FRUSTRATING: Unable to set correct Date and Time!

You can set it manually by going into settings/system/clock/set automatically off/set time.

I live halfway up a >30-storey apartment building, which stands among similarly tall buildings in the city, and over time I've found that it is possible to get a lock on GPS satellite signals indoors.


What I do is put a hook that is attached to a suction cup on the window pane, and let the watch hang there in training mode for as long as it needs. I've done that with both my FR235 and my FR630 several times, and it works.

Wait - suddenly the date/time is fixed and my watch is on my desk which is next to a window - but it has now taken over 5 hours in order for the time/date to be fixed!

Considering that, after a hard reset, my FR630 would take about ten minutes outdoors to lock onto GPS (in spite of having synced and downloaded the latest EPO data file after the reset) even though it normally takes ten seconds on subsequent days, it would be expected to take significantly longer just hanging there by the window.

Of course, you have to keep the watch out of low-power mode (which, for most intents and purposes, you can assume the watch is in when it is showing the watch face) the whole time. That may well mean setting the Power Save Timeout setting for the GPS-enabled activity profile to 'Extended' (i.e. 25 minutes idle time before automatically returning to low-power mode), and checking on it every 15 to 20 minutes once the profile is selected.

Being on your desk and not actually right next to the window pane would also make it slightly more difficult for your watch.

I thought that while driving the watch would pick up a good GPS signal and correct the date/time but it didn't.

Moving at driving speeds will not help your GPS time-to-first-fix when 'cold', i.e. the device has no previously acquired ephemeris data that it acquired from satellites to leverage.

I would like to suggest that there be a new option for setting the date/time that perhaps relies on syncing with mobile device - not the GPS which in my case is very unreliable.

I don't agree that the GPS in unreliable in any way. If your watch is apt to spontaneously crash-and-reset, and losing date and time as well as ephemeris data in the process, that's not the GPS being unreliable.

Mobile devices like my iPhone (and computers) are able to maintain the correct date/time by periodically checking an NNTP server over its Internet connection.

Garmin wearable fitness devices generally have no Internet connectivity of their own, although some models are equipped with Wi-Fi capability which cannot be configured on the watches directly. On the other hand, most models are equipped with GPS, and data -- including date, time, and time zone -- acquired directly from satellites can be trusted to be accurate and free from interception, tampering or just user error in configuration.

It makes no sense to trust, say, an iPhone to serve as an authoritative proxy for date and time in view of that; the wearable device or even the Garmin Connect Mobile app running on the iPhone cannot verify how the date, time and time zone -- as far as the handset's operating system is concerned -- were set.

ASmugDill - Thank you very much for your very thoughtful, helpful and kind reply and apologies for such a late response. You've shared some great, insightful info that is helpful for me and hopefully many others who have read this post. Best wishes!