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New Explorer+ problems

Former Member over 8 years ago

I traded in my old inreach Explorer [which worked flawlessly] for a new Explorer+ and ended up mired in connection problems with iOS Earthmate and and synching to Mac. After 3 days and 10 hours troubleshooting including 3 with Garmin tech I am about to send it back and try to refund my subscription until they have a more stable software. I will try to outline the problems:

1. Bluetooth connection to earthmate disconnects periodically {30-60 minutes} and will not send message. Both current iOS on iPhone 6s and explorer+ show bluetooth connection but earthmate shows disconnected and will not send message. I managed to get messages through after resets of phone and Exploer+ and but it kept disconnecting and would fail next message.
2. Explorer+ fails to synch to inreach site{both new garmin and old delorme websites} on current mac os I got it to synch maybe 1 in 8 tries but fails to show it updated software.I was looking forward to loading maps etc but not really possible with synch failure.
3. preset messages missing from earhmate app so we can not do actual tests ,burned through my subscription messages trying to do actual tests.

fixes tried so far to no avail:
rebooted every thing endlessly mac ,explorer+, and iPhone
reinstalled earthmate and inreach connection app 3 times each .
cleared ios phone and mac os computer cache with each installation
tried to connect bluetooth through phone settings and not through earthmate app as i have seen here on forums .

No joy yet from Garmin Tech, had to call 3rd time to get them to start an actual numbered case and send to engineering. The standalone functions of explorer seem intact ,but the earthmate connection is essential for my use.With an active bluetooth connection showing on iPhone and Explorer+ my uneducated guess is that this is symptomatic of poorly tested software and not a hardware problem.
To top it off I noticed the unit was extremely slow to charge/ or not charging with other usb cords and then noticed the USB port wiggles about which I had seen reported before on old inreach with complete charging failure.
I am sorry to lose such useful device ,but I am getting tired of being an unpaid Garmin beta tester, they totally dropped the ball when I tried emailing them and gave me a bad number for inreach support and even though the phone tech guys tried a lot of fixes when I finally reached them they were ultimately flummoxed and not really familiar with earthmate or the new Explorer+.
I have used a ton of Garmin products and this kind of shoddiness and tech support failure would never fly on the aviation side or even the multitude of ground based Garmins i have used.

0 twolpert over 8 years ago

Can't comment on the issues with Earthmate app since I don't use it. Only two general comments. If it's iOS 10 and above, Bluetooth problems are not uncommon. This is not to say is shouldn't work - just that it might not be entirely the app. The conventional wisdom on pairing problems is to have both ends "forget" the other device. Then pair again using the iOS pairing functionality, not the pairing inside the app. Sounds like you've tried both of those things.

The charging problem, along with the loose USB cable, sounds like a hardware problem. I'd ask for an RMA for warranty repair unless you are actually going to return the device.

Do not yet have any experience with Garmin inReach support. DeLorme support was flawless, although phone calls worked better than e-mail. You would have hoped that Garmin would have retained at least some of the DeLorme tech support people. Do you remember who you talked to? (Only because I recall a few names from DeLorme and I'm curious.) And what was the inReach tech support phone number that worked? You'd be helping others out if you'd post the number.