Upstream are stories of me erasing three different machines and only getting Express to work on one of them. The one I wiped 3 times. Yeah, the problem is it should fix problems, but it doesn’t/didn’t. The M4 actually did everything like it was supposed to do, and worked, after I spent 2 hours at an Apple Store, reloading macOS and installing Express. It’s most interesting that that time it worked like it was supposed to. I half joked about driving tot he Apple Store with the other systems that I can’t get Express to run correctly on, but then they might want to hire me as a technician…
I’ve seen some crazy stuff. One client had a problem with their accounting software crashing. I went through everything, started working with the vendors people. Someone said ‘OMG I KNOW WHY IT’S CRASHING’. If they ran the same programs in the same order, the software crashed, If they didn’t run the software in the same order, it didn’t. I can imagine the look on their programmer’s faces. Weird stuff. Never a dull day at times…
To help you chase this rabbit down, why don’t you install and run an Intel binary application first, before you try to run Express, after your clean install.
I spent a few minutes and found one. VLC has an intel-only build still available.
That would be a good test for the triggering of Rosetta install, if VLC is written properly to get macOS to invoke the installer.
Manually installing Rosetta, though, should meet the criteria for having it onboard when the install of Express starts/ends, and that wasn’t enough to have Express work. So far in my little world, nothing works except the MacBook Pro that was reloaded at the Apple Store, and where the Rosetta install was automagically triggered by and before the Express install started. So I’m getting nowhere on my macs, getting the manual install of Rosetta to work, or getting Rosetta to auto install after the erase/reload dance done here. There’s all kinds of reasons that the erase/reload should function the same no matter where it’s done (why it took my breath away when it all worked as designed).
I wish I had another M-class notebook to beat on and see if it does matter where it’s reloaded, and if there is any underlying issue with the network connection, or firewall here (just blocking typical stuff).
FWIW, I have problemes with Garmin Express on a M3 Max MBP as well. My Garmin Devices never connect (anymore?). Garmin Express tells me there are updates, I plug my Devices in, and it spins at “Connecting Device” forever. That’s with an Edge 840 and a Fenix 8. I have Rosetta installed. Not sure if these are the same problems as the OP has, but I too get the impression that Garmin Express on the Mac is quite lacking.
As you can see in my screenshot, it seems to have worked in september at least once though.
This entire situation is beyond frustrating. On my M1 Pro this has been an issue with my 840 ever since garmin changed USB to media mode. I wiped my device twice and got it to work once. I was successful one other time after multiple re-installs of Express.
The forced Rosetta install sorta worked once, but Express has frozen every time since and nothing I do fixes it. I can’t even erase a map from my device anymore to try to install a new one.
On top of that, I had the routing bug where it would always give “Calculation Error” when trying to find a route to a destination. It only got “fixed” when I changed it from “popularity” to “roads” or whatever, so now I have less than idea routing.
It is quite lacking. I have the same exact issue. Spent hours trying to resolve the issue and now have given up. If I didn’t have a phone the Garmin would be useless.
I would like to request you stick around. You bring a huge breadth and depth of experience that’s really helpful to the community. Please don’t let one bad conversation ruin it.
