You're ready to roll out on your ride. You've got your smartphone in your pocket with the Garmin Connect app, and a Garmin Edge device on your handlebars all synced up. You hit the "start" button expecting to see Livetrack start, only to see the dreaded "Error 44" appear instead.
What is Error 44 and what causes it to ruin your ride? Here's what causes Error 44 and how to fix it.
Background
Many users use Garmin's Livetrack and Incident Detection safety features to notify contacts about their rides and to share their real-time location with others (and if you aren't, you should be.) Livetrack and Incident Detection rely on the Garmin Connect app installed on your mobile phone communicating with the Garmin Edge device.
In order to start automatically when you begin a ride, Livetrack and Incident Detection need an active internet connection, which the Garmin Connect app gets from your mobile phone.
What does Error 44 mean?
Put simply, Error 44 means that the Garmin Connect app on your mobile phone could not establish a connection to the internet. No internet connection means no email or SMS text message notifications can be sent to the people on your emergency contacts list, and Livetrack will fail to start.
What causes Error 44?
I already know what you're thinking: "what do you mean, no internet connection! I've got high-speed wi-fi at home, and LTE on my phone!" I know, me too.
Error 44 happens if you start a ride on your Garmin Edge during those few moments when your phone is transitioning between your home internet and the mobile LTE internet on your phone.
You've probably experienced this with streaming audio apps - you're listening at home, hop in the car, and drive away. The moment you leave the driveway, the audio drops out, only to resume in a few seconds as your phone switches from Wi-fi to LTE. This is the exact same problem.
How to fix Error 44
To resolve Error 44, make sure your mobile phone has an active internet connection when you start an activity. An easy way to make certain is to leave the house, roll out, and wait 30 seconds until you hit "start" on the Edge.
This ensures that the Garmin device and mobile phone have left your home Wi-Fi behind and fully switched over to LTE cellular data. If you wait to start your ride until you're connected to LTE, you should find this eliminates Error 44 and allows Livetrack to start successfully.