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Headphones will not stay connected

I have been using the Epix 2 for about 2 months now. During this time I have never been able to maintain a connection to headphones for more than 3-4 minutes. Most of the time the headphones disconnect within seconds of starting play. I have followed all of the recommendations (removing and re-adding headphones from the watch, making sure the headphones are not connected to my phone or other devices, restarting the watch before/after any of these actions, etc.) and I have even dug out a pair of headphones that I haven't used in years as a 'fresh' perspective and they behave just the same. I even tried to remove and re-pair the headphones while ~1km from any other device while trail running (phone left in car) and with zero chance of device conflict and the system refused to hold on to the headphones. Each of these headphones has worked with a Venu and a Venu2 without issue. What is going on here? Why is this such a problem Garmin?

For what its worth 

  • Galaxy buds Pro
  • Aeropex
  • Galaxy Buds +
  • Amazon Music
  • Attempted to use audio during Run, Trail Running, Treadmill Running, and with no activity

This is a freaking joke of a problem for a $1k watch. 

  • Hello 1-eye.

    I have had the exact same issues as you are describing. But I “panicked” a couple of weekends ago and went out and bought new headphones and ended up with five (!) different ones in total. So now I have tried the following without any luck:

    - AirPods Pro

    - Beats Fit Pro

    - Beats Studio Buds (mentioned in the DC Rainmaker review)

    - Jabra Elite Active 7

    - Jaybird X2

    Needless to say that I’m also very frustrated.

  • I'm relieved (and disappointed in Garmin) to hear that I'm not the only one with this issue. I'm about to start into trying to reduce load on the device to see what's the issue. Things like not using mapping or lowering the sensor thresholds, or reducing GPS accuracy. When combined with all of the pairing/unpairing I expect to do I'm not looking forward to the effort. Any settings/configurations you can share that may help me narrow down a culprit? (if it truly is something we are doing)

  • what watch firmware version are you on?

    have you also tried rebooting the watch and failing that doing a factory reset on the watch?

  • This has been a problem for whatever I upgraded to when the watch was new, 8.18 and 8.21. WRT a factory reset, no. Due to the tedious setup process, I have been avoiding that.

  • Adding a UE bluetooth speaker on wired power to the list of devices that "pair and play for a few seconds and then disconnect". Its not the headsets or speakers. Garmin, what's the deal?

  • I have som fairly cheap FIIL earbuds that work with no issue.

  • Several reboots and a full reset later, exact same behavior. Adding Galaxy Buds IconX to the list of devices that don't work. 

  • You might want to look at your problem from a different perspective: what audio source are you using ? I have a pair of cheap Jlab buds and listen to mp3 files that are stored in the watch memory with no problem whatsoever.  My files are basic MP3 file encoded at 160 kb/s (pretty low bitrate by today's standard).

  • Tested with 256kbs, 260kbs, and 320kbs (I don't have anything lower) mp3s stored locally. No change in results. One thing to note is that when you pair the headphones they will also randomly disconnect (and sometimes reconnect) with no action or playback. This tells me that the problem is not related to the actual playback. 

    Sidebar: While I respect the thought process behind the suggestion above and hoped it would shed some light on the problem, here's what's messed up with it: I, like almost everyone else out there today, principally use music services to listen to high quality content from a large catalogue and use said service to manage my content. This suggestion tells me to 1) lower my expectations for a premium device, 2) listen to lower audio quality content that I 3) would need to rip from said service (one can argue the questionable legality), and 4) manage the titles locally. o_O

  • Do you get a disconnect whether you have an activity running or not?  What if you are in an activity and not listening to music but just getting activity alerts on the headphones.  Does it also disconnect in that instance?  Also, I often listen to music on the watch when not in an activity (at work, for example), and I also use the earbuds on a run just for activity alerts but don't always listen to music.  I have never lost connection in any of these situations and just wondering if others have used the watch with earbuds this way and have lost connection.