How often do you delete activities off Garmin 910

David Leventhal

Just curious - how often do you guys delete activities off your Garmin watch?  Does anyone know if having a bunch of activities on there affects performance?

Thanks

David

Brad Marcus

I have only deleted activities when I've gotten the memory almost full message and don't think I've had any issues. But, considering I (and assume you) upload your data regularly, there's no real reason not to delete it, right?

bmr94539

Never . I assume that it deletes old workouts that I've already uploaded. Since I've had it over a year and have never seen a message about being full I assume that works. Can't imagine I wouldn't have filled up the thing's memory by now.

Peter Noyes

I have never deleted any activities off my watch without any trouble. However, if you ever get a new computer or sync on a different one, it will take hours and hours because it will download everything from the watch.

Dino Sarti

Yes, the answer is never... It juts automatically pushes off the old to make room for the new.

Jason Brandt

As long as you are synching to garmin connect you don't need to. Unlike older garmin which prompted you to delete.

zwuba

Never ever in now almost exactly 365 days and 500hours of recorded trainings

GAndrew Gordon

Never. I think it saves up to 50 workouts. It probably deletes oldest workouts automatically once 50 is reached as some of the others have posted.

David Leventhal

Thanks for the feedback guys! So I guess what I'm hearing is that performance is not affected by lots of data. In my mind (small as it may be!) I'm thinking about the watch like I would a computer; that is, the more you fill it up with data the more sluggish the performance can be.

Sounds like this is not an issue with the Garmin.

bmr94539

True story on the moving computers and having the sync take hours. I made the mistake of changing my computer and then trying to sync right before my run. I gave up and ran without the watch. Literally took over an hour to sync.

David Leventhal

Posted By Bryan Richter on 31 Dec 2013 10:56 AM


True story on the moving computers and having the sync take hours. I made the mistake of changing my computer and then trying to sync right before my run. I gave up and ran without the watch. Literally took over an hour to sync.

So curious about this syncing with a new computer issue (I've actually experienced this on a few of my workouts - where it got hung up or something and a single activity took over 40 minutes to sync) . 

Syncing the watch pulls the data into the cloud via the ANT stick (that is, onto Garmin Connect servers).  None of the data is stored locally on the machine (at least I don't think any files are stored locally).

So why would it take that long?  Is that a software design flaw?

Paul Hough

I sync to Garmin connect only once in a blue moon ... if there is a particular run I want to analyze in detail. I don't quite get the obsession with having all that data out there, but I am pretty old school. Basically, after I run, I look at the activity history so I can view my mile lap splits. I enter the miles, time, and avg pace in my spreadsheet log...done. I have this image in my head of folks spending hours studying their runs on Garmin Connect to lead to what conclusion?

So to answer the question...about every 3 months or whenever I think about it, I will delete all the data on the watch (and it certainly holds more than 50 workouts). I do the same thing with my Garmin Edge 500. There are only a few rides that I like to look at in depth, my RRs, my actual IM races, etc. But most are just noise once you have finished the bike ride.

Dino Sarti

Paul - You hand enter information that Garmin Connect will store automatically. For an old school guy, you seem to want to keep data...

@David - I depends on the watch, but yes, all of the Garmins introduced in the past few years that use ANT+ create a file on your machine. I don't use a PC, but on a Mac it creates a folder here:

Macintosh HD > users > "user name" > Library > Application Support > Garmin > Devices > "select your device ID if you have multiples" > Activities

In the activities folder you will find all your .FIT files. In the "History" folder you will find all the .TCX files.

The reason it takes so long with a new machines is that it is copying all files on the device to this folder. Then it compares from this folder to your Garmin Connect account and identifies the new workouts. It doesn't appear to do this from the watch straight to the cloud.

So far, the 620 does not seem to create a folder on the computer. It shows up as a drive like a USB drive when you connect it. You can grab your files from there for non-Garmin Connect uses. I think reason is that 620 does not use ANT+ to send your files in. It connects to your home WiFi and goes straight to the Garmin Cloud. Slick!

David Leventhal

@Dino - well I'll be darned! I had no idea it was saving a file locally...but sure enough it was buried in the AppData folder on my PC. Who knew.

I wonder if, when setting up a new computer, you could copy all the data in the Garmin folder over to your new machine and that would save you the ultra-long initial download headache.

bmr94539

Paul, I agree that mostly the data just sits there and the biggest bang for the time spent is right after the workout to see how things went and if I hit my targets, etc.

I have used my old data on rare occasions to go back and look at old bike routes and run routes to remember what they were like to plan for future rides/runs. I also like to run reports sometimes to see how much time I'm spending on particular activities.

Dino, thanks for the explanation on the data transfer stuff. That 620 sounds great. I like the fact that it's WiFi, such a better protocol than BT or ANT (of course I'm pretty biased on that front). Certainly waaay faster .

Peter Noyes

@David it actually does cache on your computer and it knows on that particular computer which activity it last copied so it can just do the delta. When you go to a different computer it will re-download whatever it doesn't have from the watch. It is a two step process to garmin connect: Watch -> Computer, Computer -> Cloud.

Paul Hough

At Dino, I am hand entering only essential bits of data into my own personal spreadsheet log that integrates my data in a way that Garmin Connect, nor any other system provides. More importantly, I can retrieve my data about 200 times faster than if it were in the cloud somewhere. If I want to know what I ran on Mar 17, 2007 that takes less than 10 seconds to find.

Dino Sarti

I have had this debate with others. To each his own.... .

I have seen your opinions on white watch bands after all....