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Help with Bluetooth

I have a Garmin vivoactive HR watch and my phone is a Samsung Galaxy S5.

When I got the the watch I paired it with my phone and everything was fine.

Then I noticed that it had lost the bluetooth connection and I can't seem to get it back.
I am going through the Connect App on my phone and using Setting>Bluetooth on the watch.
It keeps timing out. I have rebooted both. I have even uninstalled and reinstalled Connect on the phone.

My phone was updated to Android 6.0.1 about a week ago but it showed the the last sync was yesterday.

Any Ideas?

0 pshare over 9 years ago

With Android 6.0, the phone's location services need to be turned on. It's an Android (not a Garmin) requirement.

0 Tracy_T over 9 years ago

Fixed?

With Android 6.0, the phone's location services need to be turned on. It's an Android (not a Garmin) requirement.

Thanks, Phil. The Location Services were already turned on. Always have been.

However, it's all better now. I had been trying all day and had given up for the evening. Just before I went to bed I decided to try once more. Low and behold, it worked! I didn't make any changes or anything since my last try so I don't have any idea what happened to make it work this time, but it did.

So for everyone out there experiencing problems with syncing "Have Patience" might be the answer.

0 Darren-M over 9 years ago

Glad you got sorted Tracy.

I found that I had to unpair and then pair up again twice more before my devices were able to sustain a reliable bluetooth connection. If you have any further issues, maybe this approach could help.

0 GROSKILLY over 9 years ago

Constant connection problems.

I have daily connection problems with my Garmin Vivoactive HR. I wear the tracker all night to track my sleep habits.
Overnight the tracker looses the connection with my Samsung 5s with android version 6 (bluetooth and location services on all night).
My morning starts with trying to get the Vivoactive HR to connect with my phone. Then, throughout the day I have to go through the same routine several times, it's a total pain in the ass. I was really looking forward to having the notifications on while riding my bike but I can't rely on them and have to stop and check my phone anyway. My wife has health issues and I need to be in contact with her several times a day.
I know it's not a Garmin issue but having to turn on locations services to connect is a total bummer. Location services sucks the life out of the phone's battery.
BTW, I wear both the Garmin and a Fitbit tracker at the same time, could the connections issues have something to do with that?

0 ASmugDill over 9 years ago

… notifications on while riding my bike … I need to be in contact with her … Location services sucks the life out of the phone's battery.

Carrying and connecting an external battery pack to your handset while you ride could help mitigate the risk of running out of battery prematurely. It's not like you have to run with the extra weight bearing down awkwardly. Just a suggestion.

I wear both the Garmin and a Fitbit tracker at the same time, could the connections issues have something to do with that?

I don't know. Wouldn't it be easy enough to simply disable Bluetooth on your FitBit for several hours and test whether the reliability of your Garmin's connectivity to your handset improves? After all, you can wear a 24×7 activity tracker without being continually connected and syncing every ten minutes, especially if it's not also acting as a smart-watch or device for (at least) displaying notifications.

0 michaeljswann over 9 years ago

I don't know. Wouldn't it be easy enough to simply disable Bluetooth on your FitBit for several hours and test whether the reliability of your Garmin's connectivity to your handset improves? After all, you can wear a 24×7 activity tracker without being continually connected and syncing every ten minutes, especially if it's not also acting as a smart-watch or device for (at least) displaying notifications.

Fitbit has an all day sync option in their app. It uses the battery of the phone and the tracker more because it syncs every 15 or 20 minutes. I have it turned off so if I want to sync my data, I just have to open the app.