Open water GPS drifting
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I also did a test today with significantly better performance and minimal reflections using the open water mode.
I was swimming side by side with a SUP that recorded exactly 1.1 km using a Garmin Fenix 7 while I recorded exactly 1.2 km with open water swimming, which is a perfectly acceptable discrepancy.
At the same time, I did a hike to the top of the island and then returned to the shore with the SUP, completing the activities.
The GPS in all cases was excellent compared to yesterday.
However, I’m not sure if the GPS gets confused or causes reflections when there are many speedboats, boats,jetski etc., in the area here in Greece have a lot of—maybe that’s what throws off the watch.https://maps.suunto.com/move/gerasimosmitropoulos/687d055e40105778ecb0b066
The part where the GPS looks tangled is because I was inside a cave. -
@gerasimos Hey! Did you also downgrade the update to have better gps results?
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@Piotr-Michalski no downgrade hard reset and 2.43.12!
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I did another test with a multisport activity — open water swim and trail run — but unfortunately, the results for the open water tracking were disappointing.
I swam a distance of approximately 2,850 meters, but it recorded over 4,700!! meters due to excessive GPS drifting. (…a significant discrepancy compared to the actual distance.)
Of course, before starting the activity, I followed the entire protocol to ensure the best possible GPS accuracy.
However, once I started the trail run, the watch functioned perfectly in every aspect, as it always does!
https://maps.suunto.com/move/gerasimosmitropoulos/688f88605795363bd3c89552
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@thanasis August will pass and I don’t believe we’ll get any upgrade or bug fix for this specific issue… especially when the development team seems to be focused on launching new models (ΜΑΥΒΕ). The thing is, I’m starting to believe this model has a serious limitation in this particular function, and I don’t think I can stick with this watch, since swimming is one of my main sports… even though in all other aspects it’s simply perfect.
Suunto Vertical Ti
Suunto S9 gen1
Suunto Ambit3 peak -
@gerasimos but this worked well for about 2 years and it is not working since last update. I remember when update 2 years ago came as I was on vacation and it was night and day!
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@Likarnik That’s exactly how it is.
But if updates are necessary for the proper functioning of the watch and it cannot operate correctly in a specific activity due to significantly inaccurate recordings, then there’s no point in using it in the sea.
I try the process of doing a hard reset , but I don’t want to install a previous firmware version, etc.
Obviously, updates are meant to ensure the watch can sync properly with the app and so on…
The only thing left is to see whether others have noticed similar issues in open water, and if these aren’t isolated incidents, maybe the Suunto team will receive more feedback and release a fix.
I never had any issues in the water with the Suunto 9 / Suunto ambit also with vertical since 2024
And now, having 2025 technology and software upgrades on our wrists, it should be at least as good — not worse.
…
Let’s see
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@gerasimos yeah, open water swimming is worse, readings from power meter are droping to zero every few seconds and so on… those things were ok two months ago… how is this an update
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@Likarnik I wonder what would happen if the same thing happened in trail running or cycling… Third GPS multiband worldwar
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I recently repeated a test on the same open water swimming route I had done before, where I had previously tracked the session with the watch on my wrist. This time, however, I placed the watch inside my swim buoy instead of wearing it, and the GPS tracking was flawless — very accurate throughout the session.
This confirms that the Vertical(at least in my case) performs significantly worse when it’s worn on the wrist and goes in and out of the water. Some deviation is always expected in open water, but the level of inaccuracy I’ve been seeing lately — especially after the most recent firmware update — is far beyond what I’d consider acceptable.
The only downside of placing the watch in the buoy was that I couldn’t record stroke count, SWOLF, or heart rate, since I didn’t have a second watch on my wrist. I was just wearing a basic Casio for time / stopwatch.
-That’s the end of my tests (after soft reset, hard reset, protocol sequency for best GPS, correct swim technique, etc …)
i hope an GNSS upgrade in the next software update.
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@gerasimos I tested open water swimming a bit today …it’s ridiculous
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@thanasis very bad…It’s truly infuriating because it’s like you’re buying a watch just for tracking runs, and it fails to do this basic job… If you wear it on your wrist, after all the tests I’ve done, it just fails.
And I’m always comparing with other athletes side by side mainly using Coros and Garmin, which also have GPS deviations — but in no way as bad as mine.
The only solution it’s a swim buoy and put the watch in or upside… Until a fix (if exists) -
In case anyone has forgotten what a good OWS track looks like, I used… another watch yesterday. I was using my FORM goggles, with their swim straight feature (shows a compass heading live as I swim, so I can be confident of swimming in a straight line).
My inflammatory post aside, has everyone logged this with Suunto support, with a reference to this thread?
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@gerasimos I didn’t try swimming in the last days… but I also don’t expect the proof of this problem in near future… it seems that there is all the power of the Suunto Team working on new models to be released
there was no comment of some official persons (for example @pavel.samokha) about this problem… -
I have exactly the same problem with my Suunto Race, even though I always sync the watch with the app before training, and I swim freestyle only.
I had no such issues last summer, so it’s obviously connected to the latest firmware updates.I’ve reported the issue several times through the app, but never got a reply, nor even a confirmation that my reports were received.
The whole situation really pisses me off, as swimming is almost the only sport I can do now (I had a bad knee injury, so no more running, cycling, or anything like that). At this point, I’m even starting to consider switching to Garmin, though I was generally happy with my watch before.
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@Ilya-Zherikov-0 I hope your knee heals quickly and you can get back to all your activities soon.
It’s completely understandable to be frustrated with a situation like this. As for me, I’ve tried every possible test, (and triple check with others models in same hand)and the only thing left is to wait and see if a GPS fix come, If not, then unfortunately I’ll need to invest in a watch that’s reliable for open-water tracking. (For other activities SVti works absolutely perfect in every aspect)
I really don’t want to keep it inside a swim buoy or carry two watches, merge .fit files…etc -even if that means accepting small deviations from the actual distance-
But nothing like the crazy inaccuracies it’s been showing this year… It’s like my Suunto watch have caught a GNSS virus
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I am not a good swimmer, but I tried a short open water swim yesterday - my first with Suunto - and it was a complete failure.
If I bought this watch for swimming, I’d be very disappointed!
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Did you follow this procedure before starting the activity?
https://www.suunto.com/en-gb/Support/faq-articles/lifecycle/how-to-get-more-accurate-open-water-swim-tracking/ -
The swimming style you should use is freestyle only, and your arm must come completely out of the water, maintaining a consistent frequency so that the GPS always has proper tracking.
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Should not press start and begin recording the activity while your watch is in the water for seconds without swimming, because in that case it will definitely lose the signal for the rest of the session.
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If you are resting or stopped anytime during the open water swim, make sure to keep the hand that is wearing your watch at or above the surface of the water to allow the watch to maintain a strong GPS signal.
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Is your watch running on the latest update… and check always BEST GPS Settings on watch
-If your watch continues the same results after several tests and all these steps, then you are likely facing the same issue…
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@gerasimos said in Open water GPS drifting:
The swimming style you should use is freestyle only, and your arm must come completely out of the water, maintaining a consistent frequency so that the GPS always has proper tracking.
No my swimming style wasn’t good. Initially I went freestyle, but then switched to breaststroke for a while to rest even though I still tried to keep my arm coming out of the water - that is when the position jumped. The watch had actually displayed an alert that it detected an unusual speed. It if detected a poor data and a significant jump in distance and speed, why did it record it?
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@sky-runner
So you can’t have an objective criterion that it’s 100% the watch’s GPS fault in your case, since you changed your swimming style, and with the breaststroke your hand stayed in the water — therefore GPS reflections are absolutely normal to occur.
As for speed recording, it’s also logical for this to happen because, along with the signal reflecting and the distance, it also records speed — like you had teleported.
Sometimes the watch even shows a pop-up message saying that the speed is not normal for swimming and asks if you want to continue.Check this link (it’s from another company but i found it clearly and analytical for swim style)
https://support.coros.com/hc/en-us/articles/360040257611-Open-Water-SwimI hope I helped, because these are entirely my personal assessments and not any kind of official test.
