How do I turn off the GPS on Charge 3?

[TriniGail]

I touched my Fitbit charge3 after reaching my daily goal and the gospel connected notification on my phone showed up as well the Fitbit keeps running a countdown and vibrating. I want to turn it off and get back to just the time on the first screen

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[MarreFitbit · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the Fitbit Community @TriniGail! Charge 3 can track runs with GPS automatically. After you start to run, the Exercise app opens to track your real-time stats, including heart-rate, pace, distance, and GPS route. Run tracking may take a few minutes to start. You must have your phone nearby to use connected GPS.

1. On your device, open the Exercise app > Run. 
2. Swipe up on Charge 3.
3. Find Run Detect and change the setting to On.
4. Find GPS and change the setting to On.
5. Press the back button to return to the exercise screen.

You can also customize various settings for each exercise type right on your device. For example, choose to: 

• Turn GPS on or off
• Automatically pause an activity when you stop moving (auto-pause)
• Receive alerts when you reach certain milestones during your workout (cues)
• Track runs automatically (run detect)

To customize your settings:

1. On your device, open the Exercise app.
2. Swipe through the list of exercises to find the one you want to customize.
3. Swipe up on Charge 3, and swipe through the list of settings.
4. Tap a setting to adjust it.
5. When you're done, press the back button to return to the exercise screen.
6. Tap the exercise screen and then tap the play icon to start the workout.

Let me know if this answers your inquiry.  

[marcoscu]

So how do I grt it to automatically turn off GPS after excercise?

[LZeeW]

@marcoscu   That connection from your tracker to your phone gets turned off when you end the exercise.

Is your Charge 3 behaving in a way that you think it is still connected?

[marcoscu]

Yes, I get Android phone notifications telling me that Connected GPS is running
Also,  and equally annoyingly, the Charge 3 monitors my Heart rate continuously, which is what I want, until I initiate an exercise session from my phone. It then monitors GPS and all other metrics except my HR. When I cancel the session it begins HR monitoring again. When the exercise session is started from the Charge 3, manually or automatically, it monitors the HR but not the GPS!

Thanks

[LZeeW]

@marcoscu   I'm sorry that I can't help you with your connection issue.  I am an iOS user and I have never experienced this issue.  Nor have I experienced the other issue you describe.  I hope that an Android user reads this post and has some advice for you.  If no one chimes in on this forum, I suggest you start a new thread on the Android forum.  Sounds like a setting issue.

[marcoscu]

Thanks anyway,
Have a great day!

[biglarrr]

From piecing together the constructive comments, I came up with the fix (at least on my wife's device)
You push the button on the side until you get to exercise.
Then slide to the left or right until an exercise appears. 
DO NOT tap the screen.
Swipe up and you will see the options for each exercise.
If GPS is turned on, tap GPS and it will go to off.
You might also want to turn off the Auto Detect for that exercise.
NOTE: Not all exercises have the same options, and some of them don't have GPS at all. 


The really sad thing is you paid for this option, but as with most fitbit add-ons, they suck battery, and rarely work correctly, 

[biglarrr]

Unfortunately, the "so called" best answer doesn't address the question.  And did the person who worte it even consider that not everyone on this forum is as familiar, or device literate, as you think you are.
Read the question.  Her fit bit activates the exercise program, and then will not allow her to terminate it. Your answer was basically the same information word for word in the manual, and it doesn't address the problem.

I did not have the problem. I was helping that person out with a solution that works - not a "Cut and paste" that doesn't come close to helping resolve her issue.

I figured out a solution when after nearly a year, my wife's Charge 3 started going into exercise mode and would not shut off. Pause just made it send annoying reminders every few minutes, and putting it on charge seemed to be the one thing that sometimes stopped it. The workable fix is to turn off auto detect and GPS. 

Basically you have to turn your multi-feature Charge 3 into a cheaper model that doesn't have the features you paid extra for.

[Szanne]

When you say “on the device, open the exercise app>run” what does that mean? By device do you mean the Fitbit app on my iPhone? Or the Fitbit device itself? 

And, what do you mean by exercise app? Do you mean the exercise section of the Fitbit app once it’s opened which takes work to find and just shows stats. Or do you mean the Fitbit app is the exercise app? And if so, where is “run”? It would be useful if my app looked like this because I can’t figure out how to do anything other than read endless stats. I want to know how to turn run detect on and off, etc. When I swipe up on my charge 3, again stats but no way to turn anything in or off. 

[biglarrr]

I fully agree with you.
It seems like even after having this thing for a year we have to do
everything twice or three times or more.
Changing anything is a major chore, not to mention a guess, because most of
the time it goes back to the adjustment you were trying to get rid of the
next day.
And of course, every time there's an update, everything resets back to
default(?) or to what they want you to use from the update.
I keep saying when this one dies, I'm through with Fitbit devices, but
we've bought three more since the first time I said that.
I must like aggravation and ansiety.

P.S. I wish I could get a moderator job at Fitbit.  All you need to know how to do is Cut and Paste. 
You don't have to read the issue, just find one word, and paste a response that uses that word. 
The moderator is probably a computer program, that does exactly that. 

[maartentrybou]

Dear Fitbit

I am trying to use gps tracking but it looks like my Fitbit exercise app does simply not foresee the possibility to choose gps tracking. I can choose autodetect, but besides this it is only indicated (in grey, without on/off switch) that gps tracking is not active. Do I need to install another app? 

Thanks on beforehand for your advice!

Maarten

[Alanae]

You are correct. The best answer doesnt solve the issue. In fact, it completely missed the point. 

My Fitbit has started operating quite erratically lately, including not recording exercise I do (yes, standard things like running, walking, aerobics) that are in my auto record list) and just recorded a phantom run in my sleep....0.04 miles all while lying flat on my back. It took me 45 minutes of fiddling with it to get frustrated enough to look here and thanks to your answer I got it off. Now just to figure out how to edit those calories and steps to eliminate the ones I didn't take!

[biglarrr]

Alanae:
I responded to your kind words, but the Fitbit moderator couldn't take a little criticism, so they marked my response as SPAM and deleted it. 
I did notice one of previous replies addressed some of the same issues, but two posts doesn't constitute SPAM. 
I hope you see this before they delete my comment again. 
Fitbit Support has turned into a call center, and the moderator comments on these forums are just "Cut and Paste(s) based on a single word that they see in your complaint, or question. 
I worked in a Support center for 13 years before I retired, and they're no longer support centers. 
They're Call centers, and employees are evaluated on how many calls or responses they make in an hour. Calls are closed automatically, if they send you a response, and you don't respond and tell them that the issue is not resolved.  Their fondest wish is that you don't call back, or respond to their Cut and Paste solutions, that more often than not, have nothing to do with the issue you reported. 
Good luck finding a phone number, and/or speaking to a human. At one point i had their phone number saved on my phone, but average wait time often ran close to an hour. I deleted the phone number after a particularly annoying instance of Some foreign Elevator music, interrupted every 40 seconds, by a recorded message telling me to patient, due to high call volume. 

[xxxx1xxxx]

Followed all these steps and turned it off but It is still running

[biglarrr]

I'm sorry to hear that. I haven't had the issue for over a year now. The only thing I can suggest is go thru it one more time. 

I do seem to remember that after a Fitbit update all of the settings went back to default and I had to go through the process one or two more times.

[Bonfire296]

If you want the GPS off check the weather feature that is where I turned it off and it seemed to end the constant syncing and message that GPS was running in the background