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Forerunner 645/645 M Music in iTunes on the 645M

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Music in iTunes on the 645M

Former Member over 7 years ago

Hi.

Still looking to buy this watch and have a question about iTunes and transferring music to the 645M.

1. All my iTunes music appears in Finder on my Mac with file extension .m4a. Can i load this onto the watch via Garmin Express (or other)? Or do i have to convert everything to .mp3.

2. If i sign up to Apple Music and sync some albums to iTunes on my Mac, what extension will they have and will the files be transferable as well?

I know there is a generic streaming answer that is "only iHeartRadio and Deezer". But for files stored on my computer (obtained via a subscription service or purchased), how does this work? Are some given an incompatible extension and hence aren't available for transfer ...?

Thanks.

Top Replies

Former Member over 7 years ago +1

If you’re buying this watch primarily as a music player, then perhaps sure, if that’s your experience. But mine is a damn fine running watch (plus more) and the music part is just extra ($50 extra to be…

All Replies

0 robp27 over 7 years ago

I would like to know the answer to this as well.

0 tnorris over 7 years ago

I can confirm that you can transfer your m4a files from iTunes via Garmin Express. GE will automatically locate your Itunes media folder and present album/artist/playlist options for you to select and transfer. Transfer is very quick. I haven’t tried to sync any Apple Music streaming files, but my guess is it won’t work due to associated DRM.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

I am not able to get music from my iTunes folder on my 645 - can anyone please help who has had success? It seems like it adds in garmin express and completes the sync but it never transfers it to the watch it self when I take it off the connection. someone please help!

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

@narmeen: see my response in this thread

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

darrencroton 1) yes, m4a files will play 2) no, Apple Music downloads will not, even if you have local files saved in iTunes, as they are DRM-protected.

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

Thanks Garmin-Joey - I have called support and figured out the music transfer. Just did my first run - everything was Good except my apple airpods half the time were not working. Any solution to this or do I have to buy new Bluetooth headphones? Please share

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

We are aware of limitations with Apple AirPods outdoors ( information can be found in this FAQ link). We continue to work to improve connection with different models of headphones. In the meantime we have a list of tested headphones that work well with the Forerunner 645 Music. (We will update this list as we continue to test different headphones).

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

DO NOT BUY THE 645 MUSIC!!!! It is awful. Express app is clunky, buggy, crashes constantly and DOES NOT TRANSFER MUSIC! It was a waste!

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

If you’re buying this watch primarily as a music player, then perhaps sure, if that’s your experience. But mine is a damn fine running watch (plus more) and the music part is just extra ($50 extra to be exact).

So if you want a damn fine running watch and don’t want to risk having issues with the music side because the tech is new, just get the 645. But the core part of the watch itself is awesome in my experience and eclipses all of the previous forerunners (except the 935 perhaps, on which it’s based).

0 pcraenme over 7 years ago

DO NOT BUY THE 645 MUSIC!!!! It is awful. Express app is clunky, buggy, crashes constantly and DOES NOT TRANSFER MUSIC! It was a waste!

Why blame the watch when you have issues with the Express application? For me the Express application is working fine btw, not cluncky, not buggy, no crashes and transfers music without any issues.

The issue here is that the stability of the express application can be different on different PC’s. The solution is simple... Garmin... please add more streaming services like the long promised Deezer and even better... Spotify. That way there is no need anymore for an ‘in between’ application like Garmin Express which can cause all sorts of issues.