Others with Audio dropouts using Beats Fit Pro’s and Epix 2?

Hi Garmin - Chris That sounds wonderful, hope you'll find a solution fast!

Frequently drops jabra elite 75 and spits out ant+ HRM at the same time. Sometimes reconnects, other times epix needs a reboot (and once lost the current activity data). Very frustrating.

Frequently drops jabra elite 75 and spits out ant+ HRM at the same time. Sometimes reconnects, other times epix needs a reboot (and once lost the current activity data). Very frustrating.

Since Garmin locked my thread, I'm dropping my feedback here for anyone else to compare notes with. I have a similar issue but with ANY BT headset or speaker. 

- Model: Epix Gen2 Saphire

- What is the make and model of your Bluetooth headphones being used? Multiple

• Samsung Buds Pro
• Samsung Icon X
• Samsung Buds +
• JLAB GoAir Pop (purchased just for testing, never paired with any other device)
• UE Mobile Boom BT speaker
• Aftershokz Aeropex

- What arm do you wear your watch on? Left (During the brief times audio is playing, I do notice some dropping of signal if arm is at my side)

- How often does do your Bluetooth disconnection occur? Every attempt to use headphones so far.

1. Most common scenario (80% of the time)- Pair any BT device and attempt to play music, connection is made and song plays for 5-15 seconds, then audio stops, then player registers a disconnect and stops. Auto reconnect does not occur.
2. Second most common (15% of the time) - Attempt to play audio, select headset, music starts and plays for 45 seconds to about 90 seconds then drops like before.
3. Least common (5% of the time) - Pair and connect, play music. Music plays for 3-6 minutes then drops out and refuses to reconnect. 

- Does the occur indoors/outdoors or both? Both. Happens when near my phone or 1/2 mile away from car, phone, anything with a signal.

- Does the occur during an activity or out of an activity? Both. Longest play duration was without an activity but still dropped. 

- Do your headphones reconnect, if so how long before they reconnect? Infrequently. 95% of the time there is no reconnect.

- If not, which process do you need to do to reconnect your headphones? Generally I have to attempt to restart play where the watch will prompt to select the BT device again (if more than one is registered to the device) and I have a 50/50 chance to connect and start playing again. Many times the watch fails to connect at all. Many times a reboot of the watch is required. A few times the watch has become completely unresponsive and locked on a single screen for minutes at a time. 

I think I have reasonably exhausted all trouble shooting and root cause possibilities I can look into w/o getting access to local device event logs. I have:

• Removed/repaired every device listed above with no luck.
• Reset the watch and retried the whole process.
• Updated to all available software versions (currently 8.21).
  Tested the process completely away from phone and wifi networks.
• Ensured all devices and the watch a fully charged.
• Used 8 y.o. BT speaker with external power that wasn't paired to any device in my home.
• Bought a cheap set of BT headphones that have never been paired to any device in my house just to rule out the conflicting connection issue. 
• Confirmed that all Samsung and Aftershokz headsets above work with the Venu and Venu2 watches. (Yes, I know the BT stacks are different in these watches but I wanted to be clear, they do work with Garmin devices)
• Tried adjusting the power modes.
• Raised and reduced the GPS accuracy.
• Tested with and without mapping while running.
• Tested with and without metronome.
• Tested with and without the RPOD. (All use of the RPOD seems to be normal and data is logged consistently through runs where the BT connection drops.

Thank you for reposting in this thread.

Hello Garmin - Chris I will have to do some more testing, but this was the post I wrote, when I first upgraded to 8.18:

After a long wait, I finally got the Epix 2 here the other day and immediately upgraded to software version 7.35. I then took the watch for a run paired to my Airpods Pro (music was stored on the watch and my iPhone was left at home) and after a few hiccups in the music the headset and watch finally disconnected completely. I had to stop the run and then tried multiple times to connect the headphones to the watch without any luck. A couple of days later I had a run with my older Jaybird X2's resulting in the exact same situation (hiccups in the music where after the headphones and watch disconnected completely).

I then tried to upgrade to the 8.18 release candidate firmware and then took a bike ride with the watch and the Airpods Pro where the exact same thing happened again (hiccups and disconnect).

Yesterday I phoned the Danish store where I bought the watch and they suggested me wearing the watch on my left wrist. I also phoned Garmin support where I telling me more or less the same thing.

Today I made a test walk with the watch on my left arm and after five minutes of walk, the watch and the Airpods Pro finally disconnected.

I then "panicked" and this weekend I first bought a pair of Beats Fit Pro, then a pair of Beats Studio Buds and finally a pair of Jabra Elite 7 Active, and took them with me on three different test walks of approx. 30 minutes in length. The three headsets all disconnected from the watch 2-3 times. Unlike the other two, the Jabra headset did not make any "hiccups" in the music during the workouts, but it disconnected just like the other two 2-3 times during the workout.

Do you have any suggestion to what to do / try next? Is there a specific headphone brand or model, which are better suited for the Epix 2? If I am unable to solve the issue, I have to return the watch and I naturally hopes that this will not be the case.

and that is happening with the aeropex too? What music app? media controller for phone,? Spotify? Amazon music.

I am using aeropex with media controller 4-5 days a week for approx 2hrs a day no drop outs. On the other days I use it connected to the watch using offline amazon playlist and haven't had any issues in terms of sound quality, drops, lags and or cut out or losing connection.

I switch on the headset, then go to watch sensors, turn on the aeropex connection, then press the connect option.

Then I start my music.

Hello all

I went out testing today and below you will find the test results, which has been sent to Garmin - Chris

What is the make and model of your Bluetooth headphones being used?

• Beats Fit Pro
• Jabra Elite Active 7

 What arm do you wear your watch on?

• Left 

How often does do your Bluetooth disconnection occur?

Today I went outside and tested this is what happened (as this takes plenty of time I will have to send you test results from inside my flat later on):

Beats Fit Pro

Without activity running

• Disconnected 12 minutes in
• Wasn't able to reconnect automatically but was able to reconnect manually (without using the headset case)
• Disconnected again after about 15-20 seconds of playback and wasn't able to reconnect automatically

With walk activity running

• Started a walk activity
• Disconnected after approximately 4 minutes
• Wasn't able to reconnect automatically but was able to reconnect manually (without using the headset case)
• Disconnected again after about 15-20 seconds
• Able to reconnect again manually without case but disconnected immediately after
• Tried again (manually) and was able to reconnect again without case but disconnected immediately

Jabra Elite Active 7

Without activity running

• Disconnected after 15-20 seconds but reconnected by itself
• Battery went from showing 7 hours to 3 days
• Disconnected after about 1 minute and reconnected again automatically (this time slower than the first time)
• Disconnected again almost immediately and reconnected again automatically
• This behavior repeated itself

With walk activity running

• Started a walk activity
• Disconnected after about 2 minutes and wasn’t able to reconnect automatically
• Was able to connect through the watch manually but the watch disconnected immediately (where after the watch reconnected automatically)
• The watch then disconnected after about 40 seconds

Does the occur indoors/outdoors or both?

As stated earlier I'll send test results from inside my flat later on. 

Does this occur during an activity or out of an activity?

Both (see detailed test results earlier on).

Do your headphones reconnect, if so how long before they reconnect?

See detailed test results earlier on.

If not, which process do you need to do to reconnect your headphones?

See detailed test results earlier on.