[BUG] Can't add installed datafields to Activity 15.31

Garmin-Laurie, I've sent logs as you've instructed, this information and additional videos illustrating this, please let me know if more information is necessary. Thanks!

Tangentially related to your topic bc I'm on FR955 but maybe it will help.

As a CIQ dev, I've seen lots of issues related to adding CIQ fields to an activity over the years [for multiple generations of Forerunners], including:

- the watch sometimes gets confused about how many CIQ fields are actually installed in an activity [as you mentioned]. Usually removing all CIQ fields from an activity will solve the problem

- sometimes if you add a CIQ field, it crashes immediately and is replaced by the Timer field

- sometimes if you add a CIQ field, it doesn't crash, but it's replaced by the Timer field anyway

- if you are the max CIQ field limit for an activity [4 fields in your case, 2 fields for older watches], when you try to change an existing CIQ field to a different CIQ field, the watch incorrectly only allows you to choose CIQ fields which are already installed in the activity, as opposed to all CIQ fields. The workaround here is to first change the CIQ field in question to a non-CIQ field, such as the timer.

More relevant to your current issue:

- In a recent firmware update, Garmin has apparently changed the behaviour of CIQ data fields which automatically discover and connect to an ANT+ sensor (such as Stryd Zones and ANT+ HRM). In the past, these CIQ fields would normally auto-discover an ANT+ sensor without any user intervention. However, with this new change, these fields will actually cause the watch to display a prompt asking the user if they want to make an insecure connection to a sensor.

This seems to only happen for CIQ fields which discover sensors [as opposed to just connecting to a sensor with a specific ANT+ ID]. For example, I never see this prompt for Stryd Zones because I set the ANT+ ID of my Stryd sensor in the app settings (so I don't get the prompt about making an insecure connection). But others have reported that they see this prompt for Stryd Zones [when it auto discovers Stryd sensors, as it does by default], and I have seen this prompt with ANT+ HRM [when it auto discovers HR sensors].

The reason this is relevant is because when you edit data pages on the watch itself, if you even scroll to a CIQ field which auto-discovers a sensor, the watch will immediately display the prompt about making an insecure connection, before you even select the field (with a tap or by pressing START). At this point, if you answer yes to the prompt, the watch will also select the CIQ field (I think this is a bug). If you answer no to the prompt, the prompt briefly goes away but comes back almost immediately. The only way to get rid of the prompt and not select the field is to dismiss it, then very quickly scroll to a different field.

In other words, you can't select a CIQ field on the watch that auto discovers an ANT sensor unless you say yes to the prompt about making an insecure ANT connection.

Since it's apparently not possible for that connection prompt to be displayed in the Connect app, this could explain some of the problems you are having. (I am ofc assuming that Fenix 8 received a similar change in a recent firmware update).

Then again it could be completely unrelated.

EDIT: I just tried to add ANT+ HRM to my FR955 using the Connect app, and it failed exactly as I would've expected. Connect shows a blank space where the field name should be, but on the watch, it's the Timer field.

But if I change that field to the Timer field in Connect, then select a CIQ field which *doesn't* make an ANT connection, it works fine, as I would expect.

EDIT2: Actually I tried it again, and I was able to add ANT+ HRM to my FR955 using the Connect app. But even though I was not in an activity on the watch, the prompt about making a connection was displayed. In this case, if I answered no, the data field was still added to the activity.

So maybe it's a bit more flakey and complex then I guessed.

Hello,

To get a better reference point for this problem, you should go back to the beginning. The basic framework of the software at that time was executed with only a few activities and it was only later that these were extended with more options for custom data fields in the activities.

Then came the addition of the CIQ data fields with the insertion of individual IQ fields. Now the problem arises when the basic structure of the software is changed, as in this case with the introduction of sleep recording in connection with the respiratory rate, that the assignment and branching in the IQ fields no longer takes place correctly.

In the event of fundamental changes to the basic structure of the software, I therefore recommend resetting the configured activity to factory settings and restarting the watch, then synchronizing the watch and then setting up the activity again to its previous settings. 

Yours sincerely

KSDO

FlowState said:

- In a recent firmware update, Garmin has apparently changed the behaviour of CIQ data fields which automatically discover and connect to an ANT+ sensor (such as Stryd Zones and ANT+ HRM). In the past, these CIQ fields would normally auto-discover an ANT+ sensor without any user intervention. However, with this new change, these fields will actually cause the watch to display a prompt asking the user if they want to make an insecure connection to a sensor.

I can confirm this, and in fact I was editing datafields on the watch and installed Stryd, then I finally went to watch and saw that there is this message asking about unsecure connection and I had to click ok around 30 times or so to get to the screen.  I was already close to restart the watch.

FlowState said:

and I have seen this prompt with ANT+ HRM [when it auto discovers HR sensors].

Yes, that's the reason I temporarily uninstalled ANT+ HRM just to avoid this messages when I'm setting up the watch.

FlowState said:

At this point, if you answer yes to the prompt, the watch will also select the CIQ field (I think this is a bug). If you answer no to the prompt, the prompt briefly goes away but comes back almost immediately. The only way to get rid of the prompt and not select the field is to dismiss it, then very quickly scroll to a different field.

Thanks, that's a nice observation! I omitted it myself, now I'll pay closer attention

FlowState said:

Since it's apparently not possible for that connection prompt to be displayed in the Connect app, this could explain some of the problems you are having. (I am ofc assuming that Fenix 8 received a similar change in a recent firmware update).

that makes sense

KSDO said:

In the event of fundamental changes to the basic structure of the software, I therefore recommend resetting the configured activity to factory settings and restarting the watch, then synchronizing the watch and then setting up the activity again to its previous settings. 

Thanks KSDO! What you said was my logic as well, and that's exactly what I did. I reset the activity with no much luck, then did reset to defaults(without removing the data), synced back my watch. Keep installed only minimal datafields I'm using(all datafields and apps remained installed after reset).

Then tried to add them through GCM. As the result I see only Stryd inside Run activity, I see all datafields I ever installed inside Trail Run activity. In Connect IQ I see Stryd and HR Zones datafields which I intended to use.

I was able to setup trail run activity by first adding CIQ datafields on the watch and then re-order and configure other fields through GCM, that seems to work so far as long as I don't touch Connect IQ fields.

I wonder if there is a good way to preserve settings for this activity so I can copy and paste it in the future if I reset the watch as it takes a lot of time to re-create. I know there is a way to copy activity from Sports folder, but I'm not sure if it contains all the settings there. Does anyone tried that?

sensovision said:

I know there is a way to copy activity from Sports folder, but I'm not sure if it contains all the settings there

Yeah it does. I used to play around with backing up, editing, and restoring activity profiles (Sports\*.FIT files) on my old FR935. Couple of notes:

- when you restore a profile FIT file, you have to copy the file to Newfiles\, not the original location (Sports\)

- haven't seen this on newer watches, but I saw bugs where the activity list would be "corrupt" on my FR935, and I'm not sure if it had anything to do with me manually restoring activity profiles. Tbf I think I saw some issues before I had ever restored a profile.

Examples of corruption include being unable to create a custom activity profiles because the watch thinks I'm at the limit of activity profiles (but I'm not), and activity profiles being displayed incorrectly (e.g. no label). Given that restoring a profile is accomplished by copying it to Newfiles\ (which means Garmin has to have specific handling for activity profile files), it seems to me that this is something Garmin actually supports, as opposed to something that works coincidentally. But who knows if it's well-supported? Anyway, it might not cause any problems, but I can't say for sure because I haven't tried it recently

good to know, thanks for sharing the process. I'll save the copy for future but for now wouldn't mess up with restoring. Let's hope that Garmin would be able to fix the issues which make me think of this in the first place.