Get started
Testing: test mode, watches and the simulator
Test every app on your own watch before it takes real money. Test mode is free, no money moves, and the Test tab shows each step as it happens.
Test mode and live mode
- Test mode is always free. Checkouts use your test connection: Stripe's test mode or PayPal's sandbox.
- An app stays in test until you go live. From then on, real buyers pay your live account. Test purchases stay in test mode.
- The switch at the top of every dashboard page changes what you see, not your apps. Test mode shows test purchases and test watches only, with a striped band along the top, so you never mistake them for real ones.
The Test tab
Each app's Test tab walks you through one step at a time. The step you're on says what to do and what we're watching for. Done steps close to a line with the time.
| Step | What you do |
|---|---|
| Your test watch registered | Start the app on your watch or in the simulator. Its first start registers it. |
| The buy page opened on a phone | Scan the code on the buy screen with your phone's camera. |
| The test payment went through | Pay with the test card: 4242 4242 4242 4242, any future date, any CVC. |
| The watch unlocked | Keep the app open. It unlocks about a second after the payment. |
| A refund locked it again | Refund the test payment in your processor's test dashboard. |
If a test stops part way, pick it up at the next step, or start over by opening the app again. All five steps passing is one of the checks before you go live.
The test log
Under the steps sits the raw log, folded. Its lines are fixed phrases with the watch's code only: never a device ID, a key or an email. The log keeps 7 days.
On a real watch
- Use a separate test build. Give it its own app ID and its own name, such as "Interval Timer Test", in every language folder. Then you can tell it apart from the store version on your watch.
- Purchases never carry between builds. Garmin gives each app ID its own device ID on a watch, so a test build and the store app are two different watches to us.
- Check the copy landed. Copying a new
.prgover USB onto a watch that already has one of that name can silently do nothing. Move the old one off first, then copy the new one. - Test the release build. A debug build that works proves little about memory: see Memory and supported watches.
In the simulator
The Connect IQ simulator runs the same five steps. The buy screen's QR code shows on the simulator's screen: scan it with your phone. Try each screen shape you support: round, square, and an Instinct with its subscreen.
The offline test
Test offline with the watch's airplane mode, not by turning the phone off. Watches with Wi-Fi reach us over Wi-Fi without the phone, so a phone that's off proves nothing.
- Show the code. Open the buy screen while the watch is online, so its QR code shows.
- Cut the watch off. Put the watch in airplane mode. The buy screen shows "Offline" under the code and keeps trying.
- Pay on the phone. Scan the code and pay with the test card.
- Reconnect. Turn airplane mode off. The watch unlocks as soon as it reaches us again.
After a failed try, the buy screen waits 2, 4, 8 and up to 32 seconds before the next, so allow up to half a minute. If the buy screen closed while it was offline, the next start of the app asks at once and unlocks.
Watch faces and data fields
Faces and data fields check in the background, so a purchase made by scanning their code takes longer to arrive. Watch faces and data fields gives the timings and the faster route through Garmin's sign-in notification.
Refunds and disputes
Run refunds and disputes in test mode only, never live. Refunds, disputes and renewals lists what the watch does in each case and how to make a test dispute.