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WiFi Issues with 245M and Lessons Learned

PHILTONNC
over 5 years ago

Thought I would share some lessons from my new FR245M.    First great watch,   love it.    BUT if you get the music you are going to need WiFi.    Here is what I learned.

1) If your route SSID uses WEP for Security.   It will not work.  At least for me.   It does not recognize the password.   Probably shouldn't use WEP anyway.

2)  When using a SSID you must make sure it is broadcasting.      I tried an SSID that was not broadcasting,  which you can setup a manually in connect and the test will be successful the first time.   But subsequent times the watch will not connect to the already saved network on the watch.     Spotify app on the watch cannot find the network even though it is on the watch in settings.     Once I set it to broadcasting.    Everything appears to work great!

So there are a couple of issues for Garmin to fix here.

- Recognize non-broadcasting WiFi

- Figure out why when accessing from Spotify why it didn't see the same networks in the watch settings.     

  • +1 over 4 years ago

    So I basically have a wifi issue on my 245M as well. Only got it this year, used for a few weeks, then kept inside the house when my complex went on stricter lockdown. Took it out last week and all my playlists were outdated.

    Had no idea I had to do this (I don't think the downloaded Spotify songs on my phone had to be updated, or if they did then they did so automatically without me noticing) but there I was so tried again. Figured I did it when I first got the watch then it shouldn't be any difficult.

    Except it was. Add/update/test all my wifi connections and the watch would always connect SUCCESSFULLY. I added, I removed, I tested. I have 3 routers, 5 SSIDs. They all "worked" except for the 5ghz one which the watch couldn't even detect. Password worked on the watch. Password worked when I added a network via the app. But every, single, time I went to Spotify it would see the playlists (I know this works via BT to my phone and not directly via wifi to the network) and when I try to download the watch will tell me that there's no known wifi network found. Go back to the app to "test" the wifi connection and it will tell me the connection is successful like I'm just imagining the issue. 

    I've tried soft resets and they didn't work either. Mostly shut down the watch when not in use anyway so this isn't something new. I figured I might as well try a factory reset and see how that goes. In parallel I created an open guest SSID with no passwords. After the reset and doing some syncs the watch is now finally downloading a playlist. I remember this took a while last time so let's see how this goes.

    UPDATE: 

    It worked. Downloaded a few playlists thru the Spotify app on the 245. I just seriously hope I don't have to reset every time.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Seriously, did Garmin even test wifi on this watch ? I have an alpha password for wifi, maybe too many letters. Or maybe it doesnt do security properly. Honestly a joke that they build a wifi watch and it doesnt connect to wifi

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Foobar

    Yes, WAP2 to "None" also fixed the WiFi problem here. I am just filtering the access by MAC address in the router now. Thanks Foobar!