my apple watch distance is way off

Yes the distance is way off for me. I got my apple watch 5 days ago and every time I leave the house my phone comes with me. I’ve calibrated it using apple method of a 20 minute walk workout session however the recordings of distance is highly inaccurate even with my phone in my pants pocket recording gps data.

This morning my girlfriend and I went for a walk, the walk was 2.19 miles in her health app on her iPhone 6 and she does not have an apple watch. On my phone and watch recorded 3.19 miles so I pulled up the map when we got back to our start location and dropped a pin at the end point. The distance was 1.1 miles according to maps and when multiplied by 2 since we walked there and back gives the 2.19 miles my girlfriend iPhone 6 recorded in her health app. How my watch and iPhone 6 together recorded 3.19 miles is beyond my comprehension.

I'm having the exact same issue!

Run #1 was .25 miles off on a 3 mile run. I only used one form of measurement but I have run this route dozens of times and I am very confident that 3 miles is correct. I did have my iphone 6 with me on my waist and paired to the watch.

Run #2 was a different route that I'm not as familiar with. I once again wore my phone on my waist in a runners belt. I decided to use MapmyRun using the GPS on my phone in addition to using the workout app on the watch. MapMyRun calculated as 3.15 miles and my watch calculated it as 3.01 miles. That may not sound like much of a difference but it ended up calculating it as almost 30 seconds difference per mile. That is very significant in my opinion especially considering how much time was spent during the release of the watch highlighting the fitness/runner use case. It is really weird to me that the same GPS could come up with two different distances so I suspect the issue is a software and/or algorithm issue on the watch.

Besides the accuracy issues the other thing I find frustrating is that the interface of the workout app on the phone for a run lets you pick either distance, pace, time, etc... but in reality I suspect most people (myself included) would prefer to keep some combination of those metrics on the screen to avoid having to scroll during a run.

I just found that I can actually get both distance and pace so that helps with my user interface issue a little bit but i'd still like to be able to pick more metrics to be included!

As a long time GPS user on dedicated devices and phones a comment for those claiming the GPS is always accurate. With a decent gps single the positioning is normally pretty good but they are not always so good for distance travelled. Take a walk/run around a triangular course with a waypoint on each corner, i.e A to B to C. After leaving A in a urban area, woodland, etc. the satnav loses a signal and only gets it back when you stop at C. Your route is the distance from A through B and on to C but the GPS only knows you were at A and C so calculates distance as a line between the two. Clearly that is a lot less than the distance run and will also affect any speed info. Because the distance over time is recorded as less than it should be in the time taken the miles per hour will show as less than it should be.

This is an extreme example but it shows that periodic signal losses when movement is other than a straight line will affect recorded distance travelled.

I have reported the problem to Apple. I have had my watch for 16 days and have tried to calibrate about 12 times and the error is about 12% to 15% compared to the Runkeeper. I always walk with the iphone 6+ in my hand. Privacy is set to location service on and also system service Motion Calibration & Distance. Support suggest restarting the watch and the un-pairing and re-pairing. After re-pairing the error was 8% then increase the next day to 11.3% then two days later to 12% The closest was 2.5%

Run keeper maps your walk so this would not be a problem. I always go on a few paths so the distance by Runkeeper is very consistent.

I am a Marathon runner and usually I run with my Garmin 610. I bought the Apple Watch and I tested it while running along 10 and 21.1km training courses whose distance had been precisely measured, since they have been used during some competitions.

I tested the AW paired with the iPhone 6, since I'm not interested in using it without GPS. On the other wrist I had the Garmin 610.

At all the times the distance indicated by the AW (Workout native app) was off by at least 10%, which makes the device useless for my training.

However I also tested the AW with the Motion-X app and it was accurate, just a minor difference of 30 meters (100') if compared with the Garmin 610.

Now this is telling me that the problem is not a problem of hardware, since the AW receives the iPhone 6 GPS datas, but somehow the software used to read this datas has a bug, because it doesn't make any sense that the same watch gives different distances (one wrong and the other accurate) depending on which app is used to read the datas.

After the IOS 8.4 update the error decreased from 10 to 17 % to 6 to 10 %. This is compared to Runkeeper.

You know what... I got the idea that the Workout app, if used in Outdoor Running mode, doesn't use the GPS at all. Thats why is way off. While with Motion-X that uses the GPS at all the times is pretty accurate.

Let me tell you why I got this idea: I was driving the car, and to test the Workout's speed accuracy I launched the app on Outdoor Cycle mode and guess what... The speed was exactly the same as the tach of my car. Wow! My AW is working then! Then I killed the app and launched it again, this time in Outdoor Run mode. No speed, no distance, just dashes. This is telling me that the app, when on Outdoor Run mode, uses the accellerometer and not the GPS, while on Cycle mode it uses the GPS.

I have no clue why Apple states we should run 20 min. to calibrate it. I already run over 100 miles with the AW and (when using the native application) is always 10% off (at least)

Before some "I know it all guy" states the AW doesn't have a GPS, I better say that my iPhone 6 was on and connected at all the times and the Motion Calibration & Distance was active.

The documentation is clear about the fact that th watch uses the phone's GPS. If you switch to Outdoor Running, the watch expects to

run, not to be sitting behind the wheel of the car. The accelerometer tells the watch you're running (or, in your case, not running) and once the fact of your moving has kicked in, it starts picking up GPS data.

Outdoor Cycling assumes you're sitting with your wrist more to less still - in other words, can't tell the difference between you sitting in a car and sitting on a bike.

I got to the same conclusion, but still I don't understand why is 10% off vs another app. Same watch, same iPhone, same GPS, different reading. Beside, there is no reason to use the accelerometer if the GPS is available. The program shoud use the most accurate sensor as the first choice and only if the GPS isn't available then switch to accelerometer.

And it's funny that third party apps are giving accurate readings and native Apple app doesn't.

I have been having the same issue since I got my watch several weeks ago. After spending time with phone support I visited a store and they actually gave me a brand new watch. Unfortunately, it is experiencing the same issues.

I've continued my conversations with Apple phone support and they continue to provide their "techs" my information. I run daily and have sent them screen shots of the AW distance vs. RunKeeper, Nike, and Strava. Apple Watch is always calculating a distance of 10-30% LESS than the other apps that all have extremely close distance measurements to each other, which I know to be accurate as I've run the same trails for years.

At first I thought it might be caused by running on very wooded hilly trails, but after pairing/re-pairing and then calibrating several times on a flat surface...it's still inaccurate. Even when I run on flat surface the AW comes up short on distance.

And like the above, when I run on a treadmill (using indoor run on workout app) it's pretty accurate. Same for biking...distance is very similar to my bike computer.

I'm beyond frustrated at this point because I bought this watch to monitor my running. Basically choosing it over, a Garmin for example, because of the heart rate on the watch and it's just so darn comfortable!

Then you have all the issues with the activity and workout applications...I could go on and on about that. They must have tested all of this with fitness experts so how was all this missed!

Waiting again for Apple to call back with more information from the techs.

Both my wife and I have Apple Watches and when we run together at the same speed for the same distance while both carrying our iPhones with location services, calibration, etc. on, get very different distances on outdoor runs. Just this morning we went for a run together and my watch registered 5.21 mile, Nike+ running app on my phone registered 5.24 miles, while my wife's watch registered 5.6 miles (she wasn't running another running app on her phone). Last week we did another run together while again both using watch/phones and mine registered 7 miles and hers registered 8. Something is definitely out of whack. Going to have her also use a third party app on her phone next time.

Me too.. same problem using Apple Watch during my running sessions (the iPhone it with me) ... I found distance measurements lower by 10-20% compared to Runtastic or Nike+ apps.

I already made the re-pairing and re-calibration, but no improvements.

So I requested the Apple Support where the operator asked me to send the specifications of the two connected devices (Apple Watch and iPhone 6), and the comparative screenshots between the Workout app on Apple Watch and Runtastic app on iPhone used on the same road; He then forwarded the material to Apple engineers.

It's been over a week since the Apple phone rep that I have been working with called to tell me the techs want to do some sort of "tracking" with my phone. I asked what he meant by tracking and he had no idea. When I followed up with him yesterday he said he's waiting to hear back from the techs. Meanwhile, I have sent numerous screenshots of the Apple Watch vs. RunKeeper, Nick and Strava.

I'm really wondering at this point if the AW even uses my phone's GPS. If it did, I can't see how the 3 apps above always have the correct distance and are extremely close to one another while AW is so much less distance. Plus, if it did track with GPS, why no mapping available.

Feeling like a chump for getting the AW, should have just gone with Garmin.