Fitbit Versa connected GPS issues

[SunsetRunner]

Hi There!

My versa loses connection with my phone (nexus 5x) during bike excercise and thus shows no route on the map. I know I have gps, because Strava app shows it right.

Is this a bug in the software from the Versa?

I tried to start an excercise from fitbit app, but only walk, run or hike does gps. (no bike. why not?!?) so i choose hike.  now i have a hike excercise with hr and ps data. this this excercise shows after sync with strava in strava as hike. in strava i change hike in bike.

now i have bike excercise in strava with hr and gps. after a while just from magic, the ecercise in strava has been changed back into hike again with no hr data anymore.

I know that fitbit versa is not a swiss watch, but at least it should be working as advertised!

connected gps is not not working. People at Fitbit, can you fix this?

Moderator Edit: Updated Subject For Clarity.

[OrrinT]

Oops.My original post didn't show up.Sorry for the repeat comment.

[litetaker]

I would suggest you to return the Fitbit Versa and get the Garmin Vivoactive 3 again. In fact, they just released the Vivoactive 3 Music which adds music storage, making it pretty much on par with Ionic feature wise. But that is very unfair to the Garmin. It does a lot more! 

I will now list why the Garmin is better than this Fitbit or even Ionic, much to the chagrin of the moderators here, given how this is a Fitbit forum.

• Always on display AND STILL 5+ days of battery life
• More snappy performance, everything feels immediate and less buggy
• Great GPS performance, very good HR sensor, has inbuilt compass
• Lesser bugs! No issue with GPS unlike Versa's connected GPS. 
• You can use Celsius for weather AND use miles for distance! Here either you use metric and Celsius or imperial and Fahrenheit! UK users can rejoice!
• Far more reliable bluetooth connection with the phone on Android! Fitbit is super flaky and loses connections several times a day! Not so far with my Garmin.
• SO much more information is tracked during activities!
• Can sort of multi-task! Switch between activity tracking and watch face in between activity tracking. Can switch from activity tracking to notifications/calendar/music control/see loads of other widgets.
• Better design! No ugly black bezel. No off center screen like on Versa, so that they have space for the Fitbit logo. No logos period!

Those are just some advantages I see for the Garmin when compared to the Fitbit. You decide what is better for you.

[GrubbyDuck]

Thank you. Decision made Garmin transition happening.

Sent from my iPhone

[dchenry]

I'm about to switch too. Kinda pissed that a 6 mile run was tracked as a 4 mile run at a 18 min/mile pace. Makes no sense.

[Jayelo]

Yeah I returned mine and got a Samsung sports gear. It has built in gps and it did a heck of a lot better tracking my walk and distance than my Versa. Now I know what it feels like to always have gps connection and correct distance and stats lol. 

[596beck]

I did a 22 mile cycle ride today. Fitbit app on and set bike ride on my versa. Fitbit app and versa recorded 1.2 miles.!!!What are fitbit doing about this? Little it seems. Use Samsung S8. Really looked forward to the versa but so unimpressed. What are fitbit doing about it?  Any recommendations for a reliable watch 

[pixbuf]

I was having this inaccurate-distance, connection-failure problem since I bought this watch. Fitbit support kept promising a fix Real Soon Now. Then I got a new phone a few weeks ago. I had to do a factory reset and pair the watch anew to the phone. Then for 2 weeks every day the distance calculation was spot on, and I had no connecting problems. I thought it was that my new phone (a OnePlus 6 -- unsupported by Fitbit, BTW) was just superior. But then about 5 days ago I started having the same old problems all over again. Very disappointed. If I could return this watch now I would.

I'm going to try a factory reset and new pairing and see if it helps. But if I have to do this every 2 weeks the phone is going in the garbage!

[mjohnkam]

Here is my feedback.  I bought the watch today, July 9th, 2018.  I downloaded the app today.

I upgraded the watch today.

All a waste of time.

The GPS connection does. not. work.

Galaxy S8.  

The moment, and I do mean the moment, I use the bike app, and it says it is connected, and I 

press the go button, the GPS connection is lost.

I ain't my phone, got it?

This 'product' is going back.

[dchenry]

my wife is getting me the vivoactive 3 for my birthday and Ill give her this since she stays on the treadmill and ellipticals lol

[LesC1018]

I have the same problem with GPS connect on my bike workouts. I need to keep resetting my watch and it works 1 time out of 5. Keeps losing connection, or never connects. The support line keeps punting my problem around...what is your email id linked to the watch. Should have purchased the Apple Watch. 

[litetaker]

Absolutely true @Courtenay_06! The display is definitely better on the Fitbit Versa, but that is pointless when you do not have the always on display that the Garmin can offer you. And honestly, when viewing at an arms length, the resolution is more than sufficient on the Garmin as well.

And it is not just the GPS that I find to be a lot more reliable on the vivoactive 3. The smartwatch features are a lot better and reliable as well. I've been on the Fitbit platform for over two years before the switch. I first had a Fitbit blaze and then the Versa for a month. Neither managed to connect to my phone consistently via bluetooth. The connection would drop out after a few hours and it would be a chore to try to get it back. So, I never managed to get notifications or get any smart features to work reliably! It was a huge chore just to try to use those features, at which point they were more trouble than the supposed benefits were worth. But this is not an issue with the vivoactive 3 and I can actually use it as a smartwatch.

[mjohnkam]

I got the vivoactive 3 today, and it is doing pretty much everything I want.
Much better as a fitness tracker.

It's a keeper

Moderator edit: removed personal information

[LiseTho]

Me too.  This is very frustrating

---

@SunsetRunner wrote:

Clearly the implementation of Connected GPS just doesn't work all that well.  I purchased the Versa thinking that I could bring my phone with my on my Mountain Bike rides and just use the watch instead of firing up Strava.  Admittedly I sometimes forget to start Strava on the phone and I miss part of the ride, hence the assumed convenience of starting an Bike exercise on the watch then have it sync to Strava later.   Great Idea?

Unfortunately, its clear that the Connected GPS function doesn't work all that well with my Samsung S8.  I ride with friends who Strava and all of their rides indicate 20% More mileage than was recorded on the watch.  They all use either a dedicated GPS or their phone.  I've done three separate rides as a comparison and all of them were in error of at least 20%.  That's a lot!   Compound this with the fact the mileage never shows up in the Fitbit Dashboard, it kinda defeats the purpose of having the watch.  

I do like the heart rate data available but that is not all I wanted to use the watch for.  

I've been looking for the almost perfect Fitness watch that wouldn't break the bank and thought I had found it in the Versa, but I was sadly mistaken.   Too bad 😞

---

[kcronin]

My only comment is that the milage from a bike ride isn't added to your milage total within the Fitbit world. Only step-based activities count for milage.

⁣Sent from BlueMail ​

[mjohnkam]

I've settled on the Garmin Vivoactive 3.
Works very well.
But not so cheap.
I had a Garmin Forerunner 35 before, which works well for for GPS and heart
rate, and much cheaper (and less fancy).
But it does work.

Moderator edit: removed personal information

[LesC1018]

Thanks Mike. I’m returning the versa for full refund. Fitbit knows the product has problems. Wouldn’t doubt a recall if enough noise is created. Garmin is on the list. Apple makes sense for me but the cost is nuts for the series 3. Thx for the tip on Garmin.

[nswint]

My posts are getting deleted, I'll post to my blog.

Definite hardware issue going on.

[LesC1018]

Disappointing 😟

[dchenry]

Changed my featured 5 star review on amazon to a 2 star review so I bet they notice and respond to that.

[Skhalsa10]

My connected gps sucks! I would have bought an ionic if I knew this. No where does it advertise connected gps doesn't work with my galaxy s8+