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Fenix 8 not connecting to GPS

trailexplorer
3 months ago

Hi all,

I have a Fenix 8 AMOLED 47mm running running 12.35. I started a trail run activity but the GPS bar would not move past the initial small red bar that initially appears (i.e. no progress). I left the watch outside for a few minutes and it still did not progress. I then restarted the watch, and synced the watch with Garmin Connect app and the GPS bar still does not progress.

I have a clear view of the sky with intermittent light cloud cover. I last started a trail run activity from the same location 2 days ago and had no problems. It has always only taken a few seconds for GPS to be found.

I have now left my watch outside for 30 minutes and the GPS bar has not progressed.

Interestingly enough my watch was not affected by the recent blue triangle and restarting issue.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

  • 0 3 months ago in reply to Hellkeeper

    I've checked now and I have a CPE.bin file from 28.01.2025. So it seems it isn't updated since days, but it is someway working fine today.

  • 0 3 months ago

    [Removed]: 

    Please see current verified response provided by Garmin-Laurie

  • 0 3 months ago in reply to Garmin-Cody

    These steps have already been tried. I think the fact that a lot of us experienced a problem with the GPS and then it all spontaneously resolved shows it was a problem with the Garmin side, rather than the user side. Disappointing for such an expensive device! I’d appreciate if Garmin could investigate this to ensure it doesn’t happen again and that users can have confidence in their very expensive watches. 

  • 0 3 months ago in reply to Garmin-Cody

    Being a maybe ten years Garmin user, I already know such things. Two days ago GNSS was working perfect. Yesterday, I went out to run and with no GNSS for longer than an hour! CPE was in Current state. I was far from home, so couldn't delete CPE file to test, too. Today, I hit an activity, and it worked just as normal. Also my CPE file in RemoteSW folder dates to 28.01.2025. So it's apparently a different issue.

  • 0 3 months ago

    I also didn't have gps triangle issue, but was not able to acquire gps signal on Feb 1. Spent an hour in total to get a fix,  but nothing helped (phone syncing, soft resetting) in clear field.

  • 0 3 months ago in reply to trailexplorer

    I edited my initial post after further discussion on our end for the most current guidance to users with this concern. 

  • 0 3 months ago

    I just came back from the evening run. I was able to acquire a GPS signal, although it took slightly longer than usual.
    I didn't have my phone with me, and didn't try suggestions from Cody's post. But yesterday I connected my fenix to Garmin Express and installed few updates (but I think it was mostly maps).

  • 0 3 months ago in reply to Garmin-Cody

    You must be kidding! We buy a 1200+$ watch that should be reliable for outdoor activities. Which it isn't. And the workaround is to download some shady third-party tools (MTP) to our Macs to access the file system of the watch and delete some files?!

    How should one do that during an outdoor adventure? Garmin might "measure battery life in months not hours". But what about "mean time between failure"? I wish this were also months...

  • 0 3 months ago

    this morning (Feb 6) GPS fix lasted more than half a minute so I gave up and started my activity without "green fix", finally it was tracked correctly, but a few weeks ago was GPS fix performed within seconds... summary: Feb 4 evening - no GPS fix, activity without GPS record; Feb 5 morning - slow fix, evening - slow fix; Feb 6 morning - very slow fix, didn't wait till fully fixed. once I get to my computer with cable, I will perform that suggested manual obscure file deletiion, but I'm not happy with this type of support, I do outdoor activities regularly and expect that this core functionality will work.