Tactix 7 won't connect to the garmin express Win 11

My Garmin Tactix 7 (firmware 20.22) is no longer recognized by Garmin Express, Garmin WebUpdater, or my computer properly. It appears in Windows Device Manager as "Garmin USB GPS", but not as a smartwatch.

Here's what I have already tried:

  • Cleaned the USB port and used multiple known-good cables and PCs.

  • https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=Wkf9e0fPST0gP0KoM63DK9#:~:text=Try%20a%20different%20USB%20port,using%20a%20PowerShare%20USB%20port.
  • Verified the watch is set to USB Mode: Garmin.

  • Reinstalled Garmin USB drivers and Garmin Express.

  • Soft reset and factory reset of the watch.

  • Attempted to access recovery/bootloader mode by holding Start or Back while connecting — no effect.

  • WebUpdater cannot detect the watch.

  • Garmin Express does not detect it.

  • The watch connects over Bluetooth normally.

  • reinstall software through developers option 
  • It is seen by Ubuntu as a folder though. And works fine on Mac Express 7.18

Please advise on next steps, and whether I can return to 17.xx software

Thank you,

Yevhen

  • watch is set to USB Mode: Garmin.

    That is the wrong one, set it to MTP.

  • I already tried both. In mtp mode the window with the content of a watch never appears.

    And how come garmin mode is incorrect for using with Express?

    Note, i tried connecting another watch, I used another cable and I used another PC. None of the above helps.

  • You can solve this by downloading the android open source ADB driver.

    Search for universal ADB driver set up download it and install it, After that go into system properties search for the incorrect Garmin device right click on it select uninstall and delete the driver associated with it by ticking that box after you've done that right click in the system properties folder and click for search for changes the device will come up again with nothing installed after you've installed the ADB drivers do that again and then it will install it as a ADB device if it doesn't do that right click select driver choose driver as android adb device and make sure you select the USB option