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All replies
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Helpful answers
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Sep 13, 2015 1:42 PM in response to DLT from CTby Jonathan UK,Hi DLT
You can calibrate your watch to improve the accuracy of distance and other fitness and activity-related estimations.
Calibration helps Apple Watch to learn your stride length. It does this by combining knowledge of how you move (using data from the watch's accelerometer) with knowledge of distances covered (using the Location Services / GPS feature on your iPhone).
For the best results, carry your iPhone in your hand and ensure that you are walking or running in an open, flat space with good GPS reception. Ensure that you start and end a workout in the Workout app and that you have Location Services enabled on your iPhone - see the instructions below for more information:
Calibrating your Apple Watch for improved Workout and Activity accuracy - Apple Support
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Sep 13, 2015 2:20 PM in response to Jonathan UKby DLT from CT,Thank you for the input. I did calibrate my watch again after my initial issue and while it helped on flat road surfaces it did not for trail running. My distance was off by over a mile on my larest trail run. If I have to carry my phone with me each time I change my running surface from road to trail it kind of defeats the purpose of having the watch.
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Sep 14, 2015 2:29 AM in response to DLT from CTby nick101,When you change terrain, your stride length changes, which creates a problem fo the Watch in its attempts to estimate distance. I don't believe there's a perfect solution. You can take your phone with you over varying terrain to improve the calibration accuracy but when you run without the phone, I don't believe the Watch is capable (yet) of interpreting what terrain you're on. So it can't, for example, tell the difference between a slow run on paved paths and a gut-wrenching effort over upland peat bog.
I don't believe the Wach has a barometer (although I can't find a definitive statement on this from Apple), which means it can't recognise gradients significant enough to affect your gait and speed. And so long as it odesn't have GPS, it'll always be dependent on acurate calibration with a phone.
My suggestion would be to keep taking yur phone with you for a while. I don't believe you need to carry it in your hand. In fact, I believe very strongly that carrying things in the hand while running has a susbtantial effect on your overall gait - the muscle tension up the carrying arm through the shoulder and upper back creates some significiant imbalances. As the iPhone gets larger, it only gets worse. I would certainly never race carring a phone.
You should get perfectly reasonable results wearing the phone in an upper-arm case. A fanny pack would be fine too, but the advantage of the upper arm is that the phone is measuring the same movement as the Watch (I expect that's the thinking behind the hand-carrying idea).
Having said all that, there are hardware limitations to the watch (e.g. no GPS) which might mean that you can't get the level of precision you're looking for. Later models might improve things. This is a discussion that comes up frequently and, it seems, the Watch hasn't yet reached the level of performance of dedicated training devices such as those from Garmin.
Hope that helps
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Sep 15, 2015 7:16 AM in response to DLT from CTby C_Sikes,I'm having the same issue. I run with my phone and watch because I thought my watch would us the GPS on my phone. The watch said I ran 4.4 miles, but map my run showed that route as 3.39 from past runs. That's a huge difference.
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Sep 15, 2015 10:19 AM in response to C_Sikesby Conard10,If you search for some similar (running distance, GPS accuracy, etc.) you will see that several of us are having this same issue.
I bought my watch to track my runs (I liked having heart rate on my wrist) - I knew that the watch did not have GPS but I take my phone on runs so that didn't matter to me.
I've had my watch since May and it has never tracked running distance accurately -- typically 20-30% less mileage than the other third party apps that I have always used (Nike, RunKeeper, Strava). I worked with a tech on the phone for weeks, sending them screenshots of other apps. I even received a new watch when I visited a store.
In the end, I received no answers from Apple. A few of us posting on this same topic came to the conclusion that when you click on Outdoor Run in workout that it is NOT utilizing the GPS. We came to this conclusion doing several tests and playing around with different settings. Plus, when I bike, it's really quite accurate, it's only on the outdoor runs.
I've read that the next big watch software update is coming 9/16 and I'm really hoping this fixes the issue. If it doesn't, I'm going to be pushing for a refund.
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Sep 15, 2015 11:58 PM in response to Conard10by nick101,Your conclusion that the watch doesn't use GPS for outdoor running just isn't correct. I think we've had this debate before.
It's clear the the activity recording of the watch (and watch/phone combo) is very inconsistent. It's working for some and not for others. In may case, it was off on day 1. I did a factory reset and it was fine. I upgraded to 1.01 and it went off. I reset and it was fine.
WatchOS2/IOS9 may make a difference - you'll have to try it and see. I strongly recommend that, when you do the update (having done full encrypted backups), you reset the watch to factor settings and re-pair with the phone.
If that still shows the same problems, you'll have no option but to push for the refund