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VivoActive 3 Music issues.

I got this item as a gift, and am quickly beginning to hate it.

Issues include;

- It wont connect to Wifi - I have unpaired and repair several times, and it just refuses to detect my wifi, without wifi its a fairly useless item

- I was prompted to install two app on my android (Connect and Connect IQ), as well as software for Windows.

- The Windows software is atrocious - trying to scan for music and its just never accomplishes anything.

- I have been using Strava comfortably on my phone but there seems to be no way to link that app ( which is fantastic) to this device?

That Garmin charges $500 for this is unbelievable - the product software feels like a glitchy Chinese knock-off.

Has anyone else experienced these issues? Priority one is connecting to Wifi, so any help is welcome.

0 DanC over 4 years ago

I have a VA3music too. WiFi success seems to depend on the type of router or whatever you're trying to connect to. I've had little success with routers and much more success with cheap WiFi extenders and now a mesh network. There's something in the WiFi security the watch struggles with. If you can change the WiFi security settings, go for AES rather than TKIP as this often improves connectivity. You could also create a temporary phone hotspot with security disabled, this tends to work ok.

The Garmin Connect app is essential for me. The watch connects over Bluetooth to the phone so I rarely use WiFi at all. I don't use the ConnectIQ app as all the watch apps are available via Connect.

The windows software, Garmin express, is not good. I don't use it. On a Windows PC I just copy/paste music, audiobooks, etc. into the relevant folder on the watch. There's a Music folder, audiobooks folder - just drop things in there and make playlists directly on the watch with File Manager's pop-up menu.

I use Strava too. The watch sends data to the Connect app and I have Connect sync'ed to Strava. Usually the Strava activity appears a few seconds before the Connect app has completed sync'ing.