fēnix 7 Pro Solar boot loop (FIX)

Like many others on the forums I got stuck with this issue today. Tried the suggested self-help methods:

1. soft reset by holding Light button 30sec -> boot loop continues, clock occasionally flashing and returning to loader screen

2. hard reset by shutting down, holding Start+Back after restart until hearing sound, releasing Start, waiting for next sound, releasing Back -> boot loop continues, clock occasionally flashing and returning to loader screen

3. doing #2 steps while connected to computer, trying to leverage Garmin Express: shut down clock starts up when connected to usb and proceeds to boot loop, even when doing the Start+Back+bleep sounds process

Weird thing is that unless I remember wrong I had disabled automatic updates due to some version having issues earlier this year. This did not prevent the device bricking itself.

EDIT (fix) - PC USB:

I was finally able to boot the watch by combining tips from multiple guides. Problem was that PC and Garmin Express could not see the watch while it was in boot loop.
Steps which worked for me:

1. connect with USB cable to PC
2. activate Garmin Express "Add a Device" so it starts looking for watches
3. hold Light to shutdown watch while connected, it might reboot itself automatically as its connected but no matter, next
4. hold Start button while watch starts - The Important Bit: hold Start until PC window pop ups note that device has been found, getting sound cues also
5. now you should see the watch storage in Windows Explorer
6. browse to /Garmin/RemoteSW folder in watch
7. delete file: GBE.bin
8. you can disconnect watch and see if it boots, after this the boot went through for me and I could connect back in phone app and start syncing

optional: if you did hard resets etc. you might want to restore backup in Garmin Express from "Tools" menu, I had no compatible backups stored unfortunately but might have some elsewhere.

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0 5 8 months ago

There is no "Garmin Express" for Linux.

This issue sucks. I'm sure I disabled auto-update specifically to prevent this kind of trouble when I bought the Fenix 7 Pro. Apparently something I did turned it on again, almost as sneaky as making a purchase signs you up for a newsletter.

Did anyone come across bash-only Linux instructions? That would be helpful.

0 Mary16 8 months ago

Hi,

I have Fenix 7X SS on 17.28 and I confirm that this fix (deletion of GBE.bin file) worked for me.also

0 Former Member 8 months ago in reply to 5

Satellite ephemeria data is downloaded on watches every day, it is not part of software updates. If you have Auto Update Off you still receive them.

Not justifying anything.. I am as mad as anyone. But the faulty file may have been the result of a satellite decommissioning which is a rare event (I plan to investigate later) nevertheless Garmin should have had more resilient code to avoid this. I guess the file waa ingested by the GNSS subsystem as soon as it was available, making the subsystem malfunction, so any action referencing this system resulted in a panic and reboot. During startup they should have measures in place to boot to a UI after a few tries with an error instead of endlessly trying to boot whenever a subsystem is not responding (correctly).

Bash-only instructions? Maybe some day I'll make a script. As of today Linux users are such a small minority we are ignored.

0 8296514 8 months ago in reply to Former Member

yes, I read about this too after posting the initial message and that explains why watches broke even with updates disabled, small silver lining is that in future we will hopefully be better equipped to debug and fix this issue
hoping of course that we don't need to :)

0 5 8 months ago in reply to Former Member

Satellite ephemeria data is downloaded on watches every day, it is not part of software updates.

Thank you for clarifying this.

I've fixed my issue without any software. I don't know if this is luck or works for everyone: Batteries perform worse in cold environments. Put the watch in a cold room and wait until the battery is empty. To speed this up, turn on the Fenix 7 Pro (into the boot loop) because it will turn the screen light on again and again and I assume the boot process itself also consumes energy. It took half a day to empty the battery which I had charged that morning.

Then put the watch in a warm room, and wait a few hours. Then there is enough power to boot one more time manually. So I boot (battery says 0%) and it works again. I quickly attach it to the charger.

the faulty file may have been the result of a satellite decommissioning which is a rare event (I plan to investigate later) nevertheless Garmin should have had more resilient code to avoid this.

It's plausible, but my first guess would be that the file was corrupt. I don't think an established company like Garmin would make such a startup mistake.