I2X Solar Tactical crashed during activity when opening Connect IQ Store/Garmin Explore

My Instinct 2X Solar (ver. 14.12) crashed/restarted during a "Walk" activity. I wanted to check the version of a watch face so I opened Connect IQ Store. The application showed my watch was connected but it took too long to refresh (fetching data I guess, the dotted circle keeps spinning). Then I looked at my watch and found it showing the "Garmin" power-on screen. The activity was able to be resumed.

The most frustrating thing is that all my data from last night until the crash moment was lost. The heart rate, pulse ox, etc. are all gone. Only the data during the activity are kept.

0 dreamer_ over 1 year ago

Instinct 2X has partial support for ConnectIQ apps. It does not support the 2.x version of Garmin Connect IQ for those applications that need to allocate 128kB of memory.

If your watch face or something related to the ConnectIQ Store, is an application that somehow after a while, starts asking for more than the 96kb assigned for ConnectIQ apps, it will eventually crash your watch (Out Of Memory).

In my opinion, as a developer, that limit should be removed / updated up to 128kb because we are breaking compatability or or causing premature memory errors in applications that need that little extra ram after a while. This is something that can occur during the lifetime of an application. Applications that somehow ask more than those 96kb during the running period, will crash the watch.

See this: https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/instinct-2-series/359125/bug-instinct-2x-connectiq-memory-allocation-fw-14-12

So basically, try to remove that watch face and use an stock one to see if everything works as it should when you open the Connect IQ Store.

0 anonymous16 over 1 year ago in reply to dreamer_

Hi thanks for replying! But I don't really think this issue is caused by any watch faces, because the watch is on the "Walk" activity data screen when I open Connect IQ Store on my phone. And it crashed.

Are you suggesting that the watch face will keep running in the background when the watch is in activity?

0 dreamer_ over 1 year ago in reply to anonymous16

I don't really know but I understand the watch face is the only ConnectIQ app you have installed. If still happens after removing it, there's something more there that should be reviewed.

0 dreamer_ over 1 year ago in reply to dreamer_

Have also a look at this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Garmininstinct/comments/ygfh2m/significant_lag_with_connectiq_watch_faces_on/

So remove the custom watch face

0 anonymous16 over 1 year ago in reply to dreamer_

Wow, that's pretty upsetting... One of the biggest updates when upgrading from my old Instinct Solar is the Connect IQ and custom watch faces. But now I have to uninstall them :(

0 anonymous16 over 1 year ago

Yesterday, the issue occurred again during a hike. I opened Garmin Explore to check the offline map near the end of the hiking activity. The watch crashed, and my HR data was lost (HR data for the activity was still there).

This is how the watch is supposed to be used, isn't it? It's funny that the watch crashes from time to time.

0 dreamer_ over 1 year ago in reply to anonymous16

I opened a bug in the beta forums about what, as my understanding, is a very big issue with ConnectIQ apps but they closed with just a link and without reviewing it.

What I can tell you is that you should open a thread in the beta bug forum. There is at least one developer that sometimes checks the threads.

0 bluefish over 1 year ago in reply to dreamer_

dreamer_ said:
Applications that somehow ask more than those 96kb during the running period, will crash the watch.

I have the Garmin watchface "valor" from the store on the 2x, and so far no problems. It is 116 kb in size.

0 dreamer_ over 1 year ago in reply to bluefish

Very interesting.

The 96Kb limit is detailed here: https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/reference-guides/devices-reference/#instinct%C2%AE2xsolar , under App Types.

This is the thread I opened to the support: https://forums.garmin.com/beta-program/instinct-2-series/public-beta-bug-reports/i/public-beta-15-xx/bug-instinct-2x-ciq-3-4-6-and-only-96kb-per-app because of that limit.

We are on CIQ 3.4.0 and according to: https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/core-topics/persisting-data/ ,

Accessing Storage: Application.Storage

Since API level 2.4.0

The Application.Storage module manages persistent key-value pair data storage. Information is automatically saved on disk when Storage.setValue() is called. Keys and values are limited to 8 KB each, and a total of 128 KB of storage is available.

And in the case of the Instict 2X, we do really have only 96kb, as you can easily check when using the SDK. We are on CIQ 3.4.0.

This limit should be increased up to 128kb.

0 dreamer_ over 1 year ago in reply to bluefish

I have been speaking with a CIQ app dev. That size shown does not have any relevance for available memory to apps. He said me that for one thing, that is a data field, not an app, and they have far less memory available: usually only 16kB or 32kB, so there is no way that it is really using 116kB when it runs.