I have a new Inreach Mini 3 Plus. I have a Pixel 10 XL. I can connect my phone in my phone's bluetooth menu. On my Mini 3+ it says the phone is connected. But in the Messenger app it says "Not Paired", and the behaviour verifies that (e.g. I can't activate or reactivate (after resetting) my Mini 3+ through the Messenger app except by satellite signal on the Mini 3+ itself).
Multiple times I have tried to start from a clean slate:
- factory reset the Mini 3+
- remove the Mini 3+ from my phone's bluetooth connections
- remove my phone number from my Messenger account
- clear data and cache from Messenger app, force stop and uninstall the app
- reboot both the phone and Mini 3+
And then reinstalled both the Messenger app and start the Inreach from fresh.
Interestingly when I reinstall each time the Messenger app already knows about the Mini 3+, even though I clear the cache, data and remove my phone number from my Messenger account. Maybe this is because despite (supposedly) my local phone's Messenger storage being cleaned, Garmin's central information about my account has associated the device with my account (e.g. at explore.garmin.com). This means that when I set up Messenger from the supposed fresh state I don't have opportunity to add a new device - it thinks it's interacting with the device that was already in a failed-paired state.
I can't add a "new" device and try to re-add the Mini 3+ while it already exists in the Messenger interface. I tried that multiple times, initiated from both the app and the Mini 3+ from clean state.
I've used Garmin Express to ensure the Mini 3+ software is up to date. I can connect my device through Garmin Explore. It's just Messenger that refuses to pair with my device. This effectively renders Messenger useless with my Mini 3+, which is one of the major selling points of the device.
So far I've wasted at least 3 hours trying to get the pairing to work. It's very frustrating.
