Instinct 3 - Recent Threads

Instinct 3 System Software 14.15

Garmin-Jimmy — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 19:19:40 GMT

Hello Instinct 3 users,

Today we started the rollout of Software Version 14.15, currently we are at 20% with this rollout and we will increase the % as time goes by.

Change Log

Instinct E ONLY

- Fixed potential issue where watch would not unlock after entering passcode
- Fixed issue where garbled characters could display on HR broadcast screen.

Instinct E & Solar

- Fixed issue where garbled characters could display on HR broadcast screen.

Is there something wrong with the battery of my Instinct 3 Solar Tactical 50мм?

2006346 — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 10:13:50 GMT

I am trying to figure out whether there is something wrong with the battery on my Garmin Instinct 3 tactical. I see some posts about people getting their advertised 40 days in smartwatch mode and I barely came close to that only once.

My settings are:

* Backlight: 20%, but I barely use it even at night. It only turns on when I press the watch buttons.
* HR: enabled
* Pulse Ox: disabled
* Garmin share: (it was enabled on the April - May test but I do not know about Jan - Feb)
* Notifications: disabled
* Phone connection/Bluetooth: disabled via `Stealth Mode` (most of the time except once a day to sync or during workout)
* No LUX in the two examples below.

Here are two full charge cycles and the activity I had:

January 22, 2026, 01:10 - February 25, 2026, 22:00: 34 days, 20 hours, 50 minutes;
Mostly 1-2 treadmill runs per week, around 30 minutes each at most.
April 25, 2026, 10:47 - May 20, 2026, 18:53: 25 days, 8 hours, 6 minutes;
At least 4 treadmill runs per week, around 1 hour each. Maybe the shorter battery life in this test makes sense because I doubled or possibly tripled my activity since last test.

I don't think GPS was used during either of the activities above, since they were both indoors. I've now performed a full factory reset, reapplied the settings mentioned above, disabled GPS in each power mode just in case, and disabled Garmin Share. I then rebooted the watch, charged it to 100%, and rebooted it once more. I'll post another update once I have more data.

Any suggestions?

Screen freeze (?) during activity while navigating and no data points recorded until navigation stopped.

georgex — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 13:14:44 GMT

I had navigation on during this run https://connect.garmin.com/app/activity/22487884121

At 4h02m34s you can see a straight line, the watch wasn' t recording until 4h18m22s. This is the section not recorded:

When it should be this, recorded from my wife's Suunto:

What happened is we got off the track we were following because my watch was stuck showing me exactly on track. I did not realized this immediately as I was running at the time. I finally realized that the screen was either frozen or wrongly displayed me on track. We got back on the path and then I stopped navigation. It must have been then that the watch started recording the track again. I did not turn navigation on again during this run.

Has anyone else seen this?

That was on software 13.29. I am on 14.14 now.

Feature request: manual "end hole" in golf mode

8423553 — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 06:59:40 GMT

On tight courses, the watch often doesn't detect the hole is finished, even on the best tee. Manually changing holes and entering the score is possible but tedious.

Could you add an "end hole" item to the menu that asks for the score and advances by one - equivalent to detecting walking off the green?

Thanks!

Instinct 3 Solar: Watch Restarts During GPS Activities

8889803 — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 22:54:19 GMT

When will the issue of the watch restarting during GPS activities on the Instinct 3 Solar be fixed? This has been a problem since its release, and the exact same issue is still occurring now in June 2026. Are you actually working on a fix for this?

Device name error in Connect

Luke I3-50-A — Sun, 31 May 2026 18:15:16 GMT

I have renamed my device to "Instinct 3" in Garmin Connect (web). However, I see "Instinct 50OLED" in Garmin Connect on (latest) Android app. Even after a sync nothing changes.

Bug: Instinct 3 optical HR stays on and ignores external ANT+ sensor (Polar Verity Sense) during activities

8853673 — Sat, 30 May 2026 20:21:00 GMT

There is a bug regarding external heart rate sensor priority on the Garmin Instinct 3. When a Polar Verity Sense is successfully paired and status shows as "Connected" via ANT+ under Sensors & Accessories, the watch fails to prioritize it when starting a workout.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Pair a Polar Verity Sense via ANT+ (verified as "Connected" in the sensor menu).

2. Open the Run activity profile.

3. The watch does not display the "External HR Connected" banner, and the green optical LEDs on the back of the Instinct 3 remain active.

4. During the activity, the watch continues to read data from the built-in wrist sensor, completely ignoring the connected Polar sensor.

Temporary Workaround Discovered:

The external sensor only works if I manually force it by going to Settings > Sensors & Accessories > Wrist Heart Rate and turning it Off. Once the built-in wrist sensor is disabled, the watch finally displays the heart rate data being broadcast by the Polar Verity Sense.

The expected behavior for Garmin devices has always been that a connected external ANT+ sensor automatically overrides and disables the built-in wrist HR sensor when an activity starts. The software on the Instinct 3 is failing to execute this priority order.

Device Info:

- Model: Garmin Instinct 3 Solar

- External Sensor: Polar Verity Sense (connected via ANT+)

- Tested with other brands: The Polar Verity Sense works flawlessly and automatically overrides the internal sensor on Amazfit watches, proving the sensor is broadcasting correctly. The bug is exclusive to the Garmin

software logic.

repeating notifications about installed apps after a restart or connect/disconnect from a pc

Luke I3-50-A — Wed, 27 May 2026 12:00:28 GMT

Hello, every time I connect/disconnect my watch to/from a PC (via Garmin Express), or restart the watch I got all the notifications about installed apps again. i.e. every app, every watchface I installed in the past shows up now with "The watchface xxxx has been installed." Is there anything I can do to get rid of this? Instinct 3 50mm AMOLED, fw. 14.14. (I has the same experience on previous firmwares). Thanks!

Why can't the barometer mode be configured separately for each activity?

Tito Urrutia — Tue, 26 May 2026 17:52:57 GMT

Since this is a system-wide setting rather than one that can be adjusted individually for each sport, the watch causes issues during my multisport workouts when I combine running and stair climbing. Because the activities can’t be separated by profile, the multisport activity loses accuracy in one of the two phases, and changing it manually disrupts the flow of the workout. Does anyone know if Garmin plans to include this feature, as they have in the Fenix series?

Battery life vs 2x

Gonzo — Sun, 24 May 2026 11:37:59 GMT

I just upgraded from a 2x solar to the 3 solar 50mm. Gorgeous new display and reduced weight.... Love it.

Issue I am having is battery. New fully charged in smartwatch mode is only 13 days... My 2x now at only at 85% is 54 days! That's a huge difference.

Is this normal for the 3 solar? That's awful. Specs show 40 days in smartwatch mode.

Using v5.23 software and have all sensors turned off.

Infinite battery with 14.14 (Instinct 3 Solar 50mm)

josesoj — Sat, 23 May 2026 13:58:10 GMT

Hi.

Ever since I updated to version 14.14, every time I charge the watch by leaving it in the sun for a while, the infinite battery icon appears after a few minutes. I have to turn it off and on again for the remaining battery life to reappear.

Has anyone else experienced this issue?

Garmin Instinct 3 Solar connectivity to phone

TrailSquatch — Thu, 21 May 2026 09:32:46 GMT

Since the last update my Instinct 3 has been randomly disconnecting from my phone and the app. In order to have it reconnect I have to use the “pair phone” function on the watch and then it instantly connects.

this happens randomly during activity, sleeping or just throughout the day.

I have reset my watch and reinstalled the app but that doesn’t not help.

Why isn't the instinct 3 compatible with meta ai rayban glasses?

8326066 — Wed, 20 May 2026 17:05:53 GMT

I paid good money for my Garmin watch and it's very disappointing that my watch isn't sufficient in Garmin's eyes to be compatible with my Meta 2 Ray Ban glasses. My watch has all the health and activities tracking so why do you choose to disallow connectivity? I also have a fenix 6 solar but it isn't compatible either.

Instinct 3 solar Broadcast HR

8656815 — Mon, 18 May 2026 22:01:06 GMT

I would like to share the HR broadcast issue on my Garmin Instinct 3 Solar 43mm.

I used:
- Instinct 3 Solar 43mm → HR Broadcast
- Edge Explore 2 → receiving HR signal

During rides, the HR signal randomly disconnects (usually after ~15-25 minutes), and the only way to restore broadcasting is to restart the watch.

To rule out the Edge Explore 2 as the cause, on 18 May I tested a different setup:
- Instinct 3 Solar 43mm → HR Broadcast
- Forerunner 255 → receiving HR signal and recording activity

The exact same issue happened again — HR broadcast disconnected during the activity, and restarting the Instinct 3 was required to restore it.

This strongly suggests the problem is related to the Instinct 3 itself, not the receiving device. Previously, I used Forerunner 255 + Edge Explore 2 for a long time without any similar problems.

The watch was already serviced and updated to firmware 14.14, but the issue still persists.

Very frustrating during cycling training, since HR monitoring is essential for pacing and effort control. Hoping Garmin engineering can investigate further or provide a replacement solution.

Links to my training activities

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/22924110275

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/22907505479

The issue has been reproduced repeatedly across multiple independent devices and connection methods:

Edge Explore 2
Forerunner 255
iPhone / Strava app
BLE and ANT+ workflows

This demonstrates that the problem is not isolated to one receiver or one protocol.

I have cooperated fully with troubleshooting, including:

firmware updates,
service center inspection,
repeated controlled tests,
multiple rides,
log collection,
Garmin file uploads.

However, the issue continues to occur repeatedly during training.

It has now been over one week since I uploaded the requested Garmin files, and I have not received any engineering update, findings, timeline, or proposed resolution.

I would like clarification on the following:

Has the engineering team reviewed my uploaded files?
What are their conclusions so far?
Why has there been no technical response or status update?
Since the device remains under warranty and the problem is

Garbled characters in HR broadcasting screen (Solar, v14.14)

sugurunishioka — Mon, 18 May 2026 18:06:05 GMT

My Instinct 3 Solar stopped reading heart rate after updating the firmware to v14.14. When that happened for the first time, restarting the watch fixed it. But on the 2nd time, heart rate reading never came back after several starts, and I had to hard reset the watch to get it back.

While this was happening, I noticed garbled-up characters were showing up below the HR number (or "--" when HR was not working) on the HR broadcasting screen. Even after the hard reset, this remains the same. I believe this started happening after the v14.14 update.

Screen:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/yT5aGojfwoMwPuqEA

Anyone else having this issue, and what can I try to fix this? (Note: I've already tried hard-reset)

Alt timezones

6067338 — Sun, 17 May 2026 22:45:52 GMT

Choosing tokyo will chose tianjin timezone on crossover amoled

Alt timezone

6067338 — Sun, 17 May 2026 22:12:16 GMT

Choosing tokyo will chose tianjin timezone on crossover amoled

Watch face bug after 14.14

6652686 — Sat, 16 May 2026 20:45:04 GMT

Hello, I don't know if this has already been reported, but I'd like to point out a bug on most of the default watch faces for the Instinct 3. Previously, the hour and minute hands were separated by two dots, but since the update, they're all stuck together, and it looks really bad. Is this intentional on Garmin's part or a bug? Thank you.

Bug reported on watch face since update 14.14

6652686 — Sat, 16 May 2026 20:39:28 GMT

Bonjour, je ne sais pas si ce problème a déjà été signalé, mais je souhaite également signaler un souci avec l'affichage de la montre depuis la mise à jour 14.14. Sur la plupart des cadrans basiques, les aiguilles des heures et des minutes ne sont plus séparées par un deux-points ; elles sont désormais collées. Je voudrais savoir s'il s'agit d'un bug ou d'un choix délibéré de Garmin. Merci !

More options for watch face data field please

6206231 — Thu, 14 May 2026 16:19:44 GMT

I like most of the watch faces on my Crossover Amoled but I wish they had better options for the data fields. I can guarantee you that I'm not interested in when the sun is going up/down, my current heart rate and what the UTC time is but I certainly want to see the local digital time and date/weekday. I wish it was possible for more (all?) of the data fields to show in each data field, maybe it could be possible to add and remove data options.

mapas

6577215 — Wed, 13 May 2026 07:20:22 GMT

Buenos dias!! como usuario de instinc 3 amoled 50. Hay posibilidad de incluir mapas en el sofware del reloj en alguna actualizacion?

el reloj es de lo mejor pero si es verdad que podriais incluir mapas en alguna actualizacion.

Glances Lag on 14.14

Jacquers — Wed, 13 May 2026 06:14:16 GMT

https://www.reddit.com/r/Garmininstinct/comments/1tba3uv/i3_solar_issue_after_1414_update/

Anyone else experiencing lag, especially on the health widget?

new stock glance is great. But looks like can only edit via the watch.

marketuncle — Tue, 12 May 2026 11:04:26 GMT

Better if its able to be edited via garmin app on the phone.

Off course alerts

2812323 — Mon, 11 May 2026 12:40:44 GMT

Hi all,

Just bought an Instinct 3 solar - I'm trying to use it to navigate courses on my bike, and even though off course alerts are turned on, I never get any - I was hoping I would get something through my headphones (as it does announce distance at the start) but I get nothing at all audible or on the watch - any ideas?

Thanks,

Martin

Crossover AMOLED - Hands are about 30 seconds faster than time

1540386 — Sun, 10 May 2026 06:36:50 GMT

Hello,

I just got the instinct crossover and I love it! But I have one weird issue. The hands are about 30 seconds faster than the actual time. I see it tick over to the next minute before I see the real time tick over. I tried the calibration process, but it still persists? Anyone else have this issue?

TIA