(Resolved) - GPS Issues Starting January 1st, 2021

Garmin - Chris over 3 years ago

UPDATED 1/5/2021:

This issue was resolved over the weekend and should no longer be impacting users.

For more information on this, please view our FAQ - The Activity GPS Track From My Garmin Watch Is Inaccurate

Top Replies

4809367 over 3 years ago +1

Looking forward to an update after which gps wil work perfectly again on my instinct solar!
5973861 over 3 years ago +1

Seems to affect the Instinct Solar as well. Took me over 15min to acquire GPS this afternoon...
5973861 over 3 years ago in reply to 5973861 +1

PS no problems with the track being off. Just the immense long acquiring of GPS.

All Replies

0 Elius94 over 3 years ago

Thank you Chris, I follow this topic.

0 MattBigmonster over 3 years ago

What does it mean? I'm "expired" but just came back from a 4 day trek and all my hikes recorded just fine.

0 Garmin - Chris over 3 years ago in reply to MattBigmonster

Good to hear your GPS tracks look good. There are worldwide reports of poor GPS starting the new year. The CPE file is not updating either. Our engineers are working on a resolution already and we hope to have it resolved soon.

0 7589378 over 3 years ago

Thank you for this report, Chris. I first had this issue yesterday morning, 01/01. From advice I found then, I checked, and my CPE showed CURRENT. Now it does show EXPIRED, but leaving it outside (and recording) for 35 minutes didn't change that.

Also, the fact that you posted in the Instinct Solar forum but directly referenced the Fenix 6, while my spouse and I are getting this issue with the FR 45 and FR 945, shows that Garmin needs to create at least one or two general-purpose forums, for when the issue isn't a particular model. I only found your post because I searched all the forums for "GPS".

0 shrijith1 over 3 years ago

I got my Solar Instinct recently and tested it for the first time against my Forerunner 230 on 1st Jan. Both the watches had perfect GPS tracks. Both watches were set to GPS only. Location - India. Instinct Solar also uses Sony GPS chipset and I can see the CPE expired in the watch. It was a sunny sky and I usually wait for a minute or 2 after getting the GPS lock before starting the activity.

0 HonzaSolar over 3 years ago

Hi, my Instinct Solar started being horribly inaccurate yesterday (1/1/2021). I assume the bug affects Instinct line as well!

0 LeslieSnipes over 3 years ago

I can confirm that CPE: Expired is affecting my Solar Instinct Tactical, ver 12.0. After ~45 mins it was still unable to get an accurate fix. Attached photos of a run, not a swim

0 5536235 over 3 years ago

I'm having the exact same issue. Wondering if I will have to do a hard reset... Tried updating on garmin express and with no change in CPE...

0 LeslieSnipes over 3 years ago in reply to 5536235

Looks like we will have to wait for Garmin to push a fix. There is a good explanation at DC rainmaker https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2021/01/gps-accuracy-impacting-devices.html

0 Daniel over 3 years ago

My Instinct Solar also shows CPE expired but my today's activities (hike and ice skating) looks good on the map.