Just bought an Inreach but it won't send messages without cell service?

[lacofdfireman]

So I just bought a used Delorme Inreach Explorer for Hunting and motorcycle trips thinking this would be awesome. Bought me a $300 a year service plan and set it all up and have sent messages back and forth without issue from my house or at work just messing around with it. So today I took it out on a remote motorcycle ride and thought I'd try it for my first time away from the city. So I stopped and sent a message and included myself on the message and never got a response or anything for like 5hrs until I finally got back into cell service range. Super bummed out. I have clear view of the sky and this thing failed me. Did I do something wrong? I'd like to figure this out before I actually need it. If it works like it did today it's worthless. I got rid of my spot because I thought the text feature would be great. Well so far it's not. Also I sent my wife and son a link of my tracker while on this ride and the tracking worked the entire ride. Just wouldn't send or receive a text message. Any ideas?

 

[Trial153]

If you sent a message to your cell phone how would you expect to receive it without cell service or WiFi ?

 

[Brendan]

As above - did it send? And just not receive? Were you sending to the Inreach or your email/phone?

If it didn't send - Yes, something went wrong. The whole purpose is use outside of cell range, and the Inreach itself doesn't even know if there's cell service.

Did you send a message directly through the unit itself, or Bluetooth from your phone? Both should work, but I'd confirm the former works first to rule out a connection issue with your phone when you were out of cell range.

 

[Trial153]

The receiving device needs service. In this the receiving device is his cell phone. The inreach worked because he received the message when he had service!

 

[Brendan]

The receiving device needs service. In this the receiving device is his cell phone. The inreach worked because he received the message when he had service!

I'm aware of that. He didn't specify if he sent it to his cell phone or back to the Inreach as a test.

 

[lacofdfireman]

So when I sent the message I sent it through the Earthmate app to my Inreach then out to my wife, son, a few others and myself included in the message. The outgoing message went from my cell to my Inreach because I could see it in my messages but it just would show it trying to send wit the little arrows going in circles. It never reached it destination to anyone until we finished our ride had our motorcycles loaded back into the trailer and where almost home 5 hours later. Then the messages came through. Like I've said I've sent probably close to 50 or more messages through the earthmate app and never had an issue. But every time it's worked has been when I've had cell coverage and the Inreach wasn't needed anyways but I just wanted to familiarize myself with it so I know how it works in case I actually needed it for real. So this is the first time I've tried it remotely out of cell coverage area and it didn't work. I have my message setting at 10 minutes to search for new messages.

Also in the text I sent I told everyone to reply if they got my message that I'd sent. Never got a reply until about 10 minutes after I was back in cell range and knew it had now sent out because I actually saw the message I had sent 5 hours previous. Anyone else have these issues?

 

[Brendan]

Couple things. The inreach itself has no concept of cell service. So if the message made it to the inreach, and then it wasn't sending, I don't think it's possible to be related to cell service or not.

You said they were able to see tracking points? Because, those are sent the same way as a text message. Are you able to navigate through the inreach menus (not the phone) and see when those were sent? Do you know for a fact those tracking points were sent, delivered, and available while you were out on your ride, or did you not check those until you were home?

 

[lacofdfireman]

Couple things. The inreach itself has no concept of cell service. So if the message made it to the inreach, and then it wasn't sending, I don't think it's possible to be related to cell service or not.

You said they were able to see tracking points? Because, those are sent the same way as a text message. Are you able to navigate through the inreach menus (not the phone) and see when those were sent? Do you know for a fact those tracking points were sent, delivered, and available while you were out on your ride, or did you not check those until you were home?

Not positive if they were able the tracking points as I was riding because nobody looked besides me when I got home. But when I look at the track I can see that all the points were sent out at the correct times. We started the ride around 11am and finished around 2pm. If you click on any of my tracking points in the route we took it shows the correct time the track was laid down. So it’s sending points but not messages. I never checked these during the ride. Just when I was back home. But it does show them at the right times so I’d assume it had to have been sending them out. I don’t think it could have made all those up after the fact

Here is my track log for reference. David Guymon

 

[Brendan]

So not entirely sure what's up - but just because they show the right time on the map, I'm not sure that means that's when they were sent... I can't remember if the tracking message saves a time, saves a location, and then queues that up as a message to be sent. I guess what I'm wondering - were all your messages, texts and tracking messages, queued up and all sent at the same time?

Here's what I'd do. First - disconnect your phone for the time being. Take it out of the equation. Send an inreach test message from the Delorme and make sure it sends, and response comes back. If it works - move on to tracking tests. Then move on to other text messaging tests with the ability to send and receive responses. Remembering that the inreach itself doesn't know about cell service - it shouldn't matter where you are, but you can try from differing locations.

Something has me wondering about ruling out any sort of interference or reception issue while you're on your ride first, but if that doesn't work I might be calling Garmin for assistance.

 

[tttoadman]

Use their "test message" to isolate everything to Garmin. no outside recipients. send for a weather report. If these don't work, then you know they have the problem.

 

[lacofdfireman]

Use their "test message" to isolate everything to Garmin. no outside recipients. send for a weather report. If these don't work, then you know they have the problem.

That’s a great idea. I’m going to go remote today to hunt rabbits with my youngest son so I’ll try it and see what happens.

 

[Blockcaver]

Possibly where the InReach unit was stored on the ride was blocking reception. My unit will not send and receive in my house but works great in every remote place I've tried it.

 

[lacofdfireman]

Possibly where the InReach unit was stored on the ride was blocking reception. My unit will not send and receive in my house but works great in every remote place I've tried it.

I had this unit in the top zippered compartment of my hydration pack. Also when i sent the messages it was out of the bag and i just held it with clear view of the sky with zero instructions. Also I can send an receive texts in my house at times. Heading out in 15 minutes to go hunt rabbits. If you want follow along and see if it’s sending tracks in the next few hours. I’m going to try sending a few messages out also while I’m out.

https://share.garmin.com/DavidGuymon

 

[lacofdfireman]

Well today it was hit and miss. I sent a few messages and did get some replies. Some within few minutes and others about 1.5hrs later. But today we did have cell service about 90% of the time we were out walking around. But that shouldn’t matter because the Inreach shouldn’t work off cell anyways.

This is the type of terrain we were in.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[muddydogs]

I would give Garmin a call as it seems like maybe theirs an issue with your phone to inreach Bluetooth communication?