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

Vivosmart HR+ and syncing with Windows 10 Phone (Lumia 930)

Former Member over 8 years ago

Hello,

My girlfriend and I have brand new Vivosmart HR+ devices. She has an iPhone 5S, I have a Windows 10 Phone (Lumia 930). We took them out on a 5 mile run this morning to try them out and I have three questions for now:

1) Any thoughts as to why my Vivosmart HR+ took over 5 minutes to find a GPS lock whereas hers took less than a minute? Both are brand new and essentially identical (aside from colour).

2) Upon our return we synchronised our devices with our phones - hers worked perfectly. Mine apparently synchronised but failed to record that I'd actually been on a run. I definitely selected ‘run’ as the activity before setting off. The ‘Past Activities’ section seems to have recorded everything, albeit that it apparently recorded that I took exactly 8000 steps. This seems unlikely. In fact there is a one in a thousand chance of having a measurement like that. When I go into the ‘Snapshots’ on the phone it tells me I have 1 activity, but when I tap on the activity section it tells me there is ‘No data available’. What is going on?

3) The Weather feature of my device is constantly saying either 'No App Connection Available' or, if the app is open, is just sits at 'Waiting for Data'. How can I make it work properly?

I hope this is not just a symptom of the anecdotal reports I have heard that the app for Windows Phones has a lot of problems. I cannot believe that something as fundamental of transferring information from the device to the application would fail in this way, so it has to be something else.

Thanks in advance for any help and support you can give.

Angus

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

Update

Now that I have installed Garmin Express on my laptop and connected the Vivosmart HR+ via USB, the online 'Garmin Connect' website seems to show my information correctly. Now that has happened, the mobile application is now also showing the correct data. Can the Windows 10 Phone version of the Garmin Connect really be unable to synchronise data??

0 ASmugDill over 8 years ago

1) Any thoughts as to why my Vivosmart HR+ took over 5 minutes to find a GPS lock whereas hers took less than a minute? Both are brand new and essentially identical (aside from colour).

Your Garmin wearable device will be better able to get a ‘fix’ on GPS satellite signals if valid EPO data, which the device gets and keeps up to date by syncing with Garmin Connect from time to time, is available to it.

Did you sync your vívosmart‑HR+ with Garmin Connect successfully and completely before your run? Did your girlfriend sync hers? It could well be that she managed to get the current EPO data file onto her VSHR+ but you didn't for yours. (Yes, even if syncing with a Garmin Connect Mobile app has been initiated, it can still fail to complete transfer of all the relevant data in both directions.)

2) Upon our return …‹snip›… When I go into the ‘Snapshots’ on the phone it tells me I have 1 activity, but when I tap on the activity section it tells me there is ‘No data available’.

Have you tried syncing, using the USB charging cable, with the Garmin Express application running on a computer? If so, are you able to see the activity when visiting Garmin Connect online in a browser? That's most certainly something to try, before getting all hung up on having your VSHR+ work with your mobile handset of choice and not start troubleshooting from basics.

I hope this is not just a symptom of the anecdotal reports I have heard that the app for Windows Phones has a lot of problems.

It could well be. I've stopped using a Windows‑10 Mobile handset to sync with my Garmin wearable device or send smart notifications to it for many months now, because the reliability of such operations just weren't there and it was getting too frustrating.

I cannot believe that something as fundamental of transferring information from the device to the application would fail in this way, so it has to be something else.

Whether you choose to believe that or not is your prerogative, but your beliefs do not define or dictate what is operational reality.

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

GPS fix and software

Hi. Thanks for taking the time to reply. Sorry it has taken me so long - for some reason I am not receiving notifications or replies.

GPS seems to be fine now. I did wonder if the satellite data was out of date.

I am on the verge of following your advice and ditching the Windows 10 Phone method of synchronising runs. It seems to be ok with other basic information (sleep patterns, heart rate, steps ... all the things I'm not really concerned with but which are fun to play with until the novelty wears off), but when it comes to run data I really do have to use Garmin Express and synchronise it that way. It's frustrating when my girlfriend's iPhone just *works*. Going to have to save up ...

Her Garmin also seems to tell her how far it will be to get to her next destination, and provides traffic reports, when she gets back into her car. I presume this is an iPhone thing also. Is that right? Do these sorts of bolt-on features come with the Android experience, too? In other words, is it the iPhone version of Garmin Connect which is miles ahead, or just the Windows version which is miles behind?

Hear from you soon,

Angus

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

Similar issue on Vivoactive HR

Hello, I am enjoying very similar problems on the vivoactive HR, trying to sync with the Lumia 950XL. It always says connected on the phone, but it does not sync with the watch. It says something like "Problems with displaying your current statistics" (I don't know if I translated it correctly to english). The message shows up in an orange bar at the bottom of the app.

0 ASmugDill over 8 years ago

Her Garmin also seems to tell her how far it will be to get to her next destination, and provides traffic reports, when she gets back into her car.

I don't know, since I have neither a car (after giving mine away to a relative years ago) nor an iPhone (which I won't ever elect to use as my everyday mobile device, unless forced by my employer). However, at a guess, her vívosmart‑HR+ is simply receiving notifications generated by some app (unrelated to Garmin) on her iPhone; the same notifications would also appear in the Notifications Centre in iOS on her handset.

Do these sorts of bolt-on features come with the Android experience, too?

I get weather reports on my Garmin Forerunner‑235, but that's only because (factory-installed) The Weather Channel for Samsung app on my Android handset is generating the notifications, and the functionality and/or notification message content there has nothing to do with the Garmin Connect Mobile app.

In other words, is it the iPhone version of Garmin Connect which is miles ahead, or just the Windows version which is miles behind?

That's a tautology and not a dichotomy, when the former would imply the latter (and vice versa) comparing just two distinct entities (apps) against each other. You aren't comparing them against an independent ‘standard’ or frame of reference, as far as I can see.