Garmin LiveTrack not working (plus phone disconnect issue)

andy69

Hi folks, did a search on the auld google-machine but can't see anything relevant. Just reaching out here in case some of you have encountered this recently...

Live Track was working fine until I recently took the v9.0 software update for my 820, where in the process it advised to unpair and re-pair my phone.
Since then it's constant 'disconnect', 'connect', 'disconnect' with my phone...over and over, non stop.
Was going to use LiveTrack on one spin, but then failed to start (I guess because it's disconnecting all the time from the Garmin).
Haven't been able to get it to work since...even after the 9.10 update last week.

I've uninstall the App, unpaired the phone, unpaired the Garmin...re-paired them. Restarted the phone... usual troubleshooting (all except for a factory reset on the Garmin which I don't really want to do as I have to set up my screens again etc...)

I have an 820, paired to an HTC phone.
Wife has a 510 paired to a Samsung (two Android devices, but two totally different Edges).
She went for a spin today and I was starting LiveTrack on her phone and it won't start on her one now either. Same, issue: unable to send invites, cancel or retry, so it's in that loop until you cancel basically.

Anyone here had the issue? Only relevant in the recent past, like in the last month...it was working fine up until then.
I'll try a factory reset if no one here has had the problem or been able to workaround it....failing that it's a call to Garmin....or buy a new bike maybe

Borderfox

I use Strava beacon through the Garmin and at regular points through a spin (usually in areas of bad coverage) is will drop the phone connection as well as the data connection.

Im using an Edge 1000 and this happens on every spin at different times

Did you factory reset?

andy69

Borderfox wrote: »

I use Strava beacon through the Garmin and at regular points through a spin (usually in areas of bad coverage) is will drop the phone connection as well as the data connection.

Im using an Edge 1000 and this happens on every spin at different times

Did you factory reset?

oh! might try the beacon thing actually...saw it come up on my Strava feed but as the LiveTrack was working fine the whole time I never really looked into it.
Yeah I get the 'network connection lost' message in poor coverage areas also, but this is the connection with the phone that's dropping (constantly). Tried switching on the connection assist option in the App but it still keeps dropping the phone.

I'm thinking I might have to just suck-it-up and do a factory reset...it's the only thing I haven't tried (apart from Beacon which I'll now look into....even as a backup sort of thing).
Heading down to the Burren on Friday via all the L-Roads I can find :cool: and wanted to have the LiveTrack working again by then

Borderfox

Every now and again all the sensors go offline and the phone connection drops and about 5 seconds later they all come back, don't know what that one is all about

andy69

Borderfox wrote: »

Every now and again all the sensors go offline and the phone connection drops and about 5 seconds later they all come back, don't know what that one is all about

funny you mention that... I notice that's been happening recently too. Randomly get my HR sensor 'found' (even though the battery is in only 2-months or so), and same with the cadence and speed ones too - particularly after a quick stop at a shop mid-spin, but even without a stop/pause, it still happens the odd time.
Again only since 9.0.
Possibly the update corrupted something but I'd have thought I wasn't the only one to have had the problem....I guess it takes time before people accept the updates, whereas I install them as soon as I'm notified

Borderfox

Im generally an early updater too, latest update in the Garmin at the moment. It just froze as I was shutting it down. I would be straight to wahoo except I use the radar on the back of the bike

gwakamoley

My LiveTrack has failed to share any of my LiveTrack sessions since my last phone update. I got on to support who recommended a factory reset, which didn't work and I haven't gotten any more instructions since. Its very frustrating as I'd just started using it and was very impressed with it!

andy69

gwakamoley wrote: »

My LiveTrack has failed to share any of my LiveTrack sessions since my last phone update. I got on to support who recommended a factory reset, which didn't work and I haven't gotten any more instructions since. Its very frustrating as I'd just started using it and was very impressed with it!

Hmmmm.....i wonder if it might be a phone thing then? I was focused just on the Garmin because it had its update recently, and then I had the issues - but maybe the phones have a BT issue that has come to light now with the latest Garmin update.
Are you on Android yeah?
I'll check both our phones for their OS versions - still think if it's a phone thing, that Garmin will end up having to supply a fix for it as they're the smaller of the two devices so they'd hardly get Android to push out a fix for something that phone manufacturers don't really care about

andy69

I see Beacon isn't independent:

"Just enable Garmin LiveTrack, hit record on your device and your real-time location will be sent"

...so if it depends on your phone being connected to the device (as LiveTrack seems to), then it's gonna suffer the same faith I'd say.

Wonder if the recent Gamin updates were pushed out to EMEA region only....I'd suspect if APJ and/or Americas were hit with an update that saw the LiveTrack begin to fail for everyone that the Interweb would be lit up with people complaining.

Macy0161

fwiw, I keep getting my phone connecting and disconnecting from my 920xt, and that's without livetrack and with notifications off during activities. Also with Android.

andy69

Macy0161 wrote: »

fwiw, I keep getting my phone connecting and disconnecting from my 920xt, and that's without livetrack and with notifications off during activities. Also with Android.

interesting! and has that only just started to happen recently I wonder?

I never used to get it, but now, just like in your case with the 920xt, it's constantly disconnecting even just on a normal spin where I haven't got the App in use or LiveTrack.

Checked with a friend that has an Edge 820, and she's not having the issue at all. Her version is 8.8 she said, so I reckon something went haywire with 9.0.

I'll do a factory reset later, and then the update will leapfrog me over 9.0 straight to 9.10 and maybe that will resolve it.

andy69

Just an update (no pun intended ) in case anyone else is sick of the disconnect/reconnect issue, and not able to use LiveTrack:

I tried a factory reset but it's not really worth a damn - the firmware is still on the 9.10 latest. It doesn't reset the device back to the way it was leaving the factory.

So....I did the following (see below), and the Garmin is holding its connection to my phone, and I was able to start LiveTrack no bother.

https://forums.garmin.com/forum/into-sports/cycling/edge-touring-ab/124369- had the instructions.

Basically I forced a downgrade to 8x firmware. Handy enough actually - here are the steps if you are interested:

Download the version you want from this repo, there are update files for most devices:
http://gawisp.com/perry/edge/

I picked 8.40, from December 2017.

Rename the file to: GUPDATE.GCD

Drop it into the Garmin directory on your device (e.g. /Volumes/GARMIN/Garmin) and disconnect the device from your computer.
On the next startup it will warn you the version you are updating to is older than your current version, just accept and it'll run through for you.

as I had done the reset before this, I had to then run through the screen/phone setups etc, but possibly if you don't to a reset first then it should just drop your version back to the older one and you won't have to do the data screen setup etc.

one thing I *should* have done but was in a bit of a fluster...I should have just checked after the factory reset to see if the issue went away while I was still on 9.10. Only thought of that afterwards but too late now.

Hope that helps!

gwakamoley

Funnily enough, after not working for the past 2 weeks this thread appeared last night and then this morning my LiveTrack decided by itself to start working again!

andy69

gwakamoley wrote: »

Funnily enough, after not working for the past 2 weeks this thread appeared last night and then this morning my LiveTrack decided by itself to start working again!

...ha! glad to be of service