Major tracking issue on running activity

Former Member over 5 years ago

Around 20th of January my Fenix 5 Plus started to act very inaccurate into my daily running trainings. I use to run into the same circuits so I know well where every "km" mark is. Suddendly my device decided to shorten some segments between 3rd and 4th Km of activity or randomly between other intervals. It uses to do it once per activity resulting some crazy lap intervals of 1km in 2'30" or 2'06" (which is clearly IMPOSSIBLE :)).

I did a complete reset of the device once, then activating GPS + GLONASS and GPS + GALILEO with "every second" recording-mode. After one activity of regular tracking the device started to "eat" from 200 to 400m into some intervals (like described before).

I did a complete reset AGAIN, without importing the data history of my recent activities, then again activated GPS + GLONASS and GPS + GALILEO in "every second" recording mode. Again no luck with that.

I wrote to Garmin support just describing this issue and they actually told me: "Why don't you try to perform a reset and then activate GPS + GLONASS?".
.....
Guessing they don't read e-mails properly.

Anyway. Anyone experienced this issue? My device has always been fully updated (currently on 10.10 latest software device, updated through Garmin Express on OSX environment)

Here's an example of what happens into my GPS track when it comes the issue. It's kinda "drift" effect isn't it?

Any help would be highly appreciated, thank you!

0 RunR over 5 years ago

Difficult to say, but one possibility might be that there is a signal which disturbs the (weak) GPS-signal. If you google about spoofing or jamming you get an idea what's possible. I once lost the signal with my old Fenix 3 as I passed by a guy who in that moment started his chainsaw, the watch did not get the position back until I was at home (4 more km) and stopped the activity and started a new one.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to RunR

Thank you for your contribute.
I thought about that but strange thing is that this issue never occurred before. While now is kinda constant behaviour no matter what kind of course I'm running. I changed several paths during those weeks and this thing happened everytime.

At this point I can't figure it out if it's a software problem, a .fit corrupted data into my device (but in this case a full reset would erase them wouldn't it?) or a satellite issue.

I moved from 9.10 firmware to 10.00 around half of december, then the issue occurred both with 10.00 firmware and latest 10.10 one.

0 JeyJey over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

I have the same issue when running in city, the signal jumps to points outside of my real track and then back again. I have no problem when i running in places "open sky" as a forest or park. I came from a VA3 and i neer has had this issue with a cheaper device. Fw 10.10 as you.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to JeyJey

Thank U for sharing your experience. Well the weird fact Is that all my courses are into "open Sky" routes. Besides that, this issue came out of nowhere!

0 JeyJey over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

my configuration is GPS only. I am on Europe. I read somewhere that the best signal performance nowdays according the develop done by Garmin is GPS+Glonass. Give it a try changing the configuration. Otherwise should be a problem of FW and we only can wait until a new software update fix it.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to JeyJey

I switched from GPS + Galileo to GPS + Glonass with the same result. Weird is that after a factory reset the first activity logs everything in the right way. The second one starts with this issue. Really annoying.

0 Richy over 5 years ago

I had the same issue yesterday the first time. Fenix 5 plus with Firmware 10.10. GPS + Glonass, Stryd and HRM connected.

connect.garmin.com/.../4586297554

0 RunR over 5 years ago

No clue what's happening there, especially as my F5+ delivers very good and consistent tracking, in woods, city, rain...

The only advice I could give is to wait some time, even after the green signal appeared, to make sure that the watch has a good GPS-fix. This is very important in difficult surroundings (trees, tall buildings, mountains…) and also if you have not used the GPS for several days or at a different position.

If this does not help, it is probably an issue with some files on your device (epo.bin??) or the hardware and you should contact Garmin.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to RunR

Thank you for your comment. What's the epo.bin about? The only advice I had from Garmin customer care is "perform an hard reset". Considering I opened my ticket saying "I've performed TWO hard resets ..." I don't know if they're joking with me or what.

I start my trainings into open spaces and I train everyday so GPS should be consistent.
I'm on the fourth hard reset in one week and this morning everything logged fine (like the previous time) so I'll wait to see if this error would be present on today's run.

0 RunR over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

Extended Prediction Orbit