Why doesn’t my bounce live tracking work

I bought a bounce for my daughter for communication and live tracking her school commute. Her GPS tracking initially worked with high latency, but now has been stuck at her last boundary check in from 3 days ago. I have manually synced it, charged it, started a live track, and sent a location from the watch through the check in with no success. The primary feature for the purchase was the GPS live track… so for the price point the expectation would be for it to function. Sadly, i wouldnt have paid $150+ for a digital watch with a step counter. As an owner of a Fenix5, I had higher expectation. 

Is there anything I can do? 

  • I would contact Garmin Support directly via phone or chat - https://support.garmin.com

  • We recently bought a bounce for our son specifically to track our son as he walks to and from school. These functions do not work. How can we correct this?

  • I am sorry to hear the  feature is not functioning consistently. We would like to investigate this further. To get this process started please answer the questions below:

    • Do we have permission to contact you via email?
    • What Country are you located in?
  • I bought the Garmin bounce and tried the live tracking. It worked once but now it stopped working. What can be done to resolve this?

  • Both of my kids have Bounce watches and both are unable to live track and both watch faces have blacked out within one week of each other. 

    i am having trouble updating the Garmin Jr app to the 8.2 version. Apple store only recognizes up to version 6.2. Maybe you'll have better luck at debugging if you can update the app to the latest version?

  • Interesting. Well I have the latest version on the watch. The most reliable way to have that done is not through the app on mobile but to download the Garmin software on your computer and connect the watch via USB charging cable provided. At least my daughters face is still working. It must be an issue with the os. When I was on the older version I could live track. However that version texting was not working well or at all which is why I updated to latest version. Well I seemed to have lost one feature for another.

  • **Resolved the live tracking now through Garmin phone support.**

    Seems as though then latest software update did not fully register on Garmin system so live track was disabled somehow. Resetting the watch seems to have resolved the issue so far. So in a nut shell anyone having the live tracking issue this would be my recommendation:

    1. Perform software update through your computer by downloading the necessary Garmin bounce software. Connect your Garmin charging cable to the watch and the computer for it to upload the new software package.

    2. Once it's completed reset the watch by going to system, about and scroll all the way down to reset.

    3. Logout of the Garmin app on your phone and re login.

    4. Pair "new device" from the app like when you first setup initially. Follow on screen instructions on watch and app.

    Then test your texting and live track to confirm all is working as it did for me. Hope this helps someone.

    Cheers!

  • I bought the Garmin Bounce in January 2024 - it presents many problems; live tracking is not working at all. When I start live tracking from my mobile, it takes a long time, and then it shows an error message that says it is impossible to begin tracking. It is updated to the latest version (8.20), but it has never worked with any previous firmware. I am very disappointed by Garmin here since the product is entirely unreliable. Garmin, please contact me by email if you can offer any support. I am located in Italy.

  • **Update**

    After a couple of days it's back to what it's been doing before. Live track stopped working. Resetting the device was a temporary fix it seems. Not sure what's going on.

  • After 3 separate attempts with Garmin support to resolve my live tracking on my new less than month old Bounce and now a new replacement initiated by Garmin with a clearly updated model indicated by a less pixelated lcd screen (better display), now this watch doesn't even connect with the app. So it appears Garmin is trying to figure out what is going on but cannot isolate the issue. I no longer have patience for this and have asked for return and full refund of both the watch and the Kids subscription service for a year.

    This is the final conclusion from Garmin support they sent via email:

    "I am sorry to report that we have no current update on your case here. This seems to be something that is deeper than we first initially thought. Given that you have had the watch for less than 30-days we can set up a return for you and you can purchase another Bounce if you would like to. However, at this time we are not certain if this is an issue with the Garmin Jr. App or your Bounce specifically so there is small possibility something similar could happen if you were to get a replacement. I wish I could report more and apologize for the wait. Let me know if you have any questions.

    Thank you for choosing Garmin,"
    If you have no issues with Garmin Bounce that's great! For the rest of you I wouldn't waste your time. Get a refund if possible and try Liltracker.ca they have more features but will require a SIM card with phone plan which to be honest was what I preferred when looking for a watch for my child.
    Best of luck to you all going through this presently.