Fenix 5 freezing on navigation and then not starting

I have had a problem with my Fenix 5 (firmware 8) when navigating.

Using the ski xc app I recorded an activity. After saving the activity and opening it to use the back track feature it froze whilst in operation.

Having turned the watch off (by holding the start button for 25sec) it was no longer possible to turn the watch on. On turning it back on only the start screen (blue triangle) showed and nothing else would load.
The only option was to do a hard reset which meant losing all the data. This is quite dangerous if you are using the watch to navigate in dangerous mountainous terrain as you lose the original track.

Has anyone else had this problem or have any solutions?
Thanks
Terry

0 Former Member over 7 years ago

I had two times similar problem with the firmware 8.0 fenix 5s using the feature "race an activity". First time I've lost 10km of the run, the second time 1,5 km. Both times the only solution was to hard reset the watch, nothing worked - only tringle on my screen. I don't know how it was in the past, but I've started using this feature from firmware 8.0. I need to mension that feature was one of the reasons I bought fenix 5s :(.

Regards,
Jarek

0 tralphs over 7 years ago

Thanks for the advice.
It is good to know that I am not alone with this problem. I will try saving the activity as a course to see if that helps.
I think that it is a memory problem on the watch which is a shame as Garmin should have foreseen this.

It is a real pain if it happens whilst you are in a white out on a dangerous mountain (with steep terrain close by) and you are hoping to back trac to get down. I am sure that Garmin has a get out clause for liability issues but I do expect a gps to back trac reliably!

Terry

0 CarlosZuluaga over 7 years ago

How did you complete the hard reset of the watch? Today, my watch froze while navigating using a previous activity. I have not been able to go past the start screen (blue triangle). I have tried soft reset (hold light button for 25+ seconds) and unsuccesfully attempted hard reset (light+down). Thanks for your help.

0 CarlosZuluaga over 7 years ago

I just got it working again. Used the instruction provided in this Garmin website https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=wxPmdnWsev1xGRUf58oDC8&searchType=noProduct

0 Crymo99 over 5 years ago

I have the same issue. First time ever used Navigation in Bike activity (from previous activity) worked like charm for about 1:20 minutes and after that screen stopped updating.

My watches have firmware version 20, so apperently this was not yet fixed.

I had to perform hard reset....