What are they up to at Garmin?

[Rob_and_his_westie]

About a week ago they introduced a new interface to the dashboard website (it must be catching....) which I think is completely counter-intuitive and now it seems to have slowed to a halt! There's even a message on the front page that the segment feature is unavailable due to 'popularity'?

Thankfully I have an iPad app that pulls my data down which seems not to be quite so badly affected. I pity anyone who just invested in a new piece of Garmin kit - you must be getting a very bad first experience right now.

[Mummysaurus Graduate]

Oh boy are you right about that! My kids brought me a Vivofit for my birthday so I could track my steps during the day and use a heart rate monitor on the runs, thanks to Garmins updates now I can no longer see any of my activities from running and the distances and calories burnt are not the same as on the gadget itself, getting to the point where I just can't be bothered using it

[Hidden]

I love the info that I get back from my Garmin but the interface causes me enormous frustrations! The new interface looks far more modern but the flexibility and view of any info seems to be more limiting than ever. And most of my options in the sidebar just say "coming soon". Why would you release something that is only half finished (even as a beta test website)?

I'm also having trouble with it constantly uploading old run data that I don't want. I have been through endless repeats of delete old data, hard reset everything, re-install everything, go through all file history delete everything in the libraries ... and there it is again!!

And breathe .... *think happy thoughts ... think happy thoughts*

[AncientMum Graduate]

So I picked a good time to order a Garmin then??

[jacky-f Graduate in reply to AncientMum]

Me too! Mine should be delivered today or tomorrow.

[Rob_and_his_westie Graduate in reply to AncientMum]

Don't get me wrong - I pretty much live by my Garmin and I absolutely love the feedback and the data, but I just can't believe what they're doing to that website. I use an iPad/iPhone app called ConnectStats that logs in to Garmin, downloads the data and presents it far more clearly and apparently, more reliably, than Garmin do it themselves!

[Hidden in reply to Rob_and_his_westie]

I like the look of that ConnectStats. It never even occurred to me to look at a third party interface!

[Beads Graduate]

I upload my Garmin runs into MapMyRun, nicer to use than even the old Garmin site (my opinion) and has the advantage that I can edit my runs to go round lakes and tall buildings rather than through/over them!

I did however click the 'go to modern' (or some such) button yesterday to see what the fuss is about. I've installed it but can't open Garmin express unless I "disable virus software and firewall", um, no, not going to happen. So I'll stick with MMR.

Edit: Another advantage of MMR is that I have the option to 'change workout type' before I upload, so when I use my Garmin to track a walk I log a walk rather than a run and then have to go back and figure out how to edit it to change run to walk.

Just logged into Garmin, on the left, under the picture (under it, not below) is an option to temporarily switch back to 'Classic', this takes you back to the old style site.

[dottiemay Graduate in reply to Beads]

Thanks for the MMR reminder Beads. I started there before I had my Garmin, and I may well go back to them!

[ajwyld Graduate]

Just to give a counter view - I've had a Garmin FR15 for about 3 weeks now, and when I signed up got assigned the "new" interface by default. I find it fine. I like being able to see both my runs and my steps on the same dashboard (I guess only relevant to 15 users for now) and am finding it quite intuitive. Of course, its possible that this is only because I don't know what I'm missing !

[Rignold]

I still have not managed to get my Garmin 410 to talk to the ANT Agent and Garmin Connect. There was supposed to be new software revision in April for Connect Express that the 410 could use at last but nope. Garmin Tech Support is less than useless too.

That said I just use it in real time and it is a great piece of kit. I just wish they would get their online act together.

[Bonniesingh Graduate]

I'm also having trouble connecting with garmin 310. Sometimes it talks to the computer and sometimes it doesn't. I fiddle about with it and then it works eventually, but I've fiddled about so much I'm not sure what it was that I did that made it work. Garmin express and ant agent don't seem to like each other. One tells me to disable the other, then it still doesn't work. I emailed garmin support a couple of days ago but haven't had a reply yet. If I get any useful info I'll let you all know.