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New Venu 3 and Garmin Connect Android app unable to upload data to Garmin

ryanjwh
over 1 year ago

I bought the new Venu 3 the day it came out last week, and got it Friday (9/1/23). Set everything up, created a new Garmin account for the Garmin Connect app. I'm coming from years of using Fitbits that "just f**** worked".

After hours of troubleshooting this weekend, I'm unable to get any historical data for the last few days into the Garmin Connect Android app. My watch is there just fine, says it's syncing fine, but I only get "instant" values like current HR. If I tap the panels for HR, Intensity Minutes, Steps, Respiration, etc, there is no data since I started using the watch on 9/1/23. Charts are empty. Same issue on Garmin Connect Web, everything is empty. On *the watch* it's fine, I can scroll through and see it storing my historical HR, intensity minutes, sleep tracking, and other data.

I tried all of the troubleshooting steps multiple times over:

  1. Remove watch from GC
  2. Delete Bluetooth device
  3. Reboot watch
  4. Uninstall GC (also tried just logging out, deleting data & cache, etc)
  5. Ensure watch is gone from GC Web (and log out)
  6. Watch is not in Garmin Express because Garmin Express isn't working for Venu 3! (See below)
  7. Reinstall GC app and log in
  8. Go back through setup steps, get everything syncing again.
  9. Still, same issue.

A few important things to note:

  1. In the GC app, I go to More -> Settings -> Device Sync Audit, and I can scroll through every entry showing the same error:
    GCUploadAgent=Uploadable=Unknown[Unexpected server response (500)]
    1. So, Garmin's API is giving the GC app a 500 error. Is this service working for *anyone*? Maybe it's only serving 500's to new Venu 3 uploads?
  2. I tried installing the Garmin Express app on a Mac and on a Windows machine, and both had problems preventing me from using them.
    1. Mac: On my MBP 15", the watch only takes power to charge from the factory cable, it will not register for Garmin Express to detect it. I tried reboot, updates, etc, and the Garmin KB article just says "if you've tried these things, then your computer may need to be looked at my a professional" or something silly. This Mac has 4 perfectly working USB-C ports, I tried all of them to no avail.
    2. Windows: I was able to see the mounted drive when I plugged in the watch, and Garmin Express successfully detects it! But, then, it tells me it's a Venu 3 and it's unsupported. WTH? Garmin's own website instructions direct Venu 3 and 3S users to use the Garmin Express app alternatively to the GC app. Documentation ahead of a supported software release???
  3. Per Garmin's and this Forum's frequent mentions of the possibility of the device being confused between redundant accounts (2 or more with same email address), I doubted this was my problem, *but* just in case I used the Garmin data privacy page to *delete my account* completely, and then I created a new account with a different email address - and again followed all of the steps above to start the watch and app fresh with login/setup. Problem remains.

Links I've gone through:

As a customer that tried switching to Garmin because Google is slowly letting Fitbit die on the vine (I've loved both of my Versa's and my Sense! But no way am I switching to a Pixel that can't even make it through a day, or maybe 2 days with the upcoming v2 model! Ridiculous.), I have to say I'm incredibly disappointed at my first time experience as a Garmin customer. I've spent at least 6-8 hours this Labor Day weekend attempting to troubleshoot on my own with countless KB articles and links while Garmin support is closed for the holiday.

It seems like the Venu 3 launch was rushed and nothing works yet - not the GC app nor the Garmin Express Mac/Windows app. I'm stuck with a watch that only has data in the watch, and can't get any of that data into my GC account in the cloud to show me metrics aligned with my workouts. I'm ready to return this watch after spending a lot of money on it.

Thanks,

-R

++

  • 0 over 1 year ago
    ryanjwh said:
    It seems like the Venu 3 launch was rushed and nothing works yet

    I doubt it is the case, otherwise we would see hundreds of users of Venu 3 reporting it here. I recommend calling the Support, and having them troubleshoot it for you.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to trux

    I ordered day of release last week with 2 day shipping, and got it Friday. It's likely a small number of people would have received their Venu 3's before the Labor Day weekend. And, of the people that did receive them, it's likely most of them haven't yet noticed this is happening - or if they did, they filed a support ticket instead of coming here (which is what I'm doing now).

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to ryanjwh

    There are already plenty of threads in the new Venu 3 forum, starting to come a week ago. And on the first quick glance I do not see anyone unable to sync the data with GC account, so I really doubt Garmin forgot to add it to their apps. Make sure you have up-to-date versions of the apps, especially if you installed them already before receiving the watch.

    Contacting the Support is definitely the way to go.

    You can also try posting to the Venu 3 forum 

    https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/healthandwellness/f/venu-3-series 

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    I have the exact same issue, but on an iPhone. I also tried every single troubleshooting step under the sun to no avail. Also, I was unable to find the watch on Garmin Express on my Mac laptop. I contacted customer service today and uploaded a screen recording of the endless syncing to them and am waiting to hear back on what they say.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 6840769

    Great to hear it's not just me, thanks . They asked me to do the same, and opened separate tickets for me for the two main issues: Unable for GC App to upload to Garmin servers, and Garmin Express not detecting on Mac and on Windows saying it found my watch but it's unsupported.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to ryanjwh

    For anyone interested, indeed everything was broken for new Venu 3 owners at least over the weekend, maybe since launch last week. They fixed it yesterday:

    • Garmin fixed their backend to stop returning HTTP 500 errors to the GC app when it tried to upload activity data from Venu 3. So now I can finally see my historical data.
    • Garmin released a Garmin Express update that fixed the "unsupported device" error when attempting to add a Venu 3 device.

    I'm glad it's all working now, though I'm a bit concerned about how they did any QA or any validation at all for this launch...

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    I had the same problem. In the end there are two settings that need to be turned on. In app - More - garmin devices - activity tracking- status on. And in app - More - settings - profile and privacy - data - device upload - toggle on.

    Hope that helps

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 7167813

    Thanks. Also mentioned in steps #4 and #5 of the Sync / Connection Troubleshooting Guide