Related
Options

Sync watch to phone while in wilderness

pslates
over 3 years ago

Is there any way to sync the fenix 6 with an iPhone with only bluetooth available.  I have only had my fenix 6 a few months but do lots of adventures where there is no wifi or cell service and wonder is there any way to sync with the phone app on these days to simply have a much better view of the data instead of viewing from the watch face.

I love the phone and it is great in town but seems limited when away.

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    The phone app doesn't store data, it uploads to the website. If there is no web connections, it doesn't do anything, certainly it doesn't sync.

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    Garmin Connect needs internet, but the Garmin Explore app can work offline. It serves a different purpose and operates on a different principle, so I don't know if it would suit your needs.

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    You can sync the watch via BT to your phone anytime you want.  It is the upload to Garmin cloud servers that seems to be confusing people.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 4543228

    No, you can't.

    No internet connection = No sync

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to peteb478

    I thought it was a store and forward node.  But you are correct.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 4543228

    Nope.  Most people don't seem to realise, but "Garmin Connect" on your phone is nothing more than a Portal/Mobile view to the Garmin Connect website (with the ability to also sync data via Bluetooth).  The Garmin Connect app itself doesn't really do much else (I mean sure it pushes notifications etc too) but the App doesn't really store any of the data on your watch, it just shows you what data's been synced to Garmin Connect.

    This become very obvious to everyone a couple of years ago when Garmin went offline for ~10 days and the Garmin Connect app was utterly useless.  It couldn't sync your watch or your activities or anything.  The App 100% needs and relies on Garmin's APIs/Website being online.

    Turn off your Wifi and Mobile data and try and sync your watch to your phone.  It won't work.

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    You could copying activities via MTP over a USB cable to a laptop and run software that works offline, like GoldenCheetah.

    If you're away for over approx. 2-3 weeks, to avoid losing activity tracking data like steps and sleep, you can save those on the laptop for later uploading to GC too.

  • 0 10 months ago

    Garmin better hope no other good competitors come into this space. The moment a competitor offers the same features, without harvesting my data and making me be connected for something that can run locally I will drop get out of this ecosystem immediately. I would rather pay for an app that runs locally then give up my data and have to deal with their slow servers. I had to wait over 5 minutes this morning for my dashboard to load, this is ridiculous. 

  • 0 10 months ago

    I wish it was possible to do that, though for a different reason: after saving an activity I would love to be able to edit it in Garmin connect (I don't even want to be able to have the data only stored on my phone, it's ok that Garmin also syncs it to their server) BEFORE it gets synced to all the connected apps (Strava, runalyzer, etc)