Offline capabilities

I don't know about the F5, but I assume that it is similar to other Garmin activity trackers in which case it keeps daily activity data for 7 days and then starts to overwrite the oldest data. It is different however with registered sports activities (like running, cycling, and so on). In that case you'll have plenty of storage allowing you to go for months without syncing.

So to sum it up, you have to sync at least once every 7 days if you don't want to lose any daily activity data. If you go on a longer vacation, then you need to drag along a device (either a smartphone or a computer) with internet access.

For app settings, the data needed to do the app settings is actually pulled from the app store by either GCM on your phone, or in Garmin Express... The info to do the settings (variable type, range, labels, etc) isn't on the watch, nor cached on the phone.

I see. Is there any good reason for this from a dev/user point of view or is it just the typical always-online requirement that most "smart" devices have? It kind of bugs me that a device that is marketed towards outdoors activities wouldn't provide as much independence as possible from a working internet connection.

Think of it this way. If you change the language on your phone/watch, you probably would want the settings to be in that language if it's available, and to make sure the new settings are always used. For example, if a developer adds new things that can be configured, that's available to everyone right away.

From a developer's perspective, it means that when we test app settings on a real device, we need to have the unapproved app in the store to do so (there's a way developers can put something in the store that no one else can see or access it)

The Garmin devices are actually much less dependant on an internet connection that other smart watches.

I was just wondering which features are impacted by having no active internet connection on the paired smartphone. It would be great if someone could chime in tell me what I missed or if there exist some workarounds.

1) ConnectIQ apps cannot be configured (even if they are already installed on the watch). This makes zero sense - why would I need internet to change the background color or a couple of data screens on an already installed app.
2) Data sync. Obviously activity data cannot be sent to the Garmin servers. But it seems it isn't even sent to the app for caching. This adds more questions - how much memory is there available? Can I somehow see the free memory on the watch? How often do I need to sync to not lose 24-hour stats like heartrate? Will Garmin Express store that data locally on a laptop without internet access to be synced later?

I appreciate any hints on how to best use my Fenix while on the road without any internet. :)

I totally agree with this. The Garmin Connect app is completely useless when you're offline. I sometimes run in the morning and then want to look over my stats on the train, where service is unavailable, but the app won't even load. Why can't Garmin at least show already sync'ed activity. It seems many apps fail at doing this properly.

To chime in:

I really don't get why you cannot sync your activities with your phone when offline... It always can sync with the servers later on when online again. Also, It makes absolutely zero sense, that I cannot see my past activities and stats when not online. Why not store the data on the phone? I cannot always be online for several reasons. This is the only thing makes me sometimes think if it might be better to switch to another brand. Though to be honest, I haven't yet researched how Suunto or Polar handles this issue.

Well in this "normal" environment you cant pair your watch with any new wireless lan because you need a PC software to set that up..

Would the watch warn me that it has to sync soon? Or try to auto sync when its getting full? Or will it just overwrite the old data without telling me?

I wholeheartedly agree with all of your concerns.

I'd like to add a few things to the discussion.
Garmin should have at least one programmer who constantly evaluates the product from an offline perspective. I'll concede that 99% of the time I'm a city dweller but the reason I bought this product is for the times I'm not in a connected world. It's marketed with sailing, fishing, rock climbing, etc. in mind and Garmin actually lowers the customer base of people who are full-time outdoorsmen when they can't rely on as many offline functions.

I'd encourage constant reevaluation of the watch and mobile apps' offline operations.

Let's say activity data is the most important data on the watch- over watchfaces and everything. If the storage is full I'd almost put up a prompt that would describe the situation and ask if the user would opt to remove apps for extra storage in favor of losing activity data. Any user would gladly accept the trade-off of a watch face if it meant more space for measurements.

Even the sunrise/sunset can be calculated to a certain degree of accuracy without the need for an Internet connection: http://midcdmz.nrel.gov/solpos/

On another note, for those with the WiFi model- it seems like they could do more with wireless capabilities, such as sync directly to the cloud svcs without the need for a PC connection or give preference to use WiFi Direct for syncing to the phone instead of Bluetooth if there is a speed increase.

I second the opinion of the topic starter, it makes for this great outdoor oriented devices (my fenix 5 and my wife's vivomove HR) no sense to be online for any data I want to view, please cache the data locally or at least give us the choice how to sync our data. I think it's safe to assume that most phones have large data storage than our watches.

Offcource, fine details and data analysis need serverside calculation power. But imo it wouldn't be to hard to make that clear from the app

Did anyone out this as a request in the feature request forum

https://forums.garmin.com/forum/into-sports/garmin-connect-mobile-application/54533-garmin-connect-mobile-ideas-and-suggestions-ios-android/