"GPS Will Not Be Turned On"

[SunsetRunner]

Hello,

Loving my new Charge 2 so far. It's working great; steps and distance seem accurate and I'm finding my way around the the dashboard.

My only problem: I cannot activate the GPS connection with my iPhone. I've gone through all the suggestions: On my phone I have verified in settings that background app refresh is on for Fitbit and that Fitbit can access my location under Privacy / Share My Location.

On the app, I've gone into the Run, Walk and Hike exercise shortcuts and made sure "Connected GPS" is on.   Yet, when I go into the exercise section, I get the message that "GPS Will Not Be Turned On" under each of the exercises, and on my device, the phone has a slash through it when I select and begin an exercise.

Have re-booted phone and device several times.   All I really care about is being able to see the maps - the distance calculations without GPS have been accurate.

Thank you

[Julia_G]

Hi, @Hven and @Kelz111, you are looking at SmartTrack settings (auto recognized activities) in your app.  For these you will always get the message "GPS will not be turned on" because that is how SmartTrack works.

If you would like a map, splits etc, depending on your Fitbit type you need to track manually using your Fitbit (if you have a model that offers this) or via the app.  Otherwise, to track via the app, choose the exercise icon (not account), choose the stopwatch icon and choose "track".  You will then be able to use GPS.

[Kelz111]

Ok thank you but I am still getting check fit bit app when I start a run. Arrrrrgggghhhh

Sent from my iPhone

[Simone_t91]

But it is possible to get a map of your run with a charge 2, right? When i start running, and click on 'run' on my charge2, it automatically says: Check your app. When i do that, i don't see anything, and my run isn't being mapped.. How can i make sure i get a map afterwards, without using the exercise shortcut in my app? (because while running i need to be able to look at my watch and see what pace i'm running)

Thanks in advance

[KittyK921]

Hi, had my Fitbit charge 3 about 3 weeks now, all going smoothly until yesterday when it stopped auto recognising my walks etc? I’ve done as you advised before like 5 times and nothing is changing. Still says GPS will not be turned on? 😞 

[Julia_G]

Hi, @KittyK921, if you are looking in the auto recognized exercises section of the app you will always see the message "GPS will not be turned on".  This is not a fault; this is how it works.  Auto-recognized activities do not use GPS.  You cannot change that.  For auto recognized activities you will not get your distance, or a map of your route.

If your Fitbit does. not seem to be recognizing your activities, I would suggest changing the time for auto recognizing to the minimum time of 10 mins, sync your Fitbit, and also give it a restart.

If you would like to have your distance detected, and get a map, you will need to track your activity manually.  You can do this two ways:

You can use your Fitbit app to track your walk.  Go to your exercise icon (that's the one that shows a running man inside a shape on the front screen of your app).  On the next screen you will see a stop watch icon.  Click on that and the app will begin tracking.  When you sync your steps will come from your Fitbit, and your distance and map will come from the app.

Alternatively, since you have a Charge 3, you can use the multi-sport mode on your Fitbit. On the Charge 3 swipe to the exercise app, tap, then swipe until you come to "walk" (if you don't have walk you will need to add this to your Charge 3 using your app -- you can have a maximum of 6 exercise shortcuts).  Once you start your walk your Charge 3 will attempt to connect to your phone and will use your phone's GPS to map your walk.  You will see this once you have finished your walk and synced your Fitbit.

I hope this helps.  Welcome to the forums!

[KittyK921]

Hi Julia, 

thanks for your reply. 

My Fitbit has been recognising the walks I’ve been on every day, while I’m at work, walking the dog or even if I’ve been just walking about for more then ten mins in general? Which I liked it doing but it’s not picked up yesterday when I went for a walk or today which was a walk of 45 mins and it’s logged it before automatically? I’ve checked my settings and I haven’t changed anything? 😞 

thanks 

[KittyK921]

Hi Julia, 

thanks for your reply. 

My Fitbit has been recognising the walks I’ve been on every day, while I’m at work, walking the dog or even if I’ve been just walking about for more then ten mins in general? Which I liked it doing but it’s not picked up yesterday when I went for a walk or today which was a walk of 45 mins and it’s logged it before automatically? I’ve checked my settings and I haven’t changed anything? 

[Julia_G]

Hi, @KittyK921, I would recommend doing as I suggested above.  Change the minimum detection time to 10 minutes, sync your Charge 3, and then restart your Charge 3.  A restart is always a good step whenever your Fitbit is not behaving as expected.

Hopefully it will auto recognize your next walk.  

[Amit555]

Thank you...will try it !!


Appreciated !!

[Rich_Laue]

@KittyK921 where you holding the leash with the hand there Fitbit it's on the last time? Maybe too longer oro more stops then usual?

[KittyK921]

No she was off lead, it’s just strange cause I have logs from when I’ve walked like really short distances for 10 mins here and there and yesterday and today there’s nothing 

[Julia_G]

SmartTrack mostly works pretty well, but sometimes... it just doesn't, for no obvious reason ... resetting your minimum time (as suggested above), and giving a few restarts, will hopefully get it working again

[Bashallia]

I have done all these troubleshooting steps and I am still receiving the same message; GPS will not be turned on.

please advise

[Jkesler1970]

I tried all of the restarts and confirmed Location was set to always on my phone and the restarts didn't work.  I eventually turned Walk, Run and Outdoor Bike off under Auto Recognized Exercises and now it works like it used to.  You just need to track it with the app or with your Fitbit when you begin and end the activity and it will track your GPS.

[SophiePL]

I’m affected by this same issue on my inspire HR, I tried all the steps above and it still doesn’t work. Any ideas?

[Julia_G]

Hi, @SophiePL , please could you clarify what issue you are experiencing?  If you are seeing the message on your app “GPS will not be turned on” you are looking at automatically tracked exercises.  This is not an error.  It is just reminding you that auto detected exercises do not use GPS.  You cannot change that and there is no “fix”.

If you are trying to track your walk, run, hike, outdoor bike with GPS using the “connected GPS” and you are getting the message “check app” then that means that the Inspire HR is having trouble automatically connecting to the app in order to switch on your phone’s GPS and map your activity.  It is asking you to check that your app is set to run in the background and that location services are turned on.  You should also make sure you have good phone signal, and it may help to be outside to establish the connection.  

Unfortunately some phones have more difficulty establishing the automatic connection and there really isn’t much more you can do except keep trying.  

However, there is a workaround.  You simply start the tracking in the app yourself, rather than relying on the Fitbit to connect automatically.  You will get exactly the same information at the end of your activity.

To start it manually, go to your app, go to the exercise screen, and click on the stopwatch icon top right.  Choose “track” rather than log.  Unfortunately the only options are run walk and hike, but if you use an iPhone you can rename it afterwards.  That feature is not available on Android.

If this doesn’t answer your question, please post again being more specific about your issue and what you are wanting to do.  It also helps if you let us know what kind of phone you use.

Welcome to the forums!

[Marshalltracey]

In 2018 my Fitbit versa used to automatically recognize my activity such as walking and it automatically mapped my walk without having to click anything. Fitbit seemed to have deliberately turned off this feature for people with older Fitbits to upgrade. Why did they change this??? Its very annoying to have to remember everytime i do an activity to track it manually. Why can they not go back to 2018 when they both mapped and automatically detected an activity without manually logging?

[Marshalltracey]

Smarttrack is clearly not smart because in 2018 my fitbit versa mapped and tracked all of my outdoor activities automatically. Now in 2020 i have to click manual track on my fitbit in order to map my walk. Why has fitbit gone backwards on this???

[Marshalltracey]

You are replying to everyone as if we are stupid. This WAS an AUTOMATIC feature in 2018. Fitbit USED to both map and track walks, runs, cycles, mowing the lawn etc in 2018 without the need to click anything on the fitbit once your mobile device was also with you. The same fitbit no longer does this!!! Why did fitbit remove this feature in 2019???

[G_Murphy]

This is exactly what is happening with my Fitbit versa 3! I also have an iPhone, an iPhone 11, and I have followed all the steps in here, including restarting everything and making sure all the settings are correct. It still says GPS will not be turned on and there's no toggle for GPS as it says there should be in the  Versa 3 instructions. I don't find the step counting to be sufficient because I'd like to also see my elevation change when I go on hikes. When I first got this device last week, it did show me a map of where I had gone on a walk, but then after that it just stopped by itself and I cannot figure out how turn it back on. Any more thoughts?