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SW 3.90 renders watch useless - fed up

There are already lots of threads on this topic, just to link the ones I already replied to:

There is also https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/healthandwellness/f/vivomove-luxe-style/259189/reasons-to-think-10-times-before-spend-a-lot-of-money-in-a-garmin-vivomove-style-my-experience from an obviously unsatisfied customer. Let alone all the other threads.

I'm a vivomove Luxe user from the first minute (Oct 19) after owning a vivomove HR. The HR was not perfect, but it worked quite well. I also own an Edge 530 (after an Edge 520) and the Index Smart Scale. By (sad) experience I know that Garmin software quality sucks on product release and often takes loooong time to get better. It's kind of an up and down, some firmware updates are ok, others are a step backwards. Best examples are the Edge 520 firmwares after 12.5 (IIRC) that magically drained the battery much more (battery runtime about 50% of prev firmwares). There were no real improvements on this, customers were told that this is due to battery wear. (Full) firmware downgrade impossible - device virtually useless and can't be sold anymore. I lumped it, because the Edge 520 enabled me to have a lot of fun and its firmware worked more or less ok. Good quality is something else anyway.

The vivomove Luxe firmware on the other hand never reached this quality. This forum gives plenty of examples of what I mean. Just to name a few of them:

Depending on the firmware version, the watch hands realigned themselves sometimes multiple times per week. I did not have this problem with 3.90 yet, but it sucked to have it suddenly after firmware upgrades.
Gestures / reactions are sometimes impossible slow when doing strength training. You can never tell whether it registered your pause/continue tap or not. Correcting the repeat count is almost impossible. There were better firmwares, but none of them was really good. 3.90 is one of the worse. It bugs me everytime I do strength training.
Sometimes, the watch won't react at all and you have to restart it by attaching it to the charging cable. Happens every now and then especially before starting an activity.
Inaccurate heart sensor: You have to start an activity so that it detects the higher heart beat after about 10mins. Otherwise, it won't (Edge 530: 180bpm, vivomove 140bpm e. g.). Fine, it's a sports watch, why wouldn't you start an activity? Because when I do cycling, I don't have to - there's the Edge 530. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, the Edge does neither increase the intensity minutes nor does it record the heart beat for the day overview. So I have to start it on both devices to get more or less accurate results. Was never a problem for the vivomove HR, btw. (it recorded the right heartbeat w/o activity).
When doing swimming, the watch freezes in about 4/10 cases when it loses connection to the mobile phone. Of course all activity data lost. Workaround is to disable bluetooth before doing the exercise. Don't know if it works now because due to Covid, swimming pools are closed.
When doing longer exercises (e. g. long walks of multiple hours), in about 3/10 cases the watch stops the activity after some time losing all already recorded data. Worked ok in earlier releases (did happen every now and then), but in 3.90 it happens quite often - and it sucks.
And then there's the new problem of the above given threads which render the watch more or less useless for me.

I really love the watch's design, hardware and its functionality. And I really tried to like it even though it's quite unreliable and the other above given problems. But the latest problems annoy me in a way, that I'm totally fed up. It's 2021 and I expect expensive products to just work without having to think of this and that workaround to keep it more or less running. I'd like just to have a watch that reliably shows the time and records my activities because this was the reason why I bought it. As of now, it only decorates my left wrist. I'm really disappointed and don't want to keep struggling with it.

0 Batman over 3 years ago

I would consider the possibility that you have a defective watch. I have had my Silver Style since last August and I too had a Vivomove HR before. I have not experienced any of the issues you describe with my Style.

However, I too have had my share of issues with the 3.90 update (of which I have posted in other threads). so it is not like I am a happy camper right now:

- Body Battery stopped updating (fixed with a reset)

- Stress seemed measuring higher than it used to (fixed with reset as well)

- VO2 Max stopped updating automatically after a Run or Walk. It does work if you force an update from the watch in 'Heart Stats" (did not get fixed by reset to defaults and later by reset to defaults + watch files deletion)

I contacted Support for the VO2 Max issue and I am working with them via email to get it resolved.

Have you tried to reach out to them for a replacement?

0 fwmone over 3 years ago

Thanks for your reply. I considered that, but it seems unlikely to me, because many of the above points were non-existant, better or worse depending on the firmware version:

watch hands: appeared suddenly with several fw versions and seems not to happen with 3.90.
slow reactions: Since this happens only when doing strength training and has also been reported by others, I don't think this is a problem of defective hardware. And yes, I sometimes encounter slow reactions in other modes / when the watch seems to be idle, but I also think that this is because the watch has high CPU load in these moments for whatever reason.
heart sensor: I believe I read that this behavior is by design, because this is how the sensoring works. Can't find the source anymore, but sounds at least reasonable. The real problem here is the inability of the Edge 530 to record intensity minutes, although there are things like True up.
Swimming: I remember there were fw versions where it did not happen.
Same for long exercises. Worked flawlessly long time.
New problem as of the links in my first post: came up with 3.90, so I don't think this is due to defective hardware.

Of course I already reached out to Garmin. They said they don't know of any of the above given problems or errors (aha!) so they wanted to have a look at the watch. I gave up and lived with it, hoping that there will be better firmware versions.

TBH, to me it looks like the vivomove watches are a niche product and their software is developed quite carelessly. On the other hand, high revenue products like the Edge series have the same problems. I don't know. But what I know is that I run out of steam to be a guinea pig for Garmin's development department.

0 Batman over 3 years ago in reply to fwmone

fwmone, do not know what to say, if that is your experience of course you have any right to be disappointed. Crossing finger, so far my Style has been working pretty well, other than the misadventures of the latest firmware update.

You are most likely right that the Style is a niche for Garmin. I like it because I like watches with "real" hands. Even before I started using smartwatches I always purchased analog watches with the auxiliary digital display. I still have my 10-yr+ old Casio Waveceptor Solar, all banged-up but still working relentlessly. Solar powered, it syncs time through an internal radio, I never have to touch or adjust it.

Just looking at the Amazon reviews is interesting, a little over 3,000 for the Style and almost 20,000 for the Garmin Instinct, one of the rugged models for outdoor activities. However I do not believe that being a niche watch is the reason for all those software troubles. It is not in Garmin's best interest to gets on people nerves releasing bad firmware. Regardless of the specific model, if customers get a bad taste with a certain one they are not likely to buy another model from the same brand.

Looking at the changelog of firmware 3.90 there were no major fixes introduced. It was not like Garmin had to be in a rush to release a new version to correct some critical issues present in the previous version. Considering all of the complaints about it, they are probably regretting having released 3.90 .

I think somebody made a mistake in good faith and for whatever reason the bugs were not caught during their internal testing (or it was an excess of confidence, thinking that the changes made could in no way affect other functions and a full and thorough test was not performed).

We'll see how long before Garmin release another update.

0 fwmone over 3 years ago

Thanks again for your reply and you wanting to find a solution.

As much as I love my smartphone, I hate display-only smartwatches. I just don't like their clumsy look and maybe never will. The vivomove Style/Luxe with its bold, sharp, stickled for details and timeless design could be the perfect watch for guys like me/us who want to wear a classic watch with this "plus" in functionality. Seriously, when Garmin announced the vivomove HR several years ago, I checked the internet everyday multiple times to find out where I can buy it. Same for the Luxe, because Garmin nailed it once again. For that reason and putting all the problems aside I still hope they will continue developing new versions of this niche product and honestly can't await to see their new ideas. The Luxe was the perfect upgrade of the HR and I still love its great design.

But after 1,5yrs of being a guinea pig and having so many problems, I'm through with mine on a functional level. At almost every activity I ask myself: "Will it be recorded? Which problems will I have now?" I don't use its data anymore. That's sad, because these were the main reason to buy it. I love to visualize and track my health and fitness status. Take the Edge 530: It had its problems (still has), but at least it tracked quite reliably and had a responsive UI from the beginning on. I cycle almost everyday and it just works, enabling me to track my fitness status and to compare my rides. I'm perfectly fine with minor glitches when at least the main functionality works.

Anyway, I don't want to waste your time anymore. Let's see what new fw versions will bring.