Ionic GPS not working

[SHaase]

A few weeks ago I started actively tracking my walks (via the Exercise app) with my Ionic, rather than just letting FitBit automagically figure out when I was out on a walk.  I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this would use the GPS in the Ionic to track my route and, at the end, I'd get a neat map showing where I went.  Unfortunately, my delight here was short-lived as it turns out the Ionic would only track my path some of the time, or only for part of my walk.  I did all the things to try to get it to sync before starting my walk, but sometimes it just would just display "connecting..." forever so I would have to go w/o it.  BTW, my standard walking route is about 90 mins through suburb streets, so no big buildings to worry about.  

After a couple weeks of this, I  noticed that the displayed distance from my walks seemed to vary dramatically - even though my route was unchanged.  The actual route I walk is roughly 5 miles, but it would get reported anywhere from 4.7 to 5.8 miles.  That's a pretty big swing.   

Today, I decided to not use the Exercise app (and hence GPS) on the Ionic and instead used the Fitbit app on my phone to track my walk.  The result, as judged by looking at the route on the map, seemed to be much more accurate than the walks I did using the Ionic.  The line on the map route using the GPS on my phone looked mostly straight (which they should, considering I was walking a straight sidewalk) whereas the maps from the Ionic are full of zig zags all over the place.

All of this leads me to wonder if the Ionic's GPS and Exercise app functionality is useless as it seems I can get better results just by using the Fitbit app on my phone.   Am I missing something?

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[SilviaFitbit]

@SHaase It's nice to see you on the Community. Sorry for the delayed reply. 

I appreciate the time you took to share your experience with Ionic's GPS. I would like you to check the following requirements: 

• Make sure that your device is charged to at least 80%.
• Make sure that you have a clear view of the sky when you start the exercise. Environmental factors, including tall buildings, dense forest, steep hills, and even thick cloud cover, can interfere with your device’s ability to connect to GPS satellites. If the signal is blocked—either because you're indoors, underground, or due to another reason—GPS won't work
• Avoid trying to start an exercise with GPS several times in a row, which can prevent your device from connecting to GPS.

If you're still experiencing the same after checking the information shared above, please attach an image of the GPS data you're receiving with your Ionic. 

Looking forward to hearing back from you. 

[SHaase]

Sorry for the delay in getting back.  For the GPS tracking on the Ionic, I did ensure the Ionic was fully (or nearly fully charged).  I did ensure I had a clear view of the sky by standing in my driveway (in the suburbs) - this rarely had an effect regardless of weather conditions, my positioning, etc.  I only tried to start an exercise on my Ionic once per walk.  More recently, I've also tried changing bands, and even removing the band entirely, starting a Walk exercise on the Ionic and then placing it on a table in the middle of my backyard with no buildings/trees nearby and with a clear view of the sky on a nice, sunny day with no/few clouds.  Even in this ideal situation, the Ionic will almost never get a GPS lock.

Below are are some examples of what I've been seeing.  As a reference point, the 1st map is from when I used my phone to track my exercise (Walk).  When I do this, the GPS always works flawlessly.  Note the nice, smooth lines with no breaks.

This is an exercise where I used my Ionic to track my walk when the Ionic was actually working "well".  Note the squiggly lines everywhere.  Also note that the path on this walk was nearly identical to the above one, though I left out a couple cul-de-sacs here.  Despite being a slightly shorter walk, it claims I actually walked almost a 1/2 mile longer.  I'm guessing it's because of the squiggles from its detection (rather than the straight lines I was walking, which is shorter).  It also lost GPS connection for a few mins at the end.  This, unfortunately, is really the best case sample for when I use my Ionic to track my exercise.

The Ionic didn't fare so well on many of my other walks.  On many of them, the GPS was never able to make a connection so there simply is no map to paste in.  On others, the GPS would cut in/out during the walk,  In this sample, it didn't track the 1st ~15 mins of the walk at all, then lost another ~5-10 mins in the middle (notice the very straight line on the left/top from 40th going north), and then it lost another 10-15 mins toward the end (though it did catch the last few mins).