Navigate to start keeps messing me up

Are you starting the course without a GPS fix first? Perhaps in your home? When I've started along a course with the GPS off I've had to stop the course and start it again to get to the correct place in the custom cues I've created.

No, I don't think so...from what others have said on here, navigate to start doesn't work very well. I think I'll just not use it as has been recommended. THanks though!

Navigate to start is not so bad, it displays a crow-flies line, distance and heading. Probably not useful when you are near the start but it can be if you are lost and trying to find the start. It is also a way of checking where the device has a fix, it may have it at your last known location rather than where you actually are.

I have a course that starts right at my house, and when I go to ride it, my Edge says "you're near the start, do you want to navigate to the start?" (something like that). Regardless of whether I say yes or no, somehow it thinks I'm off course for the first few blocks, and then eventually, it figures out I'm on course - but the big issue is it keeps ending the initial activity, which I have to save and then start a new one for the same course. Today I didn't realize that had happened, and discovered that even though it was indeed following my course and giving me directions, the timer was not started so nothing was recorded.
What's the best strategy to avoid this - and why doesn't it know I'm at the start of my course when I am?

There can be one of two messages. "You are near the beginning of the course. Would you like to start? " and "Navigate to beginning of course?" My guess is that you are getting those mixed up. Could you be choosing yes to "Would you like to start? " and then pressing the start/stop to start? If so, answering yes will start the activity and pressing start/stop will stop it giving the option to save. If that happens you can just press start/stop again to resume the activity.

For Navigate to beginning, I recommend that you do not select that. If you do not get close enough to the start the course it will not be found resulting in the navigation prompts not working. If that happens you can get the navigation to work by stopping the course, restarting it and selecting no to "Navigate to beginning?". If you are anywhere along the course it will be found and the navigation prompts will start from there.

I always answer no to either question.

@ tigermountrider If you are lost and trying to find the start, how do you do it?

I rarely choose Would you like to start? I'd rather press Start at the start or wherever I'm joining the course.

If I select Do a Course and the timer is already running, the timer stops. If I select Do a Course and enter it some way from the start it usually takes 100m or so before the course is found and the Virtual Partner is updated. For the remaining cues to display correctly it looks like the pace of the course needs to be close to the pace I'm travelling at?

@ tigermountrider If you are lost and trying to find the start, how do you do it?

Then you may want to select Navigate to start. But if Navigate to start is selected you need to go through the start point for the 520 to find the course. If you are using virtual partner and want to start from a fairly precise location then using Navigate to start and making sure you get to that point before starting is something different than I was thinking. For those who know where the start is and want the navigation to work without having to go to the precise starting point, selecting no for Navigate to start is better.

I rarely choose Would you like to start? I'd rather press Start at the start or wherever I'm joining the course.

I think the original poster was doing both causing the activity to stop.

A flow diagram of the number of ways there are to Do a Course, and the symptoms of mistakes that can be made, would be a handy thing.