Spotty Service and Failures

It does say in the manual that it requires a clear view of the sky. Even my ACR PLB manual says that, and it has a higher transmission output power and uses different satellites. Having said that my Garmin Mini 2 has been fine under moderate forest cover in the mountains. I have read complaints about thick forest or canyons, but don’t have any personal experience under those conditions. A problem due to mountains 1-5 miles away doesn’t seem right to me. I actually prefer my 67i except for it’s weight, but I’m actually not sure of the transmission output ratings of each Garmin model. The mini 2 does have a smaller battery. Also the location of the Iridium satellites can influence acquisition time, and a few things can influence send/receive times. 15 minutes seems a bit long, but not extreme. My experience has been generally shorter than that. I have noticed that inside my house my 67i works fine, but my mini 2 can sometimes take longer to send/receive, I’ve not tested them side by side though. and that’s not a clear view of the sky. Hopefully you get some other comments on your issue.

support.garmin.com/.../

This seems excessive. In particular, that amount of tree cover or that distance from a large obstruction should not cause this kind of problem.

That said, neither the M1 nor the M2 is exactly top of the inReach line. The m1, in particular, is notorious for poor GPS acquisition, let alone inReach service.

Be sure, however, that the device DOES have a clear sky view. The ideal place for a mini is on the shoulder of your pack strap. This gives it a clear view of the sky and minimizes interference from your water-filled body. Do NOT carry it in a pants pocket, a shirt pocket, or in your pack. (The very top of your pack, so there is only a layer of pack material in the way, MIGHT be OK. Or not.)

If you are carrying it right and you still have problems, you can try a full reset. That's the first thing that tech support will suggest. This loses all customer data on the device. it also requires you to repeat the outdoor portion of activation.

If that does not help, I'd suggest opening a support ticket.

I had my mini 2 in Yosemite under trees and on steep switchbacks hugging the mountain. It worked fine for sending and receiving. I'd send a check-in via the Explore app on my phone, start walking, and hear the message sent tone in a minute or less.

I had some delays of 5+ minutes when I put mine in a top pocket of my day pack with the antenna sticking out through a partially open zipper. Moving it to my shoulder strap, these delays went away under the same conditions.

One day I forgot to power it off when I returned to the trailhead, and I even received a message while driving back with my daypack tossed on the floor of my car, and the mini 2 still hanging off the shoulder strap.

Thank you for the advice on proper carry location. I will give that a try. I usually have it clipped to my front strap of my backpack so maybe my body is interfering with satellite communications. It seems to pick up the GPS satellites quickly enough, but texting is my main problem. 

Today I took my mini 2 on a hike I’ve done before in good weather, where my mini 2 performed adequately, today it was raining and cloudy and the mini2 performed poorly compared to before. Perhaps the weather or satellite geometry, or maybe both. Trying to send track points to mapshare, on a day like this seems to be a waste of battery power. I think in a situation like today, it’s best just to send a checkin message when you get in a clearing as the device was beeping on two separate occasions to tell me to look for a clear view of the sky.

I jokingly tell people "I'm glad my life doesn't depend on it!"

But it might. I do a lot of solo activities (hiking, back country skiing, dirt biking) and am also the vice president of our local search and rescue. I bought this after an 87 year old got lost picking mushrooms and turned up 4 days later in Canada about 18 miles from where he began. I didn't want to "be that guy" having 30 people looking for me. And I want to be able to communicate reliably in case of emergency. I guess the mini 2 doesn't live up to Garmin's advertising. 

These devices have more features than they used to, but the transmission/reception issues still need improvement. They are still good to have though, there are rescues happening all the time from people using them. It will be interesting to see how phones using the Starlink network compare in the next couple of years. 

Water is a great signal blocker. Wet tree cover is worse than dry tree cover - sometimes much worse. Even a thin film of water on the antenna itself can be a problem.

iR constellation geometry is not quite the same kind of thing as the GPS constellation. iR satellites are in low earth orbit, which means they transit the sky quickly. Generally speaking, there are only 3 or so (or fewer) satellites in view at any time. Some of those will be low on the horizon. The device needs line of sight to send/receive The net result is that it generally works well except in very narrow defiles or urban canyons. In that situation, only one satellite is likely to be visible and then only for a very short time.

I have seen forum posts pushing various apps which show the iR constellation from your current location, at the current time. I don't put a lot of stock in this. It is generally not necessary to try to "point" at a satellite. Either something is sufficiently visible or it's not. If I can send/receive, it's good. If not, it's bad and I need to wait or move. Knowing just where the fast-moving birds ARE does not seem helpful on the trail. YMMV.

Once the device tries to send or receive (whether it's a track point, a message, or the hourly mail check), it tries VERY hard to finish the operation. If you spend extended time in poor conditions, it will be a battery suck.

I'd really hate to do a hard reset considering how much a pain it was to set-up initially. It just refused to pair with my phone. After uninstalling and reinstalling the app several times it finally paired.

I'll definitely test more with the unit on top of my backpack shoulder strap to see it that helps.