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Garmin Forerunner 255 – GPS Issues

DoDo

Hi everyone,

I’ve been having trouble with my Forerunner 255’s GPS for the past week. It suddenly stopped finding satellites when starting outdoor activities like running or walking. Until then, it worked perfectly.

I tried restarting the watch, syncing with Garmin Express and Garmin Connect to refresh satellite data. Oddly enough, it worked yesterday and I completed a run. But later in the day, it failed again.

During today’s workout the signal even dropped mid‑activity and hasn’t come back since. Sob

Now, it just keeps searching without locking onto GPS – even after 30 minutes under clear sky. It’s very unreliable and I can’t figure out any pattern. I’ve tried everything except a factory reset.

Anyone else had similar issues? I'm on software version 23.20. Would really appreciate any suggestions!

  • 0 in reply to chocorello

    You can check the status of the "ephemeris" in the System -> About menu.  It is one of the later screens in the loop, so I go through the list backwards with the UP button.

    My FR255 will show "missing" after about 1 week, and goes back to "current" after I let it sync with the phone app for about 10-15 minutes. When I am charging it once ever 2 weeks, I sync when charging and a second time in between.

    I also think that the GPS does better when I am using it daily, and takes a bit longer if I skip a day, even when it shows "current".

  • 0 in reply to 6125703

    I mostly sync by wifi (FR255 Music), and that seems to keep the ephemeris up to date.

  • 0

    This issue is unresolved. My F255’s problem with finding satellites started around when this forum was created. It never could not find satellites within 1 or 2 minutes, irrespective of the settings eg. GPS or ALL plus multi-band at my home. The solution is not to follow Garmin’s fix. I went as far as doing a factory restart, but it does not help. My F255’s Ephemeris shows current when this happens. Leaving it outside does not seem to help if the problem appears.

     

    I was on the way to buy a new watch and read the forum in September 25 and realised it may not be the hardware. I also do not use an iPhone as it appears from this forum it is a possible solution for some. I have an Android phone.

     

    What works for me is to connect the F255 to Garmin Connect for a long period eg overnight, as I only connect the F255 to the phone to sync my data and then disconnect it again. I have been doing this since I bought the F255 in August 2022. The period the F255 is connected to the Garmin Express app to sync and charge does net seem to solve this problem reliably.

     

    My first GPS watch did not require a look-up table or what ever the problem is. It would lock to satellites sometimes inside the house. Garmin watches should be able to lock to satellites from just “listening” to the satellites. This is unheard-of that Garmin watches require regular connection to the internet to find satellites. The watch has become “reliant” on this cheat used by phone manufacturers.

     

    Come on @garmin fix this as this functionality is fundamental to a multisport watch.

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