EPIX 2 ! Problem buttons LIGHT and BACK LAP

Can’t believe… after less than 2 months my 3rd epix is again stuck with same back button problem…

I used for hiking, running and swimming. Going smooth until now. I had a swimming training this afternoon - caring to press the lap button OUTSIDE the water as expressly written in the user’s manual - and I’m now back to the default settings loop…

I’m really frustrated, loved this watch particularly when hiking, but I’m done now, want my money back.

Going to get in touch with GA and see what I can do.

I see so many such problems mostly after swimming, and still some people say that it is not an issue and all those are false reports.

Vizi said:

I see so many such problems mostly after swimming, and still some people say that it is not an issue and all those are false reports.

Not aware that anybody denies the problem or say it’s not an issue. There is a general problem with buttons that some watches have, not all related to water. it is incorrect to suggest the problem is only related to swimming.

Garmin have been very good at sorting out replacements for people who have reported problems. 

Although that is irrelevant, but I have to point out the fact that you are denying it. Generalizing problem when it is clear based on user reports that swimming quite often causes watch buttons to fail, is denying it. I am not saying that buttons cannot fail for other reasons, but it is evident that they also do fail for above mentioned reason.

More importantly, I am also not aware of anyone from Garmin denying these problems, but I am also not aware of anyone from Garmin informing users about the discovered issue on their watch. It seems easier to pretend it is not there.

well - have just spent the week swimming every day - been in lakes, streams and in pools - have also been on water slides etc (which did some really weird stuff to my barometer - but still working fine - but had to turn off storm alerts). 

Buttons still work fine. No issues.

Which as others have pointed out doesn't mean there aren't issues, but as has also been pointed out people have had issues without swimming, some have had issues with swimming - but as issues also been without swimming I doubt the issue is directly attributable to it - unless there are a couple of causes and one is swimming - but then my watch would be burked - and it isnt. But then maybe its based on a certain series of models and I am fortunate to not have one of those.

I believe there are fundamentally two types of issues:

1. Physical problems with the buttons. These can be related to water and are addressed in https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=JUbwC0qg5O6RqypfwUiTj5. 

2. Software problems. LIGHT and BACK LAP buttons suddenly stop working. Upon a restart of the watch, it goes into a boot loop

I personally had both type of problems. For 1. the symptom would be that button presses would sometimes be recognized, sometimes not. Cleaning the watch resolved the issue.

For 2., the watch suddenly changed behavior. The button presses wouldn't be recognized whatsoever. One time, the problem was triggered at night when I activated the flashlight. No water in sight.

I'm currently on my 3rd Epix and honestly expect to also get a 4th at some point. Reason: Even in the 14.23 beta firmware, I don't read anything about a fix for the 2. problem. On the other hand, I can't believe they're not aware of it, with tons of watches being replaced. So I assume, Garmin developers just don't know about the root cause. Note that's my very own, pure speculation.

I’ve been able to make an hard reset (which has been a coincidence, considering that typically the reboot loop cannot allow any reboot activity): will see how long will last, but I’m not optimistic…

I have no idea if it’s a software or hardware problem and if can be related to swimming activity or not. Remains the fact that is a watch intended ALSO for water sports, and so I use it for pool swimming (7-8 km a week), clicking the back button to mark all my laps accordingly with the training activity registered in the watch. I care to click the button ALWAYS outside the water and I rinse the watch after every training. Really I don’t know how to care more than this. Wanna add that I used my old AW hundreds of times swimming in the pool and NEVER had a problem of any type… 

In my opinion, one watch can be defective, the second replaced showing same problem still can be bad luck but arriving at the third/fourth always with same issue… well… no, it’s not bad luck, I tend to consider it more a native problem of the watch. Or, the only possible alternative is that I’m really really unlucky

sercz said:

On the other hand, I can't believe they're not aware of it, with tons of watches being replaced. So I assume, Garmin developers just don't know about the root cause. Note that's my very own, pure speculation.

I do not think they are so incompetent that they do not know such serious issue with the watch model that is more than year and a half old. They just chose not to tell users about the real cause of the problem. 

Luke said:

In my opinion, one watch can be defective, the second replaced showing same problem still can be bad luck but arriving at the third/fourth always with same issue… well… no, it’s not bad luck, I tend to consider it more a native problem of the watch.

Exactly. It happens too often for it to be coincidence. 

Some Fenix 7 users that use the watch for swimming had to get several replacements as well.

As I said: "I am not saying that buttons cannot fail for other reasons, but it is evident that they also do fail for above mentioned reason". Plenty of users had such experience. Good for you that your experience is better.