Forerunner 245 heartrate wrong (too low) in Walk activity

I have seen so many threads on this topic already concerning a variety of Garmin watches and yet the issue persists.

It's like other people already said - it's like there is a cap in code on how high the HR can get during walking. For me specifically it just sticks around 120 even though i tested it multiple times to be around 170-180 in that time. I've tried all recommedations I could find on the forums and no, I'm not wearing my watch wrong. And yes my watch is updated to the latest version.

This specific bug is greatly annoying to me as hiking is my main activity and I often plan my trainings around my HR and therefore have to use other activities to achieve an acceptable accuracy (there is only a problem with Walking and Hiking activities). It seems like Garmin software does not think walking can be a strenuous activity.

I find it unacceptable that a cheap 30€ watch comes out more reliable and I hope this issue finally gets fixed like it should already have been a long time ago.

  • Same here. Walking HR quite often unreliable for me, while running HR seems pretty reliable. Also hope this issue is addressed.

  • It might make sense to use Trail Run instead of Walk, if you don’t need V02 Max, you can turn it off, but in general the extra the parameters won't hurt.


  • Running and skiing work fine for me after a few minutes, but you'd think a longer muscle fitness series would work that way too, but no. 30 repetitionsf rom the ground onto the head (65%) duration 5 min, heart rate 80, while with a pulse oximeter 110. Also running (30 sec walk 30 sec) x 10 in total approx. 24 min duration, does not show the maximum heart rate nor the heart rate correctly, far too low. These are measured from the wrist.
  • Thank you, I'll try this one too - so far I didn't have it in my favorites as the run activity was enough for me. For solving the problem with the walking activity I used Cardio. Funnily enough, I tried using Run instead of Walk for hiking one time and was even more infuriated because it showed 0 HR through the entire hike, as if I'm dead. I assume that the pace was deemed too slow for a run, but WHY that would be set to affect the reading of HR is beyond my comprehension. 

  • I mean I understand that wrist measurements are generally not the most reliable, but these are just waaay too off to even be acceptable. Like I said, I achieved better accuracy with a relatively unknown brand's watch for 30€. And considering this along with the price of my Garmin, I don't think I'll ever choose to buy Garmin again.