the fitbit customer services team this morning asking for an update to this issue. To their credit they responded quickly - however this is countered by the lack of content within their response. Don't hold your breath for a resolution to this one...

"Hi Tim, 
 
Thank you for the detailed information provided. It will be our pleasure to continue following up on the Ionic GPS function. 
 
Moving forward, we’d like to let you know that our engineers are aware and working very hard into establishing a solution for the GPS accuracy to improve the customer’s experience. At the moment, they are not able to provide an specific time frame since we don't want to set any false expectations to our customers.
 
Hopefully, this will be solved shortly and you will be able to enjoy your Fitbit Ionic watch with your cellphone.
 
We really appreciate your patience in this matter. Remember that we're always here to provide you with the best service, so please let us know in case of any update or additional inquiry you may have and we'd be more than happy to further assist you.

Sincerely,

Estefania C. and the Fitbit Team"

[tonny123]

@Tim76 That's the whole problem with this product: "you will be able to enjoy your Fitbit Ionic watch with your cellphone." How about make a product that can be enjoyed WITHOUT my cellphone!?

It can take a week, a month, a half year or never to fix this problem. As someone mentioned here in this thread, number of people who are complaining about the product is very small so it's easier/cheaper just to ignore them or make a return on the product. But it's good that we are raising tickets so Fitbit can see that this is a not "one of a kind" problem and that we need to fix it. I got "I will send this info further to design team" answer when I contacted them. But response speed, as you mentioned, was rather fast.