Garmin Virb Elite USB connection unreliable

Contributing and equipment Action cameras
1

I’ve had my Garmin Virb Elite for a few years now over the past few months the USB connection has become quite unreliable with charging and the USB mass storage only working for a matter or seconds or a few minutes. I’ve tried another mini USB cable but that has the same issue. I’ve switched to taking the microSD card out and using a card rate instead (which is also much faster though doesn’t allow for charging at the same time).

I’ve also got a problem where the location and date have recorded fine, however the time of day is way out.

Has anyone had the same issue?

Could it just be the battery that is failing even so I can get around 2+ hours photo/video recording time out of the battery when I manage to get it to charge?

If it has died which camera to go for instead or the same again? I use it on a handlebar of a bicycle.

2

I have to spray contact cleaner on my mobile USB connections every month. A new cable might suggest the problem is in the “other part”. It may also be worth slightly stressing the cable sideways where it connects with a rubber band. This will however probably accelerate future failure.

3

I’ve come across another mini USB cable which seems to be reliably charging, so seems I’ve got at least 2 faulty cables.

4

Check both the cable and the USB slot on the virb, sometimes lint or other crap can get lodged in there. Use a toothpick to clean them out CAREFULLY and that might do the trick. I had a phone I was about to throw in the bin and it turned out there was just some crap lodged in the charging port

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