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How to disable auto-sync (NOT auto-start-up, but auto-sync) in Garmin Express?

tinkertoy
over 2 years ago

Hey there folks...

So I've been using Garmin Express for many years now.  I seem to recall that in the past, when I connected a Garmin device to my computer, it would show that it was connected, but wouldn't auto-sync.

Now, it seems to auto-sync every time.  There seems to be no way to disable this (I can have it so that Garmin Express isn't launched on device connect, but no way to disable it starting to sync when the device connects, if Garmin Express is running).  The reason I want to do this is due to the fact that Garmin Express tells me it has things to install, for instance, and I'd like to see what that is WITHOUT having to start a sync cycle to make it so it will tell me.  Really, there's no logical reason for Garmin Express to need the device connected to tell me what it's going to install - it already knows, why do I need the device connected?

Was this changed in the past?  Or am I misremembering?  And is there a way to disable it?

- Tim

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    You don't say what device you have but you can switch it off in settings, same place where you set Express not to run in the background. If your device is added in Express you'll be told if updates are available, there is no need to connect your device. All my devices won't sync when connected, you have to select any updates and choose to update, but this behaviour is likely to be device dependent 

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to SUSSAMB

    I have an FR745.  I'm not interested in seeing just if updates are available, but also what those updates are.  If I click on the updates link, it says it's waiting for the device to be connected.

    The only things I see in Garmin Express for those settings are:

    1. Always keep Garmin Express running in the background
    2. Automatically launch Garmin Express when a Garmin device is connected

    Nothing at all about syncing in the settings there.  What are you seeing?

    - Tim

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to tinkertoy

    Ah ok, if you have a FR745 it is clearly different. Express tells me what the updates are without having devices connected, mine are all On the trail or On the road devices.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to SUSSAMB
    SUSSAMB said:
    If your device is added in Express you'll be told if updates are available, there is no need to connect your device.

    That could not be a more misleading and incorrect statement.

    Many, if not most of the more recent Garmin devices do have to be connected and scanned by Express BEFORE any available updates are displayed.

    Frequently, Express will indicate one or more updates available for a device, then after I connect that device and it has scanned it, there will be no updates available. Almost as if Garmin just wanted to scan your device and hung the 'potential' for updates out there to get you to connect it. Wastes a lot of time.

    This is a huge sore spot with me.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to atlas_cached

    I agree - I've tried this with some newer devices (I tried out an Epix 2 - very new) and it happens there too.

    No need for this requirement, so I don't get why they made it that way.

    - Tim

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to atlas_cached

    Well I'm not sure why you say that. I've just run Express, I have 4 devices showing, all have numbers against them. Selecting an individual device shows the updates available.  No devices were connected.

    I connected a device and nothing changed, all updates were still available.

    As I pointed out all of mine are On the trail or On the road devices. It may of course be completely different for devices outside those categories 

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    Garmin Express will know if a device has available updates as long as that device has been connected at least once since the update(s) became available. Syncing is a two-way communications process that requires the device to be connected. Sync can not only perform updates to the device, it retrieves any new activity and performance metrics from the device, forwarding them to the Garmin Connect cloud. That latter part is why Garmin Express performs the sync upon connection, to see if there's any new data to send from the device to the cloud, irrespective of whether any updates to the device are available or being installed.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to SteveCRW

    I can understand that; still, it would be useful to know "what updates does Garmin Express THINK are available, whether or not - after syncing - it will decide are applicable or not".  That should be an option to the app, in my opinion.

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to tinkertoy
    tinkertoy said:
    it would be useful to know "what updates does Garmin Express THINK are available, whether or not - after syncing - it will decide are applicable or not".  

    I'm not sure I understand the distinction. If a relevant update is shown as available, it is applicable to your device. It's still up to the user to decide whether or not you think it's applicable to how you use the device. (Garmin Express doesn't install the updates unless the user tells it to.)

    If you haven't connected a particular device yet during a Garmin Express session, Garmin Express already shows what updates are available for the device based on what was installed on the device the last time it was synced. It apparently does some sort of pre-sync retrieval to see what updates might be available for the contents it knows were on the device the last time it was synced. (Older versions of Garmin Express did not do that type of pre-sync, although I'm not sure in what version that began.) Garmin Express cannot know what updates are available for a device now if it doesn't know what's installed on the device now, as some contents can be changed via other means, such as direct deletion on the device, connecting via Garmin Express instances on a different computer, etc..

    If I understand correctly how you want Garmin Express to behave, that's how the current version of it already behaves before you connect a device to it in a given session. Just launch Garmin Express directly, without connecting a device (which would both auto-launch and auto-sync).

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to SteveCRW

    What I'm saying is, it would be nice - when altered by Garmin Express about an update to a given device, but when the device isn't connected - to view the details of that update.

    For instance, I start Garmin Express; it announces an update is available (for software, for maps, for timezone changes, etc).  I click on the link about the update, and it prompts me to plug in the device in order to tell me.

    I would like to be able to click on that link, and it show me the update details, WITHOUT having to plug in the device.

    Doesn't seem like a big request.  Garmin Express HAS the details of the update available, why not show them to me without having to plug in the device? I don't CARE if it determines its still applicable to the device or not, I want to know what it thinks AT THAT TIME the details of the update are.  I don't see any software limitation to doing that.