FW 5.00 issues

however the watch is only supposed to change the altitude during times when movement is detected.

Supposed by who? Have Garmin ever stated that this is how they intended it to work?

- Altitude drifts magically, I went to sleep at 104 meters and woke up without moving at 91 meters. I didn't know my house sank 13 meters in 7 hours.

I don't know which calibration settings you are running, but isn't this just how the auto calibration is intended to work?

By default I thought the altitude is supposed to be calibrated during the night based on the position of your connected phone, so seeing a different value in the morning is probably just proof that the calibration has taken place?

Have you looked at the barometer? Was there perhaps a drop of - 2 mb ( 1 mb= 8 meter)? So maybe this behavior in auto mode was, how it should work? If there was no drop on the barometer side, auto mode is not working as it should and the better option for altitude at night/or if you are not changing altitude is to use the baromete mode (theoretically).

See manual: "Watch Mode Sets the sensor used in watch mode. The auto option uses both the altimeter and barometer according to your movement. You can use the Altimeter option when your activity involves changes in altitude, or the Barometer option when your activity does not involve changes in altitude."

Supposed by who? Have Garmin ever stated that this is how they intended it to work?

Barometer settings in watch mode explained https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/fenix5plus/EN-US/GUID-CDC9DDEE-C576-4E1D-B007-BC737686793A.html

Elevation calibration explained https://support.garmin.com/en-GB/?faq=Vdz7RVePPV7wm1gO2d46TA&productID=603267&tab=manuals

- Wifi upload is completely broken (activity was not uploaded).

I think the wifi upload never actually worked, at least not for me. Watch says it's connected to wifi but upload is always via bluetooth

Have you looked at the barometer? Was there perhaps a drop of - 2 mb ( 1 mb= 8 meter)? So maybe this behavior in auto mode was, how it should work? If there was no drop on the barometer side, auto mode is not working as it should and the better option for altitude at night/or if you are not changing altitude is to use the baromete mode (theoretically).

See manual: "Watch Mode Sets the sensor used in watch mode. The auto option uses both the altimeter and barometer according to your movement. You can use the Altimeter option when your activity involves changes in altitude, or the Barometer option when your activity does not involve changes in altitude."

Yes, there was a pressure drop and the watch was set to auto. My understanding is that when there is no movement like when I'm sleeping the watch should be in barometer mode which means there should be no change in altitude unless the movement detection is ultra sensitive and it is in altimeter mode instead, which would be incorrect.

I did read that part of the manual which is why I'm convinced that it's not functioning correctly.

Also the auto calibration never works for me even though it is enabled on the watch and the connect app has location enabled.

Does the watch mode auto calibration work for others?

Here's my experience on the 5x+:

I was on beta 4.65. My GPS tracking on the beta was worse than the previous released version, and battery drain also got worse. I sent tracking results to Garmin like they requested in a post. Same thing happened with the 5.00 release - my battery drain is worse than it was on 4.65, and tracking didn't improve or maybe got a bit worse. My average battery drain started at about 0.215% per hour, and is now about 0.285%. That's about 1/3 less battery life, with decreased GPS tracking performance.

Yes, there was a pressure drop and the watch was set to auto. My understanding is that when there is no movement like when I'm sleeping the watch should be in barometer mode which means there should be no change in altitude unless the movement detection is ultra sensitive and it is in altimeter mode instead, which would be incorrect.

I did read that part of the manual which is why I'm convinced that it's not functioning correctly.

The manual is very vague about this. I looked into the two links provided by Crispin earlier in this thread, and only one of them contained anything on the subject, which was: "will switch according to your movement", or something to that effect.

"According to your movement" could mean anything. Is this a movement which is detected by accelerometers, by watch GPS, by phone GPS, or by something else? And no matter which method is used, what are the criteria? Only Garmin knows.

For the Fenix 3, a lot of users compared observations and the general consensus was that it is probably mostly decided by the rate of ambient pressure change. If the ambient pressure changes slowly, the watch will assume that it is stationary and switch to Barometer Mode, and if the ambient pressure changes quickly, the watch will assume that it is on the move and switch into Altimeter Mode.

Of course, if this is the algorithm, it could be improved a lot. Your expectation of using accelerometer data is not unreasonable at all. And perhaps it was improved in later watch models. I don't think any of us know, and Garmin haven't said anything, except for this vague "according to your movement".

So until we have something clearer from Garmin, I think it is too early to say that it doesn't work as intended. It may instead be a case of Garmin's intentions lacking.

Regarding my experience with the automatic calibration:
My 5X+ is at 44 or 45 meter every morning when I wake up, no matter how much the elevation has drifted the day before. A topographic map places me between the 40 and 45 meter elevation curves, closest to the 45 meter curver. So I would say that the nightly recalibration works as it should.

I think this is something you haven't been clear about, or I have missed it: When your altitude changes overnight, does it change to the same value every night? If yes, how does this value compare to your altitude from a topographic map?

Other things to consider:
Do you sleep at terrain level?
If you do not sleep at terrain level, I have absolutely no idea how the watch will manage the nightly calibration. It would seem that any algorithm will have situations where it will go wrong if the user's location above terrain is unknown. (We do know from another thread that the auto calibration at the start of a logged GPS activity seems to put too much emphasis on DEM data, leading to wrong results when the activity is not started at terrain level. The same could be the case with the nightly calibration.)

Is your watch able to pull your location from your phone while you sleep?
I guess this can both be a case of connection issues between watch and phone, and location/GPS permission issues on the phone.

I've given up with the Barometer and And Elevation.... sometimes its right, and stays right, then it drifts off - by as much as 200 metres on a couple of occasions!!
My Sleep Function hasn't worked since the update.
Haven't tested much else to be honest.

I wish now I'd turned off the auto update as 4.20 seemed to work well for me - as well as I'd hoped anyway.
Do I bother reporting issues anymore as they don't seem to do much about them.

The manual is very vague about this. I looked into the two links provided by Crispin earlier in this thread, and only one of them contained anything on the subject, which was: "will switch according to your movement", or something to that effect.

"According to your movement" could mean anything. Is this a movement which is detected by accelerometers, by watch GPS, by phone GPS, or by something else? And no matter which method is used, what are the criteria? Only Garmin knows.

For the Fenix 3, a lot of users compared observations and the general consensus was that it is probably mostly decided by the rate of ambient pressure change. If the ambient pressure changes slowly, the watch will assume that it is stationary and switch to Barometer Mode, and if the ambient pressure changes quickly, the watch will assume that it is on the move and switch into Altimeter Mode.

Of course, if this is the algorithm, it could be improved a lot. Your expectation of using accelerometer data is not unreasonable at all. And perhaps it was improved in later watch models. I don't think any of us know, and Garmin haven't said anything, except for this vague "according to your movement".

So until we have something clearer from Garmin, I think it is too early to say that it doesn't work as intended. It may instead be a case of Garmin's intentions lacking.

Regarding my experience with the automatic calibration:
My 5X+ is at 44 or 45 meter every morning when I wake up, no matter how much the elevation has drifted the day before. A topographic map places me between the 40 and 45 meter elevation curves, closest to the 45 meter curver. So I would say that the nightly recalibration works as it should.

I think this is something you haven't been clear about, or I have missed it: When your altitude changes overnight, does it change to the same value every night? If yes, how does this value compare to your altitude from a topographic map?

Other things to consider:
Do you sleep at terrain level?
If you do not sleep at terrain level, I have absolutely no idea how the watch will manage the nightly calibration. It would seem that any algorithm will have situations where it will go wrong if the user's location above terrain is unknown. (We do know from another thread that the auto calibration at the start of a logged GPS activity seems to put too much emphasis on DEM data, leading to wrong results when the activity is not started at terrain level. The same could be the case with the nightly calibration.)

Is your watch able to pull your location from your phone while you sleep?
I guess this can both be a case of connection issues between watch and phone, and location/GPS permission issues on the phone.

You are right and I agree with you, without a less vague explanation we cannot draw any definitive conclusion on the correctness of the behaviour and mode switching.

I am at 104 meters according to topo mapping and sleep close to ground level. I also double checked the permissions of location and made sure that location services are enabled on the phone. Everything is enabled on the watch and it is connected to the phone through bluetooth. There is no pattern in the elevation upon waking up and it can be out by 30 meters. If I want anything reasonably accurate I am forced to perform the calibration routine myself.

The only thing I can think of is some problem with interoperability between my specific phone model and Garmin Connect (I use a Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+). Which phone model do you have if you don't mind me asking?

Anyways, thank you for following up and contributing your thoughts on this matter.

Regarding wifi upload, this works when manually triggered though the control widget, however it is not called automatically when an activity is saved and it should be (my edge 1030 automatically pushes the ride to Garmin Connect when it is ended).