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LiveTrack - is it now reliable?

I've belatedly just bought a 530.  I am a long-time Strava Beacon user (running the app on my Android phone), but it lets me down occasionally.  I am interested in the LiveTrack feature in the 530, but I've read some reviews from just after the 530 was released that said it is unreliable.  Have these problems now been ironed out?

Also I am confused about the LiveTrack/Beacon integration thing.  What does this do that LiveTrack or Beacon don't do on their own?

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  • I can report that with the Edge 130 that LiveTrack has been very reliable.  I'd expect similar reliability with any Edge device; it's simply using Garmin Connect on your phone to relay the location info from the Edge.  Every ride, it dutifully sends an automatic email to my wife and three ride buddies (to taunt them if they couldn't make it to the ride!).  In the past 1-1/2 years of use it has only messed up once; it showed me on another continent in that situation, which was worth it for the laugh!  My wife says it follows along as I ride, updating throughout.

    I can't speak to the other question about integration with Beacon, hopefully someone else can help with that.  I do know Beacon sends to contacts via text, whereas my LiveTrack is sent to recipients by email, but my familiarity ends there.

  • Thanks.  I'll give it a try.

    As an aside, a little-known feature of Beacon is you don't have to use text messages to send the link.  if you don't fill in any contact details, Strava will pop up the generic "send text via" box instead.  You can then select email, Facebook etc or even post the link to your Strava timeline

  • Hi, to my understanding it now is very reliable.

    It had some connection issues in the past and it used to drop from time to time. Besides, opening GC in advance before going for a ride was a good practice. However, all those have been solved so nowadays connection is solid along the ride and I have not experienced any autostart problems since the last update and my contacts can follow me just fine.

    So I believe you can fully rely on live track now.

    I cannot speak about strava beacon either because I am not a user, sorry.

  • I agree with about opening GC before riding.  There is another thread discussion right now that discusses phone connectivity, and that is surely related.  I think part of my success (with an Edge 130) has been to always, and I mean always, open GC, then turn on my Garmin.  Then I make sure they sync properly.  I have found that I have to press the Edge device icon on the GC which takes you to the next screen to verify if it synced.  Often when first starting the Garmin, it will not sync properly and I'll get the red circle with exclamation mark.  Pressing that gives message of "failed sync, try again?", to which I answer yes.  Sometimes it takes two tries to get a good sync.  I always make sure I have a clean sync before I start my ride.  Then I make sure I don't "swipe the app away" (iPhone), but I just lock the screen and go for my ride so GC is still running.

    In the recent discussion about phone connectivity  mentions that GC location services should be set to "Always using location", but I've had success with "While using the app" by following the procedure above.  I am now going to try "Always using location" so see if that makes for a more reliable initial sync.

  • Thanks all.  I tried it today and it seems to work very well.  Positive feedback from all my "followers".