GPS lock timed out

[poit57]

I went running last night. When I activated the running with GPS, I walked for a couple minutes to the end of my street and finally got a notification that the GPS couldn't be locked. I finally started the run where the Band was supposed to continue searching for GPS, but it never got a lock during my entire 35 minute workout.

Are there any tricks to assist the Band in getting a GPS lock? I'm hoping this is just a glitch, but I'm worried that this unit might have a bad GPS chip. I've already had two warranty replacements for different issues. The first two units always got a GPS lock within a minute. The first run I went on with my current unit took until 12 minutes into my run to get a lock. It has been better since then until last night.

Last night's run was the first time I've been able to use the Band in about a week because I lost my charging cable while on vacation and just received my replacement cable yesterday. I don't know if the battery being dead so long would have affected any of this or if I should try a reset on the Band to see if that helps. Any suggestions?

 

[gadgetrants]

My recollection of the last time this question came up was: try to wait (if possible) to lock before starting the run...in other words, don't take the "start now and lock later" option. I agree mine will sometimes lock in 10 seconds, and other times it takes a few minutes. If it doesn't lock in 3-4 minutes I'd suggest backing out of run mode and starting a new run. The only drawback is you have to start the run, cancel it, then start a new one -- no way to cancel the run while it's searching for GPS.

-Matt

 

[poit57]

Hopefully, it's just a random issue, but I've only attempted to track 6 runs with this current unit and have had trouble with the GPS lock on 2 of those runs. Normally, I do wait for the GPS lock before I begin my run, but I didn't want to stand around waiting for an indeterminate amount of time for the GPS to lock in. I'll try power cycling the next time I run into this issue.

I took about a month off from running after completing a half marathon, so I am just getting back into a running routine. Hopefully, I will have better luck going forward. At least I should be able to tell with more experience whether this is just a random occurance or if this is a bad unit. I'm hoping to avoid going through my third warranty exchange in less than 4 months.

 

[DroidUser42]

Hopefully it was just a "bad GPS day" (when the satellites for your part of the world are all hiding behind hills, buildings and other objects). I wouldn't make a snap judgement based on one day.

 

[gyhor]

I am using gps everyday and the band get the gps lock in maximum 10 seconds.
Maybe if there are a lot of trees the gps signal is weak?

 

[DroidUser42]

I am using gps everyday and the band get the gps lock in maximum 10 seconds.

When you use it every day, it has a almanac in place to find things fairly quickly. But the first time you use a GPS, it has to wait to download it. See Time to first fix.

 

[mfm77]

My last three runs with the Band have included long waits for the GPS lock. I'm hoping a software update at some point will fix it.