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

[pedris]

Ran a certified half marathon distance on Sunday. My Ionic measured the distance covered as 20.89km which isn't too far off. Pace readings during the event kept jumping all over the place - far less accurate or useful than my Surge. Is it too much to hope for Fitbit to fix this by the Frankfurt Marathon at the end of the month? What's the point of having a 350€ running watch if I have to do mental pace calculations during a race.

[DTFC1907]

I noticed the other day within Fitbit that the map showed one distance but the total distance in the top left hand corner was 0.5km more ... which ties in with what you are saying. The data seems to be there but it isn't being translated correctly.

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[cwt137]

Was it the instant pace or the average pace? Average pace shouldn't jump that much. I have a Surge and I hardly use instant pace because it jumps around a lot too.

[DTFC1907]

Hopefully these both show up - look at the total distance on the map v the total distance in the top left hand corner. Something isn't being translated correctly within the Fitbit brain ... so the error might not be in the actual watch.

[vilvic]

My distances are matching the watch and in the fitbit app.  I've added the same run, one from today and one from August.  The August GPS goes off track a little but I've run this route quite a few times and always tracks at 5k.  You'll also notice the difference in pace between today and August.  The pace today is erratic whereas quite even in August.

The run today was 4.5k even though I go the same distance as the 5k route (in fact, I think I went a little further today).  I exported the gpx from strava (4.5k as well) and imported that into maplorer.  As you can see from the detail the distance is 5.02k.

My conclusion is that the ionic is getting all the map data correctly, how it is using it appears to be wrong.  I assume the fitbit surge is applying some smoothing algorithm to the pace which hasn't been implemented on the fitbit ionic.

Given that fitbit has already produced GPS running watches it is disappointing that the ionic has issues.  You'd think that plenty of testing would have occurred prior to release but given how far off some of the results are suggests getting the product to market was more important that getting the device fit for purpose.

However, all GPS points seem to have been recorded during runs suggests that a fix is only a matter of time.  Shame they didn't get it right first time.

[Hahol]

Some more testing:same rollerski track but this time in “bike mode”. Autpause was on, but i kept skiing all the time. The reading was approx 15 % short on distance and time used. Next time I will turn off autpause. There seems to be an issue with the way Ionic is applying the collected data.

[MartV]

I am having the same issue. I run the same 5k track every time and since I started using my Ionic I keep getting about 10% less distance in the Ionic compared to the gps on my phone (using Runkeeper). At the end of the run, Runkeeper tells me I completed 5k while the Ionic tells me it was only just over 4.6k

[bpostofwc]

Mine is awful. I've had many GPS watches including the surge and I have decided the Ionic is not reliable. I run everyday and rely on splits off the watch. The splits during the run don't match the readout on the app and it shows me slow due to the shorter distances it's tracking. Ran a 10 mile race today 6:06 pace. The watch showed I did 9.1 miles and my fastest mile was 6:20. Ran the course before and know it is accurate. Fed up. Hope it gets fixed. 

[vilvic]

I quite often pace a 5k park run and the ionic is unusable for that. I used the surge previously and I could use the pace on the watch to keep my pace on track. The ionic distance and pace are inaccurate and unusable. I was nearly a minute up on the time I was supposed to do. 

I'm seriously considering returning it to the store. I really like the watch but in its current state it's useless as a fitness watch. 

At £300 you'd expect that FitBit would have actually tested it. It's not like they haven't created GPS watched before either.  I'm am very disappointed with this product.

[pedris]

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@cwt137 wrote:

Was it the instant pace or the average pace? Average pace shouldn't jump that much. I have a Surge and I hardly use instant pace because it jumps around a lot too.

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Instant. I found my Surge jumped around a bit, but manageably so. The Ionic is all over the place.

Also - unless I'm doing something daft -  not only is there a 10 second or so delay before the kilometre notifications display, but they seem completely off.

For example, my kilometre times (automatic 1k cues) for the first 5k for a recent 20k run I did were all between 4:55/km and 5:15/km, yet I crossed the 5k mark at almost exactly 27m00s. Something is horribly off.

I also don't understand why the 1k cues seem to display in 5 second increments. If it's a measure of the time taken to cover the last kilometre, it should be to the second.

Whatis the number I see onscreen? How do I change this?

[pedris]

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@bpostofwc wrote:

Mine is awful. I've had many GPS watches including the surge and I have decided the Ionic is not reliable. I run everyday and rely on splits off the watch. The splits during the run don't match the readout on the app and it shows me slow due to the shorter distances it's tracking. Ran a 10 mile race today 6:06 pace. The watch showed I did 9.1 miles and my fastest mile was 6:20. Ran the course before and know it is accurate. Fed up. Hope it gets fixed. 

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Same issue here. Running the Frankfurt Marathon on Sunday (carrying a calf injury and a few other niggles), but still aiming for a 3:06. Not sure how to do this with such an unreliable watch. Losing a few minutes early on due to Fitbit's Ionic could turn my personal Snowden into an Everest. Ironically, I'd switch back to my Surge if I hadn't chucked it.

[pedris]

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@vilvic wrote:

I quite often pace a 5k park run and the ionic is unusable for that. I used the surge previously and I could use the pace on the watch to keep my pace on track. The ionic distance and pace are inaccurate and unusable. I was nearly a minute up on the time I was supposed to do. 

I'm seriously considering returning it to the store. I really like the watch but in its current state it's useless as a fitness watch. 

At £300 you'd expect that FitBit would have actually tested it. It's not like they haven't created GPS watched before either.  I'm am very disappointed with this product.

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Same here. Planning on contacting Fitbit about this in the week. If the problem can't be fixed (and I very much hope it can!), I'll look at returning the watch and getting a Garmin.

[SunsetRunner]

Best bet here is for everyone to open a direct ticket with Fitbit as the more they know if it is a huge issue the better.

[Hahol]

Good idea! How do we go about that?

[bpostofwc]

I've tried asking about it on twitter but they only told me I'm using it wrong and to calibrate my stride length. Obviously not the problem though. 

[Fattire]

I just returned mine because I was also bothered by the GPS.  I ran 8.9 miles and it logged it as 8.4 - not a huge difference I know, but it messes up my estimated splits.  Plus the GPS signal kept cutting out, so only about 2 miles of that was logged on the map.  

Just annoying cause older versions did this fine.  I went back to my charge 2 with assisted GPS

[SunsetRunner]

Can anyone explain this? Never had anything like this with a GPS watch before. I did a run on Sunday and the Fitbit logged it as several miles short, should be 10+ but it said 8.1miles. Then when I look on Fitbit app it has cut out half way through the run - see the track just ends whereas we finished where we started. But the track that has auto-synched to Strava is complete!? Can't figure out what has gone on? My miles in Strava are still listed as only 8.1 when this is impossible! Is there anywhere I can send this to Fitbit for comment or does anyone have any ideas? Unless this gets fixed soon the watch is useless to me, which is a shame as I really like it otherwise.

[Colinm39]

@HaholWelcome.... Try this link and work your way through the options..At the end you will get an option to email us.. I have just submitted a request and I could only use the Data option.

Before you submit the case, DEFINITELY, cut and paste a copy of he text message you have submitted..... because you will get a reply email with the Case #  and there is no copy of what you have submitted.

Best of luck...

.

[derekryan]

Hi everyone, I have only just recently got my first tracker (Ionic)

For the first few days everything went well. I got the GPS working and logged a couple of walks but over the last week, although I've started the GPS I have no data from it!!

Any help would be gratefully received.

Thanks

[SunsetRunner]

I feel like they are refusing to forward along or to acknowledge there is a bug, here is another response I got back from them:

Hi Nicholas,

Thanks for coming back to us to request further information or troubleshooting instructions with the GPS accuracy issue and for providing us the link about the community post, where this issue is now being discussed. Rest assured that our team will take a look at each one of these cases to provide with the proper resolution.

First of all, we'd like to reinforce that our recommendation is to avoid comparing data between Fitbit devices and other devices, taking into account that each device has its own algorithm or measurement system,  which allows it to calculate such information as distance and GPS. Taking that into consideration we're sure that the information from our devices won't match with the information registered by other devices, like Garmin for example. 

Additionally, the environment you are in can affect the signal strength of GPS. For example, if you are running in an urban environment with many tall buildings, it may take your Ionic several seconds to get a fix. To learn more about using GPS on your Ionic, visit How do I use exercise apps and modes on my Fitbit device?​

In addition to that, we want to let you know that our devices use your step count and stride length information to calculate the distance whenever you are performing an activity or exercise with the GPS off, otherwise, the distance reflected on the exercise details screen or summary, will be the information gathered by the GPS and it would be the information calculated by this system only (map on the activity). 

If you still are not satisfy with this answer nor with the accuracy of our devices, since we're unable to proceed with a replacement, you can recall the refund process visiting our page http://returns.narvar.com/fitbit/returns​ where you will receive all the information and instructions to start with the refund process. 

We here at Fitbit always strive for our customer's satisfaction and we're devoted to putting heart and soul into making every single beloved family member like you have the best and most enjoyable experience ever while using our products, there's no doubt that you're one of them. 

If you ever find yourself in need of help again, don't hesitate to reach out to us. We'd be more than glad to provide you all the support that you need.

Sincerely,

Carlos CB and the Fitbit Team

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