Does the Fenix 6 support turn by turn navigation in courses?

For what I understand that settings will try to recalculate my course as I take the wrong turn. That’s definitely not what I want. I could be even dangerous. I just want the simple turn notifications I used to have for years with my older FR645. The course should not be altered during the hike.

Labronico said:

I just want the simple turn notifications I used to have for years with my older FR645.

Assuming you have a Pro variant with map, for that you should have the activity settings as follows Hike (or whichever app)>Hike Settings>Routing>Courses>Follow Course; it should then use the course as sent to the watch by Connect with the turn points that Connect automatically adds to the course.

Looking at your earlier post, you have assumed that Explore doesn't 'strip' the turn points from the course you created in Outdooractive; the problem is I believe Explore does exactly that (so essentially you are left with a breadcrumb course only).  Probably best to use something like the Gimporter CIQ method suggested by phoglund_ earlier in this thread, if using a mobile phone or tablet, or just directly drop the course file in to the Courses folder on the watch with the USB cable and a PC.

[Edit - also just worth adding that I recall from people 'experimenting' in the past, there is a limit of something like 100 course points within a course file that Fenix watches can cope with; so that could also be the cause of course turns and other course points not working as desired, even if the correct file is in the watch]

Yesterday I managed to try the web version of Explore which let's you create courses/tracks.

I create a triangola path around my house. A little more than 100m per side, so that it has full time to alert me before the turn which is always more than 90° (also my previous 645 did not alert for simple bends on a path).

I created both a track and a course, then synced them both to the watch. Started the activity by navigating both the versions and neither of them alerted me in any way before the turn, even though all the settings match the one you (and many others) reported above or on other threads.

So far the only way to have some sort of navigational info/sound is not to follow the course but to let the watch navigate me on the map, which is absolutely not what I want while hiking.

My requirements are very simple: any easy way to create a course/track/path/whatever on an iPhone app (Gimporter seems Android only) and transfer it to Garmin Explore so that I can easily manage what to sync via collections. All of that preserving turn alerts. Has anyone succeeded in doing so?

Komoot does... www.komoot.com

Labronico said:

I create a triangola path around my house. A little more than 100m per side, so that it has full time to alert me before the turn which is always more than 90° (also my previous 645 did not alert for simple bends on a path).

Try making a significantly longer route, at least 1 mile/2km, before you give up on this.

I've not tested on the F6, but the F5 for some reason did not give turn alerts on very short courses, so tests of this kind failed even when there were coursepoints embedded in the file. (I was developing software then to convert TCX files to FIT which the F5 could interpret, and got a lot of queries from people who'd tested it using round-the-block courses and thought the converter had failed, where the issue was actually the watch figuring nobody could get lost in that short a distance).

I understood that non Pro versions get alerts, while Pro/Sapphire versions only get alerts when navigating with “map” rather than “follow course” setting.

Labronico said:

I understood that non Pro versions get alerts, while Pro/Sapphire versions only get alerts when navigating with “map” rather than “follow course” setting.

That is not the case.

Pro units give alerts using "follow course" if there are coursepoints embedded in the file. As phoglund suggested below, if you generate a course on plotaroute.com and transfer it to your watch via USB, it will give you alerts for each turn in the list on plotaroute. Again I'd recommend you use at least 1 mile/2 km to test this. This is how I always work and I get turn alerts.

It's been suggested below that Explore is removing coursepoints from the files and this is the root of your problems. I couldn't comment on that as I don't use Explore.

If you download the FIT SDK you can use the java apps in there to convert a course file to a csv and look for coursepoints - use USB to copy the courses back from your watch to a computer. That would help diagnose the problem for you.

I guess I was wrong and you were right. I just tried a 3-4Km course created from the Garmin Connect on the iPhone, then senti it on the Fenix itself.

Now, I must say that the recorded track was in an incredible drunk mode. So much that during the activity I tried to switch form GPS+Galileo to GPS+Glonas and shortly after basically the map stopped to show the moving blue arrow and no turn alerts appeared.

Stopped the activity and started again. After a straight road it did annoyed me with a cacophony sound to announce the turn. "Didn't you want the alert? Here it is!" 
I can confirm all subsequent turns/"serious bends" did get an alert, right to the and of the course.

So it seems that at least creating a longer course from the Garmin Connect app and navigating in "follow course" mode does send alerts on turn.

With Garmin Explore which should be geared towards outdoor activities it doesn't work.

Now I have to test a GPX course imported in Garmin Connect and then sent on the device.

Hi, I initiated this thread sometime ago and this is my experience. Firstly, I have a 6S not a pro with maps. I have used the products, Garmin Connect, and imported Strava, Alltrails, Plotaroute GPX files to Garmin Connect then downloaded to watch all with success using TBT. I find that I get an initial turn alert indicating about 70m to go then another alert on the turn. I do find that both alerts lag by about 20m. One of the other Garmin products for creating routes I had no success with.