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Garmin websites and services down due to massive ransomware attack


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Not sure what sub-forum to post on here, but I wonder how this affects geocachers who still use Garmin GPSr units? Apparently Garmin's entire infrastructure has been affected by ransomware. Might be of interest to some geocachers.  (Please move to another sub-forum if not appropriate for here). 

 

https://www.androidcentral.com/garmin-connect-suffers-multi-hour-outage

 

 

At first, the company tried to brush it as a maintenance issue that was being quickly addressed. As the hours stretched on, it eventually admitted it was suffering an outage that affected almost every consumer-facing area, including its app, site, and even customer support centers.

 

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1 hour ago, gpsblake said:

 geocachers who still use Garmin GPSr units?

 

What's that supposed to mean? :rolleyes:

We don't many geocachers but the ones we do meet mostly use Garmins, we only see an occasional smartphone user, most of the time these are parents with their kids.

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1 hour ago, on4bam said:

 

What's that supposed to mean? :rolleyes:

We don't many geocachers but the ones we do meet mostly use Garmins, we only see an occasional smartphone user, most of the time these are parents with their kids.

I started off using a GPSr because it was before smartphones.  I only got back in to geocaching because of a smartphone.  My Magellan Map 330 stopped working but even if it hadn't I had to download waypoints using a serial cable.  I would like to have a proper GPSr to use but kinda felt I need to do a lot of research.  Not having to download stuff is so nice with the phone.  Really, my only concern with the phone is that it isn't as rugged.

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37 minutes ago, StefandD said:

In reply to the original question: absolutely nothing.

GPSr units are designed to function offline and don't need any Garmin server.

You're thinking of handhelds.  I wonder if their traffic services got hit for their automotive units?  Makes a heck of a difference in routing when an urban interstate gets shut down due to a 10 car pileup.

 

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Here in Europe traffic services are provided by third parties. Garmin has nothing to do with that.

 

The only issue I see here I can't check for updates in Garmin Express (I still can sent lists though) and I can't upload activities from my Vivoactive smartwatch. No big issues.

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10 hours ago, StefandD said:

Here in Europe traffic services are provided by third parties. Garmin has nothing to do with that.

 

The only issue I see here I can't check for updates in Garmin Express (I still can sent lists though) and I can't upload activities from my Vivoactive smartwatch. No big issues.

AFAIK, they still use their own devices and users' phones as probes for source data for traffic, so this would limit availability of real-time information.  Have they stopped using their own servers to aggregate that data?

Where does the traffic data come from?

Traffic alerts come from a traffic data collection system that analyzes traffic flow data collected from more than 2 billion observation points every month:

  • data from millions of Garmin device owners
  • data from millions of cellular phone owners
  • incident reports
  • radio feeds of live information
  • news stations
  • historical traffic data from HERE Traffic Supply
  • historical traffic data from Garmin device owners
  • fixed traffic sensors on major roads giving extremely accurate traffic reports
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On 7/23/2020 at 5:44 PM, SamLowrey said:

I started off using a GPSr because it was before smartphones.  I only got back in to geocaching because of a smartphone.  My Magellan Map 330 stopped working but even if it hadn't I had to download waypoints using a serial cable.  I would like to have a proper GPSr to use but kinda felt I need to do a lot of research.  Not having to download stuff is so nice with the phone.  Really, my only concern with the phone is that it isn't as rugged.

I recommend against Garmin. A ton of people are complaining about garmin crashing and losing  all their caches. Mine included.  All you need to do is plug it into a USB port and all the information you have stored is gone. Seems to affect more than just one model. So far they have offered no fix for the problem and they keep on selling them.

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24 minutes ago, Liviticus said:

I recommend against Garmin. A ton of people are complaining about garmin crashing and losing  all their caches. Mine included.  All you need to do is plug it into a USB port and all the information you have stored is gone. Seems to affect more than just one model. So far they have offered no fix for the problem and they keep on selling them.

May not be a Garmin problem. Specifics? Garmin model, type of information "gone"?

Have been using Garmins for eight years with no problems at all.

 

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1 hour ago, colleda said:

May not be a Garmin problem. Specifics? Garmin model, type of information "gone"?

Have been using Garmins for eight years with no problems at all.

 

It might be easier for you to just look at the people posting here who have the same problem... Here is a couple to get you started

 

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2 hours ago, Liviticus said:

I recommend against Garmin. A ton of people are complaining about garmin crashing and losing  all their caches. Mine included.  All you need to do is plug it into a USB port and all the information you have stored is gone. Seems to affect more than just one model. So far they have offered no fix for the problem and they keep on selling them.

Nothing but sour grapes from you, and when others try to help, more sour grapes.

 

Get a life, preferably away from here.

 

Life in 2020 is already tough enough, and most of us see Geocaching as an escape from reality. 

 

Let's try to enjoy some of the few remaining things we still can!

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On 7/23/2020 at 4:11 PM, gpsblake said:

Not sure what sub-forum to post on here, but I wonder how this affects geocachers who still use Garmin GPSr units?

 

As far as this hobby, it doesn't affect them at all unless they need to be updated soon.   Should be fixed before then.

Actually, I realized just this past weekend (someone visiting...)  that I never updated our GPSrs since '05.  No issues.  Go figure.  :)

It seems Garmin is pretty-much the only game in town now.  You could pick up a Magellan still.  Not sure about Trimble....

Between us, we've had well-over a dozen Garmin products (the other 2/3rds liked wrist GPS...), and one TomTom.

 

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6 hours ago, Liviticus said:

I recommend against Garmin. A ton of people are complaining about garmin crashing and losing  all their caches. Mine included.  All you need to do is plug it into a USB port and all the information you have stored is gone. Seems to affect more than just one model. So far they have offered no fix for the problem and they keep on selling them.

Overstatement of the year "a ton of people".

Never heard about all info being gone when plugged into USB.

BTW, My first Garmin was a GPS12XL in 1999. Never lost any info plugging a GPS into USB ports, neither when connecting to serial ports.

 

Yes, sometimes a GPS crashes, they are computers and the crash can, most of the time, be traced back to corrupt data loaded by the user.

 

My Oregon 700 is as stable as it gets for a long time now but 2 weeks ago it crashed when opening one certain cache. I could trace the problem back to the loaded data. I always use GSAK to load GGZ files but since we were on a long weekend I also loaded a bunch of WPs and a few routes that included caches with basecamp. I removed the basecamp GPX that included the caches, reloaded the GGZ from GSAK... no more crashes when opening a cache.

 

Have you tried to post your problem here? Include all relevant info and I'm sure it will get solved.

 

 

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2 hours ago, on4bam said:

Have you tried to post your problem here? Include all relevant info and I'm sure it will get solved.

 

I would second this. I've certainly never had a Garmin crash and lose all my caches (though that doesn't mean it can't happen), and more significantly with all the geocaching forums and Facebook groups I'm on I've never seen it brought up before, so I can't imagine there are really "tons of people" having this issue.

 

It's quite likely fixable by someone around here.

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7 hours ago, on4bam said:

Have you tried to post your problem here? Include all relevant info and I'm sure it will get solved.

5 hours ago, MartyBartfast said:

I would second this.

 

Maybe I'm having off days, but I thought it was answered in the very first post here.   

Not good enough I guess, with later posts deleted but captured by others.

Same wording in a few places, blaming a top-o-the-line handheld, when it seems (to me) to simply be user error. 

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That's a whole different story as in that thread there's no mention of "all data disappearing when connecting USB". Just looking at the titles I wouldn't have thought "Premium cache storage" is the thread we were supposed to look at. Besides, many of the posts there are edited, not sure wat happened/disappeared there.

In any case, "a ton of people" was way over the top for what looks like PEBCAK.

BTW, I just have the tab "Activity" open in the forums, not "browse" and it seems not all threads al shown there. I don't read all posts ;)

 

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10 hours ago, on4bam said:

Overstatement of the year "a ton of people".

Never heard about all info being gone when plugged into USB.

BTW, My first Garmin was a GPS12XL in 1999. Never lost any info plugging a GPS into USB ports, neither when connecting to serial ports.

 

Yes, sometimes a GPS crashes, they are computers and the crash can, most of the time, be traced back to corrupt data loaded by the user.

 

My Oregon 700 is as stable as it gets for a long time now but 2 weeks ago it crashed when opening one certain cache. I could trace the problem back to the loaded data. I always use GSAK to load GGZ files but since we were on a long weekend I also loaded a bunch of WPs and a few routes that included caches with basecamp. I removed the basecamp GPX that included the caches, reloaded the GGZ from GSAK... no more crashes when opening a cache.

 

Have you tried to post your problem here? Include all relevant info and I'm sure it will get solved.

 

 

This isn't the only forum on the internet with people complaining about Garmin. I found many while trying to solve my OWN garmin issues.

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Just now, Liviticus said:

This isn't the only forum on the internet with people complaining about Garmin. I found many while trying to solve my OWN garmin issues.

Of course and with the millions of units sold there will be many complaints. People who don't have issues are not going on forums to tell others they are happy.

Many of the problems may be traced back to the user making mistakes partly because of poor manuals by Garmin, partly by misuse.

If you see all data disappear when just plugging in a USB cable to charge the battery I'd say, send the unit back, that's what warranty is for.. I can only say in 21 years nothing like that happened to me but I don't use Garmin's battery pack.

 

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