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Screen unresponsive, gaps in data, synch issues with Garmin Connect

Dennis
over 1 year ago

Dear support,

I want to raise my concern over a few issues that I experience with my Vivoactive 5 watch.

1. Sometimes the watch screen becomes unresponsive. Tapping the screen, pushing the buttons or making the wrist gesture does not help in waking up the screen. The sensor on the back is still functioning while this happens. After a while the screen becomes responsive again. This issue has a duration of a couple of minutes.

2. Synchronization issues with Garmin Connect app. Almost every day there are gaps in my data in the Garmin Connect app, which makes it hard to make the watch useful. The watch itself did register the data, so no idea why the Garmin Connect app doesn't show the data. Below you find some examples where the watch does register, but the app has gaps in the data. Also it's not consistent, so for example Heartrate isn't synced, but Stress is. 

      

As you can see in the pictures above, where I was unfortunately ill, the Garmin Connect app doesn't show any data from 0:00 till around 03:00, but the watch itself has the data. Manually syncing does not solve the issue. Turning bluetooth on and off doesn't solve the issue.

3. GAPS in data, both on watch and Garmin Connect app. Almost daily there's also gaps in the data both on the watch and in the Garmin Connect app. It varies from a few minutes to multiple hours. During that time the watch was 'responsive' as I received notifications.

 This picture was taken at 21:30, and you can clearly see there is a gap between 20:30 and 20:45-ish. This is just a small gap, there have been bigger gaps than this example.

While searching the forums and internet I've encountered multiple topics about these issues from other users. 

For example:

Screen turned black not responsive - but still functioning? - vivoactive 5 Series - Health & Wellness - Garmin Forums

Hi, my Garmin vivoactive 5 screen has gone black but it is still making vibrating noises when I touch the top button. - vivoactive 5 Series - Health & Wellness - Garmin Forums

Vivoactive 5 screen turned black but still functioning? : r/Garmin (reddit.com)

I've deleted all Garmin apps from my phone and reinstalled them. I've reset my watch multiple times, even set it back to factory settings, but nothing helped. As the other users are mentioning in their topics A REPLACEMENT WATCH DIDN'T SOLVE THE ISSUE, so please don't tell me to contact my local Garmin support. These are issues which should be acknowledged by the Garmin team and fixed as soon as possible as the main function of the watch is now faulty. Please give me an update on where we stand with these issues and what the timeline is in which you expect to solve these issues. Thank you.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Dennis

    Hi Dennis,

    Dankjewel! Dit waardeer ik echt!

    Helaas heb ik deze hele lijst al 3 keer uitgevoerd, ik had dit lijstje ergens op het forum ook al gevonden.

    Gelukkig loopt mijn toestel nooit vast (op die ene keer na toen ik Watch faces had gedownload). Het enige probleem wat ik heb is dat de Connect app elke nacht precies om twaalf uur tussen de 8 minuten en 2 uur aan data mist, maar slaap data mist hij nooit!

    En mijn horloge heeft nooit missende data. Dus ik ben er vrij zeker van dat het een software probleem is.

    Mijn probleem is erger geworden na de laatste Connect app update voor iOS. Die was vorige week vrijdag of zaterdag. Ik denk ook dat het aan de Connect app of iets met de software voor synchroniseren oid ligt en dat daarom factory reset niet helpt. Het is ook zo raar dat het telkens precies om middernacht mis gaat  

    Ik baal er echt van. Ik heb nu meteen al geen vertrouwen meer in Garmin software. Dit is mijn eerste Garmin horloge.

    Ik hoop dat het voor jou wel werkt, vooral dat probleem met herstarten en een scherm wat niet reageert enz. 

    Nogmaals bedankt! 

    edit to add that I now have data back in my graphs in connect, but it’s missing from midnight until 01.06 in the night. It’s all on my watch, but I just can’t get it to sync to connect fully. Also not with Garmin explore and usb on my laptop. 

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    Hi all,

    Ive noticed the following, regarding problem 2 (in Dennis his OP):

    Every night starting at midnight data wouldn’t sync to garmin connect fully. So now I tried to do a breathing activity for 30 seconds at midnight. And then the data starts syncing immediately when the activity goes to the connect app! So it only misses a few minutes instead of a few hours.

    I tried this 3 nights in a row now. But for this you have to stay up past midnight, do an activity shortly and then wait for it to sync to connect.. so it’s not really a solution and also not a great workaround. 

    @garmen-inder can you give this info to the engineers of the app? On other times everything syncs fully. It’s only after midnight the syncing is acting up, up until midnight everything goes well too.

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    Performed all the step which Garmin Support suggested (reset to factory settings, deleting all Garmin apps, bluetooth connection etc.). Seemed to go well on saturday, syncs were working okay but unfortunately last night my watch had a freeze once again, not registering any data on the watch. This morning it happened again. 

    ; is there some way you can tell me if this is a software related issue which is worth waiting for to be solved, or is it hardware related, and do some customers have the VERY BAD luck of having their replacement watch having the same issues over and over again?

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Dennis

    Check my other posts... I have a replacement, brand new out of the box... with the same issues... At this point not sure if this is software and affects "some" watches or is hardware "lemons" and I'm having just bad-luck ... hard to say... All I can say my replacement has the same freezes and very bad battery life and many issues on top of that... At this point, this watch is a big-joke, unfortunately... hopefully solvable via software updates... although right now I'm just thinking letting go = selling this watch at a loss on the 2nd hand market...

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 9478909

    This is so sad. Did you have the freezing/ locking up problems since the beginning with your first watch? Like with your replacement? Were you without a watch for long during the replacement? And how long are you now waiting for this to be resolved? I can imagine you’re very frustrated about it!! 

    It’s so strange that I don’t have those problems. I only have the syncing problems at midnight (with connect app and web). And the nap detection ‘problem’, where it even detects naps during recorded activity. But that’s clearly software related.

    My battery is also good, I did charge it to 100% ~45 hours ago and it’s now still on 80%. (10 days left it says, but don’t know if that’s accurate). I have gesture on, I track activities 2 times a day. I did disable spo2. But I’m receiving (too) many notifications, as I’m on iPhone and can’t filter those like on android. I’ve had one day where it was draining battery 5% each hour, that was after I did charge it with my laptop. Don’t know if it was related.

    so I don’t hope my watch will go haywire as well. Mine is now 1 month old. 

    I’m sorry your watch is still locking up. 

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Esther

    Ye,s my 1st and 2nd watch *replacement* had/has the "freezes" out of the box... but now with the second one it's more manageable, it comes back fast... (30-60s) doesn't req. restart... The battery was bad 5 days (on 1st), now I;m getting around 7, but I barely touch the watch, just glance at it from time to time... everything that can be turned off is off... I waited 3 weeks for my replacement... Happy to finally get it ... sad to see it's almost the same... Anyway...

    The 2nd watch (the replacement) - It's a little bit better... but still the battery is not "there" - I would expect at least 9-10 days under the conditions I "use" it...

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 9478909

    Yes, my 1st and 2nd watch *replacement* had/has the "freezes" out of the box... but now with the second one it's more manageable, it comes back fast... (30-60s) doesn't req. restart... The battery was bad 5 days (on 1st), now I;m getting around 7, but I barely touch the watch, just glance at it from time to time... everything that can be turned off is off... I waited 3 weeks for my replacement... Happy to finally get it ... sad to see it's almost the same... Anyway...


    The 2nd watch (the replacement) - It's a little bit better... but still the battery is not "there" - I would expect at least 9-10 days under the conditions I "use" it... which is barely/minimum...

    Ultimately please keep in mind that there are poor souls out there that had these "freezes" *unresponsive screen* ~ since the launch of this product... so it's 4-5 month already ??? I'm on the last BETA 9.19 and there are still present...

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Dennis

    I do see your email interaction with support. Thank you for trying all of the troubleshooting steps in the Email. You'll want to reach out to your local Support team via chat as mentioned in the email for further assistance. They should be able to guide you from there. They will also be able to determine whether the disruption you are experiencing is software or hardware related. 

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Esther

    This is unique and may be something on the app side. If you do not sync the data at midnight, does it not sync at all for that time period? We'd love to get details of this and go over some app and device settings. To do so, you'll want to reach out to your local Garmin Support team.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Garmin-Inder

    Thank you for your response!

    Well it’s really hit or miss with the midnight syncing. I only have the watch for one month, so I do not have more experience than since half January.., in the first 2-3 weeks the midnight syncing problem only happened 1 or 2 times a week . I didn’t even notice at first, because my graphs were only missing 10 minutes or 15 minutes starting at midnight, so then it’s a very short line that’s missing.

    But since the latest connect app update for iOS it’s happening 6 times a week, last night it didn’t happen. And when I am not starting an activity to get it to sync it won’t load data sometimes for 3 minutes, or 18 minutes, 48 minutes, 2 hours. So it’s very inconsistent. But it’s never missing the data for the whole night. And sleep data and hrv data are also never missing + on my watch I’m never missing data either.

    On this forum and on the Reddit forum I’ve seen more posts about the midnight syncing problem, some go back a few years and it happens on iOS and Android. On Reddit one person wrote last week that support told her that the problem is (re)introduced in one of the latest connect app updates and that they work on a fix.

    I wonder if this problem also exists in the new version of the connect app, unfortunately I don’t have the beta yet :-) 

    I will try to contact support, I’m a little short on time, but I try to contact them via mail. I had time to type this as well! 


    edit to add: 

    https://forums.garmin.com/apps-software/mobile-apps-web/f/garmin-connect-mobile-andriod/354380/all-data-missing-from-midnight

    https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/fenix-6-series/287198/bug-hr-stress-body-battery-respiration-rate-not-synced-to-garmin-connect-although-available-in-the-watch