GPS tracking jumping all over the place - several ppl affected that I know of. Wrong kms reported.

[revstrava]

Hi, myself, and several other riders in Australia have noticed that over the last few weeks the GPS driven path bounces all over the place in parts of the ride, incorrectly increasing distance, and adding jagged or starred path artifacts to the path. In places it will jump several tens or hundreds of metres, adding significantly to the distance (and increasing the average speed).

I have been using Strava for over 5 years, frequently with daily rides of > 10km. I have never had this issue.

My friend, from a city approx 100km away is also having the same issue. He came up and we rode together on the weekend.  We rode together ~ 50km.  Before the ride I had checked his phone, made sure network time was on, high precision mode was in the app access, made sure power saving was not triggering and testing the GPS using a GPS app. All good. After tie ride we checked both our phones, and surprisingly both of us had weird jagged artefacts in the path, with the path hopping from the bike path we were on to a nearby road, and sometimes across a river to the other side. 

I rode about 50km today to and from work. The ride in to work recorded perfectly, smoothly following the path. The ride back goes crazy on about four points of the path, with starring and jagged path ... it added about 2-3 km to the ride, and as a result reported my average speed as very high.

Both of us are Android users, I have a Pixel 7a and my friend has a recent Samsung. So the issue is not old or strange Android devices. 

It may be an issue with Android, with a recent update, or could be strava. We are both on the latest app v374.11. 

[Jane · Accepted solution]

Hello @revstrava 

Thanks for your post and sorry to hear about those issues. 

With the changing position of the satellites, changing weather patterns, and the changing nature of the Earth's outer atmosphere, there are enough parts of the GPS system outside of your direct control and observation that it can be  difficult to make conclusions about what specifically is causing inconsistent performance like you are seeing.

I would encourage following all of the troubleshooting steps listed here; I understand from your post that you have already tried some of them, and apologies for any duplication. 

Another tip - sometimes giving the satellites longer to lock can help these kinds of situations. Open the App and go to the Record screen. If you can spare the time, wait an extra 30 to 60 seconds before you press the Start button and begin moving.

Keep us posted if any of these tips help solve the problem, and thanks again for posting.