Heart rate monitor measuring/reporting while I am not wearing the watch?

After a recent update, my instinct will frequently record a relatively high heart rate (anywhere between 90-140 BPM) while the watch is off my wrist prolonged periods of time. Wondering if anybody has had a similar experience. On version 7.20.

Edit: chiming in to say that, while toggling the heart rate sensor off and on seems to resolve the issue for a time, the HRM ultimately goes back to measuring phantom heartbeats. I would consider this an ongoing software issue.

Top Replies

Garmin-Nate over 4 years ago +7 suggested

Hey guys, we are currently investigating and working on a fix for this issue. If your Instinct is affected by this please send me a Private Message so I can gather some information information and get…
ersinmart over 4 years ago in reply to 8800766 +5 verified

for a few days after the last update my watch has acted like that as if I do sport in a high bpm whatever the surface is. I've just switched heartrate auto on/off again and it now acts normally. I wish…
4717022 over 4 years ago +3 suggested

Garmin, fix the bug. At the moment, this can be fixed on the watch by turning the heart rate sensor off and on, as well as turning the watch off and on. But periodically it comes back for no reason. Resetting…

All Replies

0 trux over 4 years ago

Personally, I have not observed anything like that. In the monent I take the watch off my wirst, it stops showing the HR.

What surface do you let the watch resting on? I tried different surfaces - wooden desk, white paper, facing the void of the room, but nothing of that makes the HRM working.

0 8800766 over 4 years ago in reply to trux

Usually I either leave the watch on its face or on its side, so the actual monitor isn't in contact with anything. The interior paint in my house is an off-white color, but the HRM issue happens independent of the time of day.

I have also tried cleaning it a couple times to no effect, so I think that the issue is internal.

0 trux over 4 years ago in reply to 8800766

Try covering it completely, or attaching it tightly to some support, so that no ambient light enters the sensor. Just to see whether it makes any difference

0 8800766 over 4 years ago in reply to trux

Doesn't seem to make a difference, unfortunately.

0 trux over 4 years ago in reply to 8800766

Did you already try powercycling the watch (turn off/on)? It is always a good precaution after the firmware update. If it did not help, try installing the latest beta firmware. And if still no change, then contact the Support - it could be simply a faulty unit.

+1 ersinmart over 4 years ago in reply to 8800766

for a few days after the last update my watch has acted like that as if I do sport in a high bpm whatever the surface is. I've just switched heartrate auto on/off again and it now acts normally. I wish it helped

0 maxfacta over 4 years ago

Yep, mine is doing the same thing. Just for the last few days, since it did an update. Rebooting doesn't resolve it, it shows a heartrate immediately after restarting. I left it off my wrist and turned off last night. This morning it showed no heartrate for a few minutes after I turned it back on, but then started showing one (prior to putting it on my wrist).

0 8800766 over 4 years ago in reply to ersinmart

Interesting -- just tried it and it isn't reading a heart rate at the moment. Will report back in a few hours to see if it stuck. Thanks!

0 8800766 over 4 years ago in reply to maxfacta

Yeah it doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the heart rate monitor's accuracy...

0 4913021 over 4 years ago in reply to 8800766

Recent updates bring more bad than good
problems started with 7.0