Total ascent value is wrong

Hi there,

After 4 years without issue like this with my Fenix 3, I have bought a Fenix 6x Sapphire.

I've only used it for 3 weeks so I haven't a lot of feedback on it, however I have spoted a major issue : sometime (I'd rather say often) during activity in Mountain the total ascent value froze even if I'm climbing (I see on my watch that the value stay the same). It can happen during quite a long time (10 to 30 minutes so far) so the total ascent value at the end of my activity is far to be correct. Yesterday, I had only 850m D+ instead of 1100m D+ (start is around 1150m and top around 2250m so it's obviously impossible to have climbed only 850m D+). The activity was Ski Mountaineering.

When I analyse the activity on Garmin Connect, the elevation plot seems to be consistent with reality, and I can correct the total elevation manually but it's quite annoying, especialy for a watch this exepensive!

My girlfriend has the same issue on the Fenix 6s, so it doen't seems to be a hardware issue. We use 2 different activity types in the watch, I use the skimo specific activity and my girlfriend the hiking one. The error in not the same for me and my girlfriend ; I have 850m D+ and she has 750m D+ for the exact same tour.

I have already try factory reset (delete all the data) and we don't use auto pause (the GPS and all other data are recorded while total ascent is not).

I din't see other topic with this issue on the forum (except one from 5 months without answer).

--> Anyone else has already had this issue? Is there some setting to modify? The Garmin support is not useful, they told me to hard reset the watch, but I've already try it...

Thank you for your help!

0 drkglb over 4 years ago

did you try changing the setting for automatic calibration during activity ? I use calibration at start and found it to give the most accurate altitude tracking. Of course that can depend on the location and the weather changes during the activity... But it's always a risk. Try a different setting and check if it improves accuracy !

0 Joris-Gerbaux over 4 years ago in reply to drkglb

Thank you for your quick reply!

I indeed use automatic calibration for elevation during activity. I will switch the setting to "At Start" and see if the issue is solved. But I don't see why this feature would froze the total ascent recorder... Anyway, I keep you posted when I have feedback (Will try by next week end).

Yes, the altitude will be less precise but I didn't had this feature on my Fenix 3 so I'm use to correct it during activity :)

0 1922358 over 4 years ago

I seem to have this problem as well. I've never had this happen until maybe a month or two ago. Now it's fairly consistent (i.e., the ascent value is frozen for awhile). Not sure what to do.

0 Joris-Gerbaux over 4 years ago in reply to 1922358

I have made some tests yesterday.

I've recorded an activity without auto calibration yesterday (around 1000m D+, between 1200m and 2200m).

No issue during the first 600m D+, but then at 604m the value of total ascent froze. As auto calibration was off (I think), I saw that barometric altitude froze as well, and when value change it was not consistent (can switch from 1800m to 1950m in 10s and then back to 1850m). I was only climbing while I saw that.

I had no issue during descent, thus total descent value is correct.

I have exported the .gpx file and opened it into Excel to analyse the altitude profil, I was quite surprise to see that the all point are very consistent with my activity (and very accurate). I don't use GPS altitude correction (and GPS would never be such precise in altitude so I'm sure data doesn't come from GPS). So it seems that the issue concern the data on the screen, but the sensor works well behind. I have downloaded an external app which should display the total ascent data, I will see if it makes any difference.

I will perform other tests during my next acticities, I keep you posted, but it seems the error occur around 1800m to 2000m, I'm not going this high every day :p

What about you 1922358? Can you precise when the error happen?

0 Chris over 4 years ago

I also got this problem! The barometer seems to be working since the clock tracks the starting and final altitude correct, but it looses the total ascent somewhere along the way.....

0 Adi over 3 years ago

I have the exact same issue with my Fenix 6 Sapphire. Always happens on the ascent (mountaineering, backcountry skiing) - elevation and distance get stuck for awhile. Very frustrating. Garmin agents have been steadfast in denying any issue at all. What is the point of spending money on an expensive watch if it is going to misreport? I have more than 10 garmin devices but maybe my next watch will not be a Garmin