Why does my GPS map always has a straight line and not my actual running route?

[Ritarita]

Hi, my map on my Fitbit charge is always just a straight line and not my actual running route. I've checked everything before I go for a run and it all works, but afterwards the map just shows a straight line. It tracks my splits, time, but not my route. Location is on, gps is on, I just can't work it out. Any advice very much appreciated. 

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity. 

[AndreaFitbit]

Welcome to the Fitbit Community @Ritarita. I'll be happy to assist you with your running route inquiry.

Sometimes exercise route appears as a straight line because tracker loses connectivity with phone's GPS. Could you please let me know which is your phone's model?

You can also check help article: How do I use GPS on my Fitbit device?

Please let me know if you have questions and I'll be waiting for your response. 

[Ritarita]

Thanks for replying. I have a Huawei p smart phone. Should this make a difference?

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

[AndreaFitbit]

Thanks for getting back to us @Ritarita. Your phone´s model is not included in the Compatible list and it could work sometimes but since this device has not been tested we can´t assure that all features will work. Including connected GPS.

Please let me know if you have more questions. 

[CookiemanBelge]

I have the same problem.with my huawei p20 pro. I also notice that when I use another app that uses location, the phone slows down to a crawl. The workaround I have used is to force kill the Fitbit app. When I do this, I regain control of my phone. This problem started about a month ago. Before things were fine.

So to cause the slow down, all I need to do is start Google maps. 

To cause the straight lines on the map in Fitbit, I start a run on my Fitbit versa while also using another sports tracking app.

So an unhappy Fitbit user in the last month.

Any insight to a fix would make me happier.

[Jlclookalike]

My mother has the  same problem and has a samsung S9.  I am doing the same route as her and mine is fine on an S8 i.e. routes shapes as per route taken.  We are both on the same network.

[willowonyx]

I run the same route 3x a week. I have been using my Fitbit charge 3 for a year. My GPS/mapped run was completely fine until 12/18/2020. On 9/22/2020 it started being a straight line. SOMETHING must have happened recently to the app software. There has been no change in my phone or anything else.

[DASICKNESSS]

Had this happen to me after updating my Android phone to Android 11. Fixed by changing the FitBit application permissions to always allow GPS and not only while using the app. That way my watch can grab GPS data even while my phone is locked and in my pocket or back. The straight line I assume is from checking your phone at some point on your workout so it just draws a line or lines to each time you opened the app. May also be worth checking if your phone has any batter restrictions set for the FitBit app.

[Davy_G]

Same issue here on Samsung A70. All worked well for more than a year, and now suddenly, I get the straight line instead of GPs route.

Appreciate some tips / app updates.

[Hiudan]

Thanks for the advice. I changed the permissions and the map route was corrected on my S20.

It had worked fine till the 10/13 upgrade, when the line started. So must be related to it, as it previously worked fine with "while using the app" permission. But the change did the trick. Cheers,

[ChrisEst69]

Have the same issue with a Samsung S20+

[96percentchimp]

I've been having the same problem since mid-January. Tracks me usually for about 0.5km while I warm up, then doesn't continue after I stop to stretch, unless I wake my phone up during the run (and then it stops tracking again after a few minutes). It doesn't just affect Fitbit, though, it's also evident on Zombies, Run and in my Google Maps location history.

I'm using a Samsung S10, Android 10, One UI 2.5, network Three UK.

I've checked permissions and if you drill down to All Permissions using the burger menu in the top left of Fitbit's app permissions summary, you can see that, for location, Fitbit has background permissions but they're more subtle:

• access precise location only in the foreground
• access location in the background
• access approximate location (network-based) only in the foreground.

It seems to me that these permissions are contradictory - it's either got background permissions or it hasn't. I did some troubleshooting with Zombies, Run because that's also been having reliability issues since the same time as Fitbit, and they said Samsung phones have aggressive battery optimisation that restricts permissions without telling the user. You can find tips on the problem at https://dontkillmyapp.com/ but they didn't work for me.

I hope this information is of some use to Fitbit tech support, because if you think they're bad, you should try getting tech help from Google or Samsung. Fitbit's part of Google now, so perhaps you can influence them to help with this problem. (I know they're just in it for the user data, but you have to hope!) This is my third replacement Charge 3 after 2 screen failures, so I might just give up a try a Garmin with built-in GPS.

I'm also aware that there's a problem with the Charge 4 that looks very similar to this - not sure if it's related: https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Charge-4/GPS-keeps-dropping-on-Charge-4/td-p/4385233.