Sense 2 starts exercise without waiting for GPS

[SpiritMommaLeah]

I go on a daily night walk with my husband. And with my Fitbit Sense it showed the GPS of where we were walking. I would hit walk and l would get a play button to set up GPS. With Sense 2 it just starts the walk. I figured it just skipped over the having to manually the GPS set feature but then while going through my workouts today I realized that it wasn't logging in any location. Does anyone know why? 

Could it be they're waiting till Google maps comes on? I like that feature and I'm a little upset it disappeared. The newer features are great but I don't want to loose all of this. I KNOW they already have the pixel watch coming out with integrated fitbit. I don't personally think they're going to try to get everyone to switch from their fitbits over to that. 

Anyways. Anyone know how to fix this? Or know why its happening? Does anyone else HAVE this happening? 

Thanks. 

Moderator edit: Subject for clarity.

[SteveBlevins]

Not on my new updated Sense 2.

[SteveBlevins]

This does work! I apologize I posted it did not. Ben is correct. Thank you Ben!!!

[KristoferWalkin]

Thanks a mill. Been banging my head on this for a while. For a run is it possible to set a fast and slow pace alert. I am a former Garmin user and miss this feature 

[t.parker]

@KristoferWalkin you can't set alerts for pace (or any other metric). If you are a runner I recommend going back to Garmin. Fitbit is just a "recorder" of activity without any training supporting features.

[sarah.jo]

There is a partial workaround in that you can link pace to the three heart rates, 4 if you include peak rate. 
Recovery pace

Fat burn

Cardio

Peak. 
you can set alerts for each pace change. 

[t.parker]

@sarah.jo how do you link pace to HR zones?

[sarah.jo]

Fat burn equates to an easy running or recovery pace. 

Cardio zone equates to fast steady pace running

Peak zone equates to AT pace (Anaerobic Threshold) short maxed runs, hill sprints or HIIT efforts. 
Not quite the same as being able to set target pace bands but it does allow you run at a pace that has you in a specific heart rate band. Over a training cycle you’d expect to have to run faster/harder to cause a cardio response into any of the zones. 
Resting pulse lowering as you become fitter. Overnight resting pulse may increase a few beats after a very long or really hard training session/day. 

[t.parker]

@sarah.joI think it may work for beginners but the fitter you are the more training zones usually get narrower and for most runners the lactate threshold moves, too. Fitbit's HR zone model is very (too) simplified. I didn't find it valid for me as the only way to change zones is by changing max HR. while I can fit one zone, other zones are wrong. But as I said, that may work for inexperienced runners who just try to get fit. Also, while using HR and pace connection may work to some degree we are talking about Sense 2. Going into all-out anaerobic during 5k race (last Saturday):

Orange - Sense 2, Blue - PolarH10

Not much accuracy for the Peak zone. This is my all-out effort of pace 3:50/km (GAP: 3:48/km). HR maxed out in the end but Fitbit's HR doesn't reflect that 😕

I can never get the Fitbit HR model working for me. Look at the chart below from my cooldown run. This time Fitbit seems to keep up with the chest strap but then the HR zones->Pace theory kind of falls apart:

Coloured stripes represent Fitbit zones based on my current max HR. Basically, it's a very easy run when Fitbit says I'm in the Cardio zone. Also, the pace difference between the beginning and end of the Cardio zone is huge (with 133bpm I would probably jog lightly, 168bpm is somewhere between low and high aerobic, not yet tempo but below a threshold. This is a difference of over 1min/km in pace. Not suitable for training. I could modify the max HR to change zones but then I can get one training zone working better the others are not where they should be (somehow it didn't occur to Fitbit to let customize zones entirely).

I probably (again) get into too much detail but the point is, Fitbit (any) isn't a runner watch. If somebody runs just to burn some calories, kill some time etc. that's fine. If somebody thinks of getting better at running and wants the watch to be a help in training, then I strongly advise looking for another brand that is more suited for that purpose (that can display training intervals, provide various training targets like pace, HR, cadence, power etc.).

[sarah.jo]

As I said it’s a simple workaround and Fitbit heart rate lag and inability to account for cardiac drift in longer runs, for serious runners who want to align training pace to heart rate bands it’s much too simplistic. 

[BarefootRunner]

Thanks 👍🏻 it worked!

😊

[sarah.jo]

Great, pleased for you 👍

[burning76]

My walking GPS on the Sense 2 is still not working; fortunately, the hiking
GPS does work.
I was told that Fitbit is working on an update. Got my fingers crossed.

[Dulciedarling]

I found the same issue as I’ve just changed from the sense to the sense 2, I run most days and now find I now get elapsed time whilst waiting for gps, which I didn’t get before, whilst I wait for gps, as my run is on pause. Which I have to press quickly, whereas with the sense 1, ionic and surge, they would search gps before you decided what exercise you were doing, ie run/walk/bike, I hope it’s something that can done about it, or if I’m doing something wrong. 

[Fighter414]

I use Hike and it seems GPS is enabled for that. However, it doesn't seem to be as accurate as the Sense or my Favorite which was recalled the Ionic. Hope this helps.

[t.parker]

@Dulciedarling don't start your run from shortcuts. Shortcuts start automatically without waiting for GPS to connect. Open Exercise app first, then select Run or any other GPS activity. It won't start tracking until you decide so but it will try to connect to the GPS.

[BarefootRunner]

I did not know this, thanks!

[Dulciedarling]

Thank you, after reading lots of threads, I tried this this morning and it worked. Thank you 😊 

[Candlestyx]

I had the same problem, but someone suggested finding the tiny (very tiny) ^ symbol before you start your walk.  Go to settings and turn GPS on.  Bad Fitbit!!  They should tell you these things.  Who knows what else is hidden.  Maybe there is a secret button to enable 3rd party apps and another secret button to have an auto-dimming screen.

[412Guy]

Gps doesn't work on sense 2 they say it does but it dont

[Shaniquadenise5]

That actually worked. We didn't have to school down before it was automatically on. But yes, if you pressed the ^ at the bottom it worked. 

Now I realize that auto generated walks will not turn on the GPS. I will have to turn it on myself via start exercise. 

Thank you for your help