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sync works from windows desktop, rest of connect app works (weather etc) but transfer/sync happens too fast on mobile, never appears?

rinserepeat
over 4 years ago

I've gone through the (well done) troubleshooting FAQs and it's important to note the sync once worked a long time ago (many months)

  1. sync works from windows desktop, 100% and automatic, appears instantly on desktop and mobile
  2. all other garmin-connect mobile app communication works, weather updates, message alerts, etc. so bluetooth is definitely working
  3. auto-sync goes through the motions when I get home automatically
  4. green circle with transfer complete, sync goes through all the motions without errors
  5. but transfer/sync happens too fast on mobile, activity never appears until I plug it into windows desktop
  6. the debug audit says there are no files to transfer, like it's seen all the FIT files before, even though there is a new one

it's not a "device not associated with account" problem

thanks for any other ideas

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    The device may be associated with multiple GC accounts, waiting hence that you connect the other one. That's a very frequent problem of many users. And they always swear they never created another account, that I bet you will tell too Slight smile Nevertheless, try following exactly the instructions from the support document Data is Missing from My Garmin Account After Syncing to see whether it resolves the issue.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to trux

    I appreciate your attempt to help but I've never made another garmin-connect or express account and bought this particular garmin watch new so it can't be on anyone else's account (or shouldn't be).

    Also, works fine for sync from the windows garmin-connect (express) so if the account was the problem it would never sync.

    Plus it shows me the activity for the previous days but not the current activity on the tablet, if it was the wrong account and it was showing me someone else's account, that would be a huge security problem.

    I am pretty sure whatever counter or upload tracking it uses on the watch is corrupted or out of sync, so it doesn't see new files to upload. The problem is there is no documentation on how the watch tracks that. The windows express uses a different sync method since it can just directly see the watch storage.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to rinserepeat

    Yes, I expected exactly this answer Slight smile

    However, the symptomps you describe match perfectly the behaviour when the device is associated with multiple accounts. And I do not mean an account of someone else, but your own accounts. The most frequent reason why it happens is either when people fail pairing the device, or reinstall the app, or install the app on a new phone (or a tablet), and mistakenly tap the option Sign Up instead of Sign In. There is no security issue involved.

    You should also verify whether at least the accounts of GC Web and GC Mobile are identical. Go to GCM Menu » Setting » App Diagnostics, and look up the Displayname - it should be identical with the last string in the address of your public profile of GCW. In case the user profile in GCW you use is rinserepeat, then there should not be the cryptic string like in my screenshot, but also the string rinserepeat. If it is not, then you do have two different accounts, though even if they are identical, you still can have a second forgotten account associated with the device.

      

    Simply try carefully following the instructions from the support document I linked - it won't cost you more than 5 minutes of your time, and if it does not help, you at least excluded one possibility.

  • +1 over 4 years ago

    Just to help the next person I figured this out and it's not in any of the FAQs that I've seen

    Wireless bluetooth based sync is slow (I think, at least compared to wifi watches) and my Fenix 5s only has bluetooth.

    Mobile Garmin Connect really, really, does NOT like a lot of activity files on your watch.

    It's sync is very dumb, it will try to upload every single file regardless of date, regardless if it's seen it before during the initial sync.

    So if you have more than 120 days, it's probably going to timeout and fail at some point during the first attempts to sync.

    Every day I delete a couple of activities off my Fenix from the "last sport" menus.

    Eventually it reached a point under 120 files that it finally didn't timeout and finished the initial sync.

    Now it syncs properly daily.

    This matches other "too many files" problems I've encountered on the Fenix, the \SLEEP and \MONITOR directories can have many hundreds of small files, more than the number of days, and it's NOT the total file size, there is space left on the mass storage, but rather "too many files" for the FAT32 tables or the watch to handle, it eventually corrupts or has timeout issues.

    They've improved the garbage collection and old file delete with newer firmwares but it's still buggy as hell.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to trux

    Just to let you know, it had nothing to do with multiple accounts.

    I appreciate you trying to help though.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to rinserepeat
    rinserepeat said:
    Mobile Garmin Connect really, really, does NOT like a lot of activity files on your watch.

    Yes, the watch in general doesn't like it either. The typical recommendation when having issues with corrupt fit files is to just periodically remove all of the fit files within the folder \GARMIN\ACTIVITY on the watch. Back them up somewhere if you wish.

    As mentioned on the Sync / Connection Troubleshooting Guide

    trux said:
    In some cases, especially with older devices, full storage may cause faulty FIT files and/or sync problems. Clean up regularly the folder /GARMIN/Activity, making sufficient room for new activities.

    And by me often, even if the device does not appear full.

    seilogramp said:
    Keep the number of files in the \GARMIN\ACTIVITY folder on the device’s file system to a minimum using these directions: Removing Recorded Activities on a Garmin Fitness Device If you delete the files in your activity folder with a Mac computer, then empty the trash folder before you unplug your device from the computer.
  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to seilogramp

    As a developer in other environments, there should be no need on a modern device to have to constantly trim and reduce files to a minimum

    This isn't 2010 and this (was) the flagship Fenix with "huge" 64MB of storage (now they make gigabyte versions for music)

    Connecting to both windows garmin-connect and the app daily, somewhere one of those things or the watch itself should do maintenance, they are also up to version 21 of the firmware, you'd think they'd have gotten that fixed by now.

    I refuse to ever re-format my watch again, what a total ridiculous pain and Garmin refused to make a backup/restore utility, though I've figured out you can put settings.fit files into \NEWFILES to have the watch rebuild some of it's previous settings.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to rinserepeat

    I've been fixing a lot of corrupt .fit files on this forum. It is usually the lower-end devices that have this issue. I rarely see a Fenix 6 owner asking for help with their fit files. But it can happen. You're right about the quantity of files rather then the total size. Also even 1 corrupt file can hinder the sync process.

    At any rate, glad you figured it out. And thanks for sharing your fix with us. Slight smile