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Garmin Venu 2 sensors not working (heart rate shows as "--", Indicating it is not detecting arm)

Hi. I bought a Venu 2 about a year ago. Recently the sensors just stopped working. I have gone through all the troubleshooting, including a full reset, making sure the app/watch was up-to-date, ensuring my settings were enabled. No light comes on at all, neither green nor red. If I try to do a health snapshot, it just says that arm is not detected. 

Sometimes when I reset the watch is comes back on. 

For context, the steps, the floors, the notifications, the calorie counter -- those are all still working. It's only the heart rate, stress, and sleep that aren't tracking. 

My question -- has anyone else experienced something similar? If so, how did you resolve it? Are there any known issues with Garmin and Android?

  • Unfortunately this issue does not seem to be solved by updating to software 14.10.  I received the update to 14.10 earlier this week and since then have completed two hike activities.

    First hike: Exact same issue as seen on 14.07.  HR was recorded for the first 30-60 seconds then displays "--" for the remainder of the activity.  Recovers immediately when activity ends.

    Second hike: Saw a different behavior here.  On this hike the HR was partially (nearly fully?) recorded.  However, the watch clearly was struggling and something was not right with it.  The watch would vibrate every 60 seconds or so and a fullscreen heart rate reading would pop up.  It seems like the watch was continually losing and regaining HR reading, with the vibration happening every time the reading was regained.  The watch continued vibrating in this fashion every minute or two for my entire 4 hour hike.  My post-hike statistics do display a HR graph but I'm pretty skeptical that it's accurate.  Furthermore, it was extremely annoying to have my wrist vibrated continually.

    Super disappointed in Garmin for letting this software bug make it to the customer and also disappointed in Garmin's lack of response and inability to push out a fix.  Luckily for me, I am still within the Amazon return window and this watch will be getting returned.  I will give the Coros Apex 2 a try for a similar price point ($350).  I feel bad for those who don't have a return option.  Hopefully Garmin gives this some attention soon.

  • I already returned mine. Garmin's complete and utter lack of response to a completely critical aspect of the watch is mind boggling in its ineptitude. There is a lot of competition out there Garmin.

  • I didn't have this particular problem with 14.07, however just after 14.10 my HR worked for the first 1m in a hiking activity (4h total), I restarted the watch and the next day hiking worked fine (3,5h total).

    • Do we have permission to email you? yes
    • Which country do you reside in? Czechia
    • What is the WHR version on your watch (Menu > Settings > System > About) 11.00.07
    • May we access your Connect account? Yes
    • Does this only occur during activity or both in and outside of activity? Once, an hour after the 14.10 update during activity, HR stopped working after 1m
    • Which activity profile are you using? Does it occur in other activity profiles? Not sure, it happened with the Hike
    • When did this first occur? 29.07.2023 morning, just after the update
    • Do we have permission to email you? yes
    • Which country do you reside in? Belgium
    • What is the WHR version on your watch (Menu > Settings > System > About) 11.00.07
    • May we access your Connect account? Yes
    • Does this only occur during activity or both in and outside of activity? Once, first time I did an (running) activity after the 14.10 update HR stopped working after 1m. Rebooted a few times and restarted the activity but had the same issues.
    • Which activity profile are you using? Does it occur in other activity profiles? Not sure, it happened with the running activity
    • When did this first occur? 31.07.2023 
  • All, 

    I've sent everyone that had responded to my questions an email. 

    • Do we have permission to email you? Yes
    • Which country do you reside in? Latvia
    • What is the WHR version on your watch (Menu > Settings > System > About) 11.00.07
    • May we access your Connect account? Yes
    • Does this only occur during activity or both in and outside of activity? HRM disappears after 25 sec during activity, when watch is idle it rarely disappears.
    • Which activity profile are you using? Does it occur in other activity profiles? Walk and cycling
    • When did this first occur? About week ago with new update
  • My scenario:
    After update to 14.10 HR recording for the first 30-60 seconds then displays "--".
    Checking:
    Button B, gear icon, Wrist Heart Rate, Broadcast In Activity - after update to 14.10 it's switched on (!?)
    Then: Broadcast In Activity - select off
    HR works properly in all activities.

    • I'm using 15.08b firmware
    • Do we have permission to email you? Yes
    • Which country do you reside in? USA
    • What is the WHR version on your watch (Menu > Settings > System > About) 12.00.03
    • May we access your Connect account? Yes
    • Does this only occur during activity or both in and outside of activity? HRM disappears after 25 sec during activity, when watch is idle it rarely disappears.  Doesn't yet seem to happen on indoor activity (treadmill)
    • Which activity profile are you using? Does it occur in other activity profiles? Walk and Yard Work
    • When did this first occur? About week ago with new update

    This is *still* happening with 15.08 beta, as of 15 minutes ago.

    • Do we have permission to email you? Yes
    • Which country do you reside in? UK
    • What is the WHR version on your watch (Menu > Settings > System > About) 11.00.07
    • May we access your Connect account? Yes
    • Does this only occur during activity or both in and outside of activity? Only during GPS activity. Ok outside activity
    • Which activity profile are you using? Does it occur in other activity profiles? All activity using GPS looses heart rate (run, hike, walk), but ok when not using GPS (cardio)
    • When did this first occur after update a few weeks ago