Strava on iPhone vs. Apple Watch SE - Tracekd running distance differs

[SeppSeb916]

Dear community,

a few months ago i started with running and am using my iphone (14) with strava app to track my effort.
Some trainings, my wife runs directly next to me and she uses her Apple Watch SE to track her data. We are wondering, why the strava app of my iPhone tracks more distance than her Watch.

Yesterday i did a training session with 8,45 km distance but her watch tracked just 8,09 km. We started together and were running next to each other all the time. The complete training session was outdoor, with good gps connection.

Did anybody else also faces this issue and can help, which device could be correct? 🙂

Thanks for your help.

[ActivityFix · Accepted solution]

My guess would be that the watch is the more accurate device. Phones have a lot of battery and app optimizations which can result in less accurate GPS tracking. See this support article:

https://support.strava.com/hc/en-us/articles/216917247-Troubleshooting-GPS-Issues

Put the route you ran into the route planner and see what it says the distance should be. That should give you another hint as to which device is correct

[CMYKorey]

I’m having the same issue trying to track my own runs. My Apple WatchSE says about a mile shorter than the IPhone  12pro max. The auto pause setting is on for both the phone and watch.  What gives?