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Bug Report: distance and speed very low and wrong during some activities

  • May 28, 2025
  • 11 replies
  • 158 views

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Hello,

 

I currently use a Pixel Watch 2 to track activities. While it works great for walks runs and bike rides, it can't do much else. For example, when walking, running, or biking, speed and distance and gps map are all okay. However, when I try and track anything else (Inline Skate and kayak) the speed is always super super low and the distance is way less than it should be.

For example, a friend would go inline skating with me and their speed would be around 7 mph and mine is always stuck at ~1-2 mph. My distance is always super low as well. But when we walk or bike the tracking is just fine.

Dont really understand what's going on and why some activities just don't work and walking and biking do very well. I could just use the biking category to track everything but I like the different categories.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling multiple times. Please help or resolve the issue, I really enjoy the UI and tools of strava.

 

Thanks !

11 replies

Vincenzo
Superuser
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  • Superuser
  • 264 replies
  • May 29, 2025

Ciao ​@Kody Sagaser. Could it be related with a poor GPS signal? Are you recording through the app? 


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  • Author
  • Hub Rookie
  • 5 replies
  • May 29, 2025

Yes I am recording through the app. It shouldn’t be a matter of a poor GPS signal. I have tried using other trackers for a comparison and the GPS, speed, and distance work just fine.


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  • Hub Starter
  • 6 replies
  • May 29, 2025

Hi,

I have the exact same issue with my WearOS (oneplus 3) watch. I recorded a few rides with my phone as well as the watch, recordings on the phone were correct, the ones on the watch weren’t. Strava recognized the ‘parallel’ recordins as a ‘Group Activity’ with a shared map, which has more or less identical routes, both activities had the same duration (Time) but the one from the watch had wildly less distance (8.74km vs 21.37km for the phone recording).

I haven’t tried any other activities than inline skating.

Note: The distance and average speeds can be ‘fixed’ through the ‘Correct Distance’ feature (only on website, not in app).

 


  • 0 replies
  • May 29, 2025

With the caveat that I'm a Garmin only user and might not know what I'm talking about, I'll throw this idea out for consideration:  Some of your activities are triggering the auto-pause function too rapidly.  And you're moving too slowly to trigger a restart, so portions aren't being recorded.  That feature's probably disabled automatically for walking, which is why you're doing okay there.


You need to lower the auto pause threshold for your other activities, or disable it altogether.      

 


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  • Author
  • Hub Rookie
  • 5 replies
  • May 29, 2025

Possibly, I’ll have to look into that. 

Is there somewhere in the settings I can change the auto pause threshold? Or just disable it all together? I wish there were settings for individual activities...


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  • Hub Starter
  • 6 replies
  • May 29, 2025

In the strava wearOS app, if you scroll all the way down the activities list, there’s a settings button that gets you to a screen with ‘Auto Pause’ settings for ‘Run’ (off on mine) and ‘Ride’ (on). I will switch ride to ‘off’ as well and see if that changes anything (will have to wait for a less windy day though, too much wind today for my inline skating liking...)


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  • Author
  • Hub Rookie
  • 5 replies
  • May 29, 2025

Jorik, 

Do you have issues with the Inline Skating activity as well?


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  • Hub Starter
  • 6 replies
  • May 29, 2025

Yes, Inline Skating indeed. More details are in an earlier reply, which is ‘under review’ still, probably because I included a screen shot of the ‘Fix Distance’ feature...


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  • Author
  • Hub Rookie
  • 5 replies
  • May 29, 2025

@Jorik 

Thank you for the screenshot and tips. I’m glad (or not) that other people are having the same issue. I am currently training for a inline skate marathon and I wish Strava worked better with this.

Really wish there was a way to directly report bugs directly...


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  • Hub Starter
  • 6 replies
  • June 3, 2025

@Kody Sagaser 
I tried with both Auto Pause settings (Run and Ride) set to ‘off’, but that didn’t make a difference.


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  • Hub Rookie
  • 4 replies
  • September 21, 2025

I have the same issue. My family and I kayaked down a river, most of it didn't require padding. When we were done, their apple watches showed 17km as a total distance, my Pixel 3 watch showed only .09km. It was on the kayaking activity and I could see the speed so I know it was tracking but not showing the distance. Auto pause wasn't on. I'm thinking that perhaps it only recorded the distance when I was actually paddling, and not as I was floating down the river?