Ionic GPS and battery inconveniences

[BS3Rob]

I hope this post serves as a test case for Fitbit engineering, QA or management, because it's a brand new watch running the latest firmware, and I followed all of the advice given on this forum. Being in IT myself, in conjunction with threads on this forum I've similarly diagnosed what I believe are the issues. 

It's amazing to me that these have not been isolated properly and fixed, as they seem pretty obvious.

First up let me say I read so many threads on this forum before purchasing but having experimented with the device in store I love the look of it and the screen and interaction is far better than the Apple Watch, so I wanted to take a risk. Even in practice it's a great smartwatch, Fitbit Pay (for example) is way better on many fronts than Apple Pay (faster and more reliable on transit systems, and a better experience).

So I wanted to like this watch, I really did, that's why I tried so hard to figure out the problems (as it looks like so many other willing customers have on here too):

Purchased Sunday. Installed latest firmware. 4x daily early morning 10k runs:

• 10km run Monday - 100% battery with music. Carried no other device. GPS connected in 30 seconds and maintained throughout run. However tracked route and distance a little way off (route visibly so on map)..... Concerned but not giving up on watch.  
• 10km run Tuesday - 55% battery with music. GPS took 3 minutes to connect and continually fell back to disconnecting during run. By 2km the tracked route was just nonsensical direct lines made up by software, bearing no relation to route. By 4km GPS had failed altogether and permanently connecting such that it couldn't even track or record the remainder of the route, which I cut short as it was too much of a distraction..... Frustrated but willing to isolate issue. 
• 10km run Wednesday - Rebooted watch (as per advice) and ensured 100% battery. Returned to carrying iPhone (as a backup). GPS connected in 30 seconds and maintained throughout run. Tracked routed a little more accurate than Monday but not 100% accurate and worse than route recorded by iPhone. Distance about 3-5% under actual (having run the same route for 2 years)..... Frustrated at the bugs and issues but pleased at improvement with 100% power & reboot.
• 10km run Thursday - 100% battery and again rebooted watch and carried iPhone to record as a backup. GPS connected in 30 seconds and maintained. At around 7km for no reason it crashed and started a new run, losing the first 7km route. The resultant 2.5k recorded actually includes a map (see below) that isolates where the crash occurred (my diagnosis below) and includes lots of weird shuttle runs (that did not exist) which I think is an attempt by the software to account for the 7k of running it had recorded before the crash, by shoe-horning it into two points in the final 2km..... That's it, I'm returning.

Issues and Diagnosis

• The GPS inaccuracies on Mon/Wed has been well documented on this forum as a combination of: distance - alternative method of calculation (strides not route), and route - Ionic not holding a very strong or accurate GPS signal. On their own unacceptable for a watch with dedicated GPS.

• The GPS connecting issues and eventual complete loss of connection on Tuesday could only be down to 55% battery (since that's the only unique property of that run versus the other four). Others on this forum already commented on the Ionic GPS potentially being underpowered and I believe it given the problem only occurred in 1/4 runs with lower charge. If you play out the logic it makes a lot of sense, as a fix would  drain more power more quickly and I'm sure Fitbit have determined that generating stories about far worse battery life are more detrimental than stories about GPS issues.

• The crash today (Thursday) occurred at around 7km which many other users on this forum have reported also. I have read several users on this forum report an impact from passing a point they have passed before. In my map above, the "start" point (actually where it crashed) is the only point in my 10k route that I pass THREE times. Based on these prior diagnosis and my experience, this is obviously where the fault lies, and the attempt by the software to compensate for extra distance data it has, by inserting lots of spurious lines, evidences this is a failure of the Fitbit software. 

So there you go. A watch I really like and would love to keep and rely upon, instead is going back this weekend. You couldn't accuse me of not trying my best to test it out, and more power to those on here who have been doing this for months. 

Fitbit has had a year to fix these issues, they seem pretty well isolated:

• GPS distance accuracy - not using GPS data but stride data instead
• GPS route accuracy - weak or inaccurate GPS signal / triangulation
• GPS connection issues - underpowered device for GPS and/or battery life impact
• Run/GPS crash - software issues managing excess (>5k?) triangulation data in situations where the data appears to overlap or iterate, making it harder to reconcile the route

You'd think Fitbit engineers had never actually run more than once with the watch or further than 5k...

Bonus question: more fool me after my first Fitbit experience, but does the Versa offer the same apps/experience as the Ionic while using the iPhone GPS, and therefore avoid all these problems?

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[MarreFitbit]

It's nice to have you here @BS3Rob!  Sorry to hear about the inconveniences you've been having with your Fitbit Ionic. Thanks for the time you've taken to read the forums and to troubleshoot the GPS and battery issues.

Also, thanks you for the thorough feedback for the Fitbit environment, customer service and devices. This has not gone unnoticed and be sure that I will pass this along.

We don't want to create frustration in our customers. Fitbit has been designed to provide motivation and help you to reach your daily goals to success. Please know that we provide feedback to our team based on community posts and we are always working on improving our devices and overall environment based on that feedback.

I was about to create a support case on your behalf, but I just saw that you got in touch with our support team recently. If you haven't checked your inbox yet, please keep an eye on it as next steps were sent to you.