Ionic's GPS signal not working

[AfricaRunner]

My Fitbit Ionic does not acquire a GPS signal when I start an activity, generally cycling or walking / hiking. Does anyone have advice on how to rectify this?

Moderator edit: Updated subject for clarity 

[Smiffyblackpool]

Funny you should say but I did a measured mile with the ionic on. It never found a signal. Nothing new there ! At the end it measured the mile at 0.86! Not even close. Just a waste of time. To top it all I received an email telling me they have launched a fitbit charge 4 with built in GPS.  How dare they. #tradingstandards here I come!Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

[Smiffyblackpool]

I would go for a Garmin anyday now. Had one before and loved it. If you want some thing for steps use the pedometer on your phone. Fitbit don't seem to even be bothered that the ionic doesn't work but are more than happy to launch a new product And advertising the built in GPS!Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

[SilviaFitbit]

Hey everyone! Sorry for the delayed reply. 

Thank you for sharing what you're experiencing with your Ionic. I appreciate the troubleshooting tried. 

I would like you to double check the following requirements, then try this troubleshooting if necessary: 

• 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 phone’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. 
• Confirm that Bluetooth on your phone is turned on, and your device is connected under your phone’s Bluetooth settings. 
• Make sure that phone is within 30 feet of your device.
• Make sure that your device can sync with the Fitbit app. For more information, see How do Fitbit devices sync their data?
• Make sure that your phone can identify your location and can track your location. For more information, see  How do I allow the Fitbit app to use my phone's GPS sensors?
• Confirm that the Fitbit app can run in the background on your phone and track your location.

Also, there's a new firmware update that just started rolling out, please make sure to update your Ionic once you get it, this update includes bug fixes and improvements. 

I'll be around if you have any additional questions. 

[JLnk]

So I did install the firmware update and now my Ionic us totally bricked.
Totally dead. It won't charge, the HR light is out and none of the buttons
do anything.

[Smiffyblackpool]

Oh my goodness. How many times are you guys going to ask us to try all these trouble shooting options. The ionic GPS is not working properly. You have the cheek to launch a new watch fitbit charge 4 but cant/won't sort out the ionic.When i asked about the 2 year gaurentee you told me i had 45 days to return it from purchase date. I am looking into my rights and will be pursuing this with Trading StandardsSent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

[rozscott]

Hi Silvia, thanks for joining the party...

...However this feels like a little too little, a little too late...

As you have spotted from this thread, we're all pretty experienced users and have all had a pretty good go at making our Fitbit Ionics work, so the standard troubleshooting tips are all things that we've tried and feel, frankly, like trying to teach Grandma to suck eggs.

Am I right to assume from your response that you think we should be syncing our Ionics with our phones in order to get a GPS signal????  I don't go running with my phone, that's precisely why I spent so much money on an Ionic, so I didn't have to!!

I live in the mountains... there are no buildings around me.

I bought myself a Garmin watch after a month of no response from anyone at Fitbit and have used both together - the Garmin has had absolutely no issues connecting to the relevant satellites, even on cloudy days (the most that I get to blocked signal), whereas my Ionic has yet to spot a single satellite in the last 2 months...

Perhaps you can understand that I'm getting a little frustrated with your product's lack of functionality and your company's lack of interest or any form of commitment to action...

[BradyLight]

I also got fed up waiting for Fitbit to respond to the Ionic gps issue.  I got an Apple Watch about two weeks ago and it gets the gps every time.  I won’t be buying another Fitbit.  Fitbit’s product support is unacceptable.

[usher99]

Just an observation.  I had the worst time today acquiring a gps fix.  It took 10 min into my run.  It occurred to me that I had not synced it in a few days and had Bluetooth off.  I synced it and left BT on and it acquired a signal in the usual 30 sec or so.  I did a short “hike” outside of BT range and it was fine. 

I had checked the gps satellite constellation on my phone with gps app and there were plenty around and no obstructions when I had run.  Knowing the current location from the phone must speed it up.  I see this has been reported before. 

Αlso  when I stopped to check my stats the Ionic froze with dark screen and had to reboot.  This happens every few runs.   It seems the firmware has bugs but syncing right before a GPS activity and leaving bt on appears to help considerably.  I will do so from now on and hope they fix the freezing issue. I can live with the quirks as long as it doesn’t freeze.  If I don’t stop to check stats, it does ok.  

[DonaldMReif]

None of those methods have worked.

[usher99]

I tried again today and with that method, signal acquisition was very quick for me.  I do not know why such heterogeneity of experience with this issue exists but I hope FitBit comes up with a near universal solution soon as GPS use is a mission critical feature. 

[Kyle_w_h]

So, the update completely disabled GPS. It used to find a signal, but it was completely unreliable. Now it just says searching for the whole 7 mile run. Nicely done fitbit. I think this was the final straw, which really makes me sad. I have been a user for a long time, and really was hoping this would work.

[Iwan]

Hi Silvia

I have to agree with rozscott. Sometimes it's wise for you to just not post anything. We are the brand loyal customers Fitbit should want to support. I had an Ionic update today. I'm running later this evening and hope it has solved all my GPS woes and not added to them as Kyle_w_h has just found after his Ionic update.

[Iwan]

Nope!

I updated the Ionic on Monday. Great hopes the GPS problems were gone.

The Monday and Tuesday runs were tracked by GPS.

Yaay!

When I set off on Thursday's run, after connecting to the satellites, I checked a couple of times that the watch was tracking my run, but when there wasn't a vibration at the half mile landmark I checked my watch and it was back on the main time screen! When I synchronised the watch and phone later it simply showed me that it had "sensed" I had been on a run.

No, I was not running in an underground tunnel or surrounded by skyscrapers. The sun had come out and the sky was mostly blue with a few clouds after an afternoon of rain. I ran the same route I had run on Monday and Tuesday.

What an opportunity missed by Fitbit to fix the glitch. I am truly feeling disappointed.

[Barrettini]

I completely agree. It has become a basic digital watch. My Fitbit ionic has been the worst purchase I can recall. I am on my third one in a year (at least they replace it during warranty without too much hassle) and just waiting for it to fail. 10 months in and the GPS hasn’t worked on a run for nearly a month now. Counting down the days until the heat mo it or fails and then I get black screen just like the last two. Total joke a product.

[usher99]

Discouraging to hear that.  I have not been kicked out of the run screen since the last upgrade.  It lost the satellite feed for 5-10 min during my last run but otherwise has been decent. It has auto synced to strava ok.  I hope they continue to crush the bugs.  It is about time.  

[Smiffyblackpool]

Hi. Glad to here you are getting along better with it. Mine started to pick up GPS ok but the accuracy wasn't great. To would lose the signal and not record runs correctly. That bad that I have given up and now use  a Garmin forerunner 45 which I purchased for half the price. It is accurate and picks up GPS within around 2 minutes. Once it's found GPS it doesn't lose it. I am so much happier.I have given the ionic to my husband who uses it but not for running.probably In my experience what fitbit should have avoided as well as in my opinion they shouldn't sell something stating it has a built in GPS if it is not reliable.Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

[Ibbo68]

I've tried everything and my Ionic will not get a GPS signal.It records everything else but no GPS.I'm pretty close to binning it TBH.

[Smiffyblackpool]

I am not surprised. That's why I bought the Garmin as I couldn't stand the unreliability.  My training group have been training separately during lock down and our coach has set us sessions to do eg  1 mile time trial and 3 mile tempo runs and I couldn't rely on the ionic to record the distances accurately. On run which I know is just short of 4 miles the ionic measured it at 4.2. Another time it lost the GPS  and just recorded a straight line back to work. It's not good at all so I gave up!🙄Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

[Kyle_w_h]

So, my wife and I both have the Ionic, I gave up on mine a couple months ago after the GPS bounce was so bad that it was essentially unusable. For some reason, my wife's still worked. I got a Garmin Fenix 5x from gpsnation.com for $249, about the same cost as a new Ionic. I'm very pleased with the switch. Recently we updated our phones. Her Ionic, which was working and tracking GPS didn't sync with the new phone. On the advice of Fitbit support, she attempted a factory reset, which essentially bricked her Ionic. It now longer powers on. We purchased a Garmin Vivoactive 3 for $99. Best thing is that the vendor has a 2 year warranty, which Fitbit doesn't offer.

We are both pleased with the purchase, but heartbroken that we had to move from Fitbit. Ultimately, we were Fitbit users for many years, and enjoyed the App, the community, and the connections with friends and family. Seems like if you are serious about GPS being part of the experience, Fitbit just may not be the way to go any longer. I think that Fitbit may be a good way to get people active, but maybe once you have gone beyond that level and you are more serious about biking and running, then maybe it's time to move on.

[tycour]

So frustrating - and the lack of support from Fitbit is ridiculous. Switching to another brnd that cares about its customers