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Lap button not working on last step of workout

Jacquers
6 days ago

I made a custom running workout for which the last step was 'cool down until lap button pressed'. When I was at this last step the lap button (bottom right) didn't do anything. I tried pressing it multiple times, but it didn't respond. Touch was on and also didn't want to do anything either when touching the marker at the lap button. I had to pause and save the activity.

I don't think it's a hardware issue because the button works fine now after the workout and worked for the starting warm up step.

  • 0 6 days ago

    Yeah, this change has been noticed in other watches, like FR955, and there was some discussion about this. (To be clear, watches like FR955 may have received this change at some point via a firmware update, so it was even more noticeable bc a given model of watch used to work one way and now it works a different way.)

    As far as I can tell, Garmin no longer allows the lap button to end a workout (i.e. terminate the final step of a workout), even if the final workout step is set as "until lap button press". However, if the final workout step is set to an end based on time or distance, it will still end normally if you reach the allotted time/distance.

    Jacquers said:
    When I was at this last step the lap button (bottom right) didn't do anything

    On FR955, when I press the lap button during the final step of a workout, it takes a manual lap. (This is in contrast to every other workout step, where pressing the lap button will terminate the step and advance to the next step). 

    My best guess is you've probably disabled the Lap Key option in your activity settings, which is why pressing the lap button does absolutely nothing in the final workout step (I can see the same behaviour if I disable Lap Key). I bet if you enablle Lap Key, you will see the same thing that I do (pressing LAP takes a manual lap, only during the final workout step)

    Idk, I think it's just another controversial workout change that won't be reversed, since Garmin probably made it to appease one group of users at the expense of others.

    In the past we've also seen changes like:

    1) the activity no longer ends when the workout ends. (But some people preferred it the other way - they want the activity to automatically end when the workout ends)

    2) workout target pace uses instant pace instead of lap pace

    Ironically, Garmin has kind of gone in the opposite direction of 1): now the workout doesn't end until the activity ends (unless the final workout step is based on time or distance)

  • 0 6 days ago

    Anyway, to me it's pretty clear this change was done on purpose, and I don't see Garmin reversing it :/ 

    I argued that it's inconsistent behaviour, but other users don't seem to care (I guess I don't blame em)

  • 0 6 days ago in reply to FlowState

    Thanks for the reply :)

    Yes, I disabled the lap key. But even if the lap key is disabled it should have ended that step, so I still think it's a bug in this case. With this combination of settings, it's basically impossible to end the workout except for pausing and saving. I hope they can at least fix that.

    For the other part of it I think what Garmin could so is to make it a setting - let the user choose whether ending the last step ends the workout and continues the activity or not. It doesn't even need to be a setting; it can just be a prompt on the watch asking you if you want to end the activity or continue.

  • 0 5 days ago in reply to Jacquers
    Jacquers said:
    Yes, I disabled the lap key. But even if the lap key is disabled it should have ended that step, so I still think it's a bug in this case. With this combination of settings, it's basically impossible to end the workout except for pausing and saving. I hope they can at least fix that.

    To be clear, even if the lap key is enabled, pressing it on the final step will only take a manual lap (and you don't even get the normal user-configurable lap screen, but a fixed manual lap screen that's specific to workouts, similar to how workouts have a fixed auto lap screen). The final step still won't ever end in this case, until you end the activity.

    What you said is what I argued when I originally brought it up, but tbh half the ppl who engaged either don't understand or care about the problem. Specifically they don't understand why anyone would want to end the workout and keep the activity going (which again is ironic since Garmin specifically made a change years ago to allow the activity to keep going when the workout was ended.)

    I don't expect Garmin to reverse what was obviously an intentional decision.

    I do think it's ridiculous in light of the fact that it makes a lie out of the "until lap press" option, when you apply that option to the final workout step.

    I also think it's inconsistent and confusing:

    - the lap key works differently based on what part of the workout you're in: final step vs other steps

    - the final step can't end on a lap press but it can end on a time / distance limit (and in this case, the workout does end normally, you do get an execution score if applicable, and the activity does keep going)

    It's just making the product more complex imo. I guess there must have been users who wanted this feature tho. Perhaps it's aimed at people who usually have a cool down as their final workout step, and they want the ability to chop up their cool down into manual laps. (Ironically, simply ending the workout and pressing manual lap on the post-workout "stage" will have pretty much the same effect, especially when you look at the activity in Connect, since Connect -- or the device -- applies the "interval type" of the final interval to all laps which come after the workout itself.)

    Jacquers said:
    For the other part of it I think what Garmin could so is to make it a setting - let the user choose whether ending the last step ends the workout and continues the activity or not. It doesn't even need to be a setting; it can just be a prompt on the watch asking you if you want to end the activity or continue.

    To be clear I don't really care about the other part, it's just an example of a change that Garmin obviously made to please one segment of Garmin users, but another segment of Garmin users has been complaining about that change for years. And ofc ppl suggested Garmin make it a setting, butt they will never do that (they haven't done that in the past when making this type of change).

  • 0 5 days ago in reply to FlowState

    Thanks, I agree. It's very confusing when things don't behave as expected. Maybe Garmin will take notice and improve it.