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Incorrect walk distance since 3.90 update

Hello,

since 3.90 software update, I have the wake-on-shaking issue which seems to have been reported many times here, but I also have another problem, with the reported distance of my walks (with connected GPS) being off by about 30%.

I noticed it on the average pace, I'm usually between 10:30 min/km and 10:00 min/km, and since the update it reports 13:xx min/km, which is quite different.

So today I looked closer, and found my usual 7+ km walk to be reported at 5.76 km. The reported GPS track on the map is correct, and a very rough approximation (which underestimates the distance, because many measured straight lines are longer curves) on Google maps shows 7.14 km for this track.

I should probably mention that the Bluetooth connection between my unit and my phone is quite bad, it is actually my #1 issue with this watch but I learned to live with it. Before 3.90 I had pace reading less than half the time, but the total distance distance and average pace were good (as if computed using whole phone data, rather than watch data while the bluetooth connection is active). This occasionally led to comical results, like the average speed being higher than the reported max speed, but I didn't mind, I made do with what I had. The problem is that now I don't even have reliable distance and pace. I only have the heart rate and step count left, it makes me question the point of recording my walks at all.

Has anyone else seen the same issue? Is there a workaround?

  • Hello,

    since 3.90 software update, I have the wake-on-shaking issue which seems to have been reported many times here, but I also have another problem, with the reported distance of my walks (with connected GPS) being off by about 30%.

    I noticed it on the average pace, I'm usually between 10:30 min/km and 10:00 min/km, and since the update it reports 13:xx min/km, which is quite different.

    So today I looked closer, and found my usual 7+ km walk to be reported at 5.76 km. The reported GPS track on the map is correct, and a very rough approximation (which underestimates the distance, because many measured straight lines are longer curves) on Google maps shows 7.14 km for this track.

    I should probably mention that the Bluetooth connection between my unit and my phone is quite bad, it is actually my #1 issue with this watch but I learned to live with it. Before 3.90 I had pace reading less than half the time, but the total distance distance and average pace were good (as if computed using whole phone data, rather than watch data while the bluetooth connection is active). This occasionally led to comical results, like the average speed being higher than the reported max speed, but I didn't mind, I made do with what I had. The problem is that now I don't even have reliable distance and pace. I only have the heart rate and step count left, it makes me question the point of recording my walks at all.

    Has anyone else seen the same issue? Is there a workaround?

    Hello! I will get you added to our case about the display turning on when it isn't supposed to. To verify, this recent activity you performed, the GPS track was normal as your past activities, it was only the distance/pace that recorded incorrectly? Would you be able to provide some screenshots of the activity for me?

  • Hello, the GPS track is indeed normal in all my activities, only distance/pace and maybe other similar measurements (like moving time) are incorrect.

    Here are sample screenshots from today's walk, and another one for a recent walk on almost exactly the same track, but without the issue:

    As you can see, the "Avg Moving Pace" looks good, the "Best Pace" in this walk is obviously an artifact, and the "Avg Pace" seems like it was computed by assuming I wasn't moving when the Bluetooth connection wasn't working. On older walks, the "Avg Pace" is very close to the "Avg Moving Pace", despite the Bluetooth connection being much worse.

  • Okay, thank you for providing this! May I reach out to you via email from Garmin to grab some more information?

  • Sure, no problem, especially if it helps fixing the problem.

  • Sure, no problem, especially if it helps fixing the problem.

    Thank you! I have sent you an email. 

  • Same problem with running since 3.90 and 28% of error on step length compared with the same run on iPhone: 1.28 meter for Vivomove and 1.0 meter for iPhone SE.

  • Hello @Garmin-Isabella my problem is with wrong distance/pace, I have set in Garmin Connect to 0.93m and my Vivomove uses 1.28m. To complet the information: I ran about 30', 5 kms and the step rate for Vivomove was 170 to compare to 169 for Adidas Running on my iPhone, almost perfect equal.

  • Since 4.0, the VO2Max problem is solved, the distance accuracy is not so bad, but not enough accuracy. For my last run, my Vivomove found a step length of 1.07 meter (I set my step length to 0.93 m) and the same run recorded by Adidas Running estimates my step length to 0.9 meter based on GPS and number of steps. So the Vivomove step length is 15% to 20% too much.