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iOS app consistently buggy

Former Member
Former Member
It seems each iteration of the iOS app gets flashier but less useable and poorly executed. As a retired Microsoft programmer it is clear that Garmin has not put their best software people on this project.

Examples: (running on iPad Air)

It is inexcusable that the iOS app has not been made universal by now so that it functions in iPad mode. Not all Garmin customers use an iPhone.

Every tme you go to the app and check the calendar, then go off to another running app, then return, it is stuck on a time display graph from which you cannot escape other than to kill the app and restart it.

The challenges have been a source of continual frustration. The step counts have been often wrong, badges have not been awarded when I clearly won the week's competition. And lately the challenge has been replaced by a leaderboard and instead of, say the 55,000 step challenge with steppers roughly in the same count level, now it is a 0 step challenge with random participants.

A year ago the sleep data was pretty accurate as far as recognizing the beginning and end if the sleep period. Now is is usually way off, requiring daily adjustment by manually moving the end points to where the red zone segues to the blue zone and then back to the red zone in the morning. A trivial software function somehow botched.

As a fitting testimony to software development ineptness, the latest iteration of "what's new in insights" shows a screen shot that displays a computer bug! The text displayed on the shot ends with the text "long string long string". Clearly nobody checked the code before it was released and nobody checked the "what's new" shot either.

From my vantage point it seems that the software group responsible for this app is lacking in guidance and adult supervision. Which suggests that the iOS app is very low on the Garmin priority list.
  • Examples: (running on iPad Air)

    It is inexcusable that the iOS app has not been made universal by now so that it functions in iPad mode. Not all Garmin customers use an iPhone.
    As much as I echo the sentiment, since I love my iPad Air but will never choose to use an iPhone if I continue to have the final say in the matter (Touch wood!),
    Every tme you go to the app and check the calendar, then go off to another running app, then return, it is stuck on a time display graph from which you cannot escape other than to kill the app and restart it.
    I cannot reproduce what you described in the Garmin Connect Mobile app (version 3.5.0.16) on my iPad Air running iOS 9.3.1.

    A year ago the sleep data was pretty accurate as far as recognizing the beginning and end if the sleep period. Now is is usually way off,
    That has very little to do with the “iOS app” – or the Garmin Connect Mobile app on any platform for that matter – which is only responsible for presenting the sleep record (and allowing the user to edit it, if desired) as determined by the Garmin Connect service ‘in the cloud’.

    As a fitting testimony to software development ineptness, the latest iteration of "what's new in insights" shows a screen shot that displays a computer bug! The text displayed on the shot ends with the text "long string long string". Clearly nobody checked the code before it was released and nobody checked the "what's new" shot either.
    I think it's preposterous to conclude that was “a computer bug” shown in the screenshot in question, when the “Long string Long string” was obviously simply placeholder text (that should have been deleted for neater presentation) in a data field, and not part of any application code. Otherwise, “Long string Long string” would be appearing in the actual Insights delivered to me in the Garmin Connect Mobile app, which has never happened.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 9 years ago
    GCM is a pile of junk, functionality wise. It needs a serious overhaul.

    Don't get me wrong, it looks nice and I like how the data is presented, but if I were responsible for the code (used to be a programmer) I'd be ashamed. Noting works properly (or intermittently at best), graphs don't even scale properly, certain devices that used to connect to it either don't, or no longer pass certain data. There doesn't seem to be much effort put into testing prior to release...

    It's a mess. And let face it, it doesn't earn Garmin any money so there is no commitment to get it sorted out. Look how much effort/resource has been put into the Fenix and Vector development! This is very wrong in my mind. GCM is the cornerstone/hub of all of our data, yet it doesn't get the attention it deserves.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 9 years ago
    It's a mess. And let face it, it doesn't earn Garmin any money so there is no commitment to get it sorted out.


    I have seen reviews for Garmin devices where they are downgraded because of software issues. In the long run, it has to catch up to them. OTOH, seems like I've seen some posts recently from people who came over from Fitbit and other platforms who say Garmin is better. Seems to be an industrywide issue.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 9 years ago
    I have seen reviews for Garmin devices where they are downgraded because of software issues. In the long run, it has to catch up to them. OTOH, seems like I've seen some posts recently from people who came over from Fitbit and other platforms who say Garmin is better. Seems to be an industrywide issue.


    I agree, however there are two issues:

    1, As you say, software doesn't get tested anymore and it's left to the users to bug report.
    2, Garmin either doesn't have the resource or the ability to create reliable software.

    Good software wins sales, even if the actual software is 'free'.

    Unfortunately Garmin has a bad reputation for software. Their firmware updates are infamous.