My Experience Today With Distance Tracking
Osprey1
Posts: 610 ✭✭✭✭✭
Today I walked about 26 km I got credit for about 21.
This was primarily due to walking outside of cell coverage for part of my walk. On my walk out I stupidly tried to force the issue and got logged out.
I was more careful on the way back and when foundables started reappearing I checked my portkey progress and watched it jump 1km. I was out of coverage for about 3 during which my portkey progress remained frozen.
I honestly thought Niantic was going to handle this better by now, but I shared this not to complain but so that you can do what I'm going to do. Avoid trying to rack up miles in places with poor coverage.
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Comments
That is one thing I like about being on Google Fi. There are many fewer places with sub-par coverage than there were when I was on Sprint. Mainly because Google Fi shares across 3 networks (Sprint, AT&T, and - I think - T-Mobile). Of course there are always going to be places with shoddy to zero coverage, but I have found an improvement with them.
It's impressive to log that kind of mileage in one day. Perhaps your next 'Walking Achievement' isn't so high after all ;)
I have to say I'm not impressed by the location tracking accuracy so far.
Short walks particularly I get credited for 1/2 to 2/3 the distance recorded on my Garmin. I did a loop of the inns in my town centre earlier. One in I couldn't reach, despite walking round three sides of the physical building. The app wouldn't move my avatar from the next road, then jumped me straight past when I gave up and walked off.
I'm using a newish phone outside with good GPS reception and it's very hit an miss. I've had it stutter in the same place and then crash as it's searching for location more than once.
There's a couple of us with a broken record speech.
GPS works best if you have up to date GPS-A data. I use the app GPS Status to automatically keep mine up to date. It provides a more stable location, faster.
Maybe Niantic should just manage GPS-A data?
There's also some GPS settings you should check, someone else will post those.
Make sure the location is set for "high accuracy" and not "battery saver" in your settings.
When I notice I'm having issues with my map keeping up I pull up Google maps>Set a route(random)>Silence Prompts and use the mini map with WU running behind it. It blocks a small corner of my screen but this completely eliminates GPS accuracy issues for me. I also have my local maps downloaded for Offline use so if I lose data I continue to track correctly, this additionally improves accuracy while connected.
I have not tested this in regards to measuring portkey distance. If I get a chance next weekend I will give it a shot and let everyone know unless someone else updates us first.
VERY IMPORTANT UPDATE!!
I would feel responsible if anyone else reposted and ended up in trouble so please read...
I would highly recommend no one repost the advice I previously gave on this subject. I'm uncertain at this time if my statement was misread or misunderstood as I'm not certain how improving ones GPS signal qualifies as violating the guidelines but, alas, I did receive a Warning after posting this. The Warning was specifically given in regards to my post and nothing else and just qualified me for my 1st strike on the 3 strike policy that stays on my profile for the next several years... 2nd strike lands you a 30 day suspension for those unfamiliar and 3rd is perma ban. Stay calm and cast on!