Running app & connected GPS inaccuracies.

[SunriseRun427]

Hardware: Versa Lite + iPhone 6S running iOS 13.1.3

Background:

I have been running laps around a level oval course of approximately 550 metres in length. The course is on top of a low mountain and there are no tall buildings obstructing line of sight. I use the running app with connected GPS to monitor my progress around the course.

Problem:

While the running app accurately maps my route around the course, it is unable to time my progress accurately. The problem is twofold: firstly, if I run ten laps (5.5km give or take), the watch will only recognise, say, four of those kilometres. If I wish to meet my quota, I must run another 25% further!

Secondly, the split times for the laps (I set them to one kilometre) are wildly inaccurate. For the first lap, the app may list my split time as a nine minute kilometre, the second may be a four-and-a-half minute kilometre, the third a seven minute kilometre and so on. The reality, of course, is that my pace hardly fluctuates unless I'm pushing myself to exhaustion - and even then the change is progressive and not random.

Any thoughts on how to remedy this, aside from finding somewhere else to run?

[AlvaroFitbit]

@SunriseRun427 Welcome! It's great to see you around! Sorry for the delay in my reply.

Let me help you with your GPS data recording. Lets start by refreshing the link between your phone and your Versa by doing the following:

• Go to your phone's bluetooth settings and remove all devices listed there.
• Restart your phone and restart your device. 
• You can find additional suggestions here.

Additionally you can enter your stride length to improve the accuracy of the distance detection. Your device uses the number of steps and stride length to calculate the distance. You can improve the accuracy by measuring and logging your stride length. Feel free to use these instructions to do this.

Let me know how it goes.

[SunriseRun427]

@AlvaroFitbit 

I took your advice and restarted my phone and watch. Once again, the running app was unable to track my pace accurately. I don't know how to upload images here, but I can tell you that on a graph of five km run, the app tracks my pace fairly accurately for the first 1.5 km or so at around 4'30" per kilometre, then drops off briefly to around 19'00" before becoming erratic until the 4 km mark where it starts tracking my pace more or less accurately again. Overall, I'd say the app is between 25~30% inaccurate at measuring distance. Note that I have never had any problem with connected GPS tracking.

I will try setting my stride manually, but that really defeats the purpose of having automatic stride detection, no?

[SunriseRun427]

@AlvaroFitbit 

Alvaro, I did a bit of troubleshooting and the problem seems to be both/or with iOS 13/iPhone 6S.

I have access to an iPhone 5 with the latest version of iOS 10 installed. With the Fitbit app installed, the tracker was able to map and time my pace accurately pretty much down to the last metre.

Maybe a good idea to flag this with the software devs.

Cheers.