Distance Tracking and Loss of GPS Data

I've had a Fenix 5X for a few weeks now and have been largely happy with it, except for its under reporting (by up to 20%) of known distances on trails or even lightly wooded areas. On these same routes other GPS devices seem to track the distance accurately.

But here's the odd thing that I'm hoping will point to a solution for better, more consistent accuracy. On two separate trail runs, one 3 miles and one 8 miles, the Fenix 5X was spot on, within a tenth of a mile of both known distances. But, on both of those runs the device did not capture ANY GPS data points and thus when I uploaded the activities no route map was displayed.

On all of my other runs, the GPS points were captured and route map displayed after uploading BUT the distance comes up 15% - 20% short, with all of the corresponding live pacing and minutes/mile etc being off by the same number.

I'd be happy to not have the GPS points captured in exchange for better pacing and distance tracking if there was a setting to force it. Performance doesn't seem to be dependent upon data recording settings or GPS mode, at least with any combinations I have tried. Anybody have any ideas here? Because the distance is spot on when the GPS points aren't captured, it leads me to think this is a software issue rather than a hardware issue (probably a good thing.) Thanks in advance for any advice or solutions.

0 Heine_De_Villiers over 7 years ago

What GPS settings are you using. Maybe use Glonass as well and also just to tick the box ,calibrate your stride length

0 bglover11 over 7 years ago

Your results are similar to what I've been experiencing for 8 months now. Some days my 5x is spot on with both distance and gps track and other days it's up to 30% short (on 10+ mile activities so a large difference). I've tried all the combos of gps only and gps + glonass, etc. The only thing I have managed to do to help it out is to get a speed sensor for my MTB as well as a footpod for running. The footpod drastically smooths out the pacing info and both seem to help the 5x figure out distance. I'm disappointed in spending so much and getting a device that can't consistently provide it's own data but I guess I just have expectations that are too high (as others on this forum will surely tell you if you ever criticize the device)

0 rrace over 7 years ago

I tried GLONASS, data recording every second, etc with no real change. I actually have a foot pod on order so maybe that will help. (I use a separate cycling computer so I don't rely on the watch on the bike.) But, if there were an override to collecting the GPS points (ie, tell it to collect none) it seems like that would improve things. It may be that the foot pod forces that. On an open road or paddling on a lake, the device is always spot on. And, my iPhone is always spot on.

0 jmh.hamilton over 4 years ago

I have the same problem. Running on trails in heavily wooded areas in Virginia, or even hiking in the Shenandoah Mts, I've experienced various tracking problems. I typically train at an 8:25-8:45 pace. I know my pace, and the fenix confirms it every time I do runs with an open sky. Yet when I run on a heavily wooded trail, especially with tall trees, my pace increases to about 11:00. This occurs consistently as I've attempted runs in a few different parks and forested areas. This is garbage performance for the most expensive fitness watch on the market (though the 6 pro is now out). The other issue I ran into was checking the altimeter when hiking in various altitudes. When I started a trailhead at a few thousand feet in a heavily wooded area the fenix registered at sea level. This did not happen every time, but I had to develop a work-around with starting the hiking activity. For the price I would not expect these issues.