Charge 3 connected GPS not working correctly.

[TimJD]

Hello all,

I’ve recently replaced my Charge 2 with a Charge 3 and am having problems with the GPS connection to my iPhone XS Max for running and walking/hiking.  The Charge 2 worked perfectly but the Charge 3 insists that it can’t connect to my phone for GPS and I have to force stop and restart the Fitbit app and the C3 to make it connect.  Once connected it works fine, but having to mess around every time is getting a little tiresome to say the least.  I have also noticed that, sometimes, the app isn’t reflecting live heart rate either so am wondering if it is a general connection issue, as so many seem to be reported on these forums.  

I ahve already removed and reinstalled the app, and reconnected the C3 as a new device, but that didn’t make any difference.  Anyone else had GPS connection issues, or is it just me?

Cheers,

Tim.

Moderator Edit: Clarified Subject.

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @TimJD, I hope you're doing well, it's nice to see you around the Fitbit Community. 

I appreciate your participation in the Forums and for sharing your experience with us. I would like to thank you for letting us know the troubleshooting steps you've tried so far. Please note that when you choose a GPS exercise, your device vibrates when your phone finds a GPS signal. If your phone doesn't find a signal immediately, keep in mind that environmental factors including tall buildings, dense forest, steep hills, and even thick cloud cover can interfere with your phone’s ability to connect to GPS satellites. 

At this moment, before starting a new connected GPS activity, I would like to suggest you to check the following requirements:

• Bluetooth is enabled on your phone and your tracker is connected (paired) to the phone. To confirm, go into your phone's Bluetooth settings and make sure you see Charge 3 on the list of devices.
• You selected an exercise type from the Exercise app that uses connected GPS. To check on Charge 3, swipe up on any exercise and check that Use Phone GPS is listed and set to On.
• Your phone is within about 30 feet of your device.
• Your phone can identify your location and can track your location when you're not using Wi-Fi. For more information on which phone settings you may need to adjust, see How do I track my workouts with my Fitbit device?

After verifying all the requirements, try using GPS again by following the instructions in How do I track my workouts with my Fitbit device? If you're still having difficulty, try these troubleshooting steps:

1. Open the Fitbit app to reestablish a connection with your tracker.
2. Reboot your phone.

I hope this can be helpful, if you need to repeat this process every time you start a connected GPS after trying the above steps once, please let us know so we can check this further. 

Thanks for your patience and understanding, if there's anything else we can do for you, please feel free to reply. 

[kbyczyk]

Hi, I tried everything, rebooted both IPhone and Charge 3, reconected, but the GPS for the Bike or run does not work.... is there anything else that I can do? The fitbit has permission to access the GPS all time, the app is running, but I just receive the "not connected" message.

tks

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @kbyczyk, thanks for joining the Fitbit Community, it's great to have you on board. 

I appreciate you have taken the time to let us know you're experiencing this situation and for letting us know the troubleshooting steps you've tried so far. At this moment, I would like to suggest you to try the following before starting a GPS-based activity:

1. Open the Fitbit app and sync your device.
2. Select a GPS-based activity and start it from the tracker

After syncing your device, it will appear as connected in the app, which is the perfect time to start a GPS-based activity as the device is still synced with the app. Give these steps a try and let us know the outcome. 

Happy stepping! 

[kbyczyk]

Hi,

Thank you! The first time I reconnected and tried the phone asked to send
bluetooth messages even with the app running in the background and it
started working, very well!

Rgds

Moderator edit: personal info removed

[Suzyharry]

Hi there 

I am having issues tracking my bike rides. It won't connect. I have tried all the above. I have also tried rebooting phone and tracker but nothing. Just says connecting for a while and then phone not found. As others have said, it connects and syncs pretty well apart from that but tracking my bike is important to me and it is VERY frustrating.

Please help 

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @Suzyharry thanks for joining the conversation, welcome to the Fitbit Community. 

I appreciate you have reached us and let us know you've already tried the troubleshooting steps provided earlier. At this moment, I would like to ask you to go to your phone's Settings > Fitbit and turn off Bluetooth Sharing. Then, restart your phone. After that, go back to Settings > Fitbit and turn Bluetooth Sharing on. 

Then, before starting a Bike activity from your Charge 3, open the Fitbit app. This will make your Charge 3 connect more easily. 

Give these steps a try and let us know the outcome! 

[RedScoutLeader]

Hi, the original query here exactly explains my issue. I have a new Charge 3 and I've done everything in your support response. It says its connected on my tracker before I start my run and then almost immediately buzzes to say I'm not connected. It does this on and off all through my run. Although the end steps and distance are correct (probably as the stride is close enough to get it tracked via that) I'm gutted I can't get a map of my run up after, just straight lines between the small points it connects!!! Really does defeat the purpose of why I bought the fitbit over a cheaper alternative 😞 any other help appreciated?! 

[maried2handsum]

Hi!  I've had my fitbit Charge 3 since November 2018 with very few issues here and there, but never connection issues till about 3 weeks ago.  It syncs fine, but suddenly will not connect to my phone/fitbit app to use any GPS exercise functions.  I had no problem with my runs and getting maps before, but it continues to now say "connecting" then vibrates saying "not found".  

I've done all the troubleshooting listed.  I've reinstalled the app, I've rebooted the charge 3, I've turned bluetooth and locations off and restarted the phone before turning them back on.  I've been opening the app before trying to connect.  Nothing seems to be helping.  I've waited these 3 weeks as I thought maybe a phone or charge update was needed, but there's been no help.

Any new advice for me??

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @RedScoutLeader and @maried2handsum thanks for joining the Fitbit Community, it's great to have you on board. 

I appreciate your participation in the Forums and for sharing your experience with us. I sincerely apologize for the delay in the response. 

@RedScoutLeader at this moment, I would like to ask you to take a screenshot of the map you're getting after syncing your GPS activity, this will be very helpful for us to check this further. 

@maried2handsum thanks for letting us know the troubleshooting steps you've tried so far. At this moment, I would like to ask you to set up your Charge 3 as a new device to reset the connection between the phone and your tracker. Note that none of the information already stored in your account will be deleted. 

To set up your tracker as a new device:

1. Go to the Bluetooth settings on your phone and check if your tracker is on the list of paired devices. If it is, tap on it and select Forget this Device.
2. Open the Fitbit app and tap on the Account symbol at the top right corner of the screen, then tap on "Set up a New Device"
3. Choose your tracker and follow the onscreen instructions to continue
4. When the app asks you to replace your current tracker, please replace it and continue with the process.
5. When a pop-up appears asking you to Pair your tracker to your device, tap on Pair and continue.

Give these steps a try and let us know the outcome. 

[RedScoutLeader]

Attached screenshot is showing my two maps from the one run!!!
Thank you

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @RedScoutLeader I hope you're doing well, thanks for taking the time to reply. 

I appreciate you have come back to us. Unfortunately, it seems the pictures you sent didn't come through. Please follow these steps to add them and reply to us again. 

Thanks for your patience and understanding, we'll be waiting for your next reply. 

[RedScoutLeader]

Hi, top shows right distance but not the route. Bottom shows wrong distance but follows my route... Top is my tracker and bottom was my phone... Not sure how to get my tracker getting connected properly or how to get my phone to get the distance right (my husband has checked it on os maps and it's definitely minimum 5k!!!) Thanks! 

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @RedScoutLeader I hope you're doing well, thanks for taking the time to reply and add some screenshots. 

At this moment, I will forward the screenshots to our team so they can take a better look at this situation. In the meantime, please go to the Activities Section of the online Dashboard and check if the exercises and their respective maps are showing up correctly. Let us know if they are or aren't so we can forward this information as well. 

Thanks for your patience and understanding, have a great day. 

[RedScoutLeader]

Hi please can you get back to me with anything else I can do? I'm still having to manually record my runs in my notes as I cannot trust my tracker to either record the right route or distance via tracker or phone! If this isn't resolved I will expect to send it back - it was a present from my husband for my birthday and it will make me sad but I won't have him spend this much money on something that doesn't work!!! 

[Gareth.ky]

I had this issue with my new Charge 3. I upgraded from a Charge 2. After trying everything in this thread the following combo worked:

• Go into Bluetooth on your phone and find the Charge 2 (the old device you are no longer using) and tell the phone to forget the device. Now it can no longer communicate with the FitBit app.
• On the Charge 3, navigate to Setting->About->Reboot Device and do the reboot.

After the reboot everything worked flawlessly.

This was Super Duper frustrating because I could literally sync the device while it was trying to start an exercise with GPS. Now things seem to work about as well as they did with my Charge 2. Sometimes when the App is backgrounded i have to switch to it to get the FitBit to connect but otherwise it works.

[Nocolas]

I feel the same. I'm really disappointed the GPS is never working. I do all the fixes suggested but it doesnt work. 

Before I go for a bike ride, I restart the charge 3 and the app. I sync both, I start a bike exercise, gps connects, I start riding, *buzz* not connected. I continue anyway. then finally after a couple miles I open my phone, sync. *Buzz* GPS connected. Continue the ride. *Buzz* not connected. And by the time I finish my strava ends up having a line from my home to where I went and back. It's really annoying and I'm starting to wish I got a garmin with built in gos instead. I've gone back to tracking GPS with my phone and strava. Ignoring my fitbit

[RichardHedd]

Hi Guys

My wife has the same problem as redscoutleader. The charge 3 keeps losing the phones GPS. Then she uses the app to record the distance and it misses posts of the route.

[Sam275]

Same issues. Everything else works fine. GPS tracking is garbage. 

[majician]

Has help given up on this? This isn't a new or uncommon issue. It's worse for me it seems because it's constantly disconnecting/reconnecting and the map is a mess. Ultimately the distance is wrong. There's a loop near where I like with mile markers at 4 miles the Fitbit said I was at 5 miles, at 8.5 it had me at over 10. 

It's disappointing because I like to run through the neighborhood... here's a map the Fitbit GPS gave me:

Look at this Lol I promise I was actually running on the road the entire time and not bobbing/weaving over properties