Galaxy S8 - Samsung Gear Installation Failure

[Toddske]

Greetings

I've had a GearS watch for years. I love it; works perfectly and have no desire to upgrade. It's been working great with my S6edge but last week I just upgraded to the new S8 and everything went off the rails.

I downloaded the Samsung Gear Manager for the S8 (both from the Play store and from Galaxy Apps store after the problems started). I do the app install and it asked to pair with my Gear (My Gear automatically resets after being connected to the S6). Ok works good...then it started going through the "Preparing to Connect" bar and I constantly get this message:

INSTALLATION FAILED!
Error Code 5

The GearS itself just sits in a holding pattern saying "Install Samsung Gear on your mobile device" so I think the issue with with the S8 perhaps.

Tried lots of Google tips and searched this forum, but couldn't find anything that matched up with this. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[flyingkytez]

Greetings

I've had a GearS watch for years. I love it; works perfectly and have no desire to upgrade. It's been working great with my S6edge but last week I just upgraded to the new S8 and everything went off the rails.

I downloaded the Samsung Gear Manager for the S8 (both from the Play store and from Galaxy Apps store after the problems started). I do the app install and it asked to pair with my Gear (My Gear automatically resets after being connected to the S6). Ok works good...then it started going through the "Preparing to Connect" bar and I constantly get this message:

INSTALLATION FAILED!
Error Code 5

The GearS itself just sits in a holding pattern saying "Install Samsung Gear on your mobile device" so I think the issue with with the S8 perhaps.

Tried lots of Google tips and searched this forum, but couldn't find anything that matched up with this. Anyone have any ideas?

View attachment 257852

Maybe there is a different version? The new gear manager is for the newer Gear watches such as the Fit2, Gear S2/S3. Trying looking for an older version.

 

[Toddske]

Thanks man, is there a way to get older versions of Gear Manager or do I have to start thinking of rooting (which I hate doing).

 

[Bstewart159]

Thanks man, is there a way to get older versions of Gear Manager or do I have to start thinking of rooting (which I hate doing).

The same problem happened to me. I tried uninstalling samsung gear, reinstalling, etc for countless times. I factory reset the watch as well. I get it to pair with my new S8, but I constantly get the same installation error notification that you attached.

This afternoon I went into Best Buy where I purchased the phone. A mobile representative assisted me for an hour with no luck. We managed to find an older version of gear manager (Google gear manager vcf downloads), but the installation and pairing faltered. We gave up waiting after several long minutes.

So I am no better than before. Not sure what else to do. The most maddening part of all this is that my wife has the same gear 2 neo and S8. Her's paired and is working, no problem!

Please keep me updated. I hope to resolve this soon. My smart watch worked without any problems for the past 2 years with my S6 edge.

 

[Bstewart159]

Maybe there is a different version? The new gear manager is for the newer Gear watches such as the Fit2, Gear S2/S3. Trying looking for an older version.

So I figured out how to fix the Samsung Gear pairing/installation problem to my Samsung smartwatch--Factory Reset. More importantly, when you factory reset you have the opportunity to restore your device from a previous date/phone YOU DON'T DO IT. I restored my phone and started from scratch. After a few steps of the initial login, I downloaded the Samsung Gear App from the Galaxy store. Then I began to pair and connect to the watch through the Gear Manager App. Connected no problem.

The factory reset was a last resort. I did try uninstalling/installing any app with the word gear in ti countless times. I factory reset the watch dozens of times. I even wiped the phone's cache from the recovery menu (volume +, bixby button, and power button). All of that did not work. Only resetting my entire phone. Setting it up again was a pain, since I spent all weekend getting familiar with the new phone. But at least my watch is paired to it now.

Good luck!

 

[JenniferTG]

Hi! I literally just fixed mine. I went to the gear app and on the paired section removed my fit band and then it finally showed on my new devices and stayed conected.