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Garmin 255 GPS not connecting - with work around

IshigakiRich
over 1 year ago

I purchased a Garmin 255 earlier this year. For the first few months the GPS connected very quickly - often within 20 seconds. However, since a couple of months ago I've noticed that the GPS rarely/never connects, no matter how long I wait.

The GPS bar gets to about 90% and just sits there.

However, I've discovered a work-around that seems to force the GPS to connect.

Steps:

* GPS bar red at about 90%

* Wait a few minutes

* Start workout and allow timer to run for about 10 seconds

* Stop timer

* Select 'Discard'

* Within a couple of seconds of the workout being discarded the watch buzzes and the GPS bar goes green.

* If the above doesn't work then try again - it sometimes takes two attempts.

This strongly suggests to me that the problem is a software bug - possibly introduced by a recent firmware update.

I've experiemented with waiting for extended periods with the bar stuck at 90% - simply start/stopping/discarding a workout is enough to force it to connect.

I'm now in the situation where every one of my workouts has to begin with a sacrifical workout which I discard - otherwise the GPS will never connect.

Note that I usually have my watch powered down. I usually power it up about 15 minutes before going out for a run. I've no idea whether this is related to the problem that I'm experiencing.

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    Under System/About, does the watch mention "Ephemeris: Current"?

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to ovekvam

    My watch says 'Ephemeris: Missing'

    Perhaps this is the problem. Thanks.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to IshigakiRich

    I've just done a re-sync and update and now Ephemeris is 'Current'. The firware was also updated. This is rather strange as yesterday it didn't attempt to update the watch while sync - although today I had it connected for much longer.

    An initial test after power-cycling the watch indicated that the GPS connection time is far better - about 10 seconds rather than 15-30 minutes.

    Clearly I need to do some more testing but it appears to be fixed. Thanks ovekvam.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to IshigakiRich

    I leave bluetooth disabled except to sync, and my experience is that it might take a few minutes to sync up data from multiple days but takes much longer to get the ephemeris data. It also never seems to last more than about 7-10 days before going missing again, though I thought from documentation that it should last two weeks or more.

    Generally I am recharging once every 2-3 weeks if I'm only using around 5-6 hours of GPS tracking per week. I enable bluetooth while charging, but generally have to also do it once or twice in the middle of the discharge cycle when ephemeris goes missing again.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 6125703

    I remember from before, when I didn't have Wifi on my Garmin watch, I found that the bluetooth sync progress ring on the front page of Garmin Connect finishes rather quickly. If you go into the the device menu in Garmin Connect, there was a horizontal sync progress bar. This one was showing when the watch tried to download more, like a software update. It took a lot longer to finish in those cases. Since I rarely ever use this app or bluetooth anymore, I am not sure if it is still like that.