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Send course to device failing (Forerunner 305)

In the last few days, I have discovered that I cannot send any courses to my Forerunner 305. I have no trouble transferring activities but when I try to send a course (or activity to my 305) I get a message on the 305 saying that the transfer is complete, but an error message pops up on the PC (Windows Vista x64) :-

There was an error communicating with your device.
Please make sure your device is plugged in and turned on.
If errors continue to occur, you may need to restart your device.



I have updated the USB drivers, restarted my PC, soft reset (mode-lap buttons) the 305 and tried a different browser. This is a new problem as I have never had trouble transferring courses before.

Any suggestions gratefully accepted.
  • Still no joy. Tried with a different computer but got the same result.

    I have managed to create the course I wanted from an existing activity on the 305, but that is a temporary work-round only.

    Hard reset next?
  • I discovered that most of the courses were 'empty' - i.e. they had been corrupted in some way. I tried removing them and clearing my activity history but was still unable to transfer courses to the 305.

    As a last resort, I did a hard reset (power unit off, then press the power and mode buttons together) got everything working again.

    Thanks for all the help and suggestions. This forum is as useful now as it was the last time I posted.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 12 years ago
    I''m having the same problem off my Mac, it's always worked previously but in the last week I've been getting the same error message as you also with a 305.

    Anyone any ideas?
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 12 years ago
    Garmin unable to send courses back to device forerunner 205

    I''m having the same problem off my Mac, it's always worked previously but in the last week I've been getting the same error message as you also with a 305.

    Anyone any ideas?


    Any update on this? Did anyone figure out how this worked? I was able send courses to my device a lot. I recently upgraded the firmware using webupdater. Was able to update the version to v2.9 Now things are broken.

    I'm able to transfer data fromdevice to site but not the otherway around.

    Please help
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 11 years ago
    I've got the same problem with a Garmin Forerunner 305.
    I've tried on Windows, Mac and Linux, the platform is not the problem.
    The last update of my GPS is also th v2.90.
    It locks my GPS when i try to send courses, I must wait for the battery down to re-use it.

    I send a feedback to Garmin but no answer, is there a support for this?

    Hope we'll find a solution.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 11 years ago
    I finally found a solution to the problem discribe above.
    -> Hard-Reset of the Garmin Forerinner 3.05
    Before doing it make sure that you save all your activities.

    Hard-Reset : support.garmin.com/.../case.faces
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 11 years ago
    same problem

    I have had the same problem as well many times both in w7 and w8. I have a brand new laptop, I have downloaded all the latest software from the garmin website and I have this issue now. The only way to solve it is indeed a hard reset. Disappointing that Garmin is still not solving this issue.


    I finally found a solution to the problem discribe above.
    -> Hard-Reset of the Garmin Forerinner 3.05
    Before doing it make sure that you save all your activities.

    Hard-Reset : support.garmin.com/.../case.faces
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 11 years ago
    Just guessing here....but it could be that the reason the "hard reset" fixes things is because that procedure clears the memory. The course you are trying to load might already be in the 305 under a different name so Connect will not load it again until the other is cleared by the hard reset. Or the course memory might be full?

    I have two 305's, both using v2.90, and GC has never failed to load a course into either one.
    I tested them both just now, before this post.
    I do not keep anything in those 305's.
    I delete new activities after uploading and delete whatever course I might have just used.
    Then I load a new course for the next ride if I want one.
    So it might be that I have had no problems because there is nothing in my 305's to confuse Garmin Connect.

    Another work-around would be to install Garmin Training Center to make and load Courses until Connect works again for you.
    I actually like Training Center better than Connect for my Edge705 and Oregon600 because TC will use the same maps that I have on those devices. Any course I plan will then lay over my device map with no glitches.