Edge 1040 "This device is not compatible with Express" Express isn't compatible with Apple Silicone chips!

Equipment
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I posted this so people that know what they are doing, have the problem, and want to see if this fixes it on their system can give it a go. Even though it didn’t work on my M2 mini, I DID get Express to work on this M4.

This is what was installed yesterday at the Apple Store. Interesting that ‘RosettaUpdateAuto’ was installed, that was the ‘mystery install’ that happened.

Something triggered that to install, and I downloaded that package, to see if it makes any difference. :person_shrugging:

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It didn’t, or the updater programs aren’t the same for some reason.

And you can download the RosettaUpdateAuto package by following these instructions:

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And you find the version of your macOS by going to About This Mac, then More Info…, then System Report (scroll down), and click on Software. At the top it will show the major version, and the release version. 18.55 is release 24F74. Search for that, and above that you will see a line ‘ULR<key.>’. Below that, copy the URL that begins with HTTPS, and ends in “pkg”, but only between those two parts, and paste that into your browser and the file will download. Double click it and it will start the installer. After it’s done, reboot and try it again.

Now the only thing that I changed on the notebook was a setting in Privacy and Security. There is a section after the Security section titled “Accessories”; I set it to ‘Always ask’. It’ll popup and disappear on occasion, but when it pops up, click ‘Allow’. That is the only thing that I changed after the erase/reinstall of macOS. (And it still works on this notebook, amazingly enough)

There also seems to be enough blame to go around for this. If it is a Rosetta issue, why doesn’t Rosetta fire the install more consistently, and why doesn’t the command line install apparently work properly. On the other side, why doesn’t Garmin have an Apple Silicone version of Express, or at least handle whatever is missing better.

The error message ‘This device isn’t compatible with Express’ seems to be the answer when the programmers don’t want to figure out what the problem was. It could also be the default answer when the connection dance doesn’t complete, ignoring potentially a lot of issues and giving a non-answer. (I remember seeing ‘These aren’t the droids you’re looking for’ in an macOS error log, and a third level engineer laughed: ‘That’s the message when we either can’t identify the problem, or don’t want or don’t have to know what it was’. Basically ‘Something bad just happened and we don’t know/care’. Nice, cute, but not at all usable. Programmers…

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Your should mark this post as the solution so anyone reading the first post will see the automatic link to this post. (I think you do it from the three dots dropdown).

ETA: I said that before finishing reading the thread. I guess there’s something else/additional going on. Hopefully you get it sorted. You mentioned the permission setting. I would try that again.

One of my gripes with Apple is that they want to hide all errors so when something goes wrong you have bupkis to go on.

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And that macOS is built on a version of Unix, and there is still a lot of that lurking under the surface. Probably less now, but in the early days, I got involved in trying to solve an issue with a PPPOE connection through a dsl modem, and I could get the commands in, but they mostly didn’t function. No joy… Called Apple, and got to third level. The guy claimed to be a later developer for macOS, and said that sure there was a lot of Mach and Unix in there, but so much of it had been disconnected, ruled by an applet in System Settings. I found a shim that setup the connection and got immense joy and happiness. But the error messages were verging on hysterical. ‘Not the droids you’re looking for’? But…

Being a programmer in a past life, I often had to branch a program with a decision tree, some branches I cared about and some I didn’t, so the ones I didn’t care about went to the everything else bucket. In testing I’d have to show variables so I knew what bombed to know if I cared, and adding a branch to handle it, or not. Deployment meant pulling out the show variable list and if the user was lucky, adding a message. If subsequent programmers were lucky, I had it write a log file, or the person requesting it required a log file. Most didn’t.

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This sounds like par for the course with Garmin sofware releases.

You’d think Garmin would wake up. Apple is shipping 15% of the new PC market now and I’d bet that people that will pay the Apple premium are also more likely to pay the Garmin premium.

Maybe they just want the desktop app to die off eventually?

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I’m sure they do, but as GP pointed out, Express is still needed for some updates.

Adobe was notoriously slow on updating their macOS product line. Sometimes their Windows versions would be quite a bit updated, and mac users would be wondering when they would get the update(s). I knew many people who just dropped Adobe completely rather than be 'carrot and stick’ed to switch to Windows as that seemed their unwritten excuse for the delays.

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Except there are a bunch of Garmin products (e.g., Varia 515) that don’t work with the Garmin connect mobile app to update - it’s either desktop or an Edge. At least for me, I’m not going to update my Varia right before a ride when I turn on my Edge at the start of the ride. So not being able to update it via desktop app would be a major step back.

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Additionally, other things like Garmin’s massive map updates (8-15GB) are FAR faster on a desktop computer than the WiFi chipset in their Edge & watch devices, which are designed for low-power usage.

Now, one could argue (correctly), that if Garmin let users download smaller country/regional map bits/sections, rather than the entire continent, that’d solve that problem (and others…).

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I get it, I don’t want to use an app either, and if that IS the direction they are going in, they aren’t being too suave at getting there, but I can see them going app only. I have a Descent G1 dive watch and they seem to be all about the app for support for it.

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But this is Express, not Connect. Is there still a Garmin Connect app?

There IS, but it’s for the iPhone, not the mac. Hah, proof of their upcoming moves? And updating maps alone on an Edge over wifi on a phone based app would classify as torture! Even using a hard wired computer took ‘a long time’.

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We are totally in agreement that Garmin needs a good, native, Mac App. But if there aren’t going to do that, then they need to make it so that every device can be updated via their mobile app.

I very much want a fast, native, Mac desktop app for doing major / large updates.

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I have a brand new M4 MacBook Pro, it runs Express fine (via the Rosetta emulator, automatically installed upon install) and connects to my garmin edge 530 and Forerunner 255 fine, syncs and updates both.

Seems likely this is a software problem you can solve.

Also worth trying a different cable and USB-c adapter, ensuring you have a data enabled cable.

I’d agree that Garmin should’ve release a native apple silicone version by now, but for 2x a year I don’t care much.

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Garmin said that everything would be wine and roses if I used THEIR cable. Yeah, BS! (But they gave me one so could it work?)

I was wondering if the timing of the Rosetta install could be part of it, but I installed it before Express, and noted that Express didn’t cause the auto-install of Rosetta. But Rosetta was always a bit of a kludge anyway. The first time they had to use Rosetta was the PowerPC to Intel processor migration, and some stuff just would not run with it, and other stuff people swore wouldn’t ever run had no issues at all. That’s life I guess…

But this whole 'Accessory interaction thing has me wondering, and the Apple Genius too, if that caused the trigger to install Rosetta and if that also did something behind the curtain to make it run.

Damnedest thing though, it works on the MBP, and not on a ‘real’ mac, after it wouldn’t work on the MBP!!! What’s the secret sauce? The secret incantation? I’m out of chicken legs.

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Well Garmin better get off their ass: Apple to Phase Out Rosetta 2 Starting With macOS 28 as Intel Era Ends - MacRumors

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It’s silicon, not silicone.

It works fine for many others, it is not a general problem everyone is having

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It’s the inconsistency. Yeah, the MBP that Express refused to run on DID finally start running it. I had done the exact things the day before and got nowhere, but doing it at Apple seemed to be the charm to get it to work. I doubt that was the reason, but I nearly floored when it DID connect. Even the Genius, as I stated above, was shocked/surprised it worked too. So what caused it to work? Rosetta, but what part of the Rosetta install I did on the M2 didn’t work, except for the install not being automagic.

Thanks for the spellcheck.

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The Rosetta 2 auto install has a bug where in certain circumstances it won’t cause the install of the ‘helper’.

Interesting. So that still makes me wonder why it worked as designed the last time at the Apple Store, and hasn’t worked at all properly anywhere else on any other M based mac I have. (I know the Apple Store is the Center of the Universe, so tongue in cheek here)

Interesting. AND why installing it after an erase doesn’t work. Something about the installer possibly?

Bizarre… Trying to use a debugger app to track what’s going on…

They also claim that root privilege isn’t needed to install Rosetta, but I wonder…

I’ll try ‘sudo softwareupdate --install-rosetta’ and see if it works.

EDIT: Didn’t work. Hmm…

Safe Mode install didn’t work either.

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From that link:

“I have an app that is itself a universal binary but which loads an intel only plugin. This does not cause the built in Rosetta 2 installer to launch.”

That’s a bug for this particular program, but not relevant to your situation. And root is never necessary to install Rosetta, just admin.

I don’t mean to sound snarky, just trying to save you time chasing things.

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Garmin has gotten years of use out of this line, I mean years

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I get the snark, but I’ve also been in the industry for a long time. Sometimes there are issues that might require going through chasing things that might make a solution happen.

All I know is that I did ‘the same thing’ to two different systems, and for one, the same thing twice with different results. So testing everything is a good part of trying to see what happened on the one system, and what might be going on. And sure, if I can’t get the M2 mini to run Express, I might go back to the Apple Store and use their wifi to reload macOS and see if there is some magic there that caused my MBP to run properly…

This issue, on one level makes no sense. I did THE SAME THING, and got 2 different results. If I put a wheel on a car, it lets the car drive. One time it doesn’t pop off, and the next it’s perfect.

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The answer is that Garmin software development sucks. If they just don’t care enough to release a proper version for M cpu Macs after all these years, do you think they are thoroughly testing every incarnation of new Mac and OS that comes along with their old software?

My Edge 510 was absolutely horrible. They would fix one or two things and always break something new with every update. They finally broke my ability to sync over bluetooth on that 510. Believe me, it’s a royal pain to attach a cable for every single sync.

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