alt Hacker NewsYup. It’s a bit of a pain, but you don’t have to use the connect app. Devices and data can be accessed with direct USB connection as standard storage. You will lose some features and I think firmware updates become difficult (or impossible?)
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mikestew • today at 6:01 PM
Go through the Garmin Express desktop app for firmware updates.
I’m probably missing something, but I can’t think of anything you lose if you don’t use the phone app.
I think firmware updates and even map routes can be uploaded offline by mounting the watch as a USB mass storage device?
I wish Casio, Polar, Suunto and others provided this functionality.
There is some community software for Polar that enables offline data exchange, but it is a bit hacky, and OFC no firmware updates.
Suunto used to have a really good offline solution, but they discontinued that and moved to the cloud.