What's wrong with Garmin's SW/Ecosystem overall?

So, this will be a rant, not exactly helpful (feel free to say "why posting this, you don't contribute to forum etc. stuff - I don't really care).
I now own 2 Garmin devices (and my gf has Fenix 5s): F5 and Oregon 750. Now, I just spent whole day trying to load .gpx files into both devices, preparing to our trip to Spain.
I'm downloading .GPX files from Wikiloc and, in order to get "offroad" alerts etc from Oregon, need to convert each .gpx file (and there are about 20) into "route" from "track".
For Oregon - it's a hit or miss, it now freezes on some of them, without a reason (all limited to 250 points)
So now, I'm thinking - let's use those freshly converted "routes" and upload them to the watch too. Hold on - why the elevation data is missing?
To make things more confusing, in F5 world, there is nothing like "track" or "route", there is "course" instead!!
Are the developers of Fenix, Oregon line, GCM Android and GCM Web talking to each other? Seriously, Garmin sells good HW with half-baked SW and confusing terminology/ecosystem. All that for premium price.
I don't have to deal with any of this "converting" b/s by just using Wikiloc app - 5 min and all set...
Add all of that to 5m BT range "connect disconnect" issues I'm having and I'm wondering why did I pay for this??

0 ChevronLugs over 8 years ago

I experienced the same thing yesterday, both on an Oregon 700 and fenix 5X. I created the route in Movescount, exported to GPX, then imported into BaseCamp and sent that to the Oregon. No elevation data.

I also created the same route in Courses on the GC site, and synchronized that to the 5X. No elevation data.

WUT?!

0 Former Member over 8 years ago

Unfortunately the different product teams don't have much overlap at all. IT would be great if the software dev teams were able to do the hard infrastructure work on commonizing their code bases, but it's very, very difficult work to do, and includes not just software, but test and product management inputs. I don't have any inside view of Garmin in particular, but I do have experience in embedded software on multiple hardware platforms.

The (slightly) good news is that trends like Connect IQ will push Garmin in this direction, but it's a LOT of work (years) to get there.

0 SUSSAMB over 8 years ago

More likely an issue with the gpx files. I load all mine into BaseCamp to ensure they work before sending them to my handheld devices. If they work in BaseCamp I know they'll work on my devices. Never had any issues in many years doing it that way.

0 peteholloway over 8 years ago

Also works for me using Basecamp...