This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

New bug in FIT files: empty File ID and no Record messages

At www.fitfileviewer.com, I received many similar corrupted FIT files in the past weeks. I have not seen this type of corruption before, so I assume it is a bug in a recent software update on some devices. Typical for this corruption is:

  • There is a file_id messages, but all values are invalid
  • Many messages are missing, most notably the record messages, but also event, device_info etc.. Summary messages, like activity, session and lap are there. 
  • In several cases, but not always, many messages are duplicates, e.g. there are two identical activity messages, each lap and session appears twice.

FIT File Viewer can now fix these files, i.e. make it possible to import them in Garmin Connect, but of course it cannot restore the missing data.

I have seen this happening on FR 255, 955 and 965, and also in these threads:

  • Well, in other words, replacing the hardware, of course, didn't fix the software issue, but they managed to cause you to give up on bothering them....

  • So not only some of our data is missing, not only Garmin is wasting our time as we have to manually fix and upload these fit files, but also Garmin Express doesn't want to update maps because there are corrupt fit files on the watch... Great. What can I say?

  • This have happened 3 times on my Fenix 8 - latest 20.24 software.

  • It is really getting more and more annoying. Upload Errors occure every 2nd upload. Without using Fit File Viewer it would be completely frustrating. I already deleted all activities stored on the FR970 but it happens again and again....

    @garmin --> Is someone working on this issue?!!?!? 

  • Hi guys,

    I am experiencing an issue where activities fail to sync with Garmin Connect on my Forerunner 970. This has happened twice now, most recently today.

    Issue Details:

    • Activity: ~2-hour walk with navigation (navigation was stopped mid-activity).

    • Symptoms: The device failed to sync to Garmin Connect. Upon connecting via USB, I found the activity file located in \Internal Storage\GARMIN\Activity\PendingHD.

    • File Status: The FIT file was only 10 kB and appeared corrupted. Manual upload failed until I repaired the file via fitfileviewer.com, though all GPS data was lost.

    • Comparison: I previously used a Forerunner 945 for years without ever encountering this behavior.

    As a long-time user, this reliability issue is disappointing. If this will happen mutlple times again to me, this will be my last Garmin Device.

    I have attached a screenshot of the file structure here: [Link]

    Best regards

  • Same here. Forerunner 970. Has happened twice in past two weeks. HIT workouts seem to be unaffected (so far), outdoor running only. If they're not amicable/helfpul with solution i'll be returning and going another brand. Other issues with mine included intermittent sleep mode, or it not starting initiating all together. Extremely slow at times. Garmin 945 was a beast, not one issue, better battery life. The simpler the watch the better it seems.

  • I don't think so, considering that there were reports in this thread just a few days ago and the last quarterly firmware updates were long ago, and they didn't mention this being fixed. (optimists can hope it was covered in the general "bug fixes" line, but I'm not)

  • Actually the best person to ask is  as he probably can look in stats of the website if the latest firmware versions still produce bad files.