RestingHR value in Fenix5 gets overwritten with a exaggerated wrong value (similar to LTHR bug)

I just noticed that when ever I go into "User Settings" in the Connect phone app and open the "Configure Heart Rate Zones", my average resting heart rate value in the Fenix5 gets overwritten for a weird number (in my case for 30 - when my ave RestHR is normally 55). Normally this value is set to "use average RHR" but it gets set to 30 for some reason. Its similar to what happens with the bug with lactate threshold getting erased and overwritten as well.

So you may want to check if this has happened to you as well. In the Fenix watch go to "Settings" -> "User profile" -> "Heart Rate" -> "Resting HR" -> should display your normal RHR which will be shown if you enter and scroll to -> Use Average".

The reason I found out is that for some reason all of a sudden my MaxHR was changed in my Fenix to 205! (I'm 45 yeasr old) and when I was doing HIITs on the treadmill yesterday my watchface was displaying the MaxHR% so that I know what zone I'm working at, and with a MaxHR of 205 I was not being able to hit Zone5/90% yet I was doing everything as always, was very confused until I looked to HR values and saw that the heart reate did not correspond to the zone. Then I checked Heart Rate zones on the Connect app and saw that MaxHR had been changed from 175 to 205... no wonder.

And so by entering the Configure Heart Rate Zones on the app to correct the maxHR (reset will do), then my LTHR and RestingHR were overwritten with off the mark values, 41 and 30 respectively. So when ever I enter the Configure Heart Rate Zones section afterwards I have to go to the Fenix and set the LTHR (manually) again and the RestHR to the "use average" setting. After that the values will remain OK unless I enter the Configure Heart Rate zones on the app again.

0 mcalista over 7 years ago

There is an ongoing issue that a number of settings on the watch getting overwritten by Garmin Connect. This was particularly the case with the 7.60 and 8.00 firmware updates where some crazy HR setting could be imported.

To fix this, you need to change the relevant HR data points manually within GC rather than on the watch (otherwise they just get overwritten again). To do this, you will need to (temporarily) change your HR zone method to %HRR method (for RHR), and %LTHR method (for LTHR). Perform a sync after each change, and then you can change your HR zone method back to normal. Tedious, but at least the correct HR data points persist after this.

0 C966 over 7 years ago

I do that for the LTHR, but didn't occur to me to use %HRR to be able to set the RestingHR, good idea, thanks.

0 C966 over 7 years ago

Unfortunately I tried it but it won't work, the values get erased when I open the ''Configure Heart Rate Zones" page in Connect app and sync, so when I change one the other gets overwritten and viceversa, so when I correct the LTHR by changing HR method to %LTHR the RHR gets overwritten when I sync, and when I correct the RHR by chamging method to %HRR then the LTHR get overwritten when I sync.

The only way I can get both values set correctly at the same time is by setting them manually in the watch's settings and avoid opening the "Configure Heart Rate Zones" page, seems that as long as I dont do that the values will stay even if I sync.

0 crissy_jo over 7 years ago

Thanks for the heads up. My LTHR got changed to 40, and my resting to 30. I corrected them both. I hope they stay corrected.

0 mcalista over 7 years ago

I'd never tried manually setting both data points.

RHR is only used for %HRR zone setting method (older watches used to use this as a proxy for fitness, but the F5 series use VO2Max instead), so if you use %MaxHR or %LTHR for your zones, an incorrect RHR is probably something you could live with without further consequences.

The other alternative would be to "set" your LTHR via the LT autodetect method (if you have a chest strap HRM). Any run with sufficient data below and above your LTHR should do this, although the LT test built into the watch is designed to generate sufficient data to generate a result.

0 C966 over 7 years ago

I'd never tried manually setting both data points.

RHR is only used for %HRR zone setting method (older watches used to use this as a proxy for fitness, but the F5 series use VO2Max instead), so if you use %MaxHR or %LTHR for your zones, an incorrect RHR is probably something you could live with without further consequences.

The other alternative would be to "set" your LTHR via the LT autodetect method (if you have a chest strap HRM). Any run with sufficient data below and above your LTHR should do this, although the LT test built into the watch is designed to generate sufficient data to generate a result.

Right, I got the LTHR value from the autodetect method since I run with a HRM-TRI, only that I had to set it manually because it would get overwritten if I set it to use the autodetected value, but since the value I get from the autodetect has been the same for the last year, its no big problem to set it manually and just leave it, unless I happen to see a change.

Makes sense what you say about the %HHR method and not being important if the RHR value there is wrong. Won't worry about it since I use the LTHR instead.

0 chatlow over 7 years ago

Yeah, I noticed this around 2 weeks ago and emailed Garmin about it. Hopefully they will fix the issue at the same time as the LTHR bug as they seem to go hand in hand when changing settings.

At the moment, my settings are staying correct (having manually changed them on the watch) and syncs okay. But as soon as I go in to user settings on GC and save anything, they get overwritten.