My Garmin Lily 2 Active started acting up after I set it up and tried to sync it with the app. Now some features are not working right, and I’m not sure if it’s a settings issue, a software problem, or something wrong with the watch. I need help figuring out what happened and how to fix it.
This usually points to sync corruption after first setup, not bad hardware.
Try this order.
-
Reboot the watch.
Hold the button until it turns off. Start it again. -
Force close Garmin Connect on your phone.
Then reopen it. Turn Bluetooth off, wait 10 seconds, turn it back on. -
Sync once, then wait.
First sync after setup often takes a few mins. If you tap around too fast, stuff gets weird. -
Check permissions in your phone settings.
Garmin Connect needs Bluetooth, notifications, background app refresh, and location on some phones. If one is off, features break in odd ways. -
Update both sides.
Watch firmware in Garmin Connect.
Phone app from App Store or Play Store. -
Re-pair it if needed.
In Garmin Connect, remove the Lily 2 Active.
In phone Bluetooth settings, forget the watch.
Restart phone and watch.
Pair again through Garmin Connect, not through Bluetooth menu alone. This part trips up alot of people. -
If metrics are wrong, resync health data.
Heart rate, sleep, steps, and notifications often lag after setup. A clean re-pair fixes this more often then people think.
If it still acts up after a full remove and re-pair, I’d start suspecting a bad firmware load or a hardware fault. If you post which features failed, like notifications, HR, step count, or GPS, people here can narrow it down fast.
I’d check one thing @yozora didn’t really dig into: whether the watch is stuck in a partial setup state inside Garmin Connect. I’ve seen Garmin devices look “paired” but not actually finish enabling services, so stuff like notifications, weather, calendar, and activity sync goes half-dead.
A few things I’d look at:
- In Garmin Connect, open the device page and see if it shows any setup prompts still pending.
- Make sure battery saver or focus/do not disturb isn’t on, on both the phone and the watch.
- Test features one by one instead of all at once. Notifications, heart rate, workout start, weather, and find phone. That narrows it down fast.
- If only app-connected features are broken, it’s probly phone/app side.
- If on-watch stuff is also glitchy without the phone nearby, then I’d lean firmware or hardware.
Also, tiny disagreement with the “wait and it’ll sort itself out” angle. Sometimes Garmin absolutely does not sort itself out lol. If the watch menus are laggy, sensors cut out, or it reboots, I’d skip straight to a factory reset and set it up fresh.
Post which features are failing exactly. “Not working right” can mean 20 diff things.
I’d go a different direction than @yozora on one point: before factory resetting, check whether the Garmin Lily 2 Active itself has a bad permission handshake with the phone OS.
What often breaks after first sync:
- notification access not fully granted
- background app refresh disabled
- location permission set to “while using” instead of “always” for weather/live features
- Bluetooth paired at OS level but not trusted correctly inside Garmin Connect
Quick test:
- Reboot phone only.
- Turn Bluetooth off for 30 seconds, back on.
- Open Garmin Connect and force a manual sync.
- Start a short activity on the watch with the phone away from it.
If tracking works fine solo, the watch hardware is probably okay.
Pros: good hardware, clean design, solid basic health tracking.
Cons: setup can be picky, app permissions can silently break features, sync issues can look like watch failure.
If alarms, touch response, or heart rate are failing even without the app involved, that’s when I’d suspect firmware corruption or a defective unit.