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Instinct is Randomly Freezing on Software v13.20

1. My Instinct (V13.20) is still having random freezes for no apparent reason. The display stops updating, heart rate measurement stops, etc. No debug files are produced, but these events do leave traces in several fit files.

2. The freeze reports on this forum that appeared with V11 are, at this point, mostly buried on older posts, or on posts addressing other topics. Because of this, there is a tendency to assume that these freezes are now gone. The same is happening on the Instinct solar forum, despite some complaints still being put forward (here and there).

4. If this were a problem of my particular unit, I would gladly get a new one, but I am afraid this is a still existing, much more general problem, which is not being put forward to Garmin's developers attention (hello, Chris :) ). Changing units would therefore probably be jumping from the fire to the frying pan.

Bottom-line: is it possible to get a feeling of how many of you are still experiencing these freezes? If we could sum them using this post (freezing problem only), maybe we could convincingly show that the problem is not gone and, who knows, maybe get some attention for a watch that stops telling the time when it feels like it. BTW: yes, I have already mailed the beta developers team a while ago, but had no answer

Along the same line, and assuming that maybe something in the file system (e.g., a corrupted file) may be causing these freezes, does anyone know of a way to reset the file system to its factory condition (with the possible exception of installed OS upgrades)? (The so called Factory reset does nothing of the kind.)

Best of luck. Having a fully working Instinct is looking like a lottery, these days. :(

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0 Pischke5 over 4 years ago

I'm continuing to have the same problem with v13.20. I even went to the extent of exchanging my original instinct a few months back to try to resolve the issue, but my new one is showing the same behaviour. Love the watch, but won't be able to keep it if this problem can't be resolved.

0 thomass001 over 4 years ago

My third and last instinct was replaced in warranty, because of freezing.
I'm looking forward to see a comment from a developer, because of this bug.
Till now I have to look at the seconds of the time and think is it the right time.

0 3219439 over 4 years ago

I have had this problem on a continuing basis. Garmin replaced my Instinct because none of the work around or fixes they proposed solved this problem. This latest on V 13.20 started freezing about 5 months after replacement. I does this around 3 AM . So far 5 times in the last 30 days. Time between locking up is shortening also.

0 4579957 over 4 years ago

Same problem with my instinct. Random freezes of the home screen. Have to see if the seconds are still counting to know the displayed time is correct.

0 Garmin - Chris over 4 years ago in reply to 4579957

[deleted]

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

Thank you, Chris. It feels so good to be heard. Having you here is a blessing.

0 sspanak over 4 years ago

I have never experienced this issue, but I am curious about it. Also, from what I've seen on this forum, I am using an unpopular watchface - the one with hours on top and minutes at the bottom. Also, I have the heart rate in "the eye".

Which one do you folks use?

Someone, sometime ago, speculated that the freezing occurs, because the watch goes into a power saving mode and never wakes up. I suspect that either my watchface does not cause that, or the heart rate forces display refresh every second, so the watch never goes to that sleep mode.

0 PMO over 4 years ago in reply to sspanak

You may be right in that the thing may be related to a power saving mode event (e.g., the disappearance of the seconds information from the default display) that gets mishandled. However, by analyzing the fit files, one sees that the heart rate measurement and stress calculation are also interrupted by those freezes, and that seems to imply something slightly deeper than a display power saving mode that does not go away.

Having said this, it is totally possible (testing the theory will take time, because theses freezes appear randomly and are not reproducible) that a watch face such as yours, with no seconds (and, therefore, without the power saving timer applied to the seconds display that exists in the default face) may prevent the freezes. I have not tried that yet.

My watch face is the default one, only with step count instead of sunrise time. This default face also has the heart rate information (in the graph field), and therefore the notion that having the heart rate on display might avoid whatever this thing is does not seem to hold water.

I had a theory: that maybe the freeze occurred when the watch attempted an automatic sync with an iffy bluetooth connection, thus leading to a failed application protocol deadlock. It does not appear to be so. My extended sync audit never registered a sync attempt at the times the freezes occurred.

0 sspanak over 4 years ago in reply to PMO

Yes, bluetooth is yet another thing I don't seem to use like everyone else. I keep the bluetooth on my phone off most of the time, because it drains its battery too much. I sync only in the morning and in some evenings, if I am curious to see a particular activity. Once syncing is done, I switch it off.

I have no idea if the above is related in any way, but Garmin - Chris, may want to take notes from this discussion.

0 KFF05 over 4 years ago

I also am having the screen freezing. Mine is always around the same time everyday in the morning when leave my house. I'll reset, and all will be fine.