Connected GPS draining phone's battery

[dumbledad]

When I record an activity (cycling say) my Charge 2 uses my phone (a Google Pixel 2) to record GPS of the ride. That makes sense and I understand why that would drain the battery on my phone. But once the activity is over and I am sat in a meeting at work why is my phone still saying that "Fitbit connected GPS is running"? Surely hours after the activity it should have stopped?

[Tich]

I've found two things...

First with recent updates the battery drain for Connected GPS is unacceptably high. For example a 2 hour bike ride last night took my battery from 70% down to 0% (died right at the end of the ride!). I know and accept GPS will drain additional battery, but Endomondo, Zombies Run, and all my other tracking apps can track for 6 to 7 hours for similar drain. The Fitbit app is burning the battery with whatever it is doing, and it didn't used to, this is new behavior.

Secondly, as you say, the battery drain continues once your run/ride is finished, continuing to drain your battery until the phone is utterly out of power (or for me, until Stamina mode kicks in on my Sony!). I've found that forcing the app closed after tracking is the only way to preserve battery. Again this is new behavior and didn't used to be the case.

Fitbit's Android app has been getting worse and worse. They focus on pointless tweaks (eg the new dashboard) but refuse to fix long standing issues and their QA is a complete failure when issues such as high battery drain make it into production.

[AlvaroFitbit]

@dumbledad @Tich Welcome! It's great to see you around. There was an issue with the Android app using too much mobile data and draining tracker's battery. A fix has been released so please update your app and let us know if this helps.

Keep me posted!

[Ljshimp123]

Reinstalled my app and can't turn off gps and drains my battery!🤨

[AlvaroFitbit]

@Ljshimp123 A warm welcome to our Community! Sorry to hear that your can't turn off your GPS and for the delay in my reply.

The GPS is controlled by your phone so this is really odd. I suggest you log out from the app, restart your phone and log back in. Also check the apps permission settings on Settings > Apps > Fitbit > permissions.

Let me know how it goes.

[angwe]

@AlvaroFitbit - You are answering exactly the WRONG issue. The phone controls the GPS, yes, but I have found with my Charge 3 lately, as these users had found with their own devices, that the Fitbit App is requesting the GPS, even when it is not tracking an activity. This is an issue with the app not the phone. I find it completely unacceptable to have to either force-quit the Fitbit app (which doesn't always stop the issue from coming back when the tracker syncs again), or turn off all location services (GPS) until I explicitly want to use them again - which is what I am currently stuck doing - if I don't want my phone's battery to die.

A well-programmed app would properly stop requesting GPS updates when an activity is done (or, as is often the case since I apparently walk very fast, when an activity tracking is rejected - my lunch walk is not a run that I need tracked). Please indicate if there are any plans to update the software for Android so that it behaves properly.

[angwe]

FWIW - I thought I got a solution reinstalling the app on the phone. It didn't actually stop the problem, it recurred as soon as I synced the tracker. Actually recording a run with the connected GPS might have done it, but I can't be certain it won't come back. It seems like the worst way to get an app to stop draining the battery.

[brmacc]

I have been having this problem with Charge 3 on Android. I am running latest version of the app. For no reason that I can see it just kicks into GPS running mode. Like in the morning before I have done any sort of activity that would have activated the tracking. It can drain the battery of my phone (which otherwise performs just fine) in a couple of hours. Don't remember how I resolved this the first time it happened, which was about 3 weeks ago, but this time I was able to disable it is by restarting the phone with battery saver engaged. Interestingly when I checked app permissions Fitbit had allowed itself to override battery saving features so I have not allowed that.  I'll see how long it takes before this phantom GPS takes over again.

Please address this issue in further updates of this app.

[yarbran]

I have same problem. Running all the time.  Tried all things I have seen on this feed. Finally Uninstaller and not using my charge 3.