New activities do not show up

I sold the predecessors of 301 - Timex Speed and Distance System (also by Garmin) and Forerunner 205 - before they died because 301 is much better. I do not feel any need to upgrade Forerunner 301, which is convenient, reliable, and still has a battery capacity lasting more than 10 hours. I bought 301 in April 2008.

Glad you’re happy with your 301, but it’s easy to tell from the pic that the Forerunner 205 is actually newer and more advanced than the Forerunner 301. (The 205 is much smaller and actually resembles a wristwatch. The 301 looks like a brick that happens to be strapped to your wrist, as opposed to something that was ergonomically designed to be comfortably worn on your wrist.)

When it comes to 3-digit model numbers in the Forerunner family, the first digit usually indicates the product line (higher number = more expensive, more features) while the next two digits indicate the generation (higher number = newer generation).  If a model number only has 2 digits, then it’s the least expensive product line (and the two digits still indicate the generation).

e.g.

Forerunner 301: product line = 3, generation = 01 (actually the 1st forerunner gen)
Forerunner 205: product line = 2, generation = 05 (actually the 2nd forerunner gen)

FR205 came out after FR301, and FR305 was a more expensive variant of FR205, with more features. Same as FR201 was a less expensive variant of FR301.

Similarly:

FR955 = more expensive variant of FR255. (For a while, Forerunner 9xx has been for triathletes and usually has similar functionality to the Fenix watch of the same generation)
FR265 = newer watch than FR955, less expensive variant of FR965. (Forerunner 2xx is typically the midrange watch for runners, at least in the last 10 years or so)
FR55 = least expensive variant of FRx55 watches. (Entry level running watch)
FR45 = Predecessor to FR55 (entry-level watch of the FR245 and FR945 generation)
FR165 = entry level running watch for the current FRx65 generation. Similar to FR45 and FR55, but they apparently added a “1” to the model number so they could make it more expensive.

Personally I know very fast runners who still rock a FR235 (released 2015), or at least did so until very recently. (I’m talking like guys who can win a local 5 miler outright). So it’s fair to say that nobody really needs a lot of the bells and whistles of newer Garmins.

I probably wouldn’t use anything older than FR235 tho. I have used a couple of slightly older Forerunners than that, and some of them had issues like having rubber blister-type buttons which are very hard to press and/or eventually break. And the newer Garmins have real improvements like touchscreens (very useful outside of an activity or on the map page) and a better/more responsive UI. I don’t miss the extremely slow / awkward UI of older Garmins.

To each their own, though.

Anyway, I think you will find it very tough to get any support for your FR301 today, either from Garmin or other forum users. I can only reiterate my advice to use Training Centre to export your recent activities so they can be manually uploaded. This is something you can do while still trying to fix the problem with auto syncing.

EDIT: I also posted in your Garmin Express thread about how you can try to look at the Garmin Express log files to see if they can shed any light on the problem.

Thanks a lot for the detailed elucidation of the Garmin watch family. It is very informative. I have long passed my formative years of competitive running. I use a Garmin watch for casual jogging, X-C skiing, hiking...

I will take your offer to try the Training Center

File sent

I installed the Training Center without any issues and clicked the button Receive from Device. I got the following message at the end:

My Activities folder is empty, so I clicked the Workouts tab and got the following, then the app closed:

This is a Windows 11 Pro PC. I will try a Windows 10 Pro laptop to see if I have better luck.

Workouts always results in an error. However, I was able to test an activity on a Forerunner 205 and it was received successfully and can see in "My Activities" on GTC. Running Windows 11 24H2.

I have just run the same steps on my HP Windows 10 Pro laptop and got precisely the same result. I think my 301 has reached its end of life after serving me for 16 years.