Versa 2 and Hiking

[mxarun]

I have been using Versa 1 and now Versa 2 for the last two years or so and I am an avid hiker. This is one of the worst watches for hiking. Every time I go on hiking and turn the hiking feature in exercise on to track my hiking, The watch has not been so far completed successful entire trip. Last weekend hiked for 12 miles and the only record it kept was total two miles. Lost the entire tracking. And this is consistent with all my hikes. I was hoping with all these new updates it will improve. But it seems it has not. I understand that it has to continuously sync with the phone which seems to lose connection often due to poor signals on mountains. Why can't Versa sync with a built-in GPS chip on a phone rather than the data? Other hiking apps work just fine without the data plan.

Second, while in exercise more, you cannot use any other apps such as maps, altitude, and others. Even the Music app cannot be used without the phone. What is the point of uploading the music on Versa if you still have to use the phone?

Sad!

[stubee · Accepted solution]

I wasn't aware that Fitbit required MobileData or Wifi on the phone to track.

I just turned off my Android10 MobileData and Wifi....launched an exercise via my Versa.   it connected to my phone and started tracknig.

On completion I turned off the exercise.  I turned on wifi/mobiledata on my phone so that it would sync, and then I checked the track from the Fitbit website.  It looked ok.

This was just a short few minute test, but I thought it would indicate that wifi/mobiledata isn't required (?)

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As for music..just an alternative suggestion.  I have a GooglePlay music subscription...and they allow you to download playlists/albums to your phone.  You can then listen to the music offline.  The versa only comes into play in that it lets you Next/Previous/Pause/VolUp/VolDown and see song details.  Of course this only works if you have your smartphone with you.

[mxarun]

I use iPhone and will not sync without data. I go for a walk in my neighborhood and i lose connection when i lose the data connection. It will continue say “connecting...” Why can it just use built in GPS capability of phone?

[stubee]

That is weird, and I see on fitbit support page it says almost the same thing for Android. 

HOW DO I ALLOW THE FITBIT APP TO USE MY PHONE'S GPS SENSORS?

https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1874

iPhone step1 : 

Confirm your phone can track your location when you're out of Wi-Fi range:

1. Open Settings > Cellular.
2. Make sure Cellular Data is turned on.

Android step1:

1. "Confirm that your phone can track your activity (usually by making sure that Cellular Data use is turned on)"

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Seems strange to me.  In case Fitbit is wrong in their doc, can you check this setting on your iphone:

Settings > Privacy > Location Services -> fitbit = Always

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207092

Can you first check that this is enabled:

Note: To use connected GPS with your iPhone, make sure that Allow Location Access is set to Always for the Fitbit app. 

Otherwise I'm guessing that as soon as the fitbit app on your phone is no longer foreground it loses gps connection.

[mxarun]

Stubee,

Thank you so much for all the help. I did what you suggested. Today, I turned off the cell data on my run and it did capture the entire run. Now, as this is good news it is sort of bad news as to why my Versa 2 will continue to lose connection with my iPhone? I checked all the settings and it is set for "Always". Hiking data is more important than my local neighborhood walk or run. 

Thanks again for all your help and suggestions.

mxarun