Gesture backlight very broken/buggy on Fenix 5 Plus (when using external HRM?)

On my non-plus Fenix5 the backlight worked just fine with gesture during an activity (run)

On the 5 Plus the backlight never comes on, even though "do not disturb" is definitely off and not within sleep hours.

Not during activity it seems to work, kind of, the sensitivity is very poor compared to the non-plus

Garmin has a "power management" setting with a "jacket mode" but not the 5, only the 6 and newer

Also cheaper/lower-end Garmin watches can adjust the sensitivity but not the flagship Fenix?

Read a theory elsewhere that when the wrist optical HR is turned off there is a bug that the gesture sensitivity is buggy

I do use an external HRM strap (HRM-TRI) so maybe that is yet another bug?

Probably not enough viewers to confirm but if anyone can in the future feel free to reply.

0 Bitti over 1 year ago

I'm using HRM Dual with my Fenix 5+, and have set backlight for activities to be "after sunset". And it works ok. Backlight comes on for a while when I turn my wrist during an activity after sunset.

0 rinserepeat over 1 year ago in reply to Bitti

Well I know I am not alone because I see endless complaints not just from 5 Plus users but even the 6 and 7 series

I'm just really disappointed because it worked just fine on my non-plus 5 previously.

I can make the backlight only work on this Plus with a very precise double shake of my hand like I am throwing dice twice and it has to be very "violent" which is ridiculous

It is plausible that the motion sensor on every Garmin watch varies in quality so much that sometimes people get lucky with a good watch with a good sensor and some people do not?

Either that or the software has a hard time separating regular motion from a gesture and "learns" badly.

I've noticed on this watch once I get the backlight to finally come on via gesture it becomes much harder to do it a second time like either the sensor sensitivity has diminished or the software has numbed itself to the motion pattern.

All I know is end users can't fix this.

Garmin must give us another setting beyond left or right wrist, there has to be a "low medium high" setting added.

I mean the original price of this watch was $750, that's ridiculous the backlight gesture is so difficult.

They need to look at the code for the non-plus 5 and port it to the 5 Plus.

There are other things on the Plus that are clearly "broken" like after-activity download of HRM data, it makes the watch crash and reboot every single time and I know that's not my fault in the slightest because it worked perfect on the non-Plus