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Sync fail

I can’t get my Instinct to sync with Garmin Explore on an iPad. It’s never worked. Garmin Connect works fine though. When it attempts to sync it connects and the wheel spins for a while before reporting “sync failed”.
I really don’t want to risk a factory reset, it’s taken ages to get the watch set up and I don’t want to risk the restore screwing up. I’ve tried deleting all activities, waypoints / locations, and courses from the watch. I’ve similarly tried deleting everything stored in Explore. I’ve switched everything off and on against of course, deleted the watch from Explore and repaired / reconnected, reinstalled Explore, used a different Apple device.
Garmin Explore 2.2, iOS 14.4.2, Instinct s/w version 14.20
The last entry in the diagnostic doesn’t look healthy, but it might not be significant:

2021/05/24 08:14:44:828 [com.garmin.gfdi][MessageReader] Received Protobuf Request (5043) request
2021/05/24 08:14:44:829 [com.garmin.gfdi][Protobuf] Failed to decode: invalidUTF8
2021/05/24 08:14:44:829 [com.garmin.gfdi][Protobuf] invalidResponse("Receive protobuf failed: parseError")

Any suggestions please?

  • I got in touch with Garmin U.K. Support and this is a problem which they’re working on. They had me delete some directories on the watch which fixed the problem, at least for now.

  • Is it still working for you? Could you please write here the procedure which worked for you?

    Last time I managed to correctly sync with Explorer must have been months ago. It just tries forever.

    Garmin Connect works and syncs just fine. 

    I reported everything to Garmin support via email but didn’t receive any feedback.

  • I got an email from Garmin support last week which said that the issue is fixed in the latest version of the watch software, 14.40. Has that worked for you?

  • Well actually I own a Fenix 6s Pro, but yours was an issue similar to the one I still have.

    I expect Explore syncing mechanism to be similar, if not shared, between compatible outdoor watches.