Here’s what to do if your Garmin is not syncing workouts

Garmin is one of the best known names in the wearables space. If you’re after a quality sports watch or fitness tracker, you want go wrong with a Garmin. But things don’t always go smoothly and issues do arise. Here’s what to do if your Garmin wearable is not syncing workouts.

One thing that all Garmin fitness trackers and smartwatches have in common is that they use the same smartphone software. Garmin Connect is probably not the best app out there, but it is one of the most comprehensive ones. Look hard enough and you’ll find the piece of data you are looking for. It might take a few clicks but it’s probably there.

What if things go wrong?

My device of choice is the Forerunner 935. As great as the watch is, I do have sync issues from time to time. You’ve put in a hard workout but it just won’t sync.

What you first have to realize is that most likely, you have not lost the workout. It is still there on the watch. In fact, all your workouts since you bought the watch are sitting there. So in that sense there’s no cause for worry.

You’ll know your wearable is playing nice with the app by looking at the sync ring. It will spin and a white line on the status ring will show progress. If the ring is greyed out it’s either finished syncing or not paired. To initiate a sync manually, simply pull down on the smartphone display. The green dot shows your device is connected.

A list of things to try

There’s a fix for everything. Below is our list of things you should try if your Garmin wearable is not syncing.

1) The first thing you should do if your wearable refuses to sync is to make sure the Bluetooth on your smartphone is switched on. Switch Bluetooth on your smartphone on and off to ensure the connection is good. Do it a couple of times to see if it resolves the issue.

It should go without saying that your Garmin device needs to be in close vicinity to your smartphone in order for a Bluetooth connection to be made.

2) If the sync issue persists, the next thing you should try is closing and re-opening the app. Once is enough. Restarting your smartphone might also help. Give it a go.

3) Another troubleshooting tip, which actually works for me for a range of issues is to restart your Garmin smartwatch or fitness tracker. For rechargeable devices without a power button, simply plug them into a USB port using the charging cable. This is as close to a restart as you will get with these wearables. Owners of Vivofit devices should skip this step entirely as their device cannot be power cycled.

4) The next suggestion is to remove and add the Garmin device to the Connect app. Don’t worry, you won’t lose any data.

5) Still not working? Try connecting your Garmin device to the computer via Garmin Express. This reboots it but none of your settings and data will be deleted. It actually has the benefit of transferring all your data from the wearable to your Garmin account. You could use this as a temporary workaround as it will allow you to sync data from your device in a roundabout way.

6) You could try deleting the Garmin app from your smartphone and reinstalling it. Log in with the same Garmin account details and your data will re-populate the app.

7) The last resort? Factory reset your device. Then follow the setup prompts to get it up and running again.

Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets

Hopefully one of these solutions has worked for you. If not, your Garmin wearable might be faulty. Give Garmin Support a shout to see if they can do something.

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