Hear me out. I record my rides with my Apple Watch.
I upgraded my phone Tuesday morning and I noticed my ride, which always clocks in around 7.47 miles or so, was 7.32. During the day, I upgraded my watch to watch os 11 and saw the same thing on my way home. Same thing on ride in again. 3/3 rides clocking in short.
The map shows what’s happening- it’s losing location and skipping. This has only ever happened to me in the canyons of midtown.
Curious to see if this happens to others. I found Apple comments that the watch GPS is primary but see this: “While the watch can function independently, having your iPhone nearby can sometimes improve GPS accuracy by utilizing the phone's GPS data as well.”
So it’s very plausible something has gone south with GPS in iOS 18…
by AreaManNYC
6 Comments
Also – I know correlation is not causation. But impossible to ignore timing. Other theory – the swarms of gnats on the HRG yesterday are interfering with GPS.
I’ll occasionally use my Apple Watch to record an outdoor walk, and my wife will do the same while we walk together.
Apple reports the distances walked as noticeably different between the two of us.
It shouldn’t be considered a precision device for these purposes.
Interesting, I just update aswell, but I never gps track anything. What app was this through? Just the watches default activity tracker.
We’ll see if I have the same experience. Upgraded my watch and phone last night, and will ride the same route to work today as yesterday.
Clarifying details: 15 Pro Max phone, Apple Watch 6; this was using default activity tracker.
That’s interesting! I believe the Apple Watch 6 uses your phones gps if it’s in range, so the iOS update changing things makes sense!