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Campaign to get Garmin to remove autosave from watches

9446734
9 days ago

It's clear from the many discussions here and elsewhere that the auto save function on Garmin watches is seriously irritating and has no useful function.  I've not read one comment from a user who likes it.

How does anyone feel about a combined campaign to get Garmin to at least make this an opt-in function?  I'm not sure what it would look like but I imagine it would be in the form of an online petition.

I'm open to suggestions.  We need to get Garmin more responsive to this ridiculous function.

  • 0 9 days ago

    If you stop an activity it will still keep GPS active which will drain the battery if you stop for a long time. The auto save is a power save function.

    Use "Resume later" if you want to stop for a longer time. Then you can stop for how long time you like. Even for days. Note that the watch will not log sleep and some other values while using resume later.

  • 0 6 days ago in reply to e7andy

    Thank you for your reply.  Support people at Garmin told me that it autosaves on Resume later as well.  Is that not the case?  I just assumed they were right so haven't tried it.  If it is the case, why not just make the Pause function deactivate the GPS rather than having to make the extra button pushes?  What's the point of the GPS continuing to run when the activity has been paused?  It makes no sense.  Sometimes you don't know for how long you're going to pause for that coffee in the middle of a ride.  Or maybe, if there is some benefit that I can't see in the GPS staying on while paused, why doesn't it just turn off the GPS after the allotted time rather than make the unreasonable assumption that you want to finish the activity?

  • 0 6 days ago in reply to 9446734

    When you disable and then re-enable GPS, it takes some time to get a good lock on the signal. That wouldn't work with pausing, where you want to be able to continue right after unpausing.

    Have you set the power saver timeout to "extended" in the watch? That gives you a 25 minute timeout.

    And if you use Resume later, there's no autosave.

  • 0 6 days ago in reply to 9446734

    Exactly as Bitti wrote. You use pause when you want to do a quick stop and want to start to run very soon again. For example when you are in a middle of an interval and get to a red light. If the GPS is turned off it will take time to get the position back again. Before a race you also use that function. You select the activity and get the GPS position, but you don't press start. Now the watch is ready for when the race starts.

    When you use Resume later GPS is turned off and before you resume again you must wait for the GPS position to be found again which can take several seconds and even longer if you are unlucky. You can use Resume later and keep the watch like that for days. You use Resume later for longer stops like coffee stops, multi day activities you want to keep as one activity.

    So, both modes got their respective use cases.

  • 0 6 days ago in reply to e7andy

    Well - as I said earlier, Garmin support people told me that autosave happens on Resume Later but I never tested it.  I will now and see how I feel about it.

    Thank you both for your input.

  • 0 6 days ago in reply to e7andy

    I would actually advice against using Resume later for multi-day activities (like backpacking hikes etc.). Although Resume later returns to the watch face, several metrics like stress, sleeps, etc. are not collected when an activity has been suspended.

    I do a lot of multi-day hikes, and nowadays I record them as a separate hike for each day, using Resume later for lunch breaks, etc. Then after the hike (if I remember) I'll use FitFileTools to combine the days into a single hike activity.

  • 0 6 days ago in reply to Bitti

    I would never use that for that either. I was just trying to find examples when it can be used. 

    If you do a multi-day hike you are really doing multiple activities. If you use Resume later to keep them together all of them will be logged on the start day which probably is not what anyone wants.

  • 0 6 days ago

    I would never treat a multi day activity like that but it's a useful concept for illustration purposes.

  • 0 5 days ago

    I just encountered a problem with the Save Later option.  With auto pause, you don't have to remember to restart an activity.  I just had a protracted break and forgot to restart after selecting Save Later.  If auto pause wouldn't auto save, this wouldn't have been a problem.  This is another argument for making this an opt-in option.