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Vivoactive 3 Bluetooth suddenly stopped

I've had my VA3 for just over 2 years. Today my noon workout would not sync. Messed with the phone and watch for 20 minutes and could not get them to pair. The phone no longer sees the VA3, but can see all my other BT devices I tried. I looked at Connect in a browser and saw that the watch had not connected since 2:19pm Sunday (yesterday). I checked the software version and it has version 7... I believe it updated mid-week as I recall seeing it reboot. I've never had BT issues with my VA3 before. My other device I regularly use (Edge 530) synced without issues this morning. I'm going to install the desktop version of connect on my laptop this evening so I can get my workout over USB. Anyone else have recent BT issues with their VA3?

On a related-ish note, my optical HR started acting weird about 2 weeks ago and I noticed the resin over the sensor is deforming/splitting, which I've seen others have had issue with. I almost always use an ANT+ HR strap, so it's not a big deal, but I'm curious if the degradation of this HR sensor could somehow be linked to the BT issues (integrity of the case). My wife's VA3 which was purchased the same time as mine has neither of these issues. My watch has never been dropped or experienced any trauma other than me sweating.

0 jrfuda over 5 years ago

Update:

Connected it via USB to Garmin Express, synced my workout and updated to 7.2, but still no BT connectivity to either my phone or my PC.

Did a reset to defaults and regained BT connectivity.

Some time during the night the backlight stopped working, as it would not respond when I tapped the screen or button during the night. Somehow the setting changed despite the screen being locked.

After my morning workout (recorded on my Edge 530), I noticed it (VA3) was not connected. It appears that my VA3 last connected a 4:17 am, I noticed the issue with the backlight around 3:30am, and I started and completed my workout on the edge at 4:30 am and 5:40 am, respectively, so nothing "special" happened during the time the BT connectivity was lost.

The only thing left I can think of is my "Stryd Power in Run Mode" data field has a compatibility issue with VA3 software versions beyond 7, so I will try and uninstall it via USB Garmin Express tonight. I had an issue before where a 3rd party app caused issues (not sure if it was on VA3 or older Edge 520).

Probably going to end up getting a Forerunner 945 during the Black Friday sales since I'm a multisport guy anyway, but it would be nice to salvage my VA3 to give to one of my kids.