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GPS watch accuracy bug


Chris_

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My wife noticed this on her Fenix 6, my 6X however is fine so this is an intermittent event/bug.

 

Some watches (various models from Garmin, Suunto, Polar) are struggling to accurately map GPS data after an activity. It's because of a file on your watch which is failing to update.

 

The fix sounds easy - start an activity, set your watch aside, let it run for an hour, discard the activity. And hopefully the watch finds and updates the file in that time.

 

DC Rainmaker article explains it all better than me...

 

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2021/01/gps-accuracy-impacting-devices.html/amp?fbclid=IwAR1t72hqIZCvcowQwFLar7A5-ba_ANkzVkbhb8f8iz1b7v-0CfxwFlrXf4M

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Thanks, I have this on my Garmin Fenix 3 as well where it does not correlate with distance on treadmill or a ride on Strava, will give it a try.

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Dankie Chris

 

As of 1 January the Vivoactive 4 has a glitch mapping walks (probably rides as well)

 

The start is about 300m West of my actual position, the whole ride is offset by the same .... so the route has the correct "pattern" ... but passing through houses and shops ...

 

 

Garmin website says they know about this, and are working on a solution ...

 

 

 

PS . The Edge 520 is still working accurately ...

 

 

Edit ... the rout layout is shown to the side, but the distance and speed is still accurate

Edited by ChrisF
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Yep on my polar vantage watch I had a incorrect reading yesterday afternoon for the first km of a 7 km walk.

The 1st 500m were totally screwed and it took about 300m of real distance to register 1 km on the watch... even standing still the meters kept increasing. If I look at the map it is way off course for the first 500m.

 

My wife’s watch a polar M was working normal.

 

Never seen something like it before, good to know what the probable cause was.

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Yep on my polar vantage watch I had a incorrect reading yesterday afternoon for the first km of a 7 km walk.

The 1st 500m were totally screwed and it took about 300m of real distance to register 1 km on the watch... even standing still the meters kept increasing. If I look at the map it is way off course for the first 500m.

 

My wife’s watch a polar M was working normal.

 

Never seen something like it before, good to know what the probable cause was.

 

You can check:  Settings > General Settings > About your watch and scroll down.  It shows when the A-GPS file expire.

 

Mine shows 15/01/2021, hence it was updated on the 1st of Jan.

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Yep on my polar vantage watch I had a incorrect reading yesterday afternoon for the first km of a 7 km walk.

The 1st 500m were totally screwed and it took about 300m of real distance to register 1 km on the watch... even standing still the meters kept increasing. If I look at the map it is way off course for the first 500m.

 

My wife’s watch a polar M was working normal.

 

Never seen something like it before, good to know what the probable cause was.

Getting interesting ....

 

Thought it was just a few Garmin watches. As I said, working fine on the Garmin cycling computer ....

 

 

Will get my old Polar watch out the drawer and give it a try ....

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Garmin Forerunner 935 is working correctly.

 

So it seems a software issue with a few units only

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You can check:  Settings > General Settings > About your watch and scroll down.  It shows when the A-GPS file expire.

 

Mine shows 15/01/2021, hence it was updated on the 1st of Jan.

Mine also shows 15/01/2021, but I did synch and charge my watch after the walk with the errors.

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Mine also shows 15/01/2021, but I did synch and charge my watch after the walk with the errors.

Same.

 

Synced from the watch, also synced with a cable to the PC ...

 

Later found the note on the Garmin site .... seems an issue on the latest sync file ....

 

Will watck my friend's logs ... would be interesting to see if the FR goes funny after an update ....

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Not sure if a longer "soak period", or yet another sync did the trick .... either way, this afternoons walk is again perfect.

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