Hello all,
I'm posting to see if anyone else is experiencing critical connectivity issues with the latest firmware update.
I have owned a Forerunner 265S for a few years, and it was perfectly stable until the recent software update to version 26.08.
The Problem
Following the update, my device began experiencing severe instability with its Bluetooth connection to my Samsung S24 phone:
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Initial Disconnects: The issue began yesterday morning with a complete disconnection, necessitating a successful re-pairing. It disconnected again this morning, requiring another manual re-pair.
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Failed Pairing: A few hours later, the connection was lost completely. I spent hours attempting to restore it, including a factory reset of the watch and clearing the network settings on the phone.
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Unstable Connection: After finally managing to pair the devices, the connection became highly unstable, constantly losing and regaining connection every minute or so.
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Total Disconnection: Eventually, the watch lost connection to the phone completely.
Troubleshooting and Observations
I've tried everything in the book, but here are two highly specific, strange observations:
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When I enable Wi-Fi on my watch (even without actually connecting to a network), and then force a sync from the watch, the device connects to the phone via Bluetooth. However, the connection drops immediately once the synchronization is complete.
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The watch time is now severely lagging, falling behind by minutes per hour!
I have contacted customer support, and they have opened a case, but I have not yet received a resolution.
Has anyone else experienced this combination of Bluetooth instability and significant lag with the latest 26.08 firmware? Any workarounds would be greatly appreciated.
