USB data transfer problematic

Data said:

There is no warranty on my device so contacting Support is not an option.

Definitely is worthwhile contacting Garmin Support. There have been several reports of this happening. AFAIK, Garmin have been very good with replacement refurbished watches.

I had the same problem, it was the cable. I bought a charging tip with a USB C cable for a few dollars on Ali and the problem disappeared. Today I don't use the original cable.

I was super skeptical about the cables being the problem, because the Fenix 6X works fine with all of them, but yet another Aliexpress cable arrived and with that, the Fenix 7 works great. It is a cable with the connector at an angle, like an "elbow". It sits snugly and does not feel "wobbly" as the other cables do.

I am only half-happy though. I can't imagine Garmin exchanging two Forerunners for this same problem for no reason Is this a physical  defect in the connector on the back of the watch that gets worse over time?

I also had problems connecting my new Fenix to my computer (HP). I am a Linux user, and Linux indeed reported a "bad USB cable". Switching to Windows did not help. I could sometimes see the device rapidly connecting and disconnecting. Sometimes I did not see anything at all.

I once managed to get it to work on Linux, so I also suspected a faulty cable.

However, trying on a different computer, the cable worked reliable. Still, I could not rule out a problem with the cable having a problem with the physical connection tolerances or similar, so I got a few USB-C to Garmin adapters - turns out, I can not operate those either when using a USB-C to USB-C cable on that computer.

However, when using a USB-A to USB-C cable with those adapters, it works, so my conclusion is, that this computer has issues with connecting certain USB devices (USB2...) to the USB-C (Thunderbolt) sockets.

Interesting information, thank you. On Linux (older Thinkpad with USB-A) I see that rapid connecting/disconnecting too with the Garmin brand cables, and with the no-brand cable it disconnects only 1 or 2 times before the connection is stable. Quite different compared to the Fenix 6, that one works just fine with any cable. Maybe Fenix 7 has faster MTP transfer and is more susceptible to slight connection issues? I must dive deeper in USB and MTP, that's certain.

My HP Spectre laptop will only recognize my Tactix 7 Pro Ballistics Edition on one of the USB ports, the others produce a "USB device request not recognized" error. I tried deleting the device and drivers from Device Manager and uninstalling / reinstalling Garmin Express several times, but no luck.

Garmin's USB connectivity is definitely problematic.

MisterFrag said:

the others produce a "USB device request not recognized" error

MisterFrag said:

Garmin's USB connectivity is definitely problematic

So, nothing to do with your computer then?

I believe it's a problem with the driver for Garmin devices not working with the USB hub that controls the ports on the left side of the laptop (two Thunderbolt / USB-C ports and one USB-A port). The single USB-A port on the right side of the laptop is handled by a different USB hub, and the driver works with that.

Data said:

Maybe Fenix 7 has faster MTP transfer and is more susceptible to slight connection issues?

It's a watch issue. I am sorry to give bad news. You will need to warranty exchange your Fenix 7 unless a full reset to defaults fixes it. It is unlikely but I have seen it work before.

Mine is a HP Spectre laptop too (2017 model). Exactly the same behavor you describe. USB-C is not wrking for me, with any cable.USB-A works fine, but the cable I used for testing is a USB2 cable I believe.

I doubt it is really a problem with my particular watch. Either Garmin or HP messed that one up. The behavior is the same under both Linux and Windows, so I do not belive it can be solved by a simple software update.

I am not having an issue with any other devices on that laptop. Just the garmin.