Help me understand software versions for Instinct 2

Garmin Pay available with Instinct 2 Solar.

If you are still having issues, I'd contact Garmin Support to get it sorted out.

Wow, I've just received 11.18 update. Interesting.

It also looks like GCM has watch settings access again.

I'll probably have to learn about new things.

Thank you to all who participated in this thread :)

Hi Morten. I've been reading your case. I'm also facing the same issue as you did. I'm stuck in software version 9.27, the system>software-update from time to time updates random stuff (like sensors or bluetooth) but nothing more. I'm also a Linux user so I'm counting on the android app to get the new updates and/or sync the device with my account.

As per this thread it looks to me that you managed to get the latest sw version 11.18 but I'm not sure I fully understood how you did it ...

Do you mind possibly explaining again what were the steps you followed to get the latest update?

much appreciated! thanks!

Lucas

Hi Lucas,

Lucas said:

As per this thread it looks to me that you managed to get the latest sw version 11.18 but I'm not sure I fully understood how you did it ...

I don't understand it myself either.

I've done the following things.

I cleared all activities from my watch in menu>history>options>delete all activities

I have no idea if it had any impact. I read somewhere that the watch not updating may be due to not enough free space. I did get a free space warning every now and then after finishing an activity.

Next thing I tried was to uninstall Garmin Mobile app from my phone (Android) and reinstall it. But the watch software would still not update.

Then I removed the watch from Garmin Mobile and paired it again. This had a strange effect, namely I pretty much lost the ability to configure watch from the app. Things like activities, data screens in activities. There's more than a page of different watch settings there. Basically, the watch details page on the app would just show the picture of a watch and its name and nothing more. Not even software version.

At that point I was resigned. Then a day or two later I received a notification on my watch that 11.18 software version was available and if I wanted to install it. I chose yes and the watch software version was updated to 11.18.

My guess is that either reinstalling the app or pairing the watch to the app again, or both, helped. Then there was some time needed for the update to be picked up. But that's just guessing. If you do this just wait for a few days before trying something more drastic.

I wonder if I'll have this issue next time a new version is available.

If I hadn't received this update my next step would've been to wait for the alpha release and see what's in the package. I expect there's stable version of the software included in alpha package for people to switch back to stable channel. My hope is that it'd be possible to copy it over to the watch via USB. As I got the update I haven't tried this one.

I also tried installing Garmin Express using wine. I found instructions online but something must've changed because the app wouldn't work.

I hope this helps.

Good luck and take care.

Hi Morten,

So --today-- finally I got my 11.18 update on the watch. I've followed all your steps (deleting activities, uninstalled the app from the phone, etc) just as you did; nothing changed over these past days.

I did however note that whenever I opened bluetooth on the watch, a message appeared after the watch got connected with the phone: "open app".

That made me think on this: even though the watch and the phone where connected over bluetooth, nothing would happen in terms of syncing until I opened the app on the phone itself.

And the next thing that I noticed was this: after the timer of the screensaver in the phone activated (meaning the screen of the phone locked and went dark) the app lost sync with the watch. I know this because every time I touched the screen of my phone back again to see it, the app started syncing again with the watch.

So, bottom line: I did follow all your steps, but set my screensaver timer to 30min. After that, every time the app showed "sending software update" the screen on the phone wouldn't go black and that's how I finally got my update.

Really, I'm not sure if this made a difference, but again, this is what I did to have my update finally.

Cheers!

Lucas

That's good to hear that it finally worked for you.

I wouldn't be surprised if standing on one leg and touching your left ear with your right finger was required to complete the update.

Let's hope we won't have to go through this again when the next version is released.

Reading your post made me wonder if it wasn't related to app's battery settings. On Android apps can have different option set when it comes to battery usage: Unrestricted, Optimised and Restricted. Mine is Unrestricted but who knows?

Also, in Garmin Connect app you can go to "settings / device sync audit" to see audit logs, perhaps you'll find something interesting there? In general this app doesn't seem too stable. I think because of recent time change it keeps crashing on HRV view.

What an adventure ;)

Lucas said:

even though the watch and the phone where connected over bluetooth, nothing would happen in terms of syncing until I opened the app on the phone itself.

And there is the key. And why the app needs to be open in the background at all times for connection to be maintained.

And the reason why the watch is paired to the app from the app and not added to the phone in Bluetooth settings.