I have a Garmin Edge 830 and an Android Huawei P20Lite mobile.
'Livetrack' is an excellent idea, but it does not and never has worked reliably in my experience - even when used in conjunction with STRAVA beacon.
Typically the 'phone disconnects', the Edge device the 'searches', for a while and sometimes, if you're lucky, it reconnects. At other times it just hangs forever, and I have to re-pair etc etc. Also repairing also seems to fail quite reliably too.
Many, many, many other users have the same problem, and this also seems to be a problem with the new 840 now. Just look at the posts on this forum.
It happens with both iPhone and Android devices.
Whilst on a bike ride, users do not want to be resetting their bluetooth connections, rebooting etc, to make it work, as some of 'workaround' suggestions state. Thats not how it is supposed to work. Infact I notice the work around suggestions are now very much part of the help pages in the Garmin Connect app! (with the implication that it cannot be fixed) Restarting/power cycling devices is even more fafff, and you may end up losing your ride data. It is just not and should not be necessary.
Does anyone on the Garmin team know why it is so unreliable ? Has it ever been tested properly in the field ? or is just rubbish software/device drivers (probably). Does Garmin have the technical expertise to support and resolve problems like these ? The answer without a doubt is NO !
This has been going on for years, with absolutely no sign of a resolution, customer support just make the usual workaround suggestion which just provide a very temporary fix.
How about explaining what the real problems is, and then fixing it properly, instead suggesting all these half baked workarounds which frankly do nothing to resolve the problem.
Why GARMIN, why ?
Upgrading the UI on the 840 doesn't cut it, the underlying basic functionality (bluetooth) is unreliable, as the saying goes, 'a wise man who builds his house on rock - not sand.
I can use STRAVA Beacon independantly of my Garmin, thats the only real solution I have to having a reliable *safety* tracking app (Im sure there are others) which of course does no need bluetooth.
Is it basically a design problem, is low energy bluetooth (BLE) just not upto the task ?