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…).
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.
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’.
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.
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.
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.
Well Garmin better get off their ass: Apple to Phase Out Rosetta 2 Starting With macOS 28 as Intel Era Ends - MacRumors
It’s silicon, not silicone.
It works fine for many others, it is not a general problem everyone is having
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.
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.
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.
Garmin has gotten years of use out of this line, I mean years
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.
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.
But Garmin can’t support every chipset they used over the years for a long time. They often pick a chipset and supporting chips that they feel will get them to the next big release and possibly a few months to a year afterward, and sometimes they just can’t. Imagine the burned Apple owners that had invested in the Intel platform driven Macs, and now being told they are officially done. (Think Mac Pro, and more than the first house I ever owned, and the car in the driveway)
But yeah, old things don’t work as well as the ‘new hotness’.
But Apple M Series Silicon really aren’t that new, and Garmin should support them NOW. Many (most) other software houses are. shrug I’m sure this thread is going to make them support Apple Silicon, but if enough forward it to Garmin, strange things might happen.
Even Apple is aware of the deficiency, now (if not before that, but they are Apple, lot Garmin) but they can’t tell Garmin to fix it..
The do ‘x’ it doesn’t work, do ‘x’ again, and it does is insane, and I could spend hours/days trying to figure it out and really potentially never get the secret sauce to MAKE it work.
Did you use a different USB C cable at the Apple Store? USB C and Thunderbolt cables are really ambiguous and confusing because they aren’t usually marked with any indication of their capabilities. Some are really only suitable for low power charging, some higher power charging, some for low bandwidth data, some for high bandwidth data, and some for various levels of Thunderbolt. The Thunderbolt cables actually contain tiny computers inside them, which can possibly introduce their own issues.
So actually Garmin is right to ask you to use their cable as a way to try to solve the issue. There’s usually no way to know what a particular cable supports unless you bought it from a reputable manufacturer that actually specifies the technical details.
Also, make sure that you aren’t using any adapters or docks either. They can cause any manner of trouble as they can also contain internal computers which can introduce errors. I’ve had many bug fix updates to my Thunderbolt Dock that uses Intel chips and Intel invented Thunderbolt!
That’s where it was odd. I used an Apple USB-A to USB-C adapter and the corresponding Garmin cable, and it worked. We were surprised it worked (Me given my experience with those Apple adapters) and yet doing the same thing here, got the same bad result: Express not connecting to the Edge.
There is something that is not happening at the time that it apparently should, and even running the Rosetta install first time after the reinstall of the OS didn’t work, AND after doing a ‘full erase’. So is there something from the previous install clinging to the drive that isn’t being replaced? Is there some part of the OS that is not being replaced? Is there some part of the install process that is timing out or failing somehow?
The onus is on Garmin to better debug their app. I’m not seeing how I can more effectively debug their software without access to the source code, but I will see if I can figure out what’s not going on. (They could have a ‘verbose’ mode, or a debug switch supported that would help for future issues customers may have. GREAT IDEA GARMIN, If you are listening)
I believe that I was using a Thunderbolt cable, which should be a high capacity data and charging cable, so having the adaptered cable actually work made it so shocking that it worked.
Their support agent said they did “obviously”, but if they do or don’t, would likely be a closely guarded secret.
All I’m saying is that Garmin is a multi-billion dollar company and there is no excuse for them not having a more modern app especially since it’s been 5 years. I’m sure they also had a year heads up as a developer.
I had a really odd and seemingly rare bug on a 2014 Mac Mini and a new Samsung SSD drive. The drive had been working for a month but then I upgraded the operating system and the whole system started acting slow/weird when this drive was connected.
After more google searches than I have ever done in the most obscure forums, I found someone who had had a similar problem and they said it was fixed by changing the usb3 to usb-c cable to one spec’d as “10Gbps”.
Logically, how could that work? It’s an old 2014 Mini that doesn’t even support 10Gbps. The hardware had all worked with the previous version of the OS.
Out of options, I thought I’d just try the new cable. It was $7 on Amazon so I had little to lose. Sure enough, that was the magic fix. (I’ll remind the reader that the old cable was a brand new and had come with the Samsung external SSD.
I guess that the new operating version expected some kind of handshake from the cable that it wasn’t getting. Very bizarre on an old 2014 machine.
And, the Garmin cable did not work.
I’m going to do another erase/reload on the M1 and see if I can coax it to work. I got the M4 Max to work, so who knows.
Computers already seem to have a mind of their own. Not sure what’s going on here, but it’s pretty odd…
The entire app is identified as being ‘Intel’, so it should have loaded Rosetta right at the start. ‘Should have’… The last time with the M4, it DID load Rosetta, but not on the previous attempts. (Sounds like Garmin programmers took some shortcuts. You can make it harder for the OS to know it needs to load Rosetta. It’s partly a bug from Apple for a short time shim, and Garmin for not using Apple’s directions for writing the program to allow the OS to ‘help it’ (But then why did it fire the install once? That’s the right question))
@Deleteme It has been awhile but I did have a situation where the MacOS locked out a device without my knowledgable consent. I did a fresh install as a new user, after backing up my data. I manually transferred my data back on the new machine. Try a fresh install would be my recommendation to reset all the software/device settings.