I’m having a frustrating issue with my Garmin Edge 1040 and hoping someone here might have a workaround.
About once a week, my Connect IQ sync between the Garmin Connect Mobile app and the Edge completely stops working. Once it freezes, the Bluetooth connection seems to break entirely, I can’t even upload my completed activities to my phone.
The only “fix” I’ve found so far is doing a full factory reset on the Garmin, which is a huge pain to do every 7 days just to keep Xert and Connect IQ working.
Has anyone else experienced this? Any ideas on what might be causing the mobile ↔ Edge 1040 sync to crash, or how to force it to reconnect without wiping the device every time?
Do you have any other Connect IQ apps/fields installed besides Xert?
I have an 830 which has been pretty reliable, but then again it is a Garmin device.
From various sources a web search says to try these options:
Remove leftover Connect IQ temp files that shouldn’t be there.
Connect device as USB drive and open Garmin/RWSoftware folder.
There should be only a current bin file (or two) in the folder.
Delete any others.
Remove the 1040 from Garmin Connect.
Also remove 1040 from phone’s Bluetooth settings.
Re-pair the device in Garmin Connect only.
Restart both device and phone.
Clear Garmin Connect app cache on phone then reinstall Garmin Connect.
Disable battery saver/stealth/expedition modes on the device.
Garmin of course recommends “update to current firmware” but in my experience that can be a crapshoot.
Hopefully something will (un)stick for you.
When a FIT file is stuck two workarounds are to:
Start another ride, record a few seconds, and stop/save.
This forces a rebuild of FIT file queue and often pushes the stuck file through.
Manually upload the FIT file by connecting as a USB device and copy FIT file from Garmin/Activities folder.
I know this isn’t helpful to hear but you are not alone.
I also got this feedback during my CoPilot search when I asked if the 1040 was prone to problems –
Across Garmin Forums and Reddit long‑term user threads, the 1040 consistently shows more reports of:
Bluetooth stuck “connected but not syncing”
Connect IQ apps failing to update
Activities not auto‑syncing until a reboot
Wi‑Fi uploads stalling
Background processes hanging
The RWSoftware folder accumulating junk files
Weekly or bi‑weekly sync failures (your exact issue)
Reddit threads consistently describe the 1040 as:
“The buggiest Edge I’ve owned”
“Great hardware, flaky software”
“Bluetooth sync breaks every week”
“CIQ updates constantly fail”
These comments appear far more often for the 1040 than any other Edge model.
Reminds me of my ill-fated 1030 experience which is why I swore off Garmin for a few years.
I only picked up a refurbished 830 so I could run XMB when it was in beta.
Now I’m back onboard the Garmin wagon with fingers crossed.
You are correct. The folder on 1040 is called RemoteSW like it is on my 830.
RWSoftware is used on some other Garmin devices.
The two bin files are normal indicating two different satellite data files, so #1 isn’t going to help in your situation.
