Incorrect GPS distance - bug

[Tor-ErikL]

Hi!

There is something totally wrong the way Fitbit displays distance when tracking with the GPS. I have seen this multiple times and it's very annoying. This weekend me and three friends did a cross country ski trip and we all used GPS to track this trip. All my friends GPS watches calculated the distance as about 37km in total but my surge showed 29km. It seem the longer you track the bugger and bigger error in distance. 

In order to see what was wrong i have exported the TCX track and converted it to GPX, then i have uploaded that track to some third party map tools. In these tools the distance is calculated correctly to about 37km!

So the track data itself is actually correct but it seems that on the fitbit watch itself and on the app the distance is wrongfully displayed as 29km.

How can this be possible and is Fitbit aware of this problem ?

[Blade7658]

Interesting data - I wonder if it was tracking distance by your "steps" rather than the GPS. If you don't do an exercise (Not sure what exercise you chose - a run?) it won't track the GPS distance.  If you relied on the auto-exercise option, it uses steps but still tracks some GPS data (to create the map it gives you).

[Tor-ErikL]

I was using the hiking exercise since Fitbit doesn't have any obvious
exercises such as skiing and snow shoing. My guess is that they do
something stupid with the step counter which will be wrong when I do cross
country skiing.

Time to buy a garmin fenix I think, to much stupid bugs and I'm fed up.
When using gps to track any exercise it should always show the actual gps
data and not some stupid Fitbit algorithms.

[Blade7658]

Good luck in your journeys!

[ssvan]

I've had the exact same problem with my Surge, no matter which tracking program I use, the watch always come up short on cross country skiing sessions with about 20-30%. Did a 45k race in February, which on my friends Garmin was close to 46 km, but on my Surge it was only 32.85km. Downloading the map data and converting it to another program gave me 45.8km. So obvoiusly, there is nothing wrong with the signal it picked up, just the calculation. I used hike setting as well, but it seems no matter which setting I use (bike or run) it turns up short when skiing. I sure hope Fitbit is working on something to fix this.

[Mikael.Linden]

Hi,

Can anyone from fitbit (support) answer why GPS data is wrongly calculated? My Surge has never been able to calculate my distance on the bicycle! I constantly get 3-4 km when it is really 9 km. The track is correct and shows on the map but the distance is sooo **ahem** wrong. I know, I am using the "running" profie since the spinning profile doesn't collect GPS data. But the calculation of distance includes errors for running as well, albeit smaller. 
I have read other posts and I can see suggestions on changing stride length. Well that is just ridiculus! 

GPS data is the best way to calculate the actual distance. The distance and time is also the ultimate tool to calculate your performance. Asking the olympic commitee to select a winner for 3000 m track run based on estimated stride length is just absurd!

Some of my training partners also have fitbit and the issue is annoying. When they tell you that your Fitbit watch is unreliable as a chinese car from the 70's, then you get really sad.  It is getting embarassing to wear this piece on my arm. 

Get real and get serious! When are you going to fix it?

Ready to join the dark side!