Outdoor Recreation Archive

fēnix 5 Plus Series heart rate monitor drops when changing activities, music skips during activities

heart rate monitor drops when changing activities, music skips during activities

Former Member over 6 years ago

had watch for about 10 days and have not been able to find anyone else having these issues.

The heart rate feature seems to be broken or glitched. If I am running or biking my heart rate is dead accurate at around 130-160, but if I am going from running to weight lifting or vice versa, as soon as I change the activity the heart rate reads in the 80s when I know I am still at least 110+. I have toyed with this all week and the only way I can get it to read correctly is to completely end the activity and start a new one (instead of transferring directly to a new activity).

The even more annoying issue is if I want to play music while running from the watch to my Bluetooth 4.1 headphones it just keeps skipping. Its like the processor cant do an activity and play music at the same time. I know I have not used even 50% of my storage capacity so I doubt its that. Maybe the RAM on this watch wasnt enough to multitask?

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

has no one seriously had any of these issues? I cant even get a response from garmin. I am worrying I should return this before the return period expires.

0 cjcates007_ over 6 years ago

Im on newest Beta and music still was skipping, until i put watch on right wrist. Headphone controller is on my right side, sonit fixed it. Have not tried apple airpods yet.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

so we are supposed to be ok with the watch having a bluetooth range of 1.5 feet? my cell phone doesnt skip playing to my headphones from over 100 feet away but this watch cant go more than 1.5 feet???? can this be fixed?

0 indymtb over 6 years ago

I was thinking the music skipping was due to the phone having the connection to the BT headset in the car. I noticed that after the 1st 1/4 mile, the skipping stopped on my run. I was going to turn off bluetooth on my phone before turning on my headset on the watch and see if this is plausible.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

I always disable the phone bluetooth. That isnt the problem.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

I continue to have this problem when doing an activity that requires GPS(i.e outdoor Run). Activities that do NOT require GPS (like strength), do not have bluetooth cut outs. I refuse to wear my watch on my right arm just for this. I'd get so confused on the buttons, I'd probably have a breakdown. its almost like there isn't enough compute power in the watch with bluetooth music playing and GPS tracking active.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

I continue to have this problem when doing an activity that requires GPS(i.e outdoor Run). Activities that do NOT require GPS (like strength), do not have bluetooth cut outs. I refuse to wear my watch on my right arm just for this. I'd get so confused on the buttons, I'd probably have a breakdown. its almost like there isn't enough compute power in the watch with bluetooth music playing and GPS tracking active.

So, more testing. In another thread someone suggested it was more about being outside vs inside than the activity. I didn't believe it, but today i started out inside with no activity active, just music playing and all was fine. Went outside, and sure enough it started cutting out. I wouldn't have believed it, but that seems to be the case...

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

It's a limitation of the technology and radio waves in general. My Bose SoundSport headphones skip when I'm outside. They have the transceiver on the right side. Putting the headphone wire in the front helps, but is annoying.

The SkullCandy Method headphones I just got don't skip at all. Bose costs $150, got the SkullCandy for $42.

You can blame the watch, but it's a combination of both and limitations of the tech. The reason the don't skip inside, even on the Bose, is because the radio waves bounce off of the walls.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Its not a limitation of headphones or bluetooth, its the watch. My 4.2 bluetooth BTS pro headphones work outside about 90 feet away from my phone without even cutting out one bit. But when I pair them to this watch, they cut out even if I switch wrists.. its the watch plain and simple. So I am returning it and I guess I just get a HRM for $90 and call it a day.

0 timetravel19 over 5 years ago

It happens to me often. I tried to delete the music and then reinstall but it keeps happening...frustrating..