G Express connects to my Monterra, but G Connect says I have no device connected

I don't believe your monterra will automatically sync with Connect. You should be able to manually upload files though. See here for details

http://connect.garmin.com/en-US/help/how-to/

KENWIENS

Garmin connect is intended for users of Garmin's 'fitness' devices. Although Garmin connect does work with other units you will need to manually upload the files like SUSSAMB stated.



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Josh

Yes,thanks, I see that now. I mistakenly thought that Garmin was trying to position the Monterra as a multi-purpose device (It allows Ant connections for heart monitor and cadence for example), but I guess not. Looks like if I want to both hike and bike - I need to buy multiple GPS devices. Perhaps I should return the Monterra and switch to an Android phone as they seem to be able to combine multiple activities and then I could connect to services like Map My Ride or Strava (instead of Connect). I'm curious what others think of this approach?

KENWIENS


Not all devices will have Express automatically send data to Garmin Connect. The primary function as indicated is for use with Fitness devices. This being said your data can still be manually uploaded to Garmin Connect as stated. To manually upload your data please see the FAQ: How do I manually upload data from USB devices to Garmin Connect?

Now if you are looking for a fitness device that does both (Hike & Bike) or a "Multisport" device here are some devices that Garmin offers. (Multisport Devices)

Mike

I appreciate the suggestion but what Garmin considers multi-sport isn't quite there IMO. In order to support multi-sport you absolutely must have full map functionality (what good is a GPS for hiking without a map?), for biking you need ANT+ for heart rate and cadence (and mapping and when you are following a route (which is 95% of the time for me), you need to know the return route off a trail etc. If you are biking and hiking you are likely geo-caching too, so you need that functionality as well. On a 2 week hike you also need to ensure that you have extended battery life so batteries must be replaceable on the trail. The "watch style" GPS's unfortunately are quite limited. In all cases you want to be able to connect (through a simple sync anytime you have wifi) to something like Connect, Strava, map my ride - without needing a separate computer (ie - manual export of a gpx file to a computer doesn't help me when I pop into a village in the back country of mexico on a 2 week mountaineering / hiking expedition. These places tend to have wifi hotspots, but I'm not carrying a computer in my backpack just to import a file into connect! Thus the Monterra looked like it had the potential to actually be a multi-sport device. Hopefully Garmin will enhance it to take the last step to be truly useful in this manner by adding connect capabilities.


Currently in my situation I find a need 1 gps for driving, 1 gps for biking, 1 gps for hiking / climbing / geochaching, etc etc. Often I drive to a site, then bike up a mountain trail, then get off the bike and switch into scrambling mode and go for a peak. Taking 3 GPS's with me for an outing just seems plain wrong. It should be possible to combine these capabilities into a single device. Apple and Android can do it - so it should be something Garmin can do and still give me the ruggedness and reliability I expect from a Garmin device.

Thanks,
Ken

Well the Montana will almost do that ... just lacks wifi connectivity. But that's really no big deal :)

I use mine for everything you do.

Please tell me more! The Monterra is a really just a Montana with WIFI and Android OS exposed. How do you autosync to Connect? Does the Montana do that? I thought that with wifi this would be easy on the Monterra.

Currently I'm sort of thinking I could skip connect and use something like map my ride - being android I could install strava or MMR directly onto the device (basically bypass the garmin functionality and use 3rd party apps to do everything) - but then I always wonder why I don't just buy an android phone instead :-(