Inaccurate gps with iPhone 7/iOS 10

[Nw2162]

I have an Alta and I upgraded to an iPhone 7 with iOS 10 and now my walks are showing im walking more/faster than I actually am. I know I can't walk a mile in 14:00 to 14:30 minutes. I've tried turning on location sharing and making sure it is set to always on location services plus turned lte to data only. I noticed today there was a "lock" symbol by my gps signal in the Fitbit app of my exercise map and I touched it and it went from "locked" to "unlocked". I have no idea what that is or if it fixed it yet. Has anyone else seen any issues like this?

[RobertoME]

Hi there @Nw2162. Let me start by giving you a warm welcome to our Community. Make sure you have a strong signal for your GPS can track your location accurately. 

The Lock does not help for accuracy, it only allow you to navigate through the map when is open and when the Lock is closed, it will fixed on your location, not allowing to navigate.

1. Make sure your device can track your activity when you're out of wi-fi range. To do so, tap Settings > Cellular and make sure Cellular Data is on. 
2. Make sure the app can track GPS when your device is locked. To do so, tap Settings > General > Background App Refresh and make sure it's on for both the phone and Fitbit specifically.

If is not working I recommend to Log out from your Fitbit account and restart your phone. Once it has loaded sign back in. 

Hope this helps. Let me know if the issue persist.

[Nw2162]

I had already done everything you suggested except for log out of Fitbit then restart my phone, and then log back in to Fitbit. So I did that then took a "nearly" 2 Mile walk and it's still inaccurate. It showed I walked around 2.25 miles.

Sent from my iPhone

[RobertoME]

Hi there @Nw2162, Thank you for letting me know that the distance is still incorrect. Please confirm that you've entered your personal stride length. This link could be useful for that. 

Out of curiosity, how are you measuring the 2  miles?  Is it on a track or is it using your phone's GPS?

Let me know how it goes. See you around.

[Nw2162]

I have since used another fitness app to track my walking and that one was accurately recording distance and times. I never had an issue using the Fitbit app for it until I upgraded to a new phone/iOS. But I can now confirm the gps on the phone itself is working. I guess there is an issue between the Fitbit app and iOS 10/iPhone 7.

[Nw2162]

No I haven't ever put in a stride length. I read that it's a guess on my height and gender and I'm not trying to match stride/steps/distance. So it's never been a big deal to me.

The distance is a route I have walked many times before using the Fitbit app previously that came to 2 miles. Someone else drove it to determine the route/distance. But my Fitbit app always had agreed with their findings when I tracked it via "exercise-walk".

Sent from my iPhone

[RobertoME]

Hi @Nw2162. For distance your Alta calculates distance by multiplying your walking steps and walking stride length. This will not necessarily match a pre-measured distance, nor will it show exactly what a GPS device will show.

If you still find discrepancies, please contact Customer Support for additional help. Just let them know what you have tried so far so they can recommend the next step.

See you around.

[Nw2162]

The distance in the app ( going to exercise then selecting walk and starting the exercise "timer") determines my distance from my steps measured on the tracker? Steps aren't even measured when I look at the map after I'm done. If that's how it's done I'm very confused from how It's been working so differently on my old phone.

I'll call them.

Thank you for your time.

Sent from my iPhone

[RobertoME]

Hello @Nw2162. When you enter your personal Stride length, you improved the way your tracker measures the distance. When you are using the GPS feature of the app, the distance will be recorded by the GPS sensor of your phone. You can find some important information on @EmersonFitbit's post for MobileRun & Your Device.

Let me know how it goes with support, I'll be here if you need more help.

[Nw2162]

I have not yet called customer service but today I walked and used 2 apps simultaneously to try and demonstrate what my issue is.
The top 2 screen shots are from MapMyWalk, started first and ended last on my walk today. Probably not exactly right but close enough I don't question it much. The next one is from the Fitbit (mobilerun????) app. I'm not looking at steps or anything except for distance and pace/Mile splits. They should be the same or within a few seconds or tenths of a mile.
Before I got the iPhone 7 with iOS 10 my Fitbit app was showing what the mapmywalk app is showing.

Sent from my iPhone

[LM_0326]

I have a Fitbit One, but I have also recently upgraded to the iPhone 7/ iOS 10, and the same issue has been occuring for myself as well. On my old iPhone 5 with iOS 9, it tracked distances pretty accurately. I take a .75 mile walk daily and it recorded it almost the same every time (between .74-.76 miles). Since I've upgraded to the new phone, Fitbit is trying to say I do the same walk, but with the distance of .82 all the way to .90 miles. I know I haven't changed course and looking at the GPS map after, it shows zig-zags everywhere that I didn't physically do. I have also tried all the above options to correct the problem, including uninstalling the app and reinstalling it. 

[Nw2162]

I'm glad I'm not alone. I decide to drive out my new route and just know my distance that way for certain. I started using another app that's more accurate also. I hope this gets resolved because I miss using the Fitbit app for my walks. I haven't had the time or patience yet to call support, I've done that several times and haven't been up to it again yet.

Sent from my iPhone

[LM_0326]

Also what is strange, is the Fitbit One uses my steps while recording in the app. I ususally did ~1700 steps in .75 of a mile. Now when it records the .90 of a mile, it still has the correct step count of ~1700, but wrong distance due to the GPS.

[DerrickS]

Hi @Nw2162,

I'd first make sure that you are using the latest Alta firmware update, version 21.37.8. If you haven't already updated, click here for instructions on how to update your tracker. Next, I'd recommend that:

1. Cell data is turned on if you are out of Wi-Fi range for the duration of your workout.

2. Background app refresh is enabled for the Fitbit App. This can be done by: opening our iOS settings > tap 'General' > tap 'Background App Refresh' > find the Fitbit App and make sure that its turned on. This setting will allow your GPS to continue to track your workout even if your phone is locked.

3. You consider that you switch your location services settings from 'While Using the App' to 'Always'. The reason why I recommend this change is because if you choose the Always setting, MobileRun will automatically restart if there is an unexpected interruption.

@LM_0326 I would recommend steps one through three that I mentioned above. This should also help you too. 

[Nw2162]

I updated when it told me there was an update. It says I'm on 21.36.9.

I have had background refresh set on and cell data is on with no wifi available around my walking route and location services have been set to always on also.

Sent from my iPhone

[LM_0326]

I did all the above (turn on background app refresh, cellular data, and set app to Always for location) and it didn't help. I even had the screen on, watching the distance, and it flip over distances in a few seconds (when I was walking a normal pace).

[Nsd18]

I'm also having the same problem, the same route tracked as 4 miles on my iPhone 6 is now tracking as 6.6 miles but same number of steps as before. Hope there's a way to sort this out.

[Runnergirl16]

I am having this same probelm. I have the Blaze and I recently upgraded from an iPhone 6 to and iPhone 7. I have followed the instructions listed below, but i am still showing inaccurate distances and paces.

Has anyone had any luck with getting this corrected?

[Nw2162]

No I haven't yet. I think they forgot about it.

Sent from my iPhone

[susankt]

I am having the same issue with my iPhone 7. It says I'm walking 12.2 mph in 1 mile and the distance is also incorrect, it was only .8 mile. Will there be a "fix" for this problem soon?