Instinct 3 solar software 5.21 not updating

9562554 10 days ago

Sept 28th 2025

I have just bought an instinct 3 Solar that has a software v 5.21. Auto update is switched on but no updates have come through. How do I force an update?

0 e7andy 10 days ago

Use Garmin Express on a computer. That should fix it.

You can also just wait. It should come via Garmin Connect after some time. Restart watch and check for updates.

0 trux 10 days ago

9562554 said:
How do I force an update?

Most likely there is not enough free room on the storage. The early versions of the Instinct 3 firmware suffered from this problem. To fix it, you can clean up the following folders, and make the needed room for the firmware update:

//GARMIN/Activity/ - all files
//GARMIN/RemoteSW/ - all files
//GARMIN/Debug/ - all files
//GARMIN/Courses/ - remove unneeded courses
//GARMIN/Workouts/ - remove unneeded workouts
//GARMIN/gmap*.img

You could also remove some unneeded Connect IQ apps, if there are any. Then try searching for updates from the System » Updates memu on the watch, or try updating it with Garmin Express as @e7andy advised (though updates with Garmin Express paradoxically require slightly more free memory, so it could fail easier than an OTA update). Typically, you need above 17MB free memory storage on I3 Solar, if I remember well. Once you update to the recent version, you'll have much more free memory (probably over 50MB initially)