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Notifications only work when Connect app is running

I used to have a Vivosmart HR+ and yesterday I upgraded to the Vivoactive 3 Music. Something strange that didn't happen before - I can only receive notifications on my watch if the Connect app is running, which means it's syncing every few seconds, and that is draining my battery.

So that leaves me with two options:

- Turn off the Connect app to prevent the full time syncing and save battery both on my phone and watch

- Kepp the Connect app running so I receive notifications, at the sake of (A LOT) of battery life on my device

This is silly and I believe there's something wrong here. What am I missing?

When the app is loaded, I keep receiving "Phone Connected / Phone disconnected" alerts, which can be disabled. But that's not my issue - I want to receive notifications on the watch without Garmin Connect loaded.

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+1 Former Member over 5 years ago

VA3M and Android Pie (Nokia 5.1 DS). I need to keep Garmin Connect in the background all the time if I want notifications on the watch. It's just another feature of Garmin's incompetence, but I did not notice particular battery drains, neither on the phone nor on the watch.

0 natzilla over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

I figured out that the battery drain issue "resolves" if I'm not on the app main screen. Which, still, is far from ideal - I need to keep it open all times. Considering I constantly close all apps on my phone, this means I'm constantly closing the Connect app and disconnecting my phone from my watch.

This didn't happen with the Vivosmart at all.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to natzilla

Actually thats not Garmins fault, you need to exclude the app from battery saving and tell it to run in background and at start,

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to natzilla

Here is a better explanation https://gizmodo.com/how-to-exclude-certain-apps-from-androids-battery-savin-1742064352

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

1) It still does not work
2) It does not explain if it worked with the Vivosmart

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

I have the same problem, since the Vivoactive 3 was updated the last Sunday Morning!

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

On IOS I am able to pair the watch and receive notifications even without the connect app installed, this is one of the reasons I dumped Android, its an inconsistent mess, I know this doesn't help you but Im sure its something to do with Androids various battery saving "Features"

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

Thank you for the answer, I have IOS, I am able to pair my watch and connect, but my watch connect and disconnect every 5 minutes, my battery draining and I can’t receive notifications...

0 Marijke34 over 5 years ago

I also have this problem. I had a OnePlus 2 phone and everything was working perfectly. All of a sudden I noticed I was only receiving notifications when the connect app was open. Phone was old anyway, got a new phone, Xiami Mi9t and still the same problem.

Now I have the Connect app set to always open but it's annoying, it drains phone battery and I feel it drains watch battery too. The watch should be able to receive bluetooth notifications about phonecalls, whatsapp, calendar ets. without the connect app being open right?!

Did anyone manage to resolve this problem or should I get in touch with Garmin? My watch is not even a year old.

0 Narziss over 5 years ago in reply to Marijke34

1) I had the same problem of not getting the notifications on the watch. It turned out that it was not Garmin's fault, but my Nokia's: the phone's OS had a bug which would cause apps to close even if they were whitelisted in the phone's battery management. Nokia pushes monthly updates, and it has been fixed with one of those.

2) I also had the battery drain issue when I was trying (and failing) to add my credit card to the watch's Garmin Pay wallet. The phone was continuously trying to push the data to the watch, failing and retrying. This can drain the battery pretty quickly You might have now a similar issue, even not from Garmin Pay, but something that your phone is tryiing to push to the watch. I suggest that you clear Garmin Connect Mobile's cache and data on the phone (if you don't know how you can find it online), uninstall the app, reboot the phone, reinstall Garmin Connect Mobile.