Charge 4 won't connect to GPS

[Kcoston]

why won't my charge 4 connect to GPS? It just keeps on showing "connecting" but never does. Had no trouble with the Ionic GPS connecting...

[Pesky]

Is it working now you adjusted / edited your settings awww

[trinity2979]

Pesky - I'm not sure who your post was for but since I'm right above it, I'll answer.

Nope.  I edited my reply in case someone saw it and needed more information.   Those have been the settings I've been using and I still have issues with dropping GPS signal or no signal at all.

[adwriter]

Yes it is, just severely compromised battery life when using GPS.

Moderator edit: personal info removed

[Lizzles71]

Send it back. That's what I did, got a full refund and purchased a Garmin
Forerunner 45 plus instead, and totally love it.

[SunsetRunner]

Looks like I'll be returning my Charge 4 for the same reason. The GPS is unreliable, and GPS is the only reason I bought this watch.

It's too bad, since I like everything else about it.

[JuanCPrado]

It seems it won’t connect unless it’s charged above 80%. 
thank you it worked after a full charge 

Actually, I want to take it back, it doesn’t work even after a full charge. It’s totally a hit or miss. 

Moderator edit: merged reply

[AlejandraFitbit]

Hey guys, thanks for your participation in the Forums.

I appreciate all the efforts in trying to fix this GPS issue. @Lizzles71, I am sorry to hear that you returned your device. If in the future there is anything we can help you with, do not hesitate  to post it.

@SunsetRunner and @JuanCPrado, before doing that, I recommend taking a look at the help article: Why isn't GPS working on my Fitbit device? and follow the steps provided there.

Have a good day!

[Jonnyjmay]

Hello Alejandra,

I have recently bought a Fitbit charge 4 but am unfortunately very disappointed so far.

I bought this product specifically for the built-in GPS but it has not worked once yet.

It always says it is connecting and then fails after 10 minutes.

I have followed all the instructions and advice and read all of the help pages.

My device is over 80% battery.

I am in a very open area, with no high buildings or trees, and can see clear blue skies.

I have synced my Fitbit device with my phone many many times. (Although, to be clear, I do not want to use connected GPS through my phone, but the built-in GPS of the Fitbit).

Can you please advise what to do here? Is the product simply faulty? 

Thank you in advance for your help.

Jonny

[adwriter]

I understand your frustrations. And so many other Charge 4 users do as well.

The only way I got it to work was:

Swipe across to 'Settings' - GPS - choose 'Dynamic', and 'Glonass' .

See if this helps?

Moderator edit: personal info removed

[Jonnyjmay]

Hi Adwriter,

Thank you for your reply, and for trying to help.

I should have mentioned before, but I already have Glonass turned on, too.

I have also tried both 'dynamic gps' and 'in-built' gps too.

But I am only trying to use it without having my phone with me so, as I have understood so far, I don't really want the dynamic gps, which enables the device to find the phone gps proactively if it is available.

[gtbancroft]

Mine does the same thing. I went through all of these and it still does not connect, immediately turns GPS off.  I've started it outside in the open, still no luck.  It worked fine for several months but started this a few weeks ago.  It also no longer measures stairs correctly.  I will have done 50 flights of stairs without even leaving my house.  My Charge 2 seemed to work fine. This upgrade hasn't worked out well.

[Anne8524]

Have you taken the band off and cleaned the fitbit itself? That helped for me with the flights of stairs issue.

[gtbancroft]

Thank you, I will give that a try.

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[BillJ99x]

It's sad to see so many Fitbit owners struggling with such an essential feature of a fitness tracker - actually tracking workouts! And the problems have been ongoing for at least a year with no solution in sight.

Like many others in this thread I'm looking at other brands including Apple, Samsung and Garmin. 

[Lebrime]

I got my Charge 4 at Christmas and had no issues, including with GPS tracking on forest trails until about 2 months ago. Advice has been to also make sure tracker is charged to 80% when that was never an issue before. So, am I to take it off every night to charge, thereby losing my sleep tracking? I go out every morning at 06:30 for my walks/runs.  Even after contacting support and trying all their suggestions. I keep dropping GPS when there's no reason to. Seems to me the device is flawed. If a fitness tracker can't properly track exercise, then what's the point of wearing it?

[Gr4ndp4]

Hi, @Lebrime, welcome to the community. You may like to experiment with the GPS settings on your "Charge 4", the dynamic setting links to your phone's GPS but reverts to built-in if the Bluetooth link is lost and does not reconnect. Built-in is what it says but bear in mind the antenna is tiny and most likely to lose signal due to tall buildings, trees etc. Glonas is the Russian GPS system and the setting is only active when using the built-in GPS offering a slightly better signal in higher latitudes. Your Phone GPS is the most reliable and does not drain the device's battery.  These are of course compromises.

I hope this helps.

Cheers

[adwriter]

Hey there, I found I was charging mine every night, to make sure it had
enough charge to track my daily run. Then after just over a year, the
contacts on the back of the unit were so worn that I was unable to charge
it any more. Frustrating. I gave up in the end, bought a competitor's
tracker for $100 less than the Charg 4, I get a week's activity from each
recharge, plus all the data I need, more than Fitbit. Yes, maybe the Charge
4 wasn't Fitbit's best effort.
*Glenn Churches*

[Lebrime]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I turned off GLONASS (wasn't thrilled about running off Russian systems anyway), kept the GPS on my device set to 'Built-in GPS' and had spot on tracking this morning and it connected to GPS instantly. Now, to fix the O2 variations during sleep that make it look like I have only hours to live...

[Alibeer]

I cannot believe what I'm reading here. Fitbit knew about these issues with the Charge 4 for years and the unit is still being sold as a fitness tracker with a built-in GPS. It is fraud! I bought the **ahem** thing for the GPS and it stopped working after two weeks and not even the compromised settings would make it work. Really angry. Had a much cheaper Huawei before that worked a charm. Unfortunately it was stolen from me.

[anonymousp]

Go Into Settings>About>Reboot device