GPS accuracy during exercise

[wrebble]

Picture says more than thousand words so... picture first.

How can it be that the same lap is measured THAT wrong. It is 1,27 km difference which is BAD. Both lines run on the same road so it can not be just "difference". Step count is the same and also the time. Which one can I trust at all? It isn't the first time it has happened (at least once more). 

FitBit app is up to date. My Versa 2 is up to date.

I started my run the same way: opened exercise - choose "run" - wait FitBit to connect with "connected GPS" - start!

Also the settings are the same when I start the run. I activate "do not disturb" and "always on display".

Am I doing something wrong? Is the app so bad that it does not know how to calculate distance? Is it problem with my watch? I looked into it and it seems this problem has been with you for 3.5 years. Is there seriously no fix?

Anyways, I posted this in "App" section because it seems to be problem with an app. If not let me know.

Moderator edit: Subject for clarity 

[jackski]

I tried that as well... Used a supported device with no differences. Pixel 3 is supported but 3A is not in their list. So I used my Samsung Galaxy J, which is a supporyed device. Same problem!

[paularozen]

@jackski i know it won't  change anything, but they won't do anything else until i am using a supported device from their list. 

[Jbp1954]

I have had a series of emails and phone conversations with Fitbit support about this issue, going back several months.

Here is the note I sent them just now:

I would like to know what you are doing to fix this issue?

Here is a link to the current conversation about this in the Fitbit community forums:

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Versa-Smartwatches/GPS-accuracy-during-exercise/m-p/4314318#M195190

There was another, similar discussion that was terminated in, I think, October.

This is a serious issue to a lot of people. I truly don’t understand why it has not been fixed yet.

Fitbit support keeps telling people to “try this, try that”. NONE of those suggestions work. YOU HAVE AN ISSUE WITH HOW THE WATCH PROCESSES AND REPORTS THE GPS/DISTANCE ISSUE.

It is an issue with the watch and/or app.

What are you doing about it? When is it going to be fixed?

Truly unacceptable.

The primary reason I bought this watch was to track my bike rides. It’s next to useless for it.

Moderator Edit: Formatting

[BaseballMusic]

Yeah, dude. I finally said **ahem** it. Wife sent mine back today (thanks
Amazon). Decided to get a Germin Venu instead. Total bull**ahem**. Im sure this
comment will be deleted but whatever. The service is absolute garbage.

[BaseballMusic]

Yeah, dude. I finally said **ahem** it. Wife sent mine back today (thanks Amazon). Decided to get a Germin Venu instead. Total bull**ahem**. Im sure this comment will be deleted but whatever. The service is absolute garbage.

[DawnH1]

I decided to play about with stride length to see what stride length gives the correct distance. I calculated my stride length by converting the distance on my last run from strava to inches and then divided that by the steps calculated by fitbit. It came out as 34.1 inches. I went out on a run just using 34.1 as the stride length and turning off gps. The distance was under when I checked it during my run. I kept making incremental changes until I got the correct distance. I finally finished tweaking today and I have it set to 36 inches, double checked the stride length as before and it came out as 34.2. I literally have no idea how fitbit is making its calculations, it appears that your stride length needs to be longer than what it is to give the correct distance.  I will try again tomorrow with gps off and my stride length set to 36. It is truly ridiculous that it is taking so long to get a fix, especially as it appears that fitbit is not even using gps to calculate distance and using stride length instead which it cant even get right either. Totally fed up with fitbit tbf. 

[M3tr1c]

So interesting solution today. Not sure if this will work for the next run but anyone on here can give it a shot. This was mentioned before but I tried this just a bit differently.  

It's been mentioned before that a way to get the accuracy back was to turn off auto-stride. When I went out for my run today I turned off auto-stride but also made sure that there was nothing in the fields of the auto-stride. An error message will show at the bottom in red but just press ok. Once I made sure the fields were blank I synced my watch to make sure that there was no data on the watch that could reference the auto-stride during the run. 

When I did this the watch was spot on with my wife's versa 1 and with the trail markers today. Of course it could change tomorrow but if anyone wants to give it a try go for it and let us know if it did do anything. 

[jackski]

I have tried turning off auto stride, and playing around with stride length, but I haven't tried with nothing in for stride length.  I will give it a try and see what happens.  At this point, I thought I had tried everything; something new to try...why not??

[Nikno]

Thank you for the tip, but I can't press "ok" and move on if there is no value in "stride strenght ".

I can only play with the strenght stride/run trying to find the correct one.

Actually I'm reducing the strenght of run and stride. 

Can you give me more info please?

[paularozen]

I cannot press ok either if the stride length is blank. Was gonna try this but not working. 

I am almost sure that fitbit is ignoring GPS, only showing the map, because I heard about people pushing prams that use GPS and is giving next to none for distance and steps, even though the GPS is on and showing the map. 

[M3tr1c]

Try pressing reset and keeping auto-stride off. When you press reset it should clear the field. You may have to do this every workout but at least accuracy is possible with it. 

[jackski]

I tried that this morning:  auto stride off, blank for stride length, GPS on...and Versa gave me half the distance it should have been.  I have resorted to keeping auto stride off, playing around with stride length, GPS off, and that is the way I can get closest to the actual distance. This is so frustrating.  It should work the way it was intended.  

[Nikno]

OK! Thanks, should I keep the GPS on or off?

[M3tr1c]

Keep it on. What I think is happening is it's ignoring the stride length, since it's not there, and is forced to use the GPS length instead of the algorithm Fitbit has used. I'm going for a run a bit later today to see if I get the same results. Just because it worked once doesn't mean it'll work again.

[SunsetRunner]

It seems to be accurate for me now. I zeroed the stride length settings as someone had suggested and turned off the auto recognise exercises. The last two walks have been accurate to within 30 metres compared with my daughter's Garmin and double checking against Google Maps. Hopefully this is the solution, although not really sure that a solution is having to turn some features off!

[jackski]

Thanks but this did not work for me. I have to turn off GPS, turn off auto stride, enter stride length, and then it is pretty close. I agree, we should not have to turn off features to try to get an accurate distance. Then that alters the fit score as well.

[SunsetRunner]

How do you get the stride to set to 0, I out a 0 in the stride length and the OK is not active with a 0.

[M3tr1c]

Instead of typing 0 press reset when it asks what you want to input. You should see a dash go through your reading. Make sure the auto stride is off. Once you do that sync your device so it accepts the changes. 

It's best to do it right before a workout cause I notice that fitbit automatically inputs numbers in the field again.

[SunsetRunner]

I appreciate your quick reply.  I will try that tomorrow when we take our daily walk and will let you know if it helps.  Have a GREAT rest of the day!

[wrebble]

So I was out for a few weeks because I injured my leg. I've done 2 workouts.

19.06 was 8.33km but Fitbit showed 9,14km (off by 0,81km)
20.06 was 4.06km but Fitbit showed 4.78km (off by 0,72km)

It was absolute murder. These runs were run / walk, where I mostly ran.

I did turn off "auto stride length" but no success. Next time I will turn off "auto exercise" also, which I also read about in some other post. Will keep you updated.