Hello,
I'm hoping someone can help me troubleshoot a significant performance issue I experienced on my first field test after activating an Outdoor Maps+ subscription.
**My setup:**
- Garmin Instinct 2X
- InReach Messenger
- iPhone (iOS, latest)
- Garmin Explore app (latest version)
- Outdoor Maps+ subscription (trial, newly activated)
- Course loaded on watch beforehand via normal Bluetooth sync
- "Sync Current Activity" is OFF
**What I did:**
Loaded a 7-mile course on the watch before leaving the trailhead (same as my normal workflow). Started the activity on the watch. Opened Explore on my iPhone to use it as my map display during the hike — showing my position against the course on the OM+ map layers. This is the use case I was evaluating OM+ for.
**What happened:**
- Watch stats (elevation gain, mileage, remaining distance and vertical) lagged badly and glitched throughout the hike — not updating in real time
- Body Battery dropped approximately 4 hours mid-day with no corresponding activity to explain it
- Watch battery drained at approximately 3–4x its normal rate for a hike of this length
- Rebooted the watch mid-hike — brief improvement, then same issues returned
- Attempted to re-push the course from Explore to the watch — did not resolve the problem
- Overall activity recording appears accurate after the fact, but real-time data was unreliable throughout
**What's different from my normal workflow:**
The only variable that changed was the active OM+ subscription and having the Explore app open on my phone during the activity. I have used this watch and the Explore app for course sync for years without issues. "Sync Current Activity" has been off the entire time.
**My questions:**
1. Does an active OM+ subscription change the Bluetooth connection behavior between Explore and the watch during an activity, even with "Sync Current Activity" turned off?
2. Has anyone else experienced watch battery drain or stats lag specifically after activating OM+?
3. Is there a recommended way to use Explore as a phone-side map display during a watch-recorded activity without causing this kind of interference?
The intended use case — Explore as the phone navigation map while the Instinct handles activity recording — is exactly the workflow Garmin describes for this ecosystem. I'd like to make it work if there's a known fix or configuration I'm missing.
Thanks in advance.