This discussion has been locked.

You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

Garmin Connect seems to lose connection to watch when phone sleeps

Recently, I have noticed that my devices do not connect to Garmin Connect if the phone has been left alone for a while. Both my 920XT and Vivosmart shows no app connectivity, but Bluetooth is connected. If I turn Bluetooth off and on, on the watches, it will connect BT but then says waiting for app. As soon as I pick up the phone and open Garmin Connect, the watches will connect.

I tried putting Garmin Connect in the "unmonitored app" list for battery settings, so that the phone won't try to put Connect to sleep, but that has not made a difference.

Any suggestions? This is causing me to be locked out of the house because I use a Connect IQ app on the watch to open a door at the house when I go for a run in the mornings. Now I have to start carrying a key again.

Phone is a Samsung S8+ with latest Garmin Connect. This behavior changed in the last few weeks.

0 hpaixao over 6 years ago

For me it's this Garmin Connect version that is full of issues related with bluetooth connections.
Try do downgrade to a older GCM.

0 JPJOF over 6 years ago

I've had similar problems over the past few weeks on a Fenix 5s. This mightn't be the same for you but I did the following and it worked.
I make sure the battery optimisation wasn't turned on for Garmin Connect. Also, I uninstalled and reinstalled Connect. I also "forgot" the watch in the phone's bluetooth settings before reinstalling connect and re-pairing the watch.
Garmin also told me to try the steps below to clear the bluetooth cache, which I did. In fact, I would try this first.

Eventually it all worked. It was unsatisfactory as I never identified what was actually wrong, but it did fix it.

From Garmin:

Head to the Settings menu of your Phone from the notification’s shade
Tap on Application Manager
You will find a whole list of applications on the next screen. From the top tabs, swipe to ‘All’ so that all applications are displayed.
Look for Bluetooth and tap on it
On the next screen, stop the application forcefully by tapping on Force Stop
Next tap on Clear Cache and confirm your selection by tapping OK

0 tmk2 over 6 years ago

I had the same issue for a couple of weeks with my FR735XT and Garmin Connect on a Samsung A3. In my case disabling power optimisation for the Garmin Connect mobile app helped.

0 hpaixao over 6 years ago

I had the same issue for a couple of weeks with my FR735XT and Garmin Connect on a Samsung A3. In my case disabling power optimisation for the Garmin Connect mobile app helped.

Didn't work for me!

0 KOKKETIEL over 6 years ago

None of the suggestions worked for me. My phone does not have a bluetooth program that I can clear the cache of. I tried clearing cache for Connect, then reinstalling, but still no luck.

However, I did find a setting in theTECH DETAILS section in the Connect Settings menu that allows one to toggle a Device Connection Aid. I toggled that on, and the connection to my devices seem to be more consistent now. I haven't tried my specific scenario yet, but whenever I checked, my devices did have a connection with the app.

0 JPJOF over 6 years ago

My fenix 5s is still giving trouble. I've done the battery optimisation, the Device Connection Aid, but with the phone 8 inches from the watch it has just disconnected again. Then the watch alert says it has reconnected, but the icon on the connect app says otherwise. I've had to turn bluetooth off and on again, which sometimes fixes it, temporarily. This is really unsatisfactory

0 KOKKETIEL over 6 years ago

Everything worked fine this past weekend, for the first time in many weeks. Not sure what changed. The FR920XT got a new software update that mentions Bluetooth improvements, I think I got a Garmin Connect update, and my phone got a security update. So who knows what "fixed" it, and if it's really fixed.

I did notice one new thing a couple of days ago. Garmin Connect on the phone prompted me to accept some permission to send data to the FR920XT. I can't remember exactly what the message said, but I accepted it.

Holding thumbs that this annoying issue is behind me.

0 9069568 over 3 years ago in reply to JPJOF

I don't have the Bluetooth app in the Application manager. However the easiest way to re-establish the connection between the watch an Android is the following:

In the phone, go in settings/Apps/Connect(Garmin)/Force stop/Open. The Garmin Connect App will open an the connection will be re-established until next time it disconnects. For me it happens every 2 to 3 weeks.

Good Luck