inReach Mini - Recent Threads

How do i save a track on my mini for later navigation using earthmate?

JD1253 — Sun, 18 Feb 2024 14:12:25 GMT

Hello. I'm going on a trip to the desert and I want to log my route so I can both backtrack and also go back to the same campsite in the future. I want to log the track on my Mini, not send, and I want to save the route for future navigation with my Earthmate app. How do I do this? Thanks in advance.

Can a device without a cell or internet service receive messages from an inreach? or does the reviving device need an inreach as well?

4898638 — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 15:25:47 GMT

I have an InReach that I keep on me at all times should I lose cell service. My spouse at home does not have one, should she lose cell/internet service I was wondering if I could still send her messages from my InReach or if she too would need an InReach to receive the messages without cell/internet.

InReach Mini not turning on

benpabbott — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 20:58:54 GMT

Hi all,

My InReach Mini has stopped turning on. When I plug it in to external power, the screen shows 100% charge. When I press the on button, the screen stays blank. I managed to hard reset it while on external power - but after pressing the SOS button and the screen showing “Applying Update”, I cannot get the device to turn on at all.

Does anyone have any further suggestions?

Thanks,

Ben

InReach Mini

Rab19 — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 17:44:02 GMT

I am trying to register a used unit as above prior to activating. I have inputted an IMEI Code verbatim with 16 digits. Try to move on with the next button but the explore.garmin site blocks me saying the IMEI code must be at least 15 digits. 16 is more than 15!!!

I haven’t purchased a plan as I assume it needs to be activated first. It’s driving me mad.

any help please.

I reach mini and iPhone 14 communication

5403424 — Sun, 05 Nov 2023 18:14:39 GMT

We have an in reach mini and iPhone 14s Can we send messages between the mini and iPhone and receive them outside of cell coverage?

Integration with Gaia GPS on Android 13

5666358 — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 10:04:50 GMT

Hi all,

I have a InReach Mini and Nokia G21 running Android 13 and Gaia GPS. The inbuilt GPS unit on the Nokia is not great, and would like to be able to get Gaia GPS (or just Android in general) to use the InReach Mini for navigation and tracking. Is there a procedure for this?

Cheers!

IOS Failed to Enable Check-ins

8689792 — Sun, 29 Oct 2023 02:31:02 GMT

I keep getting this message after clicking Set Up Check-in.

App is up to date and software is up to date.

Contact bolded on the InReach Mini contacts list?

scottahumphries — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 16:45:30 GMT

What does it mean if a contact is bolded on the InReach Mini contact list?

How to Mark Message as Read

7352178 — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 12:27:41 GMT

I have an InReach Mini that I have received hundreds of messages on.

But even though I have read them all it still shows I have 10 unread messages, and if I go into the messages it shows those 10 as new.

But they remain marked as new/unread even when I open and read the message.

I have done some research, but do not see how to mark these as read.

Any help?

Thanks - Steve.

How do I send a check-in message with inreach mini and Earthmate app.?

7815782 — Thu, 31 Aug 2023 23:08:47 GMT

How do I send a check-in message with inreach mini and Earthmate?

inReach Mini Failures During Cycling?

2133666 — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 16:04:31 GMT

I have an in-reach mini which I bought for the purpose of keeping my friends and family apprised of my location when I'm out doing rides particularly when I'm out of cell service. Yesterday was my first time doing this in practice. I have the device zip tied the shoulder strap on my Camelbak so it always sees the sky.

As you can see in the screenshot that I've added a purple highlight for my approximate route, the mini only logged my location in a limited number of locations. Set for every 10 minutes. These successes seem to be clustered. What gives? I was not in a deep canyon send in many cases. Had clear open skies not canopy. Even if the log point fails to send at the time that it is scheduled, should it not be uploaded eventually?

Updated map will all track

inreach mini message unreliable

7724902 — Sat, 22 Jul 2023 16:49:07 GMT

Old question revisited:

For every year we've owned our Mini, we've been suffering from connectivity and particularly communications being unreliable. Been working with customer support, and they always have various reasons, but it is clear we've be lucky if we need the unit to work and it actually does.

Yes have updated software, as always. And the customer service department through their backend software tested the unit and it seems to be performing well technically. And its not the "mobile service provider" as the unit is not sending for hours and has nothing to do with AT&T, Verizon nor T-mobile.

And, other friends with the device report the same thing. A friend said she had a message that didn't send during 2 weeks of travel, then suddenly sent and really threw the recipient into a panic since it was so very old and out of context.

The issue is not expectations, it is that it often does not successfully send a message in hours, not just the 10-20 minutes that inReach says should be the typical worst case situation. Its more obvious during tracking, when the points are often hours apart and even quite inaccurate for position. This is when following open roads and covering many miles and landscapes. Last straw was last week, when a message intended to send actually sent 4 hours later, after hiking for 2 hours and driving with the unit on the dashboard for 2 hours. The unit beeped for message sent after I arrived home and was unloading the truck. We've had 4 years of this, and love the size and carry-ability of the Mini, but am very afraid of just buying the new Mini 2 given it appears that the real issues are not being talked about. Again, according to multiple people at inReach tech support, this unit working properly.

Maybe I've missed a good answer to this on the forum, and if so I apologize. But it seems doubtful that the Mini 2 fixes it since the Mini problems aren't spoken about either.

Thoughts?

Waypoints and Mapshare

4153109 — Tue, 11 Jul 2023 05:40:46 GMT

A question about waypoints: As I am setting up my mapshare, I am seeing it would be possible for others to view my waypoints. From what I am seeing waypoints do not incur an additional fee with the freedom plan. Would this be true, or would showing my waypoints on mapshare count as sending my location? Additionally, would anyone know if these waypoints would be available for view in real-time as I mark them on my inReach?

Inreach Mini will not start - I have an Exchange Program question

gmonhog — Tue, 04 Jul 2023 22:26:08 GMT

Hi All,

My Inreach Mini seems dead. I've followed all the online suggestions with no success.

I selected the Exchange process as directed by the Garmin support pages. I was surprised to see a charge for $130 presented as a part of the process. Before I move forward, I am looking for some coaching on that charge. Is Garmin charging me another $130 for a recertified Mini? I've had the thing for a little over a year. Am I reading this right?

Thanks much,

Greg

inReach Phone Number

craigsam — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 04:25:51 GMT

I've noticed that when I send a message from my inreach to multiple mobile phones (not as a group message) each recipient sees a different number the message has come from. I'm wondering if there is a way to have a common number for the inreach. It would be good if this were possible. If someone had the number and wanted to initiate a message.

Also, I use screentime contact limits on my children's phones. This means they don't get messages from unknown numbers unless they are in their contact list. So I f I send a message to my children from my inreach, they won't get it unless the number is in their contact list but this is tricky as the number changes.

Has anyone else come across this?

Craig.

What is this symbol on the Garmin inReach MINI?

Former Member — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 00:33:44 GMT

I have a Garmin inReach MINI that is not working and is not able to connect to Garmin Express. When turned on, it displays the following symbol that is not tabulated in the manual or symbols list. I assume it means that the battery is overheated or something to that effect, but it would be nice to have clarity.

Can the Mini M1 only hold a single track in memory at a time? How can I record a long activity over the course of 2 days?

6811232 — Fri, 26 May 2023 22:16:09 GMT

I'm going on a long bike ride this weekend. It will involve a stay overnight. I want to record the whole thing with the inReach Mini.

When I stop for the night, can I "stop tracking", or should I not? I could alternatively leave the device on all night to record the second day's mileage. If someone could answer the following questions that would be very helpful in being an inReach user in general:

1. If I stop tracking, once I start tracking again, does this clear the memory of the previous track? That is, how many tracks can the Mini store at one time?

2. If the device is left on, will the tracking frequency should automatically slow overnight?

3. If the device is left on, will it stay on indefinitely until it dies or is shut off, or is this only true when connected to an external power source?

4. If the device does die or is otherwise shut off during tracking, will the track be lost? Or will it resume where it left off once started back up?

I've had lots of problems with this device in the past, so I'm terrified of losing the whole recording because of a dumb mistake or misunderstanding (I really value having these gpx files). Is the inReach mini reliable for a multi-day activity? If not, I can just use my phone with Strava instead... though this is not preferred due to battery concerns.

Inreach mini LOW TEMPERATURE

7220743 — Thu, 25 May 2023 01:08:34 GMT

Hello, I have a inreach mini that keeps displaying "LOW TEMPERATURE ___device temperature is critically low.Your device will shut down now." Is this a software,battery or hardware issue? I've tried rebooting it,it still does it. Any recommendations are greatly appreciated. Thanks

How to select a logging frequency longer than 1 second, but shorter than 30 seconds for InReach Mini M1?

6811232 — Mon, 22 May 2023 18:17:42 GMT

On Earthmate, I can select a 1 second or 30 second logging frequency. IMO 1 second is a bit too fast, but 30 seconds is definitely too slow (for hiking). That could cause the track to miss entire switchbacks, and compromise the total length.

I've read about people setting their InReach to 5 seconds or 10 seconds. Is there a way to do this? Can custom logging frequencies be specified? Then M1 must be able to do it, I guess it's just a question of if the frequency selection interface is too rigid.

inReach Mini 1 tracks (synced with inReachSync and USB connection) show up on MapShare, but not on Explore.

6811232 — Sun, 21 May 2023 22:30:21 GMT

I was just on chat with Garmin support for hours. No solution.

My synced tracks appear on Garmin Explore in my Library, but when I click on it, the interface shows no track at all. Zero points. When I try to export, it downloads a gpx file with a single useless point.

However, if I look at the exact same track in MapShare, all logged points are there. The track looks exactly as it should. So the data does exist on Garmin servers. But you can't export from MapShare

This happens no matter how long the recording is.

I am desperate to get the GPX data of a hike I recently did. I tried using SpotWalla, but this is only able to get me an extremely coarse version of the recording, which is odd. It's worse than MapShare, but better than Explore.

I also tried accessing the gpx file through the device directly, but this seems to be impossible.

If anyone has any experience with this issue, or knows of any workarounds, please let me know.

Through my time in the trenches with support, I became absolutely disgusted with how jumbled and unorganized Garmins website interfaces are. You can tell that they must've inherited pieces of the pipeline from various other companies/sources/whatever, and frankensteined that crap together. It is horrible. And it makes me nervous to rely on the inReach as an SOS device.

Missed send intervals / retrying / catch-up etc.

SpikySimonW — Mon, 15 May 2023 12:00:41 GMT

Mini 1 user still going strong - the Mini 2 looks an even better iterative improvement, significantly so in terms of battery life - however for my primary purpose (ultra race tracking) I'll continue with what I've got until something else prompts an upgrade.

I run mine in extended tracking mode with 10-minute send intervals, which generally works well. Every so often I manually turn it on and check the "last message check" was less than or close to 10 minutes ago, confirming things are working properly. Occasionally it will be a bit over this, usually a result of poor satellite reception conditions, and I keep an eye on it and it sometimes sorts itself out shortly. If still nothing say 30 minutes later, or the last message check was several hours ago, I simply manually power the device off then back on and all is good again (auto starts a new track, immaterial in terms of the onward link to the race tracking website I'll be using).

In doing this off/on dance it obviously warns there's unsent send points that will be lost. In the spirit of getting things working again this is fine.

However, my question: when set to 10-minute send intervals, but unable to actually make the satellite connection for say 45 minutes, when it finally does connect will it send say 4 send points or just the one? Extrapolating this out, when it's been out-of-reach for several hours (eg. extended tree cover) will this be points every 10 minutes, or just the single point it's been trying to send for all this time? In other words, when I resort to a manual off/on, am I throwing away just a single send point or many?

I've come to the conclusion 2 out of 3 such times the device seems to get "stuck" and my manual off/on intervention is necessary to a) get things transmitting again and b) not have the device excessively draining its battery constantly trying and failing to send. Yet sometimes the transmit failure is indeed just a coverage issue, and even rebooting it doesn't get things working again until sometime later. Just trying to figure out how keen I should be to try this manual intervention, ie. is it a nothing to lose situation or am I throwing away multiple send points?

gpx file only contains a record for every send interval

timecheck00 — Thu, 20 Apr 2023 20:55:42 GMT

I have my send interval set to 10 minutes and my log interval to 1 minute.

I assumed this meant a point record was written internally to Garmin Mini 2 memory every minute,

and that every 10 minutes it would attempt to send those 600 points to the satellite.

When I download the gpx file from Garmin Explore, there is only one point record for every 10 minutes.

Mini 1 Weather symbol remove

MTINAUDIO — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 14:14:08 GMT

Dear people : I hope that all of you are ok.

I have a mini 1 and I asked a Weather report , wich I allready read . Now I have on the main screen a wind symbol wich I do not know how to remove it , can samoeno help me ? Thank a lot

What are the best settings to extend battery life?

5693327 — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 12:17:47 GMT

I'd like to extend the battery life of my Mini for as long as possible while making sure I'm trackable and safe. It's used mainly by my family to check I'm ok - I don't use it to send messages or look at my route/pace. I have it on 30 min Send Interval. Log interval, Auto track and Ext tracking are all Off. Any ideas of how to extend battery life?

Why am I unable to edit Check in and Quicktext messages in Explore

vanderloo — Sun, 16 Apr 2023 15:48:49 GMT

I'm watching a video on Youtube about editing Preset messages in Explore and he clicks on "Edit" and is able to edit the text. How do I enable this? I cannot select any Check in or Quick Text messages.

I am working with an Inreach Mini 2 if it matters.

Thank You

++Garmin-Leslie