LiveTrack - units displayed on web version wrong

The LiveTrack webpage has a selector to change the units displayed

The LiveTrack webpage has a selector to change the units displayed

Yes, but this doesn't persist across sessions. All our GPS units are set to metric units. Every time I start livetrack, and my wife opens the livetrack URL, it defaults to miles etc. She goes into the settings and changes it to metric, which persists for the rest of that track. The next time I start livetrack and she opens the URL again, it has defaulted back to statute and she has to go into the settings and change it to metric again.

While the described phenomenon annoys me personally, I wouldn't go so far to say the units are “wrong”.

The display preferences you set in Garmin Connect are for you as a user (or information consumer), but does not allow you to dictate how information in “your” records are presented to other users, including anonymous/guest users of a service who may or may not be given the opportunity to specify their own display preferences in a persistent manner. Your personal preferences as an information provider have no standing in that regard, even if you want to make the argument that you know what your wife would prefer; Garmin Connect doesn't know, doesn't care, and doesn't give you the (unwarranted) opportunity to tell it on behalf of some other information consumer.

Well the chances that the person you share the link with uses the same units as you do are a lot higher than the chances that somebody is using imperial unit. So I think it would (statistically) be a better using experience if they use the same units as the information provider is using.

But you are right he shouldn't have used the word "wrong", and I know you are going to tell me that this forum is not for product enhancement requests, but I think people just like to discuss those kinds of things here.

@SvenvdMeer: Oh, I agree it would be a sound design decision to retrieve and use the information provider's display preferences (which takes a trivial extra step programmatically) by default, if and when the information user's preferences are unspecified and unknown. Or go with what is the system most used in the country from which a LiveTrack user appears to be accessing the service (by looking up the source IP address of the HTTP request against some table or database, which again takes extra steps programmatically). Or just blindly go with what the majority of the world uses, which is the metric system for distances. These would all be more statistically likely to match the information consumer's actual preferences; and, as I said, that LiveTrack blindly goes with imperial units of measure by default annoys me personally.

However, the key point I was making to AuldNik is that his logic is flawed in thinking that his display preferences (as information consumer) has any standing, such that failure to respect those preferences when LiveTrack presents information to others constitutes “wrong”. Logic says that he's not in the “right” (as the opposite of “wrong”), and he's not the boss or in a position that ought to be accorded the level of control he apparently wants when it comes to his using the LiveTrack platform to publish information from his timed activities, where his role is not that of an information consumer, so it's time he recalibrated his expectations.

By the way, I don't think there's anything wrong with discussion here in this forum for “those kinds of things”, as in what (some) Garmin users or customers would like to see as new features or product enhancements, but many seem to conflate discussing it with peers with having made a proper request in a way that demands official acknowledgement or attention from Garmin the company, when there are official channels provided by Garmin for submitting reports of product faults and also ideas for product enhancement/innovation/whatever.

While the described phenomenon annoys me personally, I wouldn't go so far to say the units are “wrong”.

It IS wrong when you don't even live in a country that uses imperial. The rest of your message is just Garmin apologist. Having to change the units displayed is like Garmin saying "we don't give a damn" or "can't be bothered".


My next bike computer is not going to be a Garmin. There is just too much wrong with this device and its services that cost hundreds of dollars. OMG, even this webpage is buggy and doesn't work with Microsoft Edge. I had to load this page in another browser to post. Luck I don't trust Garmin and copied the text so I wouldn't have to start my post again!

The rest of your message is just Garmin apologist. Having to change the units displayed is like Garmin saying "we don't give a damn" or "can't be bothered".

Actually, I see it as meaningful contribution to a discussion to point out when my fellow consumers – my peers and equal in that capacity – can want what they want, but are powerless to effect change, and foolish to reasonably expect that their demands (when not backed by prospective additional spending for the service or features) will be accommodated by others as if they had significance or ‘mean something’. I neither need to nor want to apologise for Garmin; if anything, I think I ought to ‘apologise’ for some consumers' inflated egos and sense of entitlement.

It would make a lot more sense for the default units to be those that are most widely used. There are only three backwater countries in the world still officially wedded to imperial units: Liberia, Myanmar, and yes, you guessed it, the USA.

It would make a lot more sense for the default units to be those that are most widely used. There are only three backwater countries in the world still officially wedded to imperial units: Liberia, Myanmar, and yes, you guessed it, the USA.

The UK uses miles too for measuring travelling distances - all road signs are in miles. But for some other measurements (eg temperature) typically uses metric units

Whilst it's true that the majority of countries use km, that doesn't necessarily mean the majority of Garmin users use km as the normal unit of distance measurement. (Though I doubt Garmin analysed that when defaulting to miles for LiveTrack).