Garmin Instinct - Max or Min Elevation alerts do not work.

I’ve tested this feature multiple times and it appears this is a bug. It simply doesn’t work  

The feature works on my gf’s Fenix 6 Pro Solar. The feature doesn’t work on a friends Instinct either. 

Ive had some back/forth with Garmin, reset the device, sent logs ect. I tried today with the latest firmware. No cigar. 

Garmin offered a refund but raising the importance of the ticket wasn’t an offer on the table. 

Does anyone else use this feature?

example:

you’re hiking and are in a saddle that is 400m elevation. You need to walk up the ridge and know that at approx 900m you need to start thinking about turning left to contour around the mountain so you set a Max alert of 900m. Shame it doesn’t work. 

sometimes I try and remember the elevation that I need to make a turn but I often forget when hiking for days on end.

A workaround is to use the Ascent alert - and in the above example set the ascent alert to 500m - but it’s annoying because you get an alert every 500m (more annoying when you set it to a smaller increment such as 75m)

(The baro opening location is another issue (I wear it on top of my sleeve when want more accuracy and in general it works well. ))

  • I am sorry you had an altimeter issue with your new Instinct. I was the one that personally tested the elevation alert feature on 2 of my 5 Instinct watches after the report you made.

    I had zero issues with the elevation alert. It worked without fail multiple times and I tested the elevation alert across both watches with the same setup your described for your barometer being set to altimeter mode. Also, worth noting, we do not have any other reports worldwide that have been reported and there are a very large amount of Instinct series watches in use worldwide.

    If you have any further questions, you are welcome to send me a Private Message if you want to discuss this further.

  • Well that’s good, as I really want the feature to work. And it’s odd that the person on the phone lead me to believe that I may still have the issue ifI swap it out.

    Plus I got someone else to test this feature who experienced the same issue on their watch.

    Which elevation alert did you test? And would you mind describing the steps you made to test it? Maybe it’s a misunderstanding of how the feature should work.

  • I am sorry if there was any crossed communication. I tested the following with the following setup.

    In my activity settings menu then the Alerts menu, it says:

    - In the Alerts menu when you first go into it, Elevation 170-210.

    Then when I select Elevation I see the following:

    - High Alert = On

    - Max Elevation set to 210 feet

    - Low Alert = On

    - Min. Elevation with 170 feet

    - Both Ascent and Descent alerts are showing set to Off

    - In my Settings > Sensors & Accessories for my Barometer, my Watch Mode is set to Altimeter.

    At any point that I crossed either threshold, my Instinct would vibrate and alert me to the elevation reached.

    If your setup is any different, please highlight my name and send me a Private Message. I will be happy to test further if it is needed.

  • Without wanting to create entropy: I noticed that one of you is working with elevation in feet, and the other with elevation in meters. Given that both my Instincts are showing me (wrongly) the Elevation Plot in feet, even though the watch is set to meters, maybe a similar problem is occurring here. Maybe MisterS is inputting the number of meters that he wants for the alerts, and then thinks that the feature is not working simply because the watch may be (wrongly, if as I suspect MisterS has his elevation unit properly set for meters) considering the input values as if they were feet and not meters. That would explain why Chris's watches (working with feet) seem to be fine, while others (working with meters) are not, end yet everybody is right.

    My apologies if this turns out to be nonsense for some reason.

  • I set mine to ft to test this - but no cigar.

  • My friend spent some time today testing and was able to reproduce the problem.

    If you set up a Max or Min Elevation Alert by going from the Watch Face: MENU>SETTINGS>ACTIVITIES & APPS then it works as expected.

    If you are in an activity such as Hike, and hold MENU>HIKE SETTINGS>ALERTS.... and set it up there, then it doesn't work.

    Hopefully that helps to identify the area that needs to be fixed. This type of Alert would be set mid hike whilst navigating.

  • I received my replacement watch, but the elevation alerts do not work.

    I am at 55m elevation. I start a hike, I set the Max elevation alert to 60m. But when I arrive at 60m elevation there is no alarm.

    I kind of figured that would be the case as I had mentioned that my friend also tested this on his watch and had experienced the same issue.

    I have requested a refund as this was the primary feature that I wanted from the watch which is a shame I really like the Instinct.

  • I am sorry you continued to have issues. We were not able to replicate the same issue on our end when we tested across multiple Instinct watches. There is no logical explanation why it is impacting you and not our entire customer base wearing an Instinct.

  • If me AND my friend (who owns an instinct) are experiencing the same issue. AND my girlfriend who owns a Fenix 6 does not experience the problem, and the three of us have tested in the same way then then I agree that there's no logic for why we're not getting the same result.

    I think the number of people who use a barometer in combo with a map to navigate would be fairly small. And to do that in combination with an elevation alert would be an even smaller number. It's not like even a small fraction of the entire Instinct user base that would have ever used this feature.

  • FYI - this also doesn’t work on the Instinct Solar.