Certainly. There is an ABC widget, a stand alone Altitude widget and many, if not all of the stock (and many of the IQ) watch faces allow for the addition of an altitude data field.
Perhaps you need to better explain what you mean. You also need to understand how altitude is calculated (tied to atmospheric pressure and temperature) and why it does need to be calibrated and will drift. This link to a discussion on ABC sensors (although a bit outdated) provides some good background. The 5X also has three modes available, including Auto, which each reacts very differently.
I have calibrated the altitude several times by GPS and it does capture data during an activity but when I am not running an activity the altitude readings do not change in the ABC widget. I currently have the mode set at Auto. Did you man to include a link in your previous response. Thank you for responding to my posts.
Thank you for the link! I do have a rough understanding of how altitude is calculated. I think there may be an issue with my Garmin but I do not know if I have the setup correct. I have contacted Garmin on two occasions and I have yet to get a satisfactory response and it has left me unclear on the representatives understanding of their product.
Strange that it works in an activity. Obviously hard to test without actually changing altitude. Is the ABC widget licked on the same attitude all the time or does it change after an activity? There is an ABC widget and a standalone altitude widget - do they act the same? Double check that the Watch Mode is Altimeter (for the purpose of testing). Garmin is going to ask you to do a hard reset (and lose your data) - standard routine. Before this try a bunch of things - Power off and on, soft reset, remove/reinstall widgets. Also, go into diagnostic mode and check the page for the Barometer (which include the current altitude reading). Thread on Diagnostic mode at https://forums.garmin.com/forum/on-the-trail/wrist-worn/fenix-3/88764-test-mode . Lap button moves through the pages.
The barometer settings will affect how the watch interprets changing ambient air pressure. Settings> Sensors and Accessories> Barometer> Watch Mode
In Altimeter mode, the watch will assume all changes in measured air pressure are due to changes in altitude, and your elevation will go up and down. In Barometer mode, the watch will assume that changes in measured air pressure are due to changes in the weather, and elevation will remain unchanged. In Auto mode, the watch will make its best guess as to what is going on, based on watch movement, rate of air pressure change, etc. But sometimes it will guess wrong.
In an activity, it assumes air pressure changes are due to altitude changes.
If measuring elevation changes outside and activity is important to you, select the Altimeter mode.
Thank you so much for the feedback on my post. I changed the Watch mode to "Auto" and I did note a change from my house to the office this morning so I am encouraged. I do want to apologize for my sharp tongue in my previous post in regards to Garmin support, I do have some ideas to improve Garmin support if they are listening. Thank you for the support in this forum.
nlsalessio, in an earlier post you stated you had the watch in "auto mode" so I assumed this was already the case. As per the description of the modes from mcalista, if you think you are still having issues I would suggest setting to Altimeter mode for testing - that way you should see all pressure changes as elevation changes. This should make it easier to determine if you have an issue or not. You can always switch it back after. i do find Auto mode works fairly well BUT, in reality, no mode is going to be 100% accurate over any period of time without re-calibration on a regular basis. Although I have the elevation on my watchface - I really don't know why!! I don't really need to know my elevation during day to day stuff. In an activity, I'm only really interested in the overall elevation change (so absolute values are not important). Obviously others have different requirements.
