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Garmin Connect Mobile Android With update to Lollipop 5.0.1, my VivoActive no longer pairs.

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With update to Lollipop 5.0.1, my VivoActive no longer pairs.

Former Member over 10 years ago

I have only had the VivoActive about 4 days (I got it on Monday about 6 p.m.). Within those 4 days, my HTC One M8 phone was upgraded to Lollipop 5.0.1 and began pairing intermittently. I was trying to figure out what was causing this. It seemed that I had to keep the Garmin Connect Mobile app open on my phone all the time and that if I got more than 30 feet away from my phone, it disconnected. I was questioning the usefulness of the watch if I had to keep my phone right by me all the time although I do take it with me everywhere (but not when working in the garden or walking around my house).

Eventually, I read somewhere to reinstall Garmin Connect Mobile and to turn the phone off and on again. Reinstalling Garmin Connect Mobile only made it impossible to reconnect the watch to the phone, when before the connection was intermittent. Now the Garmin Connect Mobile app icon does not show on my phone, but if I go to the Play Store, I can open the app from there. I also noticed that on the watch's system menu, there was an item called BlueTooth and a couple of swipes later, one called something about pairing. When I tried that item, the app went into black space. I had to uninstall it and install it again to get it running again. At some point, that pairing menu disappeared so that now there is only the menu called BlueTooth.

So I think the problem has to do with Lollipop being installed on my phone. The M8 phone is not on the tested and approved by Garman list, although the M7 phone is. Since the upgrade to 5.0.1 is so recent, my assumption is that Android version 4.306 that I had before may not have been tested and approved, but it was working fine before the upgrade. The specs on the M8 say that it has Bluetooth 4.0 Smart Ready.

Is this something that can be fixed at your end? I can probably use my iPad mini to pair the watch, but then do I have to have it within 30 feet all the time for the watch to work?

Given my limited experience with the watch, I am not sure what to expect or what to try next. Any suggestions? I will speak with HTC tomorrow, but maybe I should be speaking to Google. Maybe Garmin should speak with Google since the watch paired before and was working fine. Maybe your speaking with Google would lead to your knowing how to fix the problem or your having Google fix the problem. I really don't want to have to return the watch. Is anyone else experiencing these problems after an upgrade to Lollypop?

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

I don't have a solution to your problem, but FYI there are a handful of reports with BT problems after upgrading to Lollipop with the vivosmart too (the little brother to the vivoactive). I've been trying to make heads or tails of it, but made no progress.

https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?222114-Android-5-1-and-Notification-issue
https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?163340-If-you-are-having-new-problems-since-Android-5-0-please-post-here
https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?231764-HTC-one-M8-and-Vivosmart-don-t-like-each-other
https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?237104-Android-5-02-and-vivosmart

Also, worth noting that the Fitbit series have trouble w/ syncing and Android 5.0. Maybe Garmin needs to be bugging Google here.
http://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/Android-device-compatibility

If I were in your shoes I would hold off until the end of the return window and then return the device if this isn't fixed.

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

Thank you Superm1! At least someone has noticed my plight. I may have to get a new phone in order to use my VivoActive, but I really love my phone. I had a Samsung Galaxy before and I did not really like it.

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

Sure! Sorry I wasn't clear, I would recommend returning the vivoactive rather than your phone if things don't get sorted out. At least to me until Garmin says otherwise there are issues with Android 5.x that will affect any Android phones with 5.x and these Garmin BLE devices.

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

My VA is working fine with my M8 Lollipop.

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

My VA is working fine with my M8 Lollipop.

When you say fine, does it automatically reconnect after going out of range from your phone? The issue that people are seeing on the other BLE devices is that once you go far enough out of range that it drops the BT connection it won't reconnect on it's own. It generally needs to be manually reconnected from the "Pairing" menu.

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

OK, perhaps there is someone else out there who will need this information. I am still trying to solve my problem and I found a message in the reviews of the watch on Amazon which is as follows:

"I just received mine today and had major Bluetooth & other issues, but then went to Garmin's site (they should make this very clear, but it's hard to find) and downloaded the Garmin Express software (Windows & Mac versions) and this enabled me to connect the Vivoactive watch via the USB charging cable to the computer and update the watch firmware and it eliminated all of my issues! I can't believe that Garmin doesn't even mention the Garmin Express software anywhere that I could find. Anyway, I hope that you & everyone else tries this and I believe that it will fix your Bluetooth and other issues. Mine was horrible out of the box (Bluetooth disconnecting, watch rebooting, etc.) and it was like a brand new watch after I downloaded the Garmin Express software and used it to update the Vivoactive watch to the newest firmware. Please spread the word. I've only had the watch a few hours since I did this, but I absolutely love it so far.

"www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp

NOTE: This person is giving instruction on how to update to Vivoactive software version 2.70 as of March 25, 2015. I just bought my watch and received it on April 13, but it might not have gotten the update to version 2.70. I asked in the BigTime forum how I could know the version of software on my watch, but no one answered that question. I DO NOT KNOW THE VERSION OF VIVOACTIVE SOFTWARE ON MY WATCH? I may not even need to do this step. I would really appreciate it if someone would tell me how to know the version on my watch.
From the Garmin Connect App in App diagnostics, I learn that the app is Build 2.11.2 It says my Android device is version 5.0.1 On the watch under system, system, I find Unit ID followed by version 2.40; display version 2.10; GPS version 2.70; TSC version2.10; and the MAC Address is given. I am not sure which of this data is the version number I am looking for. Of course, it is not updating my steps since the phone and the app are not paired. The message is that 6 days ago it was synced.

OK, so I go to this web site and download the Garmin Express software. Then I get the following message from Garmin Express:

"Mac OS X® 10.6 (Snow Leopard) is an older OS X version that is no longer compatible with modern software. To use our software and desktop apps, you will need to upgrade your operating system to Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) or newer."

"Need more information about OS X upgrades? Visit the Apple® Support website."

Then I learn that my operating system is Snow Leopard. After there was Snow Leopard, there was Lion, then Mountain Lion, then Mavericks. I only need Lion to run Garmin Express on my MacBook Pro. The screen I have been referred to is about uploading Yosemite and says you need Mavericks to do this.

OK, this is a bit over my head as too many potential problems can happen, so I will get someone else to do this and get back to you.

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

OK, I decided, at least temporarily, to try another route since according to support.garmin.com/.../case.faces, the watch is compatible with an iPad mini. I do not understand why this is said.

I am told to go to iTunes to get the app. Well, under Garmin, there is nothing like Garmin Connect, so this is another dead end.

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

OK, 57Dibbs, what phone are you using?

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

My VA is working fine with my M8 Lollipop.

57Dibbs, what phone are you using?

0 Former Member over 10 years ago

OK, on an iPhone message in the forum section on VivoActive, they were reporting on "GPS not connecting and Garmin Connect will not sync after iOS 8.3 update." In the messages, people were saying that after Unpairing the phone, giving the phone a soft restart, and repairing the phone, everything was fine.

OK, I did the soft restart as my phone was already unpaired. Then in the VivoActive Manual (Web Version) the instruction was to go to http://www.garminconnect.com/vivoactive and follow the directions for installing Garmin Connect Mobile. I was glad to see that Garmin Connect Mobile had just been updated on April 17, 2015. This process added a step where I had to choose a device from a list of 3. It turned out that one of the 2 HTC devices listed matched my phone. (yea!) Then I clicked install. I was told GCM would be installed soon. Strange. When I looked again at the list of devices, I saw a message "Your device already has this item installed," however, GCM says it is installed, but there is no "Open" button and there is no icon for the program on my phone. I can only surmise that something is being worked on (new programming) and when it is ready, there will be an Open button after I do another install. What looked like an answer turned out to be a wait.