Pokemon Go buddy showing negative or reduced walking distance for some, issue acknowledged

Pokemon Go players are reporting that the buddy distances feature is displaying reduced or even negative walking progress.

Players have taken to social media to share their experiences with the issue and seek possible solutions.

Buddy shows negative distance. Refresh game data, clear cache, restart app, download all assets, nothing fixed it. Can’t swap buddies because I’ll lose my Poffin bonus. (Source)

I switched to my buddy Rayquaza, who was at 16.5/20km towards a candy. I fed it a poffin, and instead of the candy meter going to 6.5/10 it reset to 0/10km. I still got a candy, but only one. (Source)

Pokemon Go’s Buddy Distances feature allows players to choose a buddy Pokemon to accompany them and earn free Candy as they walk together and complete tasks.

However, recent reports (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) suggest that no matter how much players walk with their buddy, the walking counter is not progressing correctly.

Sometimes it shows reduced progress (1, 2, 3), and at other times, it displays negative progress (1, 2, 3), which is nearly impossible without technical glitches.

The buddy feature is supposed to reward players with free candies at distances of 1km, 3km, or 5km. Due to this issue, regardless of how far they travel together, trainers are not receiving their candies.

my buddy and I completed walking with it for 25KM, and when I tried to evolve it, a notice saying “An error occured” was displayed and as I restarted the game the walk distance got reduced to 2.9KM. (Source)

So far, there is no concrete reason for why this issue is occurring, but there is a glimmer of hope.

As reports accumulated, the official support team at Niantic, the developer of Pokemon Go, acknowledged the issue on social media.

They stated:

We are aware of the issue where the buddy shows a negative walking distance. However, this is a visual error, and it should be resolved in the next update. We appreciate your patience & understanding! (Source)

With this acknowledgment, it can be anticipated that this issue may be resolved in future updates of the game.

We will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates if there are any further developments on the matter.

Note: We have more such stories in our dedicated gaming section, so be sure to follow them as well.

Feature image source: Pokemon Go

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