gps fix slow?

How long should it take to have a GPS fix? Is there something to speed it up?

I am asking, because it slightly annoys me to go out in front of the door at my home, staring at my watch for a minute or so to finally have GPS and then to start my workout. I was used to have a GPS fix in seconds on my phone.

What I noticed: I start the activity screen (or GPS, does'nt matter) and then I see i tiny fraction in the GPS-circle - so it is starting to get GPS. Then it always tells me to go outdoors, where the reception may be stronger (I already am outdoors) then it needs about 30 seconds, then te GPS-circle nearly fills itself. So I am hopeful? Then it returns to just one tiny fraction and then, finally, after about 40 seconds at least, normally about a minute. And I can't do anything in the meantime, otherwise it seem to lose everything it already aquired and starts over.

I started Garmin Connect in parallel to "sync" if that helps with GPS satellite location. Is there anything, one can do? Like on phones you have aGPS and therefore a fix in mere seconds. Can I "help" my I2 to get to it quicker?

Also it seems, that the elevation is not quite right. Sometimes it is accurate, sometimes it is off - and I have to do a manual Calibration, although I have a GPS-positition. If I recalibrate (by GPS) then it seems more accurate. I have set my I2 to auto-calibrate.

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  • How long should it take to have a GPS fix?

    Usually a few seconds, exceptionally a bit longer. Up to tens of minutes if the CPE (ephemeris data) file is expired, or under bad conditions (canyon, dense urban environment with high rise buildings, heavy rain,...).

    Is there something to speed it up?

    Make sure the ephemeris file is up to date. Best done by syncing the watch over the USB cable with Garmin Express before you go out. Normally the watch downloads a fresh ephemeris over the GCM app at the start of an activity, but it often fails, because typically it happens just when you are leaving the home still having the phone connected to your home WiFi. As it loses the signal, it takes a while to switch to mobile data, and in the meantime the app may give up on downloading the CPE.

    Edit: also, when you experience GPS lock delays even with a fresh CPE, reboot the watch. After some firmware updates, the device may have troubles too, and the reboot usually fixes it.

  • With Instinct 1 Solar, after few firmware updates I did hard reset. Normal reboot didn't help for long time GPS fix. I guess in this case it can help as well. I really don't like this method, unfortunately it solves most of difficult to fix problems (except screen polarization problem, of course ;)). That's why it would be nice to have option to revert all settings with first sync with Connect app.

    BTW Don't expect as quick fix as you get on smartphone: antenna is smaller, you don't have direct support from GSM data. Like trux mentioned it good to support watch with data from PC or Connect app.

  • So I gathered a little more experience and those are my findings:

    The GPS fix takes about 10-20 Seconds if I am in my backyard (where there is good visibility of the sky) - under 10 seconds is only reachable if I did a GPS check short time before (minutes). 

    Inf front of the house, it takes about 40 Seconds to more than one minute, as sky visibility is not as good. CPE is up to date and has nothing to do with it, as well as unstable WiFi-Connection (in fact, in my backyard, this is much more unstable than in front of my house due to location of the WLAN-AP - i get a solid connection at my front door)

    So it is rather slow, like @raf200 said, most likely due to smaller antennae and less capabilities (with my phone I have GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and Beidu in parallel which give about 30 satellites available in mere seconds)

    But still it nags me: The IS2 is connected to the phone, that already uses aGPS via Celltowers - so is there no possibility to use that for the IS2 as well? The data is there :-) Is this something to suggest to Garmin?

  • Do you have sourcing for these scenarios being the culprit?  Like in my case where Im exclusively on wireless and the GPS loxk doesn't take place?

    The thing is what you write sounds like authoritative information from inside Garmin, but it's often wrong or appears to be just guesswork.

  • Do you have sourcing for these scenarios being the culprit?

    There are more possible culprits: insufficient GPS signal, expired or broken CPE file, faulty device, activity power profile, ... I do not know what is the culprit in your case, but I definitely know and have experimentally verified that an ephemeris data update gone-wrong, does cause a significant delay in getting the GPS lock. I wrote nowhere that it is the only possible reason.

  • Fair enough to disagree with what people post to help but no need to be so dismissive. If you feel you have a problem with your watch contact Garmin Support. Clearly nothing posted here meets your approval. 

  • I've actually caught him numerous times outright making stuff up and have posted screenshots to that effect.  If you have an actual interest in the informational integrity of Garmin's actual forum, then you'd redirect to the other party.  There's even discussion about him on forums elsewhere and the suspect (and outright made up) "information" he posts.