Forums >Gears and Wears>Garmin still reading the forum?
I finally installed Garmin Express on my computer and sent some update to the watch. I'll see if that makes a difference.
I had the same issue with my 220. When I first got it acquiring satellite lock was lightning fast (well, compared to my 205/305 watches). But it got slower and slower. What's supposed to make the 220 (and later series watches) acquire lock quickly is that satellite location data is downloaded to the watch whenever 1) you connect your watch to your USB port or 2) you connect the watch using the Garmin mobile app via bluetooth on your phone. Supposedly the USB connection will download 7 days of satellite location data while the bluetooth supposedly downloads 3 days worth of data. If you don't have this data file updated it will revert back to the old 205/305 method of searching for satellites from scratch (the new method gives it a head start in finding the satellites). What I found fixed this issue (and still does) is to make sure that at least once a week that I plug it into the charging cradle, open up Garmin Express and force a Sync. I don't rely on the automatic Sync that it says it does. This updates the satellite cache and then, voila, lightning fast locks again. You can check to see when your last set of satellite data was dowloaded by looking in a directory on your 220 (when it's connected via USB) called \Garmin\REMOTESW for a file called EPO.BIN. Make sure the date on this file is very recent. If it's not that may be the problem. PS - wanted to mention that the file will 'disappear' after you unplug your watch, but the data is still there. It's odd behavior that I don't understand. Force the sync and you'll see that file appear. Unplug, plug back in and it's not there!
I had the same issue with my 220. When I first got it acquiring satellite lock was lightning fast (well, compared to my 205/305 watches). But it got slower and slower.
What's supposed to make the 220 (and later series watches) acquire lock quickly is that satellite location data is downloaded to the watch whenever 1) you connect your watch to your USB port or 2) you connect the watch using the Garmin mobile app via bluetooth on your phone. Supposedly the USB connection will download 7 days of satellite location data while the bluetooth supposedly downloads 3 days worth of data.
If you don't have this data file updated it will revert back to the old 205/305 method of searching for satellites from scratch (the new method gives it a head start in finding the satellites).
What I found fixed this issue (and still does) is to make sure that at least once a week that I plug it into the charging cradle, open up Garmin Express and force a Sync. I don't rely on the automatic Sync that it says it does. This updates the satellite cache and then, voila, lightning fast locks again.
You can check to see when your last set of satellite data was dowloaded by looking in a directory on your 220 (when it's connected via USB) called \Garmin\REMOTESW for a file called EPO.BIN. Make sure the date on this file is very recent. If it's not that may be the problem.
PS - wanted to mention that the file will 'disappear' after you unplug your watch, but the data is still there. It's odd behavior that I don't understand. Force the sync and you'll see that file appear. Unplug, plug back in and it's not there!
This sounds like a lot of work. I decided it's probably fine as is.
Dave