Please Wait While We Finish Setting Up Your Device...

5kMASTER24

It can take a while to pair if you have a lot of workouts that need syncing when you attempt the pair. However, it shouldn't behave the way you are describing. Have you restarted the computer and tried again? Please also ensure that the date, time, and timezone are correct on the computer. If you continue to have problems, make sure you are using the most current version of Express:
http://download.garmin.com/omt/express/B/GarminExpressInstaller.exe

Albert

Same phenomenon for me with same watch model (Garmin 610).

Garmin Express was not completing the "syncing". I "removed" the device from Garmin Express (having been inspired to try doing so, apparently wrongly, by this thread). Then I tried to "add device". Device was "found" and, I guess, "paired". I reached as far as a screen (in Garmin Connect) with three dots: left-most, a green-dot-with-a-white check-mark-in-it labelled Account; to its left a green-dot-with-a-white-check-mark-in-it labelled Nickname; to its left the last dot, blue, labelled Finish. Below that row of three dots: a progress bar whose progress reached as far as about an eighth of its total length (as did a progress bar on the watch at the same), then started over (at the same as did the one on the watch), reached the same distance and has stayed at that one-eight-of-the-way point for over an hour. Below it just this request:

Please wait while we finish setting up your device.

The progress bar on the watch has long since been replaced with a display of the time.

The number of events or activities in the "history" on the watch that are not already visible in my Garmin Connect account (ie, the number of events or activities I've recorded with the watch since I most recently synchronized it with my Garmin Connect account) is about 10.

I have tried re-starting the computer and then repeating the whole find-device, pair-device, log-into-account, etc process, only to be held up at the same point in the process.

The date, time, and timezone are correct on the computer.

The version of Garmin Express that I am using is the most current version, ie, 4.0.14.0.

Upon returning to the computer just now, I find the dots replaced with

Setup complete! This device is now registered to
<my_email_address>

Below that is now

Your Queue

Syncing ...

. . . and an unmoving progress bar, progressed only about an eighth of its length.

So we wait.

Left it running over night, only to find in the morning that Microsoft had installed some updates and had shut down and re-started the computer. Thank you, Microsoft.

Started up the process again: opened Garmin Express, plugged in the Ant USB stick, saw Transferring Data appeared on the watch's display, saw a progress bar on the watch's display, saw it complete, saw it get replaced with the display of the time and then reappear.

In Garmin Express, with the second appearance of the Transferring Data progress bar on the watch, the You're up to date message was replaced with the Syncing... progress bar which stopped again at the same spot (less than an eighth of the way to the end of the bar).

Went to work, left it to run all day. Back from work a message in a red square in Garmin Express: I can't remember exactly what it said but remember it being not very indicative of the problem, just something like There was an error.

Ok. Errors happen. I repeated the process. Synching... bar got stuck at the same point again. I left it to run over night again.

Morning: message in a red box (this time I made a note of it) Sorry, we're having a problem with communicating with our servers.

Thinking that it might be choking on the first activity that is on the watch and not yet in Garmin Connect, deleted that activity on the watch and repeated the process. Ie, I closed Garmin Express . . .

Are you sure you want to quit?

If you quit Garmin Express while updating or syncing is in progress, your device may not work properly and/or may lose data.

Two buttons available to click Quit and Don't Quit.

Given that the choice is really quit and take the chance that my watch may never again "work properly" or wait forever with a watch that is apparently already not working properly, I clicked Quick.

. . unplugged the Ant USB stick, deleted the activity on the watch, re-opened Garmin Express on the PC, plugged the Ant USB stick back in, etc . . . the Syncing... bar got stuck at the same place. I left it run for . . . I can't remember, many hours.

I tried deleting the next activity. Same result. I tried adding new activities. Same result.

How can I transfer the remaining activities on the watch into Garmin Connect? It's starting to look impossible. If so, the value of the watch is significantly diminished, no?

I have the same issue here. I tried to re-add my device on 3 different computers. Garmin Express finds the ANT stick, but since the firmware update the ANT stick can't find my forerunner anymore.

novalta and RubenWagemans

It would be best to contact Product Support by phone at this point for further assistance with this issue.

Lisa