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Does the true north function work at all? If yes - how?

As mentioned a few times, the true north ist displayed 90° off the magnetic north since firmware 12.85 or something. The problem persists with 13.20.

To my understanding, true north can only be displayed, if the watch knows where I am (or at least was recently). The 90° difference makes no sense in my area, I'm not that close to the pole. ;)

A one-shot GPS acquisition didn't help.

I still believe this is a bug.

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0 Rigel1967 over 4 years ago

I see that the new firmware 14 released does not address the true/mag north discrepancy. Frustating.. The compass on my Instinct Solar is obsolete..

0 5121713 over 4 years ago in reply to Rigel1967

After a few calls and email exchanges with Garmin Support I was asked to send my watch back to Garmin. Now awaiting their opinion, which can take up to 10 days.

0 Fabi over 4 years ago in reply to 5121713

How annoying!

I would not like to send in my watch as I use it daily. But cool, that you did!

I am excitedly looking forward to your report on that ;)

Btw: which serial number do your watches have?

Mine is 6L3009319

0 KarsiyakaRocks over 4 years ago in reply to Garmin - Chris

İ dont agree with you. Because the magnetic north is working fine. So it couldnt be a hardware issue. And all occured with last updates. Everybody complains about same issue.

0 PMO over 4 years ago

Just another data point to add to the discussion. I updated a (just received) Instinct Solar from 12.20 to 14.00. True North was fine before. It is now terribly offset from the magnetic north (my local magnetic declination is around 1.5º, but the mag/true offset on the watch exceeds 60º). Curiously, this "erroneous magnetic declination correction" bug does not exist on my regular Instinct. The issue therefore seems to be a Solar-only thingy. In both cases, the sensors are fine (magnetic north is being correctly pointed to). Another small bug needing some ironing, I guess

0 MattBigmonster over 4 years ago

0 sanic over 4 years ago

Here's my experience with the compass on software 13.20.

I check the compass and see it is off, sometimes by 90 degrees sometimes less. I don't calibrate it or get GPS lock and I check it later in the day, in the same location, and it is working fine.

Second observation. I see the compass is off and I calibrate it. Upon viewing the compass again there is no change, it is still wrong.

I have tried a full reset in case a file got corrupted and it still persists.

0 8990586 over 4 years ago in reply to Garmin - Chris

So... How exactly is product support going to help with a firmware bug?

+1 Garmin - Chris over 4 years ago in reply to 8990586

Sometimes the hardest part of forum moderating and doing everything we can as moderators to help everyone, is convincing you to please follow our advice. (I am not saying what we post as moderators is always 100% accurate. I will be the first to admit there have been times I had to go back and edit a post. However, if we are ever uncertain as moderators on an answer being given, we reach out to higher tiers and sometimes engineering when needed, to get you an accurate answer.)

If your compass is off:

- Ensure your Instinct series watch is fully updated

- Calibrate your compass

- Fully reset your watch if neither above 2 steps worked

If all 3 steps did not work and you still have a compass issue, your watch will need to be exchanged through Outdoor Product Support.

Answering your question:

How is Product Support going to help if it is a firmware bug? The short simple answer, it is not a firmware bug. The 5 Instinct watches I keep fully updated and rotate wearing, none of of them have ever had the issue. We have also invested time and effort to look into the compass and we cannot reproduce the issue. The end deduction, it is not a firmware issue but an issue specifically with the Instinct series watch having the issue and it will need to be replaced.