Garmin Instinct: Incomplete GPS track (on the device and in Garmin Connect App / Strava)

Hello, everyone,

since October 2019 I have a Garmin Instinct sports watch. So far I have been very satisfied with the device. About a week ago I updated to firmware version 7.00. I synchronize the Garmin Instinct with the Garmin Connect app on my iPhone.

Unfortunately, I noticed a problem with the watch on Sunday: I have run exactly 8.0km, all recorded data are in my opinion completely correct (distance, speed etc.).
But the last piece of the recorded GPS track is missing on the map display (no matter if I watch it in Garmin Connect or on Strava).

I have exported the activity from Garmin Connect as a GPX file and uploaded it to Google Maps. Again, about the last 200 meters are missing in the display. When I open the GPX file with a text editor, I see that the last points of the track are simply not there. They are missing in the file.

I observed the same behavior already about a year ago on my then Garmin Forerunner 235. At that time, I thought the device was defective, but it seems to be due to the software (either the device or the Garmin Connect app).

I have found several similar reports, but I can't find a solution to the problem in any of them:

forums.garmin.com/.../incomplete-track-recording

forums.garmin.com/.../the-track-i-ran-is-incomplete

Has anyone here observed anything similar in his Garmin Instinct?
Anyone got any advice?

Thanks for the help,
best regards,
S.

Top Replies

pixeldiver over 4 years ago +1

Happend several times since my last post. Wanted to let you know, that cleaning activity folder does not help, at least not always. Yesterday, track was incomplete. Activity folder was empty. The whole…

All Replies

0 trux over 4 years ago

Sebastian_Scholz said:
Has anyone here observed anything similar in his Garmin Instinct?

Personally, I don't. All my activities are always recorded exactly to the point when I press the GPS button to stop them. Did not you simply press the GPS button inadvertently before you stopped?

Sebastian_Scholz said:
Anyone got any advice?

If you use the auto-stop function at that activity type, disable it - it may stop the activity in case there is a loss of GPS signal (i.e. near a wall or a tall building), or at a slow pace. Verify if you have sufficient room on the device, and clean up the folder //GARMIN/Activity/

0 pixeldiver over 4 years ago

Same problem here. I ran with constant pace, disabled Autostop and the sky was clear. Distance, time and average pace where correct in the end, but last 2 Kilometers of the track have not been recorded. I own a Instinct, purchased 3 months ago. Firmware 10.00.

0 trux over 4 years ago in reply to pixeldiver

Low battery perhaps, and the watch entering power-saving mode?

0 pixeldiver over 4 years ago in reply to trux

Battery was completely full.

Yesterday I removed heaps of old tracks from my Explore app. Not sure if this could have led to some sort of garbage collection that affected the GPS recording (just an idea). Furthermore, I observed that the step counter did not refresh for several minutes after I completed my run.

0 trux over 4 years ago in reply to pixeldiver

pixeldiver said:
Yesterday I removed heaps of old tracks from my Explore app

You should rather remove them from the watch (folder //GARMIN/Activity/). Full storage may be well a reason for a failed or a corrupted recording.

0 pixeldiver over 4 years ago in reply to trux

OK, I'll try that. I hoped that the device would synchronize with the app..

0 trux over 4 years ago in reply to pixeldiver

You should regularly clean up the storage on the watch, but in contrary you can quietly keep all the history in Garmin Explore and in Garmin Connect - keeping or deleting the history in the apps won't impact the free storage size on your watch in any way. That's the purpose of the applications.

0 pixeldiver over 4 years ago in reply to trux

Thanks trux! Activities are now deleted from the device. I’ll further observe the issue and post, whether it helped.

0 ithorpe over 4 years ago

I've had the same issue with my instinct intermittently. Very annoying.

0 ithorpe over 4 years ago

I've had the same issue with my instinct intermittently. Very annoying.