Accurate track, but inaccurate Blue Triangle and Waypoints.
After the Android phone gets a stable GPS, the track is quite accurate. Probably, in my area, about +/- 15 feet. Repeated tracks lay nearly directly over repeated tracks. Outstanding!
But, during those accurate tracks, the blue arrow is usually about 100' to 200' away from the track and wanders a lot. So if trying to use the blue arrow to return to a track ... is difficult and misleading. Not good for a hiking system where you might wander a hundred yards off-trail to check out something or go pee.
The direction (compass) shown by the blue triangle is accurate. What I mean by this is that if the phone is pointing North, then the arrow points North. But it is located maybe 100' to the left of the track. Then it might glide 200' to the right of the track (but still pointing in the correct direction).
Waypoints (my location) are the same. They get placed typically 100' to 200' away from the actual track location. So if I go pee and then try to return to my waypoint, I can end up at the edge of a cliff with a great view. Nice feature, but ...
In problem solving, first the facts:
(1) The phone GPS is established because the track is accurate as hell.
(2) Magnetics are not interfering because the blue arrow points in the correct direction at all times.
(3) Phone is updated to the latest 2022 software under membership.
The assumptions:
(1) The GPS track being laid down is using filtering. Taking the average of many GPS coordinates before laying down the next connected line on the map. Which is how you take a system that is +/- 200' and get it accurate to +/- 15' (requires an average of about 169 GPS points to do that, which doesn't take long).
(2) The blue arrow and My-Location Waypoints are using single or less filtered GPS coordinates and may be purposely offset to stay off of the track (if the latter, probably shouldn't be done with My-Location but OK with add waypoint).
Is this something that can be fixed?
In the mean time, I'll train my wife to not use the blue triangle as a pointer, but to:
(1) Make a guess in direction and start to go that direction.
(2) Watch her existing track to see if it is getting closer to her old track.
(3) Adjust as required.
It would be nicer if I can tell her to point the blue arrow at her old track an go.
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Hi there,
Sorry for the trouble. It is strange that the track recording is accurate while your location is not.
Can you try these steps?- Force close the app, wait 30 seconds and then launch it again: Force close Android
- Cycle your phone on and off a couple of times. This will delete any GPS errors that may have accumulated in your phone's GPS chip.
- Then set your phone's location services for the app to "Device/GPS Only" Here is how to do that.
- Also, make sure your Battery Saver mode is set 'Off', this will affect your GPS signal.
If those steps don't help, please contact Support here. Please include a screenshot of the map during track recording.
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