About 10 days ago the connection between my Garmin Connect app on my tablet and the forerunner 965 was lost and it's impossible to restore.
Context:
SW version watch: 17.26 (DFU-6842d1)
Garmin Connect version 4.75
Watch has been used for 8 months without issues.
Exploration of the bug
Removed the pairing in Garmin connect, and the Android bluetooth pairing.
Experiment1
I turn off the BT on the watch and then on again. Finally, I put in "Pair mode". As a result the QR code for pairing is displayed. I leave the watch at a distance between 30 and 100 cm from the tablet. The tablet is connected to the internet by reliable wifi.
I start the pairing process from Garmin Connect (add new device, i.e. big "+" in the GUI top right corner). the Android pairing seems to work fine (PIN code exchanged and confirmed; note: it doesn't always work: sometimes the code is shown only on the tablet, sometimes on the watch as well sometimes the watch also asks for confirmation... no clear pattern here). The watch continues to show the QRcode for pairing. In the Android Bluetooth list the device appears regularly. Garmin connect displays "Completing Setup of your 965 device". There is a progress bar and two steps of approximately 8%-10% are achieved. Then
(state *) Garmin Connect displays "Pairing Failed" "Setup was not successful". and a button "Retry"
pressing "Retry" takes you back to the screen "Completing Setup of your 965 device". There is a progress bar and two steps of approximately 8%-10% are achieved. Then it goes back to (state *)
Experiment2
I try to use the camera and the QRcode shown on the watch: the camera correctly passes the BT info to Garmin Connect, which starts the Garmin pairing process but Garmin Connect can't find the watch and asks me to chose from a list of models. This sounds strange as I'd guess that the BT address and services should be encoded in the QR code.. Anyway, the experiment will reliably take me to (state *)
Other info
Some other times, after the PIN confirmation, the watch will display the "Sync" message for some tens of seconds and the Connect app will show "Completing Setup of your 965 device".In this progress bar, two steps of approximately 8%-10% are achieved before going to (state *).
I also tried connecting by cable to the PC and it works more or less, i.e. the connection was lost once but then worked reliably. Only maps needed update, no firmware update proposed. Data was synced with the Garmin servers and now appears in the Garmin Connect app.
I'd like to avoid a factory reset. What would you advise to do? Several people reported this on Google Store but Garmin isn't doing anything about it. Does the community know more?
