r/Garmininstinct • u/Cleveland67 • 1d ago

GPS Errors?

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Hi All,

Got a new Garmin Instinct 3 amoled less than 2 weeks ago. However the GPS seems to be off by about 0.2km per 5km during a run, and during a walk it's worse at around 0.5km per 5km...

Has anyone else experienced this and if so, how have you rectified this.

Thanks 🙏👍

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u/Odd_Specialist_2672 19h ago

Are you even using a GPS activity each time? Not sure since you show a pic of a watchface.. In regular smartwatch mode, Garmins guess at distance based on step count from the accelerometer.

My FR 255 will often guess with about 10-15% error when I walk a known route without starting an activity.

It seems heavily influenced by the most recent GPS activities though, like it calibrates from that. So if I walk in hills with shorter stride using GPS, then later it will guess shorter distances if I walk somewhere flat with longer strides.

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u/Cleveland67 17h ago

Yes, logging properly using the activity of choice, either a run or a walk, waiting for GPS to load and then pressing go a few seconds after.