Hiking Tracking Without Internet

[bcarl6]

Hi all,

I have an Inspire HR and I want to use it for hike tracking in the backcountry (i.e. no internet connection). I tried this one a 6.2 mile hike. I turned cell data off, but left bluetooth on so that my Inspire was connected to my phone. The Fitbit app was open the entire time. I initiated the Hike track from my Fitbit, as opposed to through the app. In the end, my Fitbit recorded 9 miles, which is clearly wrong with a ~30% error. I know that GPS is working on my phone from using other hike tracking apps.

I contacted support, which directed me to: https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1874

This suggests to initiate the tracking through my phone, as opposed to through my Fitbit. That's fine, I will try that next time, and I have no idea if that is what is causing this. However, it also says that I need my Fitbit to be able to sync for GPS to be accurate. When I am hiking, I turn cell data off (and don't have service regardless 95% of the time). Therefore, I don't think that my Fitbit is able to sync during this time, even though it is connected to my phone through bluetooth. Is this correct?

Could this be the issue? Has anyone else tried Hiking tracking without an internet connection and had accurate distance counts? I find it hard to believe that the software would be configured such that tracking GPS data requires an internet connection to constantly upload data to the Fitbit servers, but who knows...

Thanks!

[Julia_G]

Hi, @bcarl6 , you will need internet in order to sync.

To track your distance using your Inspire HR you would use the “connected GPS” feature.  I have tested this extensively using a phone with no internet (data) connection.  My experience was that it is certainly possible.  However I found that I could not initiate the connection without internet.

Also I found that the connection between the phone and the Fitbit was not entirely robust.  Sometimes it would cut out, leading to significant portions of my (in my case) run, not tracked.  If I happened to notice the disconnection I could sometimes reconnect even without internet, but not always.  More often than not I did not notice the disconnection so would sometimes come home to check my stats to find that only the first few minutes were recorded.  I did find this somewhat frustrating.  

Where it stayed connected I found the tracking pretty accurate, even without internet.

The alternative way of doing this is, as Customer Support suggested, by starting the exercise on your phone rather than on the Fitbit.  This should also work even if the phone is not connected to the internet, but in order for the information to be available to view on your app, you will need to sync, so that the program can combine the information detected by your Fitbit with the information detected by the phone.  As mentioned above, you will need internet in order to perform the sync.

[leftyseel]

> starting the exercise on your phone rather than on the Fitbit. 

 
If i start an exercise on my phone’s Fitbit app, will the exercise be automatically on in the device?