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GarminPocalypse: Where are my steps?
On my group bike rides in recent years the frequent exclamations of ‘My Garmin has just crashed’ has got less and less. Partially that’s because I’ve convinced many people I ride with to use Wahoo and partly it’s because Garmin Edge devices have got better and more reliable. However, recent events have shown us that, as one problem is partially sorted out, another rears its ugly data-related head. In the recent GarminPocalypse, some of you have lost data, steps, workouts and more – please feel free to report/moan below,
The good news is that you shouldn’t have lost too much if any, data. This won’t quite be a consolation to those of you who are still waiting for the ability to create and use new structured workouts and courses you created in Garmin Connect.
Here’s what I see…1 ride and 1 run…hmmm. I don’t think so.
- @KHP – Has synced but appears to be missing sleep, step and HR data from July 23rd though
- @InSyt and others – appear to have a problem where there are 199 completed workouts on the device from previous months. That seems to be the maximum NUMBER. You can delete completed workouts manually from the Garmin/Activity folder, whereas normally Garmin Connect seems to have played a role in deleting the oldest one. (I archive workouts manually so had never got anywhere near 199 workouts)
- @CE – reports this same issue (199 workouts) also impacts on the ability to update the TOTAL DISTANCE records eg if Garmin can’t save the 10-mile cycle ride the 10 miles won’t get added to your running total
- @IrisVDN – report blank watch faces
- @Mirko and others – report non-functioning autolaps nor lap pace (again perhaps linked to the 199 workouts)
- @Will and others – report inability to save a workout (linked to the 199 workouts)
The Story as it unfolded
- Ransomware rumoured as major outage becomes clear
- Vaguely interesting stat show complete lack of data from Garmin Connect going to STRAVA
- TrainingPeaks sensibly recommends a password change in certain circumstances
- Possible evidence of the hack and ransom demand (only one source)
- Garmin speaks out
- Partial re-start underway (this post)
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I was crazy enough to put myself a challenge to get a “10k A Day” badge and started it on June 25th. And Garmin crashed on July 23rd, leaving me bothering if my hard work with 10k steps would need to be (re)started over.
However, this morning I was very glad to see Connect is partially back to life. But on 23rd I saw only ~600 steps saved. Workouts of that and later days were synced successfully though.
After checking calender in an hour or so I’ve observed stepes on 23rd increased to ~6000. One more hour and they are up to 9000. And voila, after some more time steps started to appear on 24th day too. I think everything’s already uploaded, but processing takes a long time because of tremendous load. Also, this seems to indicate steps are saved on the watch in small chunks inside some FIT file, not just day’s totals updated. Probably to make it more crash-proof and data-loss-proof. Which makes me happy to some extent.
So still refreshing steps pages and would like to see, if the badge will be accounted.
Some badges/challenges would probably need further processing. Like there was July 40 km ride badge and I’ve completed 50 km ride during the timeframe. However as of this moment the challenge is not accounted. Probably it will be later.
Despite poor communication I am glad how Garmin coped with this issue and how powerful their devices are in saving tons of data inside, also MTP ability to take data offline myself. I’d wish their Connect app was more self-reliant, like Polar Flow, which could sync and process data without internet connection for weeks and then sync everything to online services. Hope this will give some kick for Garmin to add more offline capabilities to their apps/features.
GC is back. Just my Fenix regs missing. I synced manually through GE but this is confusing ever since I have the device. It syncs aut. after a reg is saved but bit of a mystery how, guess GCM.
In case of updates I have to manually make the wifi connection. Just did that as there was one. The process always is strange. GE says it’s waiting for connection but meanwhile watch says it’s transferring and concludes with confirmation things have been done. GE stays hanging. (picture)
Regs from last days didn’t come along. Might not be ‘normal’, related to the outage.
Lastly tried to to force syncing through GCM and that gave pic 2
Pic 2
I’m in Europe by the way. (the Netherlands)
I just checked my HR data and in the period between 23/7 03:20 and 24/7 09:18 (CEST) sleep, HR, and step count data were lost.
I started a run on 23/7 17:32, which was recorded correctly.
I am missing the same things but from 25/7 12:46 until 26/7 14:06 CEST where i started my next run (for the second time – first time did not have distance and so did not save. After rebooting the watch (f6X) and diconnecting my Phone everything worked well)
In Brazil it’s mostly back. As I had taken zero action (no manual uploads to Strava, no desperate nothing at all) the system restoration was perfect. No lost data, no duplicates, zero issues. Fenix 6X Sapphire.
The weird outages make no sense on GCM
Example:
RHR shows (incorrectly I might add, but it’s there) High for the day does not. Sleep metrics show up detailed in the watch, not in GCM. Body Battery and Respiration show up, but no metrics but a static number. Stress has disappeared from GCM altogether and I don’t know why.
What an odd way to parse user metric data. Like, the things that aren’t showing up in the app seem to me to be the ones that need the servers up to view? It doesn’t make sense! Why do they need a server dependency to function? They’re on the device natively! HR and Steps update in realtime within the app, but you mean to tell me you can’t have the rest?
See, this is why I say Garmin software design is like Swiss Cheese! They built this system all over the place and never took the time to fix it. Anyone really surprised it’s taken Garmin nearly a week to get things working’ish?
here is everything fine, sleep will transfered to external servers of Firstbeat, when the data is adapted there, they came back corrected (think, it’s clear that this queue is busy, more or less a bottle neck).
Only Physio True looks strange, Training Load on FR945 and Edge 830 is totally different!
I just lost out on two badges,12 points in total because my steps for July 23rd were never retrieved. (60 day goal getter badge and 10k a day monthly badge) is there any way I can get them back.? (43000 steps)