Known issues/bugs (admin please make sticky) v2.0

Not sure why there isn't a thread already devoted to this, but considering people ask the same questions over and over I thought perhaps we should put together a list of known/acknowledged bugs and issues for people to check.
I don't want this to become a complaint thread - there's plenty of those already, and I just want us to focus on issues that have been raised and someone at Garmin (the Beta team, the support team etc.) have confirmed are issues they are working on.
This is by no means an exhaustive list - but I want to focus on the issues that a newbie may come across after buying the watch (or that may give them pause for thought before even buying the watch) and to help give Garmin a real "hit-list" of the issues causing their customers pain.

If you have an issue/bug that you want me to add to the list then post below (or DM me if you'd prefer) with the following
  • Issue/Bug encountered
  • Description of what it is/what it affects
  • How to recreate the bug/issue
  • Response from Garmin (if any)
  • Ways to mitigate/fix/avoid the issue (if possible)
  • Time-frame indicated from Garmin for it to be fixed (if any)


I want to pull this into two separate sections - software/firmware issues and sensors/communication issues. I'm happy to consider another way to structure it if people think it will make more sense.

Edit: I had to pull this into a new thread as I wasn't aware of the 10k character limit on a post so my original bug report became too large to fit in the first post of the thread!
  • Software/Firmware Issues

    Settings from Connect over-write Settings on Watch (The Alarm clock bug)
    Update from Connect upgrade (20th June) - Behaviour has changed but it still isn't 100% reliable
    Description: Alarms keep disappearing from the watch
    How to recreate: Create an alarm on the watch and then sync with your phone. The alarms will be over-written
    Garmin Response: Garmin have confirmed that settings changed on the watch directly will be over-written by settings set in Connect, even if the Connect settings are blank. The most obvious way this manifests is by wiping out or changing your alarms. It also manifests itself by making alarm labels (if set) align with the wrong alarms
    Potential Solutions: The only way to avoid this for now is to only change settings in Connect. If you wish to create silent alarms then use the Connect website (Menu-Device-[your watch]) as unlike the app the website allows you to change vibration and tone
    Likely solution/fix time-frame: The Beta team have said this is an issue for the Connect team to fix and it appears they have come up with a solution


    Total displayed ascent and descent wrong (Submitted by TOSONNY)
    Description: The watch calculates and displays the wrong ascent/descent despite recording the correct altitude/elevation
    How to recreate: You can see this bug by comparing the data with other watches or upload your gpx-track to Garmin Basecamp and compare. Descent is always lower
    Garmin Response: The beta team are aware of the issue and are looking into it
    Potential Solutions: There is a work-around that has been found that fixes the data issue in most cases. After importing the FIT file into BaseCamp and viewing the properties, deleting any one of the data points clears up the problem. Then the data can be transferred back to Connect if you wish. Some people like to delete the first data point, but we have seen cases where deleting any one random point has the same effect. (Thanks PC3Chris for this work-around)
    Likely solution/fix time-frame: The time-frame to fix this is unknown

    Altimeter and Barometer Issues (Submitted by RICKJ2903)
    Description: The watch has trouble determining correct elevation if not manually calibrated for the area via GPS first. If air pressure changes the watch almost always assumes it's an elevation change (I thought this was meant to be related to movement as well as air pressure changes?) instead of a barometric change. The barometer almost never changes position from flat
    How to recreate: Set barometer setting to "auto"
    Response from Garmin (if any): RICKJ2903 had their first watch changed as faulty but second watch still displays the same faults
    Potential Solutions: Not aware of any other than don't use the altimeter
    Likely solution/fix time-frame: The time-frame to fix this is unknown, and there are no suggestions on ways to mitigate this problem

    Sleep Tracking is inaccurate
    Description: Connect consistently reports Bed Time and/or Wakup Time wrongly
    How to recreate: Go to sleep? THe issue arises because the watch does not log sleep on it's own. The Connect system does this based on your movement data and your Do Not Disturb settings
    Because it is based on movement and doesn't take into account other information such as heart-rate (or alarm settings) it will often determine you're still asleep when you aren't, or it can show you're awake when you're not
    Garmin Response: I'm not aware of any official response from Garmin on this one. I have never raised it directly as an issue but I used to have the same problem with my Garmin Fenix 3 as well
    Potential Solutions: The only sure fire solution at this stage is to manually change your sleep times if it is wrong. It does also help to have the Do Not Disturb settings set to your "typical" sleep times
    Likely solution/fix time-frame: This is a Connect issue, and as long as Garmin have multiple activity trackers with different tracking capbility it's unlikely to be resolved
  • Sensors/Communication Issues

    GPS Accuracy Issues
    Description: Somewhat subjective, but I don't see many people complaining about GPS accuracy in either the 935 forum or the 5X forum so there is most likely a real issue with the GPS on the Fenix 5 and 5S
    How to recreate: Go for a run and compare tracks to previous runs over the same course with other devices
    Garmin Response: The "official" response based on what people have posted here is that Garmin have told people to wait for a firmware update to address the issue
    Likely solution/fix time-frame: This means that Garmin are aware there's an issue and are working on a solution but the most recent Beta firmware releases have not included new GPS software

    Instant Pace Accuracy
    Description: Also somewhat subjective, but again I don't see many people complaining about GPS accuracy in either the 935 forum or the 5X forum
    It is also possible that people had unrealistic expectations of how accurate instant pace from GPS could be, but since it's an advertised feature people can rightly have high expectations
    Garmin Response: The "official" response based on what people have posted here is that Garmin have told people to wait for a firmware update to address the issue
    Potential Solutions: The general agreement seems to be that if instant pace is really important to you then GPS will never be good enough and you should use a footpod. The consensus is the Stryd is the best option by far (unless you run into connectivity issues with it - see below)
    Likely solution/fix time-frame: This means that Garmin are aware there's an issue and are working on a solution but the most recent Beta firmware releases don't appear to have touched this issue

    Bluetooth and Ant+ Connectivity/Constant drop-outs
    Description: The Bluetooth/Ant+ range is poor
    This affects connectivity to your mobile phone/the connect app and also to Bluetooth/Ant+ sensors such as chest HRM straps, footpods and power meters
    This can result in data dropouts in your activities, which then affects calculations based on this data (e.g. V02Max)
    It'll also result in issues with syncing between your watch and your phone/connect app, including but not limited to causing problems with Livetrack
    How to recreate: Connect sensors and then see if they drop out during activities (gaps in your recorded data when viewed in Connect)
    Garmin Response: Garmin have confirmed they are working on these issues, but that they're having trouble recreating them consistently
    Potential Solutions: If you are having any of these issues then first install the latest beta. If this doesn't solve your problem (spoiler alert: it probably won't) then email the beta team ([EMAIL="[email protected]"][email protected][/EMAIL] and give them as much detail as possible (Watch model, phone model, model of sensors affected, what you were doing, height (this matters)
    The more data we provide them the more chances they have to replicate the problem and try to root cause/solve it. They still seem pretty confident it's an issue that can be fixed in software
    I see less dropouts when using Ant+ with dual Bluetooth/Ant+ devices but your mileage may vary.
    I also see people suggest that using sensors on the same side as your watch also helps (so footpod on your left foot if the watch if on your left arm etc.)
    Another suggestion is to remove any Connect IQ apps/datafields as it's possible these are interfering in unexpected ways
    It has also been suggested to try a hard reset and then repairing your devices. This has worked for some users. I have also tried this and have had mixed results, but I may not have done the process correctly. I will trial a little bit more and then post the steps if it does reduce the drop-outs
    Likely solution/fix time-frame: There is no time-frame - but it's likely this is the quite high on their list of things to fix if it can be fixed
  • I'm not convinced the info is accurate regarding the Bluetooth issue. Garmin have told me in response to my complaint about the Bluetooth dropping a lot that there is no known issue.
  • After each swim session, altitude reported is very wrong and i need to recalibrate altitude via GPS after each swim ....
  • I'm not convinced the info is accurate regarding the Bluetooth issue. Garmin have told me in response to my complaint about the Bluetooth dropping a lot that there is no known issue.


    I'm assuming that's a Garmin support response not a Garmin beta team response? Because the beta team are well aware there's issues with bluetooth/ant+ range and reception
  • After each swim session, altitude reported is very wrong and i need to recalibrate altitude via GPS after each swim ....


    Hi Cedric, if you could give me information for your issue in the format below I can add it to the list. I've not heard of this problem before and I need a bit more detail than you've provided so far.
    Issue/Bug encountered
    Description of what it is/what it affects
    How to recreate the bug/issue
    Response from Garmin (if any)
    Ways to mitigate/fix/avoid the issue (if possible)
    Time-frame indicated from Garmin for it to be fixed (if any)
  • Hi Cedric, if you could give me information for your issue in the format below I can add it to the list. I've not heard of this problem before and I need a bit more detail than you've provided so far.
    Issue/Bug encountered


    I have witnessed this on the one occasion that I have used the watch for pool swimming.

    Description of what it is/what it affects: Altimeter elevation drops dramatically (in my case from +24m to -36mtrs) after having used the watch during a "pool swim" activity
    How to recreate the bug/issue: Instigate a "pool swim" activity and then commence the activity, on exiting the pool/water the elevation on the watch shows a negative figure, on the one occasion that I have seen this I manually calibrated the elevation to the correct elevation later.
    Response from Garmin (if any) N/A
    Ways to mitigate/fix/avoid the issue (if possible) It might be worth seeing if the altimeter corrects itself when the watch has dried out.
    Time-frame indicated from Garmin for it to be fixed (if any) N/A
  • Issue/Bug encountered: After a swim session, altitude reported is totally wrong +/-400m regarding actual altitude. Same problem from firmware 2.4 to 4.1.
    Description of what it is/what it affects: Altitude reported until a new altitude calibration
    How to recreate the bug/issue: make a swim indoor session (without GPS)
    Response from Garmin (if any): ?
    Ways to mitigate/fix/avoid the issue (if possible): No way to avoid, need to recalibrate with GPS altitude after a swim session ...
    Time-frame indicated from Garmin for it to be fixed (if any): ?

    Regards
    PS: I'have seen a F5X topic on that:
    https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?377770-488m-after-swimming-calibrating-the-alti-without-shortcuts