InReach Explorer + won't activate

Just purchased the Explorer+. Leaving in am. Set up account and it shows that the account is activated. I have tried for 2 days to activate the unit and it won't activate. It will have the "Waiting to Communicate" showing for hours. I have tried several locations to put the unit. All of them get a good view of the sky and the unit shows the satellite signal is strong. I have left the unit trying to activate 3 times for over 3 hours. I am leaving tomorrow am for a wilderness trip, which is why I bought the unit. Garmin support doesn't work on weekends, even for their emergency equipment.

Anyone know what to do?

Thanks

Llona

0 seilogramp over 4 years ago

Moved thread to inReach Explorer forum for better visibility.

0 twolpert over 4 years ago

Not sure what you’re looking at. I no longer have an active legacy unit, but I don’t recall ever seeing in Iridium signal strength indicator on any iR unit.

If you can access Settings on the unit, perform a full factory reset. If not, you can force a factory reset directly from the buttons as described here:

https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=tBTeMiOoNn7gBGDP0mqmi7

Either way, this will wipe any user data an the device. Hardware activation will be required. This does not affect your account at explore.garmin.com. It only affects the device itself. When you power up after the reset, you will be prompted to activate. You may have the option to skip activation (I don’t know if that feature is available on legacy devices). Do NOT skip activation. Go right into it. Be sure you have a clear sky view in all directions.

If activation still fails, it is likely that the unit is defective. Factory reset is as good as it gets for starting over.

0 llonaneyclausen over 4 years ago

I have tried the factory reset and that didn’t work. I tried both methods of reset. Still no activation. Is it possible that the Garmin activation center is offline?

0 twolpert over 4 years ago in reply to llonaneyclausen

There has not been a reported activation outage since July 28.

https://status.inreach.garmin.com

Best guess is that the unit is defective. If factory reset did not get you to a state where you can activate, you’re going to need help from support.

0 Garmin-Andrew over 4 years ago

If it hasn't been done already, the inReach Explorer+ likely needs to be synced and updated using the inReach Sync Desktop App on a Mac or Windows computer. This article from the Support Center has steps: Updating inReach Firmware and Syncing Account Changes with inReach Sync