Offline capabilities

Former Member over 8 years ago

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. :)

0 Crispin_Ellisdon over 6 years ago

So I think where we’ve got to is that there are solutions that can extract data already uploaded to Garmin Connect, then download it to your phone/tablet to view later when offline (ConnectStats) and solutions (like Sportablet) that you could send previously downloaded fit or tcx files to for offline viewing of details later. Explore is (currently) the only way to extract and view an activity from the watch to phone, whilst without internet connection; but the data displayed is very limited.

Whilst I’m quite content with the Explore solution, until I get back to an internet connection and GCM works, others earlier in this thread wanted more. There’s probably a way of doing this with a combination of an app like ConnectStats that can ‘talk’ to a Fenix 5 watch through a CIQ app; but that would take a suitably motivated programmer to realise as it needs both a smartphone and CIQ app developed.

0 jim_m_58 over 6 years ago

CIQ doesn't have access to the data needed on the watch. While a CIQ app can record an activity, it doesn't have the mains to access to that activity or one recorded by a native app afterwards. A CIQ app could do things like send the current steps and calories to a companion app, but that's all stuff you can just see on the watch itself.

0 Crispin_Ellisdon over 6 years ago

Oh well, it looks like the only way people will get what they want is if Garmin significantly change the way GCM works to allow for both offline download of activities from devices and display the details of those activities without the post processing normally done on their servers. For all the reasons I previously explained, I just can’t see them doing that though.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

I would be happy if they could just store the data on my laptop until I got access. It could get processed at a later date once uploaded.