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Instinct is Randomly Freezing on Software v13.20

PMO
over 4 years ago

1. My Instinct (V13.20) is still having random freezes for no apparent reason. The display stops updating, heart rate measurement stops, etc. No debug files are produced, but these events do leave traces in several fit files.

2. The freeze reports on this forum that appeared with V11 are, at this point, mostly buried on older posts, or on posts addressing other topics. Because of this, there is a tendency to assume that these freezes are now gone. The same is happening on the Instinct solar forum, despite some complaints still being put forward (here and there).

4. If this were a problem of my particular unit, I would gladly get a new one, but I am afraid this is a still existing, much more general problem, which is not being put forward to Garmin's developers attention (hello, Chris :) ). Changing units would therefore probably be jumping from the fire to the frying pan.

Bottom-line: is it possible to get a feeling of how many of you are still experiencing these freezes? If we could sum them using this post (freezing problem only), maybe we could convincingly show that the problem is not gone and, who knows, maybe get some attention for a watch that stops telling the time when it feels like it. BTW: yes, I have already mailed the beta developers team a while ago, but had no answer

Along the same line, and assuming that maybe something in the file system (e.g., a corrupted file) may be causing these freezes, does anyone know of a way to reset the file system to its factory condition (with the possible exception of installed OS upgrades)? (The so called Factory reset does nothing of the kind.)

Best of luck. Having a fully working Instinct is looking like a lottery, these days. :(

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Garmin - Chris

    I had the same issue, but since I switched off the Bluetooth on my phone and only sync-ing 2-3 times a day, freezing is disappeared.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Like others here I just noticed this last night.  The seconds will disappear but the watch will still keep time.  (Example the seconds disappear at 15 seconds.....then re-appear at 50 seconds later, the minute changes and the seconds display 05) I hope I explained that right.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    I have had no additional freezes since the the first one which I reported here two months ago.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    I don't know if this helps, but I started experiencing freezes at version 11.00.  I had rolled back to version 10.1 and have stayed there.  It seems pretty stable at this version.  I might have had one watch face freeze in  6months.  At version 11 I would have them several times a week and almost always at night during sleep.  I have been waiting on an "all clear" on freezes before I update again.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to mikedwilson

    Exactly. We all seem to agree that the behavior started with V11. And yes, most of them happen at night, or after extended quiet periods. At this point in time (Public Beta V13.81) the Garmin product support is being extremely helpful and proactive on this issue (thanks to Chris :) ), so hopefully we will be free of this soon enough. You will then be home free to start installing updates again.

    Best of luck

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    I am another user with a non-solar Instinct which is freezing repeatedly.

    It has frozen three times in the last two weeks. One time it made me miss an appointment because the alarm never went off.
    You glance at the watch and THINK it's working, but the display is frozen for hours.

    Here is a quick video of it happening:
    www.youtube.com/watch

    So it's a watch which can't be trusted to even tell time reliably? Very disappointed.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    I've been having the same problem. My Garmin Instinct has been freezing randomly on occasion but it would only last for a short time. Lately it's been happening much more frequently.

    It happened yesterday and the day before and has been lasting for several hours lately. I've been switching back to my Vivoactive when it happens so steps aren't a problem but there are activities that I have a long streak on like floor climbing for example, that I can't track with my Vivoactive. I almost lost my floor climbing streak yesterday so now it's starting to become very frustrating.

    Also, one of my favorite features is the hiking function, obviously it's no good for that if it's freezing. It's quickly becoming only good as a paper weight. It's a shame because I really love the watch but really hate this issue.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    Hello everybody,

    The problems that I have noticed with myself so far are freezing of the body battery function, sometimes no connection to the smartphone, no switching off of the lighting at bedtime.

    Update 10.04.2021:

    For me, after a simple switch off and on again, everything is fine again. No more problems so far.

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    I have had my Garmin Instinct for a couple of years.

    Since the 13.20 system update, I have had to restart my watch at least twice due to notifications failing to arrive at the watch. The Garmin Connect app has no problems retrieving data from the watch.

  • +1 over 4 years ago in reply to KFF05

    A new Instinct Beta software Update was just released today that will resolve the random freezing issue. For those that prefer to install the Beta and test the Beta vs. waiting for the official release, here is the v14.00 Beta: