Garmin Instinct Tactical - Crashing During 50m Pool Swim between 1200 meters - 2000 meters - Software Version 12.20

Former Member
Former Member

Hi All,

RE: Garmin Instinct Tactical - Crashing During 50m Pool Swim between  1200 meters -  2000 meters  - Software Version 12.20

I've had my Garmin Instinct Tactical since the 4th January 2021 I have completed 4 swim session of  2Km (2000 meters) and the watch crashed every time.

This is a repeatable event. The watch reboots between 1200m and 2000m.

When the watch crashes I loose the data from the last about 400 meters and have to manually upload the data to the Garmin connect site.

Todays swim session I enabled auto button lock to prevent myself from bumping the buttons in case I accidently pressed the button on the last 3 swim session. 

I completed the 2000m swim and all looked good. I unlocked the button by holding a button for a few seconds then I pressed the stop button and then it rebooted. 

I was so hopeful the whole session was recorded but it lost 400 meters of data and I had to manually upload the .fit file to Garmin connect.

I am swimming freestyle in a 50m indoor pool. It accurately records my laps and the distance fine up until it reboots.

Is anyone else experiencing this issue?

  • Yes, it happened with me also. I face it when swim 1500m freestyle.

  • Mine is Instinct solar tactical APAC with sw version 12.20 has the same symptoms during the pool swimming.

    It happens in every swimming session and started to make me frustrated, Does it cause by sw bugs or by the small memory capacity of the instinct series?

  • I think the problem come from fw not the watch cause there is a guy with fenix 6 solar got same problem too.

    Now after 500m i stop and save once.

  • +1

    I have the same issue. I am swimming in a 25-yard pool, the workout ended without saving anything for my long set (>500 yards). It has happened several times since I upgraded to 12.20 (really regretted it DisappointedDisappointedDisappointed).

    I believed my watch was 10.0 before I did the upgrade. Is it a way to downgrade the firmware? Anyone knows how to do it?

  • I am using the regular version of Instinct. It looks like there is a logging file (ERR_LOG.BAK) under the DEBUG folder. Its timestamp matches the time when the crash happened.

    I pasted it here, in case the Garmin engineers want to investigate it. PLEASE, PLEASE fix it as soon as you can!!!


    3126 (Instinct) SW ver: 1220
    Build Type: RELEASE
    Commit:990ee6f0370dc5aeef564ffdf8ac8dff21fffff9
    ESN: 3310377239
    02/02/21 07:58:11
    RTL
    errnum: 0x00f
    r0: 0x20023580
    r1: 0x0009558f
    r2: 0x00000090
    r3: 0x000001f6
    r4: 0x0001c150
    Stack frame PC, SP: 0x00002509, 0x20023388
    Call Stack - SP at 0x20023388:
    0x000024d5
    0x00003727
    0x0009558f
    0x0009558f
    0x0009558f
    0x0009558f
    0x00003bc9
    0x0009240d
    0x0009558f
    0x00094621
    0x00094b09
    0x00070025
    0x00094831
    0x00004699
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    Uptime: 251308788

    3126 (Instinct) SW ver: 1220
    Build Type: RELEASE
    Commit:990ee6f0370dc5aeef564ffdf8ac8dff21fffff9
    ESN: 3310377239
    02/02/21 07:58:29
    RTL
    errnum: 0x012
    r0: 0x200096a8
    r1: 0x20007a50
    Stack frame PC, SP: 0x00002509, 0x200094f0
    Call Stack - SP at 0x200094f0:
    0x000024d5
    0x000058a7
    0x0005227f
    0x0003aecf
    0x0000594d
    0x00037fe7
    0x00049be1
    0x00049d4d
    0x0004a035
    0x0004a34f
    0x00004699
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    0x00000000
    Uptime: 12324

  • I pasted it here, in case the Garmin engineers want to investigate it.

    I do not think the engineers ever come here to the user forum. You better report it to them directly: [email protected]

    Next time you go to the pool, please try emptying the folder //GARMIN/Activity/ and removing unnecessary files also from folders //GARMIN/Courses/, and //GARMIN/Workouts/. Just to make sure the watch does not crash because od low space on the device.

  • +1

     i have this problem too. after 1800 meters watches go to reboot...12.20 firmware

    Garmin engineer reads this branch of forum? Do they know about this bug?

  • Garmin engineer reads this branch of forum?

    See my previous post

  • okey i will write to support in direct.

    and another question, about empty space in watches...after deleting files device show me about 7 mb free space, but in description i found 16 mb...

    where is this volume of mb?

  • and today i will try to swim again after deleting files in both directory