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(Known Issue) GPS Recorded Track Shifted by FAR with Respect to the Map

I had a weird issue today. It seems that Garmin put my recorded activity track over 300m to the left with respect to where I in fact actually ran. This is the screenshot I got from this activity. It never happened before. Of course, the GPS signal was acquired prior to starting the activity. Is there a way to solve it?

  • Hi,

    I just finished a workout from the 10k Garmin Coach plan and again had huge issues with the GPS.

    After about 1/3rd of my workout, things started to went super wrong: the green line in the screenshot blow is the correct path; everything marked red is totally false. I noticed that something was off, when the reported pace and distance values were not plausible (e.g. 1.2km of running was counted as 800m) anymore.

    Here is some additional context:

    • It was around 8° - 11°C.
    • The watch was connected to my phone (Android Garmin Connect Version 4.35.1).
    • The watch was not covered by any cloth.
    • The location services of the phone were enabled, but the phone was underneath my jersey / jacket (this one https://www.gorewear.com/de/de-de/r3-partial-gore-windstopper-shirt-100287.html ). Its silverish inside material looks like it would bias RF signals, but I did not test this. (I don't know if the watch uses the phone to gain additional confidence in / validate the GPS signal somehow).
    • Over the course of half a year, I recorded around 50 running activities with this watch and I estimate that I had implausible pace values ~4 times. The older occurrences were of short duration (< 5 minutes) and I didn't review the map data afterwards.

    I have the impression that the FR245's CPU is sometimes to slow to support my own data screen with a single pace field (no fancy stuff fromm connect iq and the like) and an additional pace field from the workout view.

    Did anyone else had similar issues? Could it be related to intensive sweating? Is there any fix or workaround (e.g. pause activity + resume later + reboot etc.) that works? Any help is highly appreciated :-)

    Edit: typo

  • Funny, I had the same problem this morning. However my wife, which is using a FR45s had no problem at all. I don't think you can correct this.

  • I Have the same problem with my new Garmin watch! Every activity is shifted around 300m at the start. After around 1.5km the watch draws multiple circles on the map and finally adjusts to track and from there on its accurate. Looks like a software bug to me.

  • I have my new Forruner 245 since yesterday. I used to have garmin vivoactive and was not happy with gps/pace/swim giving me absolutely wrong information so based on amazing recommendations from all corners I bough 245. I run yesterday using gps glonass. It differed very from map catched by strava. I have changed that to GPS only today and I have the same issue as you have. I do run between buildings/small trees. Its very frustrating that a basic mobile phone is more accurate, my second garmin and i feel like no way! Do you know which set up can help to get accurate data? Thank you all

  • my second garmin and i feel like no way! Do you know which set up can help to get accurate data?

    Likely not related to your specific device, as the issue being discussed here is more of a system-wide issue, impacting a variety of models and manufacturers. 

  • What do you mean by "It differed very from map catched by strava"? If you export your activities from Garmin App to Strava, they would basically match each other. I know that strava does some smoothing but from my experience it seems that it is rather subtle and almost unnoticeable. GPS accuracy is not perfect in 245 but it is good enough for me. If you want the best accuracy you would probably need to go with a previous generation, especially 935. If you, however, have the issue discussed in this topic, then it seems that it is some bug that has just appeared and presumably will be addressed.

  • And are garmins having similar issues often? Or, do you know it thi is something they might fix quickly? The issue I experienced also with Vivoactive and with 245 today was that it showed absolutely wrong pace even though i was running constantly steady pace. That was the reason why I got rid of vivoactive, my frieds didnt had same issue. At least they have not noticed. Is unsteady pace something usual for garmin due to gps signal? Anyone knowing this I would be happy to finally understand what is wrong :)

  • I would never rely on the current pace directly from my watch. It will give you erratic readings. Instead, the average pace will be OK. In my opinion, if you want to have a precise current pace you will need something like Stryd.