Garmin, your segments are not usable, improve them

Most of it is correct, though some of the problems can be worked around. For example when I need a better control over the segment path and waypoints, I create an artificial Activity with plotaroute.com, where I can control the number and density of waypoints, which is then helpfull when creating a Segment from it.

Digeridoo said:

Or is it a matching issue due to bad points?

Yes, due to the non-matching points. Especially the starting point - it can be that you ride through the starting point, exactly on the same path as defined in the Segment, but if the last point of the Activity before the Segment's start is far enough ahead of it, and the next one far enough behind it, then there is no match. From the experience I'd tell the threashold is somewhere in the range of 20m. Changing the GPS recording mode of the watch from Smart Recording to Every Second Recording may help a bit, since the density of points in the Activity file is then higher.

Digeridoo said:

Is there any other issues you know?

Yes, plenty. I've reported many of them to the Support, but unless there are numerous people contacting the Support, it is unlikely that the solving of it gets any priority.

One of the problems I reported, is that when the Activity touches the starting point of the Segment with sufficient accuracy, the Segment is then matched even if you leave the Segment prematurely. So for example you can leave a 2km segment after running (or cycling) just half of it, and you get the fist rank instantly, because your the time you spent on it is  of ½ of the full time, but the algortihm recalculates it on the full lenght of the Segment.

I have sent numerous examples demonstrating it,  to the Support, and I am also able to reproduce it anytime at will. And I have also an example where I ran perpendiculary to a segment, just touching its starting point, and not following it at all. Still, the Segment was matched and 0 time was assigned to it (putting me on the rank #1 again|). Another similar case I documented, and sent the evidence to the Support, was doing a segment in reverse, and having it matched too (again with a zero time).

The next problem is that there is no filter for activity types, and no physical limits set. So you can find people ranking first while biking on Running Segments, or driving cars on Cycling Segments. The leaderboards of every single segment I use is spoiled by such fake activities, where people chose a wrong activity type, or forgot to stop the Activity when driving home by car. There is no way to report those results, and have them removed.

trux said:

some of the problems can be worked around

I do not need a workaround from a third party. If native solution is ugly and mostly not usable it should be either improved or removed at all.

trux said:

Changing the GPS recording mode of the watch from Smart Recording to Every Second Recording may help a bit

It does not helped me. I use Every Seconds mode, however when I am creating a segment, the gap between two points sometimes can be even more then 1 km, which is ridiculous. It is not a problem of GPS mode/points, it is a problem of route sampling by Garmin. For the same activity Strava provides more points, usually in 10-30 times more then Garmin.

trux said:

Yes, plenty. I've reported many of them to the Support, but unless there are numerous people contacting the Support, it is unlikely that the solving of it gets any priority.

I think that removing segments feature will be more easier  then fix all described issues :)

Digeridoo said:

I do not need a workaround from a third party. If native solution is ugly and mostly not usable it should be either improved or removed at all.

Sure, but the user forum cannot help you with that. All we can provide are known solutions and workarounds. If you are asking for a redesign, you have to request it from Garmin directly, since it is highly umlikely they would see it here.

Digeridoo said:

I think that removing segments feature will be more easier  then fix all described issues :)

You can disable Garmin Segments (and enabling just Strava Segments) in the Garmin Connect Mobile phone app -  go to the Menu » Training » Segments, tap the triple dot up right and disable Garmin Segments. Then wait for the fix from Garmin. Don't hold your breath while doing so, though 

trux said:

You can disable Garmin Segments (and enabling just Strava Segments)

Well, what if I would like to use both? Nowadays Strava has more aggressive politics on a price and the ability to view your own results of a segment on free plan was removed. But as a Garmin user I have free and native possibility to view my results, but I can't use Garmin segments because they have a lot of issues. So there are two ways:

• use Strava segments and pay additional fees
• use Garmin’s segments for free, but you will have a headache with a bunch of issues

In general, I would like to use Strava for public activities/segments and Garmin for private activities/segments. Also I would like to duplicate my favorite segments from Strava to Garmin and make them as much close to each other as possible.

Also, the price politics of Strava can push Garmin (in theory) to improve its own segments. It can be beneficial to attract users to the Garmin’s segments system. But Garmin’s segments are not usable, it should be fixed and only after this it can be competitive. I really do not understand why Garmin does not continue developing its own segments, or Strava has already won and Garmin gives up?

Digeridoo said:

Well, what if I would like to use both?

You just wrote, you prefere having the Segments removed from Garmin Connect, than having them in the way they are:...

Digeridoo said:

it should be either improved or removed at all.

... so I gave you the way how to do it. I can't fix the Segments. Contact the Customer Support and request it, just like I did too.

I appreciate for your advice, but in summary it sounds like "just disable segments and use Strava" :) So we both understand that Garmin's segments mostly are not usable. However after collecting some useful feedbacks I, probably, will submit them to Garmin support. And wait, wait and wait again...

No, I did not tell you to disable Garmin Segments (I am using them myself depsite the shortcomings anyway too). I wrote you how to disable them, because you explicitely asked for it.

There is some misunderstanding, because I did not ask about how to disable segments, moreover I know how. It was just a sarcasm about amount of bugs and that it will be more easier to remove segments from GC at all (or develop from scratch) then fix them all.