Fenix 6 reports distance incorrectly

Brand new Fenix 6.  Ran a 6 miler (3miles out and back) that I’ve run hundreds of times.  Watch reports mile 3 at the correct turn around point, but by the time I reach mile 4, it’s only reporting 3.8 miles and my pace is showing as two minutes slower than normal.  At the end, total distance is 5.8 miles, but the gps track on the map is perfect.  I load it into Strava and select “correct distance” and it calculates 6.1 miles, so the points in the track are actually correct.

I’ve taken this watch on 2 runs, and something this has happened both times.  The first time it happened much earlier in the run, and the entire run was reported a mile shorter than actualThis is my 3rd Garmin device (just upgraded from a vivoactive 3) and have never had this problem, where the GPS track looks fine, but the distance is wrong. First track was GPS + GLONASS, second track was GPS + GALILEO.

watch is completely up to date:

Firmware 9.0

GPS 4.4

Sensor Hub 5.07

What are my options to stop this from happening?

exhibit 1: mile 4 much longer than mile 3

exhibit 2:  i did not slow down like shown below

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 3 years ago

    hi,

    there seems to be something going on with or between the different GPS settings

    you are not alone

    something to read (last German link has the best info)

    happy & safe sporting

  • Thanks for the links, and glad I’m not alone.  Unless I missed something it doesn’t appear that there is a solution, though.  I can correct  the file after the fact in strava, since the recorded data is correct.  However,it completely screws up any training during the actual activity, since it throws pace and distance way off.  Has anyone solved this by either resetting the watch, or getting a warranty replacement?  I love the watch, but this is a show stopper.

  • No there is no solution. You can't turn it off. It can be more reliable than the GPS distance sometimes, but often it's too short. Other brands are doing the same kind of adjustments, but... better. :-)

  • This is nothing new, this has been discussed NUMEROUS times in these forums. It's a well known fact that fenix 6 positioning performance is worse COMPARED to other models. Is probably due to a hardware error/design error, and nothing garmin can fix via software update. You have to buy another watch, or buy a foot pod (Like Stryd) if you need perfect distance/pace performance. 

  • I’ve read through many of the threads, but have probably missed others.   What I’ve learned is that if there is an algorithm (not sure it’s if in the sony chipset or Garmin firmware) that, if it calculates that there is too much error in GPS measurements , will revert to the accelerometers to estimate distance and pace.  Ideally I’d like to prevent this from happening, since post-run the GPS track in the .fit file is just fine as viewed in other programs, (e.g. strava)

    Is there a general consensus on optimal settings to prevent this from happening?  I’ve seen that Garmin’s site says to use 3d distance, 3d pace, and 1 second recording, but that’s for GPS accuracy, which I think is already decent.  I’ve got autopause off as well. Have tried GPS+GLONASS and will try GPS only on my next run, but don’t really expect that to make a difference.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 3 years ago in reply to Polydactyl

    For me...turn 3d options off.

  • No it can't be turned off. That would be nice, as the pure GPS is often very acceptable. But there is no way to prevent it. All brands are tweaking the GPS distance, but it's just that Garmin is probably the one doing it the worse. Suunto is barely touching it on the 9 model (and GPS accuracy is less good than on the Fenix...), Coros is doing very light adjustments and their GPS accuracy is good. Not sure about Polar. As often, it's a good idea, but implemented with various results :-P 

  • Thank you for the insights.  Spent some time this morning manually calculating distances between GPS points (1 second intervals) and comparing them against the enhanced_speed field in the .fit file just to confirm my suspicions.  It was quite clear that the watch was defaulting to some sort of estimate based on movement vs. gps.  Reported pace was close to 13 min/mile when actual was somewhere around 8:30.

    I feel a little better now that I understand what is happening, even if it somewhat annoying.  Also had much better results on today’s run, so hopefully it was just a fluke that it misbehaved so poorly on the first 2 runs.

  • This discussion has led me down the rabbit hole looking at foot pods that can estimate pace and distance.  Seems like Stryd is the only game in town.  The ones from garmin, polar, and others are old no longer available.  Am I missing something?  Not horribly interested in garmin’s running run dynamics pod, since it can’t estimate pace.  Other than stryd, is there a garmin compatible foot pod out there that is still being manufactured?

  • Having the same issue with my Fenix 6 - another guy recommended Sunnto because they use Fused Speed algorithms to adjust for GPS inconsistencies - good luck.

    Also, I know and have ran that route in your picture! I did a 2mi run & 2mi ruck there the other week.