Charge 4 GPS distance inaccurate

[Jessica-Rose19]

Hi there,

I have noticed over the last week that the GPS on my Charge 4 does not seem to be tracking correctly at all.

I do a daily walk which I know is q.3 miles each way, I set my workout before I leave my house and every day I get a different distance however it is nowhere near what it should be.

Today for example, I checked the tracker when I arrived at my destination and it said I had walked 1.5km. I did exactly the same route on my way home yet it totaled my complete workout at 2.31km, meaning only. 8 of my distance was tracked on my way home.

What is going on? Are there issues being experienced with Fitbit and this is why this is happening? The same workout last week was giving me 3.86km total workout so I have no idea what is happening as I am not doing anything differently?

Can someone please help as this is driving me insane!

Thank you in advance

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[friedmande]

I recently joined a running group and regularly go out with 2 other people, 1 with a Garmin and 1 with an Apple Watch. Without fail my Charge 4 is adding 1+ miles to our run every week. We run on a marked trail so we know far how we’re going and I am always way off. App is up to date, device is restarted, no option to update firmware. The tracking is completely useless unless you all have some other thoughts?

[ScribeOfTheMist]

Nope, it is indeed completely useless. My Charge 4 worked for a couple of months and then started doing the exact same thing you are describing.

[CityLion]

You can trust it to be inaccurate.

[kimberleym]

Me too. So frustrating.

[CityLion]

What a silly best answer. Any Fitbit Tracker running GPS rarely find anything close to the same distance each time; even when laps on a measured course. Fitbit is inaccurate because the algorithms incapable of reasonable accuracy in everyday real world use. That has been and still is the best answer.

[ScribeOfTheMist]

It really is false advertising because people buy a smartwatch with a GPS specifically to get better accuracy without being tied down to a phone. If the GPS is not accurate what is the point? It would be like buying a flashlight that casts light in a totally random direction each time and never where you point it. Sure it's technically still a "flashlight" but it would be totally useless for the primary purpose for which it would be purchased.

[Frustrating100]

I have the same issue. My runs are consistently 0.12 miles per every mile run less than my running partners. We both have Charge 4s and his mapped run is fairly accurate, whereas I lose almost a half mile during a 4 mile run. What's more frustrating is that you cannot correct the mile markers, so any record of progress is completely useless.

[kc_in_NY]

Thanks for posting this.  My Charge 4 has been giving me an error message that it's unable to get a GPS reading and giving me totally inaccurate pace and distances.  

[JiannWei]

I have a Charge 4 with me and yes the distance information is junk. I get different distances on the same route that I ran every day. And it always measures extra. On my recent 10km run, I am getting 600m extra compare with my friend's smart watch. I have got my GPS and GLONASS on, the low power mode off and I still cannot get an accurate result. Is there a way to disable the stride algorithm? 

[jpec]

If " Note that when you track an exercise with GPS, both GPS and accelerometer data are used to calculate the distance shown in the Fitbit app" is true, then it would seem the system is error prone.  The GPS distance is the only distance that should be reported.  Steps taken can then be divided into the GPS distance to give an average stride length.  To use accelerometer data (number of steps) to measure distance when GPS data are available is not necessary and would only make the mileage value less accurate (unless the stride length used is the average stride length for the particular exercise, in which cased the GPS length would need be used to generate the average stride length.)..  

[YULmartha]

My Charge5 overstates distance by 30%! The old Charge 2 was pretty accurate. It's disappointing. 

[YULmartha]

My Charge 5 consistenly overstates my distance by 30%. I do 10km and it reports 13km. I could accept a 5% variance, but this is just awful. The old Charge 2 was always bang on. 

[Cindy201]

Same issue here with the charge 5. I got it in August 2022, GPS worked fine until Dec 2022. Have done everything charge 4 users are being asked to do. No luck. Still inaccurate and actually makes no sense from run to run. BTW I have been using the run mode in place of a downhill ski mode since Fitbit doesn't have one. Nor does it have a mountain biking mode so I am wondering why I even use it. The GPS was the only thing is HAD going for it and now THAT doesn't work. Has a solution ever been posed?