Garmin Livetracking...

Rhod81

...is rubbish!

Or am i doing something wrong?

No matter what i try, i cannot get Livetracking to work consistently. The 'location','bluetooth' and 'data' are all on, the phone and Garmin (its a 510 btw) are connected. Livetracking is selected and starts up fine... Ten minutes later it simply stops working. Today, upon arriving home after a 2-hour ride, i stopped the Garmin and it stopped, then said 'livetrack ended', so it seemed to be ok, until i got in and was told it had stopped five miles down the road... There is no such message as 'phone disconected' to let me know somethings not working.

Uploading rides through the garmin and phone is useless too... When it does work it can take anywhere between 3-6 hours to upload a ride. 9 times out of 10 though it does nothing and i get fed up with waiting and upload via the computer. Normally its a minor inconvenience but today it has just uploaded a ride i did two days ago! I am uploading through Garmin Connect and using Garmin Sync to transfer to Strava.

Somone i know uses a Tom Tom gps watch, and that uploads immediately.

I have reinstalled Garmin Connect. Thinking it may be the phone, i now have a good (waterproof) smart phone. I have disconnected the phone and re-paired it.

Its a good job that the rest of the Garmin is a cracking piece of kit, as -as per my experience- the bluetooth/internet connectivity which the 510 was marketed by is crap. Its annoying as i bought the 510 mainly for that specific purpose as i go out riding alone mainly and the mrs was concerned.

Any ideas???

Thanks :-)

munkster

I've got the 810 which I pretty much got *for* the LiveTrack feature and have the same thing. All starts up and begins LiveTrack fine but then when I go out in the barren wilds 5 miles from my door the second the mobile signal is lost that's it. Never to reconnect... Plenty of discussion about it on the Garmin forums IIRC.

NeXXus

Welcome to Garmin Beta testing.

munkster

Welcome to Garmin Beta testing.

I'm going out on a limb here, but... sarcasm???


I wonder if the Garmin 1000 has the same problem, anyone know? Apart from this annoyance the 810 is great for my needs, really don't want or need a 1000.

NeXXus

munkster wrote:

Welcome to Garmin Beta testing.

I'm going out on a limb here, but... sarcasm???


I wonder if the Garmin 1000 has the same problem, anyone know? Apart from this annoyance the 810 is great for my needs, really don't want or need a 1000.

Unfortunately not. Garmin are renowned for releasing products that haven't been fully tested then taking years to fix them.

I previously had an 800 but skipped the 810 and went straight to the 1000. So far it's been faultless, no experience of livetracking as yet.

Rhod81

I can understand, and appreciate it being a little unreliable as per phones gps signal being poor in areas, but surely when you come back into signal it should start up again???

Even if, from a safety point of view, it gave a ping every few minutes to let someone the other end know youre still moving would be better? As i really cant imagine anyone paying too much attention to the livetracking side of things (drying paint comes to mind).

munkster

Hmmm, maybe LiveTrack isn't so hot on the 1000 either...

https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.ph ... -Edge-1000

:-(

NeXXus

Might have to try it now out of curiosity

meanredspider

It was hit-and-miss for me on the 1000 but that was nearly a year ago and I hope Garmin have got it to work. Running it killed my iPhone battery pretty quickly too (sub 8 hours). A friend was also trying it on the 810 and found it marginal.

StillGoing

When I first got an 810, Livetracking worked fine. With the release of the 1000 and Garmin's tie in with Strava, things went a bit haywire. It took a firmware upgrade to sort things and since then I have had no problems. Even the link into social media sites is working fine.

munkster

What version of the firmware are you on philthy if it's not too much hassle to find out? I thought I *was* on the most recent...

StillGoing

munkster wrote:

What version of the firmware are you on philthy if it's not too much hassle to find out? I thought I *was* on the most recent...

Next time I activate it (hopefully tomorrow) I will pm you.

Grahamsjz

Works fine for me if I leave the iPhone with the Garmin App as the last thing on the screen as I turn the screen off. I use a Mophie juice pack on the phone - phone still at 100% after 6 hours. I sometimes wonder how much all the kit weighs and then look at the two bottles and think even just one of them weighs more than the phone and juice pack and Garmin.......

Rodrego Hernandez

Probably works once out of every 5 attempts for me. Not stable enough to use really. It's ideal use in my opinion is so that someone can see where you are should you have a problem. I've used in when on new roads or in different areas and it so rarely works that is is not worth the hassle. Overseas the data costs it uses when it isn't even working make it worse than useless. It would be more reliable to send an sms with your location on.

StillGoing

munkster wrote:

What version of the firmware are you on philthy if it's not too much hassle to find out? I thought I *was* on the most recent...

Version 3.40

How Far is too Far

I use it with a 510 & 810 with a Samsung on 02, if I am in a remote place it does not update as often as it should but once the signal is back it works fine. I have the latest software on both Garmins.

munkster

Version 3.40

Hmm, me too :-(

My Connect/Strava link works just fine, it's the LiveTrack that is shonky.

StillGoing

Used it again today and no problem. Are you using an iPhone by chance? I had issues at one time because I hadn't closed down all the apps on the phone. Once they were closed down it worked fine again.

munkster

I am indeed using an iPhone. Will try closing down other apps but won't hold my breath, owing to where I live and ride I do tend to lose signal soon after starting off... Thanks for the info anyway, will give a few things a try.

StillGoing

The last foul up with Live tracking was to do with an Apple firmware update.

Fabius

In my experience all garmin software and the stuff that connects it is sketchy. I have an edge 800 and a virb elite. I only use them as a drive to get stuff on and off, I used to use the communicator plug in but they change it so frequently it's just easier to upload the files.

Livetrack is a nice idea poorly implemented, like the virb remote control via the edge. They fail without you knowing,which is very annoying.

shipley

Mine is intermittent using a 5s and an 810. It does though depend entirely on the route, if my route is tree lined in a weak signal area my livetrack is rubbish. If it's wide open, and in an area with a good signal it's fine.

I believe it's the phone signal and not necessarily the garmin at fault - the phone signal in the US is much better, and that's the home of Garmin and its software folk.

Bar Shaker

I have an iPhone 6 and Garmin 1000. I've only tried it once and it worked except for the areas where I had no signal. It did come alive again later. I don't really see the point though, unless you are looking to hook up with mates, who are on a longer ride.

If your other half or mates have an iPhone, Apple's 'Find My Friends' app does just as good a job with almost no effect on battery.

StillGoing

Live track is a constant feed in the background and offers much more information than just where you are such as heart rate, speed, cadence, power. Useful for trainer monitoring and in my case where there is a heart condition and a recent stroke.

munkster

I don't really see the point though

When I'm out riding on my own, Mrs M does... YMMV.

Man Of Lard

Forget about trying to get the Garmin to provide the GPS signal then - use something like Glympse on the phone. Sure it's not going to be as accurate in terms of GPS fix, but it is at least reliable in terms of providing your position, direction of travel and speed via a URL that even the most technologically-challenged of people can click on (hello mum)

munkster

"Like"

Will investigate that, cheers ;-)