Just downgraded to 17.28 - Wow, I got my old watch back!

no bluetooth upcoming steps of workouts, or alsmot any spoken stuff at all on 17.28. In 20.22, I can hear well all the voice instructions 

but 20.22 has some distance calc problem (F7s)

For anyone who downgraded, are you able to install Spotify from Connect IQ ? I did the downgrade this weekend and now it says that I have to update my watch in order to install Spotify...  

I'm on 15.77 but same idea. I save releases as the next beta is announced so I have a variety to choose from.

altairr said:

now it says that I have to update my watch in order to install Spotify... 

That's one big downside of backdating Firmware. Many CIQ apps will require a higher CIQ version and will not install.

Tisztul_A_Visztula said:

Give a chance to Garmin Express!

I doubt installing apps from Garmin Express will circumvent the version check, but even if it did, that would be unintentional on Garmin's part and could change any time in the future.

Tisztul_A_Visztula said:

As regards ciq df I could install them on my Enduro 2 which is on 16.22.

It depends on the specific CIQ app. In general, if an app was last built/updated a long time ago, then it will install on devices with older firmware. If an app was built recently, it will only install on devices with newer firmware. [There are exceptions to the rule that I don't want to go into, but I will say that if an app supports new devices, it almost certainly requires older devices to have new-ish firmware.]

As Spotify is constantly being updated to support new devices, it's unsurprising that it won't install on devices with older firmware.

Yes, I guess I wanted to help so strongly that I mixed it up with the possibility of change the setting of an already installed ciq df on a watch with obsolete sw version

As I left my T7 on 15.77 and backdated quite a view devices back to 15.77 I'll try and compile the correct statements regarding CIQ made by the power users here and bolster it with my own experiences.

1. You can never install any CIQ apps using Connect IQ App no matter if they are still compatible themselves to your software version or not. Also no updates are performed again no matter if the update would be compatible or not. That's what I experienced. 

2. BUT you can (at least so far) change settings of previously installed CIQ content using the Connect IQ App

3. you can (again: at least so far) install (and configure) CIQ Apps using GE. I did that. BUT only with CIQ-Apps I knew to be still compatible with my software. If that would be the case I learned from the Connect IQ App. If you open the intended CIQ content (WF, App, whatever) while you can't ever install it Connect IQ will tell you whether the selected item would be not compatible to your device and suggest that you update first (which of course in a case like that you didn't want to). I'd strongly recommend not to try to install any Apps which are flagged there as no longer compatible. That suggestion is out of sheer caution only. I just never tried that, if someone did I'd like to hear of the outcome.

As for my "at least so far" remarks:

flowstate said:

that would be unintentional on Garmin's part and could change any time in the future

Absolutely. I just hope they won't do that since there is no gain for Garmin to so. It's probably better to have a customer who is ok with his device while being on a downref software than an unhappy or furious customer with an uptodate device who is way more likely to never ever buy a Garmin device again. But that's just optimism on my side.

The whole story is much more chaotic.

1) No. I could install a Battery Monitor on my Enduro 2 running on sw 16.22, just because this CIQ content was 2 years old. 

So far it is logical.

2) Yes, assuming you correctly installed it and not via any tweak.

3) "I just never tried that, if someone did I'd like to hear of the outcome"

I remembered I  had done it, but the comments coming from flowstate made me uncertain whether I really did it. So I tried again and I failed. I dont know whether it was changed recently, or I installed something incompatible which had been already installed and later removed etc.

4) But today I did something different and by now I can say it can work. 

a) I could not install a ciq content to my Enduro 2 due to its sw version.

b) I installed it to my Edge 530 which has the latest sw (btw its latest sw is also more than a year old)

c) I copied all the files of this ciq content from 530 to Enduro 2.

d) Although Enduro 2 hides the "exe" (that is PRG) of the apps as Flowstate explained us a couple of weeks ago,  this caused no problem, Enduro 2 simply hid it after unplugging it.

e) There is a small malfunction, not just in IQ app, but nor in GE the settings is impossible I cannot see the 3 dots. I causes no problems, because with Enduro 2 I have access to the settings.

f) But even if IQ app told me that this ciq content could not be installed, after I did the trick and installed it manually IQ app let me use the login function of this ciq content, so IQ app did not block it.

So far so good, so what? :-)

Tisztul_A_Visztula said:

c) I copied all the files of this ciq content from 530 to Enduro 2.

Yes this is obviously different from installing a CIQ app from the store, and requires that you get the CIQ app content (PRG file) somehow. (In your case, by copying it from another device).

Copying the app PRG file in this manner is referred to as sideloading.

Tisztul_A_Visztula said:

e) There is a small malfunction, not just in IQ app, but nor in GE the settings is impossible I cannot see the 3 dots

This is by design: app settings via the Connect IQ phone app / Garmin Express are unavailable unless you install the app normally from the store. Additionally, any custom FIT fields written by the app will not be visible in the Connect activity graphs/summary unless you install the app from the store.

Tisztul_A_Visztula said:

I causes no problems, because with Enduro 2 I have access to the settings.

I understand this to mean that you can still access "on-device" settings directly from the app on your Enduro 2 device. While this is true, it would only apply for apps which actually implement on-device settings. (Many apps only implement settings via the Connect IQ phone app or Garmin Express)

The main problem with sideloading is that you need to somehow get the app PRG in the first place.

You happen to have access to an Edge 530 which does not "hide" the PRG, and for which the same app is also available. But if you didn't own a 530 or the app wasn't available for 530, you would have no way of getting the PRG.

Speaking of watches, most (or all?) of the currently supported watches are now hiding PRGs, meaning apart from Edges, the only way to get an app PRG is to own an old watch (and hope that the app was released for that watch).

Speaking of Edges, I heard that the newest Edges now use MTP instead of mass storage (even though they don't support music). If this is true, I wonder if they also hide PRG content in the same way as MTP watches.

All of this is to say that it will be harder and harder for users to get app PRGs in the future, as only older devices expose PRGs and as app developers drop support for old devices. Eventually the only feasible way to get an app PRG would be to ask the developer, or build one yourself (which is the whole point of sideloading -- to test your own apps without installing them to the store).