Fenix 5 watches displaying failed message when trying to save the activity session.

On the watches where you see a fail, a common thing is they have/could have wifi (not sure about the f5s but I think so). When you save an activity, it could be trying to use that, and it's really the only time wifi is used automatically - try starting wifi manually and see if you connect all right.

For the watches that work fine, is it the same phone?

If this happened during the same time, Garmin Connect was down for maintenance a couple days back for maybe a couple hours. It could be that - does it now work?

When you see this error, the activity should sync later (the next regular sync). Does that happen?

I am sorry I have to say that so explicitly to you Jim. You are here in this forum for so long and it seems that you learned nothing about user behavior.

The issue is the message. It makes no difference if the wifi is on, off, configured or not.

Do you mean that if the user is not connected to a wifi connection, and have a proper Bluetooth connection with the phone he should see a weird error message?

It is a terrible development pattern to give the user a weird message when you still have fallbacks implemented on your code! To involve the user in a problem is always the last resort if you want to provide a nice experience.

Sorry, but I can only imagine some explanations for this kind of issue: bad engineering, lack of testing, and lack of interest on the impact of changes on Connect IQ apps.

I hope Garmin does not agree with your way to solve things.

On my side, I am doing the best I can to deal with user frustration.
I created a FAQ topic on my website, a standard answer in my help desk system and I am directing the users to this forum topic so they can monitor the resolution of the issue.

And just for the record, it did not happen during the maintenance period, it is happening right now.
I told I have reports from many users! Do you really believe the issue can be the phone? But I will answer your question. Yes! It is the same phone!

I wasn't posting ways to solve things, I was offerening things to look at/try. What you're seeing actually doesn't involve Connect IQ, unless for some reason the fit file is corrupt, but you mentioned it happened with other things so unlikely, as once the activity is saved, it's up to the FW to handle the sync.

The error you see is the sync failing. Not the save.

update: The process is that when a .fit is saved, the FW handles the sync. That can be right away, or next time the watch is connected to a computer, or over wifi/BT. An app doesn't actually know when a .fit is synced.

update2: If this is a consistent issue, you'll also see it with a native app like "run". Start a run and save it. You'll see the same thing.

What I posted was based on what I've seen myself when there's a sync error. What to check or consider

Maybe you want to post in the Fenix 5fx/f5/f5s forum, as that seems to be the devices involved, and it's a FW thing. Just a suggestion.

Sorry if you took offence!

Hey,

Just wanted to bring some official clarity to what is happening. The failure that you are seeing pop down from the top is a native failure. This isn't part of Connect IQ, but the system. Because Connect IQ can write out .fit files, the system will try to synch them. This generally happens automatically via whatever means available to the device. If wifi, then wifi. If Bluetooth, then Bluetooth. Though this is affecting your users which is unfortunate, it shouldn't have anything to do with your code. Because it seems isolated to a certain series of devices, it is likely that there was a software update to that device family that is causing the syncing failures to happen. I will check in with the device team today and confirm.

Thanks, Coleman. I appreciate your help.

Just posting to inform that the Firmware update (version 12.50) released March 7, 2019 did not solve the issue. The problem persists.

Just a few quick questions..

I realize that the error message is not related to your app, but do you find a CIQ_LOG.yml file in /Garmin/Apps/Logs? If so, does the problem go away if you take the CIQ_LOG.yml file off of the device and try again?

Travis

I just connected the watch to verify again and the LOGS folder is empty.
No CIQ_LOG.yml file there and the error message appears when I try to save a workout.
After the error, I verified the LOGS folder again and it is still empty, no error LOG was saved.

Thanks for verifying that.

I have a fenix5 at the office that I can test with to see about reproducing and filing a bug. I won't be able to access it until Monday though. Hopefully Coleman.ConnectIQ will have some information from the device team by then.

Just adding my ha'pennyworth.

I'm getting the same "Failed" error on my F5 when completing an exitTo() from a calling, activity-generating watch app to a called activity-generating watch app.
The message appears in the called app maybe 3 seconds after it loads.
I think it's 100% of the time, but not sure.
Only on F5, not on VA-HR.