# Anyone else experiencing issues with Strava gps data?



## cookieMonster (Feb 23, 2004)

Howdy — 
In the past few weeks I’ve had a lot of rides/hikes fail to track properly; and sometimes Strava just stops partway into an activity.

I have been using the app for about two years now with only a rare glitch here and there but lately it’s been more often than not — and even on routes that I’ve successfully tracked many times or road rides through town where there are no obstructions.

I wonder if it could be due to much elevated internet activity— or maybe it’s just something wrong on my phone. Just wondering if anyone else is experiencing this.

PS— if you don’t care for Strava, well, nobody’s forcing you to read this thread.


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## Scott O (Aug 5, 2004)

No but tapatalk is blowing up, alerting me of every new thread.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk


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## scatterbrained (Mar 11, 2008)

When using my phone I get weird spikes. I've seen it on friends rides too. Solution: get a Garmin. This is an issue that goes back several months for me as I only used my phone when on my dirtjumper riding around with my kids. For reference, thse are the kinds of glitches I see. .
.


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## Picard (Apr 5, 2005)

Strava is infected with covid19

Sent from my SM-G965W using Tapatalk


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## KingOfOrd (Feb 19, 2005)

Probably because of all those people out there burning down 5g towers


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## jcd46 (Jul 25, 2012)

Scott O said:


> No but tapatalk is blowing up, alerting me of every new thread.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk


I'm about to dump it!! That happened last week, where every single post had a notification! Now, I'm getting zero! notifications.

I bet you is mtbr, but not going to report it, as probably no one is around to fix it.


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## JoePAz (May 7, 2012)

zero issues for me. It works as it always has I use strava on my iphone in Phoenix area.


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## Mojave G (Jan 30, 2015)

cookieMonster said:


> Howdy -
> In the past few weeks I've had a lot of rides/hikes fail to track properly; and sometimes Strava just stops partway into an activity.
> 
> I have been using the app for about two years now with only a rare glitch here and there but lately it's been more often than not - and even on routes that I've successfully tracked many times or road rides through town where there are no obstructions.
> ...


Yes been happening the last couple months for me. Seems like the gps on the phone (Samsung Note) is pinging of residential and business wifi. Super annoying alot of times it will wipe out a segmant that I thought I might have done well on, but will never know!

Like this.











jcd46 said:


> I'm about to dump it!! That happened last week, where every single post had a notification! Now, I'm getting zero! notifications.
> 
> I bet you is mtbr, but not going to report it, as probably no one is around to fix it.


Same here! I haven't gotten a notification on tapatalk in over a week. I'm assuming something went fubar and they are understaffed in these times. :bluefrown:


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## *OneSpeed* (Oct 18, 2013)

Yes, I've had rides fail to record, and my friends have also recently been reporting the same.


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## DIRTJUNKIE (Oct 18, 2000)

scatterbrained said:


> When using my phone I get weird spikes. I've seen it on friends rides too. Solution: get a Garmin. This is an issue that goes back several months for me as I only used my phone when on my dirtjumper riding around with my kids. For reference, thse are the kinds of glitches I see. .
> .
> View attachment 1322989


What kind of energy drink were you using on this ride? I'll take some. :yikes:


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## Rev Bubba (Jan 16, 2004)

Yes. Yesterday it showed the results of my road ride but failed to store the information. More annoying then anything else.


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## cookieMonster (Feb 23, 2004)

I think the issue may have been with my phone. I restarted my phone yesterday before my ride and it recorded it perfectly. I will try to do that before every ride from now on and see if the issue goes away. Got a bunch of PRs yesterday and a top-10 on a DH section.


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## huckleberry hound (Feb 27, 2015)

I've been recording my rides with both Strava and Trailforks simultaneously that way if one gets screwed up then I will have it from the other. You can import the ride from Trailforks to Strava.


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## sgltrak (Feb 19, 2005)

I've been getting a ton of those weird lazer beam spikes on my rides. The usually occur when I use another app on my phone during the ride like taking a photo with the camera app or checking my work email.


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## Klurejr (Oct 13, 2006)

scatterbrained said:


> When using my phone I get weird spikes. I've seen it on friends rides too. Solution: get a Garmin. This is an issue that goes back several months for me as I only used my phone when on my dirtjumper riding around with my kids. For reference, thse are the kinds of glitches I see. .
> .
> View attachment 1322989


My phone (samsung S8+) and my wifes phone (samsung S9) have both been doing that same thing, but not for every ride. I opened up a ticket with Strava and they recommended I install an app called GPS Status and use it to reset my GPS settings.

The reset did not seem to change anything, however I found that if I allow the GPS Status app to run while using Strava I get less of those spikes.

I also noticed that when I pause my ride, before I upload it, and I look at the current map everything is fine, but then when i complete the ride and upload it, the error happens then. Strava is trying to claim it is a failure at the device level, but i don't think it is. I think it is a bug in the app that will have to eventually be addressed.


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## Klurejr (Oct 13, 2006)

huckleberry hound said:


> I've been recording my rides with both Strava and Trailforks simultaneously that way if one gets screwed up then I will have it from the other. You can import the ride from Trailforks to Strava.


That is not a bad idea, I might try that, i mean if the rain ever stops.... Freaking Pacific Northwest rain forest here in San Diego these past 4-5 weeks... Killing my solar systems ability to make eletricity.


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## cookieMonster (Feb 23, 2004)

sgltrak said:


> I've been getting a ton of those weird lazer beam spikes on my rides. The usually occur when I use another app on my phone during the ride like taking a photo with the camera app or checking my work email.


Duly noted. I've been stopping to take more pictures during rides recently- maybe that's it.


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## ez049 (Apr 12, 2013)

recently, GPS track from Garmin Edge 705 is super bumpy - see strava activity - have people seen this; does that mean my Garmin is shot?

https://www.strava.com/activities/3514367113


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

ez049 said:


> recently, GPS track from Garmin Edge 705 is super bumpy - see strava activity - have people seen this; does that mean my Garmin is shot?
> 
> https://www.strava.com/activities/3514367113


This is not a strava quesiton, but a Garmin one. First steps with any weird Garmin behavior:

1. Check for firmware updates.
2. Clear the device's tracklog. They'll start to behave funny when it fills up. Older devices like the Edge 705 are particularly susceptible to this (I'm surprised you have one still in service, tbh).
3. If that doesn't work, hard reset. You'll have to Google the specific button presses to do this, because every device is different.


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## ghettocruiser (Jun 21, 2008)

My old edge 500 on my kid's bike is really drifting around these days, seemingly way more than it did when I was using it as my only device in 2012-2015. 

I'm having a hard time coming up with a theory why an "old" gps would get less accurate over time... but I think it is.


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## Klurejr (Oct 13, 2006)

Klurejr said:


> My phone (samsung S8+) and my wifes phone (samsung S9) have both been doing that same thing, but not for every ride. I opened up a ticket with Strava and they recommended I install an app called GPS Status and use it to reset my GPS settings.
> 
> The reset did not seem to change anything, however I found that if I allow the GPS Status app to run while using Strava I get less of those spikes.
> 
> I also noticed that when I pause my ride, before I upload it, and I look at the current map everything is fine, but then when i complete the ride and upload it, the error happens then. Strava is trying to claim it is a failure at the device level, but i don't think it is. I think it is a bug in the app that will have to eventually be addressed.


My last 2 rides doing this with the GPS Status app have resulted in normal recordings without the spikes.


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## ez049 (Apr 12, 2013)

Klurejr said:


> My last 2 rides doing this with the GPS Status app have resulted in normal recordings without the spikes.


thanks for the input all - i reloaded the software, "reset the satellites", deleted all history, stopped carrying in my pocket (don't have a mount on my new bike), turn it on outside, -->last two rides clean.


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## Klurejr (Oct 13, 2006)

ez049 said:


> thanks for the input all - i reloaded the software, "reset the satellites", deleted all history, stopped carrying in my pocket (don't have a mount on my new bike), turn it on outside, -->last two rides clean.


Glad to hear it!


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

ez049 said:


> stopped carrying in my pocket


yep, that's another one that'll do it. even slightly blocking the device's antenna can mess things up. especially with an older receiver that lacks some of the extra satellites (like GLONASS) and extra processing capabilities of newer ones.


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## sgltrak (Feb 19, 2005)

I finally figured out what was causing my issues and resolved it. On the "High Accuracy" GPS setting for my phone, it was pinging off nearby cell towers and Wi-fi connections to locate the device, and STRAVA was recording those pings as travel. (At some trail-heads there were many of those straight lines directly to numerous different homes in nearby neighborhoods.)

I switched from "High Accuracy" to "Device Sensors Only" in my location settings on my phone and the problem went away for about 6 weeks and several dozen activities. This morning when I was headed out kayaking, I noticed STRAVA recorded .25 miles at 128mph as soon as I started the app. When I went to my settings, I found that I had apparently given another app permission to change the location data to "High Accuracy" in the past few days. I changed it to "Device Sensors Only" once again and have not had any additional issues.

Phone: LG K20 V
O/S: Android V 7.0 with March 1, 2019 Security Patch Level


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## bucksaw87 (Jun 18, 2007)

Ya know...when my wife and I go on bike rides together, I'll use my regular ol' Garmin Etrex and upload the data to Google Earth afterwards. She'll use her Garmin HRM in conjunction with Strava, and she's noticed issues...distances coming in 10% off from other verification. She and my FIL did a run recently, and she came in something like 2 kilometers shorter than he did. On our most recent bike ride, she was about 4 kilometers longer than me (and recorded a top speed 10kph faster than mine). But, hers don't seem to show those strange spikes on the maps.


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## Harold (Dec 23, 2003)

bucksaw87 said:


> Ya know...when my wife and I go on bike rides together, I'll use my regular ol' Garmin Etrex and upload the data to Google Earth afterwards. She'll use her Garmin HRM in conjunction with Strava, and she's noticed issues...distances coming in 10% off from other verification. She and my FIL did a run recently, and she came in something like 2 kilometers shorter than he did. On our most recent bike ride, she was about 4 kilometers longer than me (and recorded a top speed 10kph faster than mine). But, hers don't seem to show those strange spikes on the maps.


Again, not Strava. Strava, in this case, is only displaying data that has already been recorded. The data is being recorded by various Garmin devices. Troubleshooting process for all Garmin devices is the same as what I posted here: https://forums.mtbr.com/gps-hrm-bik...ues-strava-gps-data-1133229.html#post14770475

Further, what is your "other verification?" Are you running a wheel sensor on anything? A computer with a direct wheel sensor is about the only distance verification worth a damn for using as a baseline. And it needs to be a well-calibrated sensor. If your "other verification" is just a bunch of other gps devices that are calculating distance from gps locations, and apps doing the same thing, then you have a bunch of hogwash. Even distances reported by other sources are suspect. Trailforks and MTBProject are going to be wrong (likely on the short side, because of how they optimize uploads for database efficiency). Maps supplied by land managers are probably wrong, too. They're probably not using rollout distances, either. Rather, their distances are probably calculated in mapping software these days.


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## metalskool (Feb 6, 2019)

sgltrak said:


> I finally figured out what was causing my issues and resolved it. On the "High Accuracy" GPS setting for my phone, it was pinging off nearby cell towers and Wi-fi connections to locate the device, and STRAVA was recording those pings as travel. (At some trail-heads there were many of those straight lines directly to numerous different homes in nearby neighborhoods.)
> 
> I switched from "High Accuracy" to "Device Sensors Only" in my location settings on my phone and the problem went away for about 6 weeks and several dozen activities. This morning when I was headed out kayaking, I noticed STRAVA recorded .25 miles at 128mph as soon as I started the app. When I went to my settings, I found that I had apparently given another app permission to change the location data to "High Accuracy" in the past few days. I changed it to "Device Sensors Only" once again and have not had any additional issues.
> 
> ...


I have an S8 and I just turned off wi-fi as well as their version of high accuracy. It was under connections> location> improve accuracy then unclick wi-fi scanning as well as bluetooth scanning.
Then I wen back to location and scrolled down to google location accuracy & unclicked that. I'm heading out for a ride so we'll see what happens. I've been getting tons of those map spikes, straight lines, etc the last few months. Something as changed in Strava for sure.


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## Haint (Jan 25, 2012)

Is doubtful STRAVA has a deficit in their segment of GPS Bandwidth, is more likely the spectrum in entirety is being sectioned-off for other Channels, or migration of unused Frequencies and STRAVA GPS happens to be bouncing around in the ether before returning back to terra firma. Much like Digital Set Top Converters from 15 years ago; the lack of its capacity for modern Television - unless shows about cooking a Potato - was reassigned to First Responders and related Emergency Services.

Have been riding roads on the Gulf Coast for over a year now and there's a jut just past a US Coast Guard Radio Station now and again.
STRAVA literally has two CAT4 climbs along beaches here - which is in SWFL. Flat SWFL. Stuff like that is the responsibility of whomever is creating segments though. 
Whomever reassigned a Fort Myers alternative rock station that's been on-air forever to a Country Music 'Trump Country' (...that's actually what is being broadcast) demographic over the weekend and, unannounced, does not help in trying to understand Fair Use and FCC Standards however. 

There's only so many Dogs w/ Fleas between their Knees before you've heard all there is for Country Music.


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## ghettocruiser (Jun 21, 2008)

To be clear... GPS is one-way signals. Your device "listens" for GPS signals but does not send anything on those bands.

There is no "bandwidth" limit to the number of GPS devices that can use the signals, just like we can't have too many FM radios listening to a station and lose the signal.

Now, how how your mobile device gets (or can't get) info to and from Strava servers, over the internet, is a matter between you, your wireless data provider, and rarely, maybe Strava themselves.


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## metalskool (Feb 6, 2019)

Sooo, that didn't work- turning off high accuracy.

https://www.strava.com/activities/4093723335

https://www.strava.com/activities/4084139255


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## Haint (Jan 25, 2012)

Noticing there's a repeated area of mis-tracking STRAVA data during rides I get to observe - is not consistent, is at a repeated occurrence-spot - lends itself to radio-based interference in this particular circumstance. Be it competing GPS signals (as with XM Radio in an Automobile) or by way of other controlled-communication within a certain area, more likely than not a clipped-signal would come from the outside-in, as opposed to a lone instance being a massive breach of an entire OS. 

FWIW - GPS operates on a Frequency, as does any signal. 
NWS, USCG, NOAA have cooperative Frequency use for joint study and is not that far off in Hz from GPS -- 162.4 - 162.550 MHz for NOAA 
And 1575.4 MHz for GPS w/ an apx. 75% signal-strength follow-up repeat. And all have to counter Earth's polarity.

Though spot on regarding actual processor strength being a dropping-off point, patterned behaviors and isolation-factors tend to favor Radio Interference IMO.


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