Certain activities not synced to Garmin Explore

moolash 7 days ago

I don't use Garmin Explore all the time but when I do I have a lot of issues. The whole thing is a little confusing.

However, now I have activities synced from my Fenix 8 watch to a collection but a period from mid May until beginning of July is missing.
We had a trip to Norway with some hikes and walks and those are not synced. They are otherwise available in Garmin Connect of course.

Any idea why?

0 Albe 6 days ago

Hi, moolash,

From what I see, it's a recurring problem.

The synchronization between devices, Explore, and Connect (apps and websites) is an opaque mystery. I don't think Garmin has ever published a schema of it.

For example, it could be that an activity is synced with Connect, marked as already transferred, and therefore not picked up by Explore. A bug. God only knows.

Honestly, I'm not interested in getting to the bottom of this. To avoid trouble, while waiting for better times I stick to these two rules:

I don't pair both Explore and Connect to my device, but only one of them—Explore: Connect is too much of a social and fitness thing for an old codger like me :)

I don't use Explore as an archive for storing tracks, routes, and so on (for that, I use other apps). I use Explore, when necessary, only to transfer files to and from my device before and after a trip to the mountains or something like that, and after syncing, I always check to see if it was successful (which usually is).

P.S.

As for software updates, I try to prevent Explore from installing them, which is terribly slow, by intercepting them in advance with Garmin Express (via USB). But that's a separate issue.

0 Albe 5 days ago

Hi moolash,

A little bit of context to complete the picture.

I have a GPSMAP H1, not a fēnix 8. Although they have many features in common, the fēnix 8 and the H1 are two different beasts, I'd say, and the former is designed more for communicating with Connect, the latter with Explore. Connect's primary object is the activity. Explore's primary object is the course, and activity management seems like a secondary addition that still needs to be refined.

In fact, even in my setup, although rarely, it can happen that an activity doesn't sync to Explore. But if I convert the activity to a course on the H1 and resync, the course will definitely end up in Explore. I'm not interested in the "sports" aspects of an activity, so a course is fine for me.

In fact, to be honest, all I need is a GPX track to archive and use elsewhere, perhaps after a bit of cleaning. On the H1, I can set a dual saving strategy for activities (FIT and GPX). When I save the activity, the GPX track goes to the /GARMIN/GPXActivities folder, from which I can retrieve it via USB.

I can't look more closely now, but I seem to understand that the fēnix 8 doesn't give you the option to convert an activity into a course or directly output it as a GPX. But if, like for me, a course or track is more than enough for you, you can easily import your Norwegian walks into Explore (or elsewhere). Perhaps the fastest way is to convert the activity into a GPX track with Connect web and then import it into Explore, which has a dedicated function (the track is imported as a course).