"Navigate on watch now" works exactly once during an activity

sky-runner

I have now confirmed this issue 3 times on different watches, so this is clearly a software bug.

“Navigate on watch now” works successfully only once during an activity. Even if the previous navigation has ended, a new one can’t be initiated from the phone. The option remains greyed out.

Also, it appears this applies to syncing routes to watch when in activity in general. This has to be fixed!

Expected behavior: it should be possible to always push a new navigation route from the phone. Also, when “navigate on watch now” function is used, it should always replace the current navigation route, if there is one in progress.

Horizontal_2

@sky-runner Yep, it’s weird to have only one token for this function.

It’s an underrated function! I’d prefer this function above any routing on watch

I mainly make my route of the day with this function. This way I don’t have 1000 routes on my phone I only used once and didn’t need much plan time.

Only when I think I might want to use the “Navigate on watch now”-function, I plan the route beforehand.

I don’t think it’s a bug. It’s a limitation. don’t really understand the logic behind this limitation. Maybe it’s more complex than expected. I think I saw that this function is only a year old. So maybe it’ll be fine tuned soon!

I only go to mountains on holidays. Would love to make the route to a summit, from there to a hut and from there a plan downwards.

sky-runner

@Horizontal_2 What’s interesting is that “Navigate on watch now” continues to be grayed out even the next day. I have just tried it. I believe I have to restart the watch now for this function to work again.

Horizontal_2

@sky-runner For me (Vertical 2 and Android) that is not the case. After the activity it’s available again. It can take like 10 seconds to appear black again, though

sky-runner

@Horizontal_2 In my opinion it should never be greyed out.

Horizontal_2

@sky-runner I agree! I hope this will be fixed in the near future. It’s a very good function

Egika

Habe just tested this on my iphone with Vertical 2.
Tap anywhere on the map in the phone
Select navigate on watch
Watch prompts to navigate or exercise
I select navigate and it starts navigation
In the watch I exit the navigation
On the phone I tap cancel (not save the route)
On the phone I tap somewhere else
I select navigate on watch
Watch prompts…

It works every time. Nothing greyed out here…

sky-runner

@Egika How does it work if the watch is already in a middle of activity when navigation from the phone is initiated? That’s what this report is about.

Egika

@sky-runner right.
Could reproduce. Reported it.
Thx!

skifast12

@sky-runner I may be very wrong, but my understanding is that once the watch is “recording” an activity, it can no longer sync or do any data exchange with the phone, so trying to send the request from the phone while the watch is “busy” won’t work. The initial “navigate on watch now” works because the watch isn’t doing anything and is available for data transfer….it sends the waypoint/track then the watch does its thing independent of the phone.

Egika

@skifast12 even during activity recording it is possible to start or change routes from the app.
That is actually a great thing. During your acitivity you can change your oute or make a new one.
Or start “navigate now”.
…the latter just only 1 time.

sky-runner

@skifast12 It can actually sync a route phone to watch even during an activity. I’ve done that - created a new route in Suunto App using offline maps, synced it to the watch, and started navigation on the watch. However, as usual, there are bugs and this doesn’t work well. As @egika mentioned, sync of a new route works exactly once. If you need to sync another route after that, it will no longer work.

I think the desired behavior should be the following:

Can start and add stop routes unlimited number of times.
Can always push a new route from the phone and if “Navigate on watch now” function is used, that must replace the current route navigation. This will allow incremental navigation using the phone.
The 10 route limit on the watch should be extended, or perhaps at the minimum the oldest route should be replaced when a newer route is synced.