This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

About Kids with Garmin Forerunner and Connect

I have a Fenix and a Vivosmart linked to my iPhone. I wear my Vivosmart during the day and night, and the Fenix while I run.

My wife have a Vivosmart, linked to her iPhone.

One of my kids is into Cross Country, so he has a Forerunner 245, but he is not old enough to have a phone or an iPad.
Obviously his FR245 cannot be linked to my account, or my wife's, because it would skew our stats, so Im using a spare iPad with a Connect account just for him.

My other kid (younger than the first one) is also into Cross Country, and last week we got him a FR Watch for him too, he is also not old enough for a phone.
I have one more spare iPad that I will use for him.

I have a third kid that will most likely start running too.

Does people at Garmin have families?

Why I cannot have all my kid's devices added on my IOS Connect, but in a way that when they sync on my phone the data goes to their particular Connect account?
I help them with their running, I need to add workouts for them, see their training right after their finish, change configurations, etc etc,, just like I do with my devices.

I cannot carry an iPhone and two iPads with me just to sync and see my kids stuff.
Again, do this people at Garmin ever thought about having families?


The way I worked it out so far is by using my iPhone as Hotspot and have the Watches sync to that WiFi, and then I have my kids Connect account added as Connection to mine.
With that, I can see their workout when they finish, but I cannot do anything else, and it is very cumbersome.

Does anybody have similar challenges?

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 4 years ago

    Yup exact problem I'm having

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 4 years ago

    I'm actually responding to this from my son's account because its auto-logged in on my computer. I do it the hard way mate. I plug the device in, extract the activity file and upload it manually. 

    It is a miserable solution, but at least there's an option. I agree, must be no one with a kid under 16 at Garmin that works out with their parent....

  • Apple refuses to add multi user support to their iPads. A solution could be to get an Android tablet or phone. They got multi user support (not sure if all got it, but all Android tables I've tested got it and my Android phone got it) and you can usually get one at a really low price compared to an iPad or iPhone.

  • I think is a Garmin Connect issue. The iPad does not care how many devices you have connected via BT, and it does not know who owns each device. They all should sync into Garmin Connect and Garmin Connect should decide "this device is for this account and this device is for that account etc", and I should either have a master account with access to all sub-accounts or at least Garmin Connect should let me log in on each account at will and use that account to "bridge" the syncing to any other account that is not logged in at the moment.

    Ive been using the solution I described on the original post (using my iPhone as hotspot and having my kids syn via wifi as soon as they finish their activities, but it is cumbersome, and I would like to do more stuff on their phones via the IOS app, like adding workouts, changing configs etc). And obviously, Im lucky because I got FR 245 for my kids, which have WiFi, but a lot of people have watches with no WiFi.

    It is like there are no Garmin Devs with kids, or maybe they just play videogames and nothing else.

  • The apps in phones and tables are designed to be personal and not shared with several people. That is not only the case for Garmin Connect. It is how apps are designed in general. If you add a device to the Garmin Connect app in your phone and tablet it will be connected to the account you are logged into. You can logout of the app and login with a different account to do the sync, but it is a bit cumbersome since apps are not designed to be used in that way.

    Apple recently released shared iPad for business and it was already supported for eductional use in schools so there is obviously some support for multiple users in iOS, but it isn't yet released to the general public. Apple still likes to squeeze a few more bucks out of the sheeps :-)

    You can add workouts, change configs etc. in the web interface. Login to their accounts and do the changes.

    This is a very special use case so not much resources will be added to support it. It will be cheaper for Garmin to just send everyone that needs that function an Android tablet that got multi user support right out the box.

    We got an Android tablet which is the family tablet. Each family member got an account on that one and each account got its own apps and settings so everything just works.

  • I dont know what you mean with "designed to be personal and not shared with several people", I have multiple apps that I share with my wife on each of our devices (banking, zwift, Yousician, etc), even Garmin has one called "Clipboard" that let me see the data on other devices. 

    On some I log in with a different username, and some others I log in with the same username and choose a different profile.

    Im pretty sure there are many business apps (POS, Scanners, etc) that are "profiled" and intended for sharing on business environments.

    And about Use Case, Garmin Connect has a bunch of features that Im sure most of the people dont even care or use. I mean, look a "Hydration" how many people are adding the glasses or water they drink and how critical that is. I drink water about every 40 min, and I dont even check my phone that often. Those are special cases as well and were added at some point.

    My kids run in a Track +XC club, we have at least 40 out of our 130 kids using Garmin watches, and the parents share the same frustration because most of them also own Garmin watches. 

    In my town, there are two more clubs, bigger than ours, and the regional meets we go are attended by about 1000+ kids every time, you have to see how many Garmin watches are there, and how many parents also have Garmin.

    (Not mentioning the Coaches I often hear them saying that they would love to see Garmin implementing a good Coaching app, not just the "Clipboard" which is sort of primitive)

    Probably people dont go to Garmin and whine about it, but Im pretty sure there is a big use case there.

  • I think this would be a helpful feature as well.  Peloton allows multiple user profiles on one account and Spotify has a family account feature that lets multiple users have separate profiles within the same account.  If you haven’t done it yet, suggest it to Garmin through their feature request site:  https://www.garmin.com/en-US/forms/ideas/.  Hopefully they will add it at some point.