Segments not working... and even impossible to edit!

This is an accurate description of some of the problems I experience with segments!

Have you also noticed that you cannot see segment performance data more than 12 months old even though you can see the Segments themselves. This explains why you can sometimes see Segments Crossed or Segments Created without a personal rank.

I first highlighted a similar issue with Garmin Support in April 2015 - I gave up pursuing the issue when Segments went down at the end of Nov 2015. When Segments came back in May2016, I contacted Garmin again and they replied that the issue was Known and they would let me know when a solution was found. I'm still waiting (and using Strava for segments)

Yes, exactly. I noticed this, too. And I gave up pursuing as well and had hoped that all these issues would be resolved as soon as segments and leaderboards were officially up and running again. Unfortunately that was too optimistic though... On their service status page Garmin reports segments as "up" regardless if they really work or not. "Up" just means the respective Connect service is available and ready to process new data uploads. It doesn't mean that it processes the data correctly...

And honestly, I doubt more and more that Garmin will ever be able to fix these issues. So far my observations have been that the problems rather get bigger and bigger (more in terms of number of affected segments/activities and also in terms of the various types of malfunctions). I guess this is related to the ever increasing amount of data that users upload to Connect. And it indicates that behind the scenes Garmin seems to have some fundamental problems with their Connect platform which they are unable to get a grip on.

Maybe that's why Garmin decided to support Strava segments? After all Strava is their biggest competitor in terms of cycling platform.
There is reason to believe that Garmin support Strava segments because they had to recognize that they are unable to fix their own segments on Connect.

Personally I wouldn't have any objections against using Strava with my Garmin Edge 1000. In fact Strava is a lot better than Connect anyway. Overall as cycling platform, not just for segments. But what I'm not willing to accept is that I have to pay for a (fee) Strava Premium account just because Garmin is unable to do their homework and provide a working Connect platform! After all segments are a key feature which I relied on and paid for when I bought my Edge! If Garmin can't fix it and maybe even gave up (the signs are more than obvious) then THEY should pay Strava rather than forcing us - their customers - to do so. (For me the free version of Strava has been sufficient so far. Maybe this will change in future but that is a decision I want to make and not forced by Garmin!)

I began to use Garmin Connect in 2014. Meanwhile only less than 20% of the segments that I use/ride work. The vast majority (>80%) don't work. And they have different kinds of failures. Particularly worrying in this regard: the number of problems increases. The same is true for activities. (also with regard to segments passed on them)

The only reason why I still keep 'relatively' calm is because my cycling data doesn't seem to be lost really. Connect is just not evaluating it (for segments passed on activities, segment times, personal records, leaderboard rankings, etc.) Needless to say this IS very frustrating and my opinion of Garmin "used to be better".
The only data that could be lost are the segments that I created but cannot edit anymore. I don't know why and still hope that there is a workaround for the workaround... ;-)

All in all, for more than a year meanwhile Garmin has been oweing their customers several key features of the EDGE value proposition which they had promised for their GPS devices (and still do). And after such a long time I think it's fair to say that this can be perceived as fraud perpretated at the customer.

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Today I received a reply from Garmin Support regarding one of the segment problems that I had reported to them. At least they are honest and confirm that they have a problem...

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Thank you for contacting Garmin Europe.

First of all, please accept our apologies for not answering your email in the time we quoted on our website. Due to an unforeseeable high volume of emails and calls we’ve received this has led to a backlog, which we’ve been working hard to restore to our usual service levels.

The issue you are referring to is something that we are aware of and are working hard towards a resolution, however, we do not have a timeframe for this to be completed as yet.

When the issue has been corrected, the fix will be released in a software update. This will be announced on your Garmin Connect account or on Garmin Express. If, at that point you require further assistance please contact us via our Contact Centre whereby we will be happy to talk you through it.

I’m sorry for the inconvenience.
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I had the same email from Garmin months ago so don't expect a quick solution!

I am also continuing to have problems. Short ride today but climbed my three nearest hills. Only one came up as a segment.
My data is only showing my times for last 12 months even though it is set to show "all". Climbed big hill last week hoping to set a PB but was 5 seconds short of a time done 363 days before- have rechecked today and the time from last year has now disappeared- so my climb last week is now a "PB". At least it means I will continue to set PBs year on year- but overall segments are a joke. Still refusing to pay for Strava.

I had the same problem with PBs from older rides > 1 year ago. Are you sure that your data from your rides is lost? If you still see the respective activities then you can recover the PBs by recreating the affected segments in Connect. I did this and it worked for me. Just create new (very similar) segments and then delete the old ones. This will trigger new leaderboard evaluations for the new segments and - at least in my case - my old PBs showed up again later on.
It's inconvenient, but at least a workaround...

The re-creation of segments only analyses data less than 12 months old so this will not solve nwithers1's issue.

I'm sorry, I just double-checked and you're right. The re-creation just solved the problem I had with several older segments
- for which the leaderboards were not updating properly anymore - or
- which didn't show any of my times at all anymore - or
- which I could not open in edit mode anymore.
I was so happy that at least this worked that I overlooked the fact that my times from rides >1 year ago were not included in the newly evaluated leaderboards for the re-created segments.

I'm just lucky that my cycling performance improved in the past 12 months so that all my current PBs are <1 year old and therefore showing up correctly in the leaderboards... ;-)
Sorry again for the confusion.

... means that the reliability of Garmin's segments remains crappy :-(

Should we prepare for losing our PBs from 2016 again sometime next year without a chance to recover them...???

PS: Nevertheless I'm still refusing to pay for Strava just because Garmin is incapable of providing reliable segments in Connect. Shame on Garmin (Connect).

Thanks both-will just have to put up with losing the old PBs as they fall off the end-As I said it means I can always set new PBs as I get older....:)