The "always running in background" setting is forced to enabled when upgrading to a new version of express , even though I had disabled it in the radio box. When exiting express it stubborrnly asking me in a dialog box "shoud express run in the background" even though its disabled in the setting, this is rather annoying and should be changed.
Syncing multiple devices - automatic change of syncing device page
I recently purchased a Vivofit in addition to my 910XT. When syncing the vivofit i can only see an animated express icon in the tray. The selected device (in my case 910XT) should be automatically switched over to the currently syncing device.
Impossible to see what was synchronized after upload to GC
When syncing the vivofit its hard to see whats synchronized to garmin connect (its way too fast to click on the down arrow icon). UI should keep the synchronization history for later inspection.
I have merged your questions/statements into one so that we can answer with one reply, hope you don't mind.
1)We are aware of the running in background settings and have been working on getting this resolved. Are you using the new client that was released yesterday, 3.2.16? And is it doing the same?
2)The program is working as intended, if you have more than one device added to Garmin Express just make sure the correct device is chosen on the main screen.
3)It is a better user experience to show software update notifications on the first screen, that is why its called the "Updates" page.
4)There may be some UI changes in the future, but for now the best way to see what is synchronized is to sign into the Connect account after the sync, afterall that is the purpose of using Garmin Express.
1) I'm using 3.2.16, when I click "x" for close -> no dialog box asking for run in background. If right-click tray icon and select "Exit" I get a dialog box asking for running in background. So the app respects the setting, but the Garmin Express Tray doesnt
3) Garmin Express updates are available the settings-page, and not visible on the Updates page. Seems inconsistent. Mixing device firmware updates (which has a slow update cycle) with activites (which is the the primary synchronize target and has high update cycle) is not good. I don''t need to see the firmware update status all the time. I just want to see the synchronized activities.
Another issue I just say is that after pressing "Synchronize Now" button (and not have any ANT devices nearby) -> the synchronization times out with a error message, but there is a line below "Uploading to Garmin Connect" that should be removed https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B45ATdu5qGEbeXpSdGVJMDVrOHM/edit?usp=sharing
If the "Always keep Garmin Express running in the background" box is unchecked in the Settings menu then the Express Tray should close whenever you exit or close out of the main Garmin Express window.
1. Click the Settings (gear) icon
2. Uncheck "Always keep Garmin Express running in the background"
This should be corrected in a future update.
In regards to the Sync Now button. The reason for the errors is to notify the user that the ANT Stick is not connected or that an ANT device is not within range. Once the ANT Stick is connected or an ANT device brought in range then Express will recover from the error and begin the Sync. Hopefully the user would have no reason to press the Sync button unless they were prepared to Sync. Closing/Opening Garmin Express will also allow it to recover from the Sync errors.
Every time I install a new version of GE, I have to go into settings and uncheck the option to "Always keep Garmin Express running in the background", and every time Garmin release a new version of GE, the install resets this options to on and I have to go into settings and turn it off again. Is this just incompetence on the part of Garmin, or are they merely trying to be as obnoxious as possible? Every other program I have installed has no problem preserving my preferences when installing a new version over an older one.
I also notice that every time I bring up the GE settings dialog, it opens partly off screen. As someone who's spent over a quarter of a century writing Windows code, I can tell you that it's trivially easy to ensure that a dialog is not positioned partly or completely off screen:
RECT rect; POINT cursorPos; int x, y, screenX, screenY;
// get the screen size screenX = GetSystemMetrics (SM_CXSCREEN); screenY = GetSystemMetrics (SM_CYSCREEN); // get the dialog window size GetWindowRect (hWnd, &rect); // get the cursor position GetCursorPos (&cursorPos); // position the dialog box where the mouse pointer is, // but make sure it isn't partly off screen x = max (0, cursorPos.x - (rect.right - rect.left) / 2); x = min (x, screenX - (rect.right - rect.left)); y = max (0, cursorPos.y - (rect.bottom - rect.top) / 2); y = min (y, screenY - (rect.bottom - rect.top)); MoveWindow (hWnd, x, y, rect.right - rect.left, rect.bottom - rect.top, TRUE);
Just Garmin trying to be helpful, with it running in the background map updates are downloaded in the background so less time when you hit the install button. I just turn it off every time, only takes a second or two, no big deal :)
Never seen your second issue, mine is always on screen.
Although I eventually accepted Garmin Express sitting in background I would still very much more value software vendors honouring and preserving user's settings when update is performed, rather than blatantly ignoring it. Otherwise it's just lack of consideration bordering on incompetence.
With regards to the latter: I'm guessing that it has something to do with modern big screen resolutions that Garmin devs possibly do not work with (yet). Mine runs @ 2560 x 1440 and I experience this very problem since I got this display nearly 2 years ago: GE dialogues open in lower right corner, partly off screen indeed.
