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GPS issue - long waiting time

RubenVersloot
over 5 years ago

Hi all,

Bought my Vivoactive 4 a week ago, and overall I'm satisfied. However, I do experience problems with the GPS. It takes about 2-3 minutes before I (finally) receive a GPS signal. During my run yesterday the GPS signal also disappeared sometimes. As a result, my 6.6 km run was only 5.2 km when I returned. I do have the GPS+Glonass option enabled. 

Is it normal to wait this long for a GPS signal? It is my first activity watch, but I expected it to be faster at this price. I understand that the first time it may take a bit longer, but I've recorded four activities now and the waiting time did not decrease. 

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    I find that if I select it before I an in an open space it takes a  lot longer. Now I walk a a few paces from the door, then go to start the activity and it connects within seconds.

  • +2 over 5 years ago

    On the watch, go to "About" and at the very end you'll see "Current CPE Info", and you'll want to see "Current" as the status there.

    That's a file that speeds up getting a GPS fix, but it expires after a time (a few days to a couple weeks.)

    You should get the update over BT, but if it's not "Current", try syncing  with Garmin Express

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to jim_m_58

    Hi Jim, thanks for your answer. The status is "current" indeed, so that should not be the problem. 

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to 8312254

    Hello there, thank you for the tip. It took about 30 seconds now, which is acceptable for me. 

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 4 years ago in reply to jim_m_58

    Hello, I bought my Vivoactive4 a few weeks back and I am facing this issue. I checked for the CPE info and it says missing even thought I managed to run with GPS and I just searched for GPS signal and sync after it was found. Can anyone please advise how to fix this? because it's anoying to be waiting for longer than 10 mins to find the GPS...

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Former Member

    Hi Velssa, my 'problem' with the watch is still there. What I found useful was to go to an open space (no tall buildings in the near area) and than start an activity and start searching for GPS. Normally it takes around a minuten to find GPS, which is not fast but better than the 10 minutes you are describing. 

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 4 years ago in reply to RubenVersloot

    Hi RubenVersloot, thank you for your answer. Yesterday I managed to have the EPO/CPE set to current which I could not do it following instructions on this thread: https://support.garmin.com/en-GB/?faq=CevbI1mlnV2SejYAaOQZ29 . I have not tried again yet but hopefully it might work a bit better since now CPE indicates current. 

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Although I don't think this is the case, there are other situations that cause GPS's (in general) to take a long time to get a position fix.

    If the GPS has been off for a long time, or has moved more than 300 miles from the last place it got a fix, it has to do a COLD FIX procedure ... this is where it has to download a "Digest" from any GPS satellite it can find. The digest tells the GPS where the satellites are so it can determine which ones to look for.  A cold fix can take quite a while to complete.  After the cold fix is completed, subsequent fixes are WARM FIX's and take much less time.

    I think the CPE information that mentioned does the same thing.

    Note: I am not a GPS expert ... this is just something I read when researching a similar problem a number of years ago.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to jim_m_58

    Hi. Mine is on "Current" but the GPS doesn't work anyway. I keep waiting but nothing happens. What should I do? 

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to 3611782

    same for me. I finally had to turn it off today, just wouldn't get the signal. =(