help menu

Join us on the Community Forums!

  • Community Guidelines

    The Fitbit Community is a gathering place for real people who wish to exchange ideas, solutions, tips, techniques, and insight about the Fitbit products and services they love. By joining our Community, you agree to uphold these guidelines, so please take a moment to look them over.

  • Learn the Basics

    Check out our Frequently Asked Questions page for information on Community features, and tips to make the most of your time here.

  • Join the Community!

    Join an existing conversation, or start a new thread to ask your question. Creating your account is completely free, and takes about a minute.

Not finding your answer on the Community Forums?

Cancel
Turn on suggestions
Auto-suggest helps you quickly narrow down your search results by suggesting possible matches as you type.
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Not finding a gps signal

ANSWERED
Replies are disabled for this topic. Start a new one or visit our Help Center.

‎05-24-2016 09:12

‎05-24-2016 09:12

I can stand just outside my house with runkeeper on my android and surge on my wrist and the phone will instantly logon to gps (Runkeeper) but the surge can't even locate one, which makes it kind of US if it can't start where i need it to start from.

Best Answer
0 Votes
1 BEST ANSWER

Accepted Solutions

‎05-24-2016 11:25 - edited ‎05-24-2016 11:26

‎05-24-2016 11:25 - edited ‎05-24-2016 11:26

Your phone "GPS" mode most likely is not relying exclusively on satellites.  Depending upon which phone and how it is set up, my understanding is phones can figure out where they are by one or more of the following signals:

  • GPS
  • Cell Tower
  • WiFi (less sure about this one but I've been told it is true)

 

Your Surge on the other hand relies exclusively on satellite reception; said another way, if you are under heavy foliage or other obstruction, then the GPS will take a while to figure out where it is.  Around here in New England, the heavy spring foliage is just reaching its maximum and my GPS signal/accuracy on my Surge definitely suffers.

View best answer in original post

Best Answer
0 Votes
1 REPLY 1

‎05-24-2016 11:25 - edited ‎05-24-2016 11:26

‎05-24-2016 11:25 - edited ‎05-24-2016 11:26

Your phone "GPS" mode most likely is not relying exclusively on satellites.  Depending upon which phone and how it is set up, my understanding is phones can figure out where they are by one or more of the following signals:

  • GPS
  • Cell Tower
  • WiFi (less sure about this one but I've been told it is true)

 

Your Surge on the other hand relies exclusively on satellite reception; said another way, if you are under heavy foliage or other obstruction, then the GPS will take a while to figure out where it is.  Around here in New England, the heavy spring foliage is just reaching its maximum and my GPS signal/accuracy on my Surge definitely suffers.

Best Answer
0 Votes