Hi,
I'm wondering if anyone else had issues with the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 where the current elevation shown in hiking mode is inaccurate? I first noticed this on a recent hike where a sign at the top of the mountain reported the elevation as 1692m, but when I looked at my watch it was showing 1790m (almost 100m higher). Thinking this was odd I checked on my phone (Samsung Galaxy S9) as well as my partner's Apple Watch SE and they both reported 1692m, so it was just my watch that was incorrect. After the hike I performed a factory reset on the watch as it was an open box purchase and I thought this would be a good first troubleshooting step.
Since then I have done some more testing and it seems that the elevation reported by the watch in hiking mode is sometimes higher than the actual elevation. I think it becomes more inaccurate at high elevations, I've done some tests at lower elevations closer to sea level and it seems to be more accurate. In some cases it seems to be more accurate if it is connected to my phone via Bluetooth (I believe the watch will use the phone's GPS when connected to it depending on how the location settings in the watch are set) but this seems to only be the case if my phone has a connection to the mobile network. If my phone does not have a mobile network connection, the watch seems to report inaccurate elevation data the same as when it is not connected to the phone. An example of this would be a test I did this past weekend from a mountain top at 2000m elevation. The watch was reporting 2048m elevation when not connected to my phone, but when connected to my phone via Bluetooth it showed a closer to accurate elevation of 2015m. However when I shut off the mobile network connection on the phone (I was trying to simulate situations where I am somewhere with no cell coverage) the elevation on the watch was again reported as 2048m, even though it was still connected to my phone. An app running on the phone at the time was accurately reporting the elevation as 2000m so I know the phone was getting accurate GPS data without the mobile network connection. I tried this test multiple times with the location setting on the watch set to "GPS and wireless networks", "GPS", and "wireless networks". It didn't seem to make a difference which of the settings I was using, the results were always the same (inaccurate elevation reported on the watch when it was not connected to the phone and when it was connected to the phone while the phone had no mobile network connection, more accurate elevation reported when connected to the phone if the phone had a connection to the mobile network). Also, I did check the "high location accuracy" option in the watch settings and it is enabled.
I'm not sure why the phone seems to need to have a mobile network connection in order to get accurate elevation data on the watch. GPS on the phone will work without a mobile network connection. I'm also not sure why I'm not always getting accurate elevation info when the watch is using its built-in GPS. The location I was testing from was an open area, I was not under any trees or close to any other mountains and it was a nice day weather wise with clear skies. I would expect that the built-in GPS in the watch should be able to provide accurate data in these conditions.
I'm just wondering if anyone else has had this issue or would know what could be going on here. I don't know if it's an issue with this watch specifically (like some sort of hardware issue with the GPS), if it's a software bug (the watch is running the latest software version), or something else. I would appreciate any help or suggestions.
Thanks.
I'm wondering if anyone else had issues with the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 where the current elevation shown in hiking mode is inaccurate? I first noticed this on a recent hike where a sign at the top of the mountain reported the elevation as 1692m, but when I looked at my watch it was showing 1790m (almost 100m higher). Thinking this was odd I checked on my phone (Samsung Galaxy S9) as well as my partner's Apple Watch SE and they both reported 1692m, so it was just my watch that was incorrect. After the hike I performed a factory reset on the watch as it was an open box purchase and I thought this would be a good first troubleshooting step.
Since then I have done some more testing and it seems that the elevation reported by the watch in hiking mode is sometimes higher than the actual elevation. I think it becomes more inaccurate at high elevations, I've done some tests at lower elevations closer to sea level and it seems to be more accurate. In some cases it seems to be more accurate if it is connected to my phone via Bluetooth (I believe the watch will use the phone's GPS when connected to it depending on how the location settings in the watch are set) but this seems to only be the case if my phone has a connection to the mobile network. If my phone does not have a mobile network connection, the watch seems to report inaccurate elevation data the same as when it is not connected to the phone. An example of this would be a test I did this past weekend from a mountain top at 2000m elevation. The watch was reporting 2048m elevation when not connected to my phone, but when connected to my phone via Bluetooth it showed a closer to accurate elevation of 2015m. However when I shut off the mobile network connection on the phone (I was trying to simulate situations where I am somewhere with no cell coverage) the elevation on the watch was again reported as 2048m, even though it was still connected to my phone. An app running on the phone at the time was accurately reporting the elevation as 2000m so I know the phone was getting accurate GPS data without the mobile network connection. I tried this test multiple times with the location setting on the watch set to "GPS and wireless networks", "GPS", and "wireless networks". It didn't seem to make a difference which of the settings I was using, the results were always the same (inaccurate elevation reported on the watch when it was not connected to the phone and when it was connected to the phone while the phone had no mobile network connection, more accurate elevation reported when connected to the phone if the phone had a connection to the mobile network). Also, I did check the "high location accuracy" option in the watch settings and it is enabled.
I'm not sure why the phone seems to need to have a mobile network connection in order to get accurate elevation data on the watch. GPS on the phone will work without a mobile network connection. I'm also not sure why I'm not always getting accurate elevation info when the watch is using its built-in GPS. The location I was testing from was an open area, I was not under any trees or close to any other mountains and it was a nice day weather wise with clear skies. I would expect that the built-in GPS in the watch should be able to provide accurate data in these conditions.
I'm just wondering if anyone else has had this issue or would know what could be going on here. I don't know if it's an issue with this watch specifically (like some sort of hardware issue with the GPS), if it's a software bug (the watch is running the latest software version), or something else. I would appreciate any help or suggestions.
Thanks.
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