Forerunner 55 Series - Recent Threads

Forerunner 45s

6284378 — Sun, 31 May 2026 18:03:18 GMT

Can anyone help I’ve got my mother in laws garmin watch that I’m trying to fix. It’s a forerunner 45s I plug it in to charge, charges fine but as soon as it’s taken off charge screen just goes black? Displays a triangle at the beginning when turning on? Don’th know what more I can do I’ve reset and factory reset and no joy, could it be a problem with the battery?

Forerunner 55 stuck on weird data screens

ilitera — Sat, 30 May 2026 15:43:26 GMT

My watch is stuck on odd screens. Originally I was getting the dreaded triangle, but after restarting, I now get ones that say:

Backlight 13%

Beep frequency 4000

Vibration Test

A bunch of concentric color squares

GPS test acceleramator

esn with a qr code thing.

etc.

Help!

My forerunner dies after running 20 minutes on 3km and then when I plug it in there are still 48% battery power.

3569013 — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 06:27:27 GMT

My forerunner dies after running 20 minutes on 3km and then when I plug it in there are still 48% battery power.

RE: My forerunner dies after running 20 minutes on 3km and then when I plug it in there are still 48% battery power.

Garmin - KS — Fri, 15 May 2026 18:39:48 GMT

If you haven't already done so, please try connecting your Forerunner 55 to a computer and sync it with Garmin Express. Doing so will push any missing or incomplete updates to the watch. If you don't already have Garmin Express installed, you can find it here: Garmin Express Software

If this issue persists, then your watch may need to be serviced. In that case, I recommend reaching out to your local Garmin Support office for further assistance. For North America customers, that number is 800-800-1020 Monday - Friday, 7am - 7pm Central (Closed weekends and national holidays).

For UK customers, that number is 0808 238 0000 (UK landline free phone) or +44 3708501242 (standard geographic charges), Monday - Friday, 8:30 - 17:15 GMT (Closed weekends and national holidays).

RE: My forerunner dies after running 20 minutes on 3km and then when I plug it in there are still 48% battery power.

1760352 — Thu, 14 May 2026 21:14:39 GMT

I have the same problem on my Venu 2S and I contacter Garmin support and the solution they porpose is to trade mine in and and buy a new watch for more than 300 euros. I am disappointed with this solution and still waiting for their reply on how to fix this issue on my Venu 2S.

RE: Garmin 55 switched off while running.

4149344 — Wed, 06 May 2026 13:37:43 GMT

How much did this cost, including postage ?

Garmin 55 switched off while running.

AndreaSaxton — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 07:40:41 GMT

Yesterday while running, my Garmin FR 55 suddenly switched off. Each time i restarted it switched off when I tried to resume run. When I got home, I I have a race in 8 weeks and using a garmin coachplugged it in and was still on 58%. Why did it crash?

RE: Garmin 55 switched off while running.

AndreaSaxton — Wed, 06 May 2026 12:50:23 GMT

My solution was to send it back to Garmin and get a new watch. It seems to be a thing that happens with these models as they get older.

RE: Garmin 55 switched off while running.

7427839 — Wed, 06 May 2026 12:42:35 GMT

Yes this has worked so far for me too. I've disabled anything that might cause the beep/vibration to occur and it's been okay since I did that. Previously, it would power off at some time in every activity, always at the moment when there was a beep/vibration.

RE: Garmin 55 switched off while running.

4125951 — Wed, 06 May 2026 08:42:12 GMT

For me the issue appears to be high current draw when the lap beep/vibration happens together with the activity running with GPS.
I've made several changes to these settings both in an activity and normal everyday usage disabing as much as possible and only keeping what is absolutely necessary (meaning no beep, no vibration, no light other than when I press a button and possibly one or two others that now escape me). My battery drain during normal use is now much lower and at this time have not experienced outage within an activity - holding thumbs it lasts.

RE: Solid white triangle following update

GrahamJones — Sat, 02 May 2026 17:07:16 GMT

I'm surprised your battery life is so poor. Ill regularly do 1.5 hours with my ForeRunner 245 (which must be over 5 years old I think) and don't worry about draining it's battery, so id expect it to do a few hours without trouble. I think yours has a dud battery.....or Garmin messed up another firmware update on it. I do think Garmin watches are excellent for running - their optical heart rate sensors are very good.....but they keep breaking my seizure detector app with firmware updates, which is what annoys me!

Solid white triangle following update

5292965 — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 18:55:21 GMT

Garment forerunner 55 was updating and a solid white triangle has appeared. I’ve tried restarting but it’s still there

RE: Solid white triangle following update

4149344 — Sat, 02 May 2026 13:50:52 GMT

I wouldn't have bothered buying a sports watch myself if i knew in advance that i would only just get over 3 years usable time out of it. Even if i leave it charging continuously for hours and only put it on just before my run, it still can't handle a GPS run longer than about 1 hour 10 minutes. The metrics with the watch are nice but i was doing ok for years with a 25 quid Casio stopwatch for timing, using the measurment tool on Google Earth for estimating distance and storing the data in the free to downloadl Sportstracker app on my laptop to monitor my progress. For info, Coros don't ofiicialy support firmware downgrade either. Not sure about other brands.

RE: Solid white triangle following update

GrahamJones — Sat, 02 May 2026 10:41:51 GMT

Thanks - I had feared as much because I hadn't managed to find a repository of firmware files.

This is really frustrating because this is the second or maybe third model of watch that Garmin has effectively broken with a firmware update, and do not seem bothered about fixing....not fixing it wouldn't be so bad if you could downgrade to a working firmware! I have moved away from recommending users get a Garmin watch to use with OpenSeizureDetector because of Garmin breaking the VenuSq, which I used to recommend....

RE: Solid white triangle following update

4149344 — Sat, 02 May 2026 08:24:04 GMT

Downgrading of firmware doesn't seem to be officially supported for Garmin watches, so doesn't appear to be any easy way to officially get older firmware files. You'll need to hope someone has a copy of an older firmware you want to try and then trust them enough to take the risk of trying to get it on it on your watch. See the following thread regarding the Forerunner 255, as an example. forums.garmin.com/.../guide-to-downgrade-firmware

RE: Solid white triangle following update

GrahamJones — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 15:32:34 GMT

A user of my watch app has reported that it worked to start with on his new FR55, then suddenly started misbehaving ( RE: Problem with Accelerometer on Forerunner 55 ). I wonder if this could be related to a firmware update - are the older firmware files available somewhere so he can try downgrading it to see if it starts working again (then I can work out if it is a firmware issue or a hardware failure that he is having trouble with).

RE: Bluetooth activation

e7andy — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 15:04:18 GMT

Have you started an activity? Which activity type are you starting? Do you wait for it to get a GPS lock? After that press start and start moving. It should then measure the distance. After you are done with the activity, press stop and save.

Do you see a distance on the data screen in the field for distance?

Bluetooth activation

9889715 — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 07:07:46 GMT

My Garmin forerunner 55 do notmeasure distance. Please asdist with procedure

Forerunner 45 crashing

8807789 — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 09:35:19 GMT

For the last few months my watch seems to crash while on a run. It happens at the 3km point of a run, then the watch turns off. Everytime i try to continue my running activity the watch will switch off.

The power is charged and it doesn't seem to be a time thing - the "run" can last hours but if i have not exceeded the 3km then everything still works fine.

Does anybody know if this issue can be resolved?

RE: Forerunner 45 crashing

8807789 — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 13:08:09 GMT

No the issue never improved. It only got worse and started also happening on the other activity options too.

I ended up just getting a new watch, so am now using the Forerunner 55.

RE: Forerunner 45 crashing

chamili103 — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 17:21:35 GMT

Has this issue been solved and, if so, how?

RE: Forerunner 45 crashing

chamili103 — Thu, 23 Apr 2026 17:16:12 GMT

Same problème for me with my Forerunner 45. Please help. Michel

Has anyone opened forerunner 55 case successfully without cutting it ?

4149344 — Wed, 22 Apr 2026 08:02:36 GMT

If so, what method and tools did you use ? The iFixit teardown for the similarly constructed https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Garmin+Forerunner+245+Music+Teardown/150396 seems to indicate that heat and prying alone are rarely successul.

My 3.5 year old watch is shutting down in less than 1 hour during GPS activities and i want to try battery replacement as a last resort, but seems pointless if destroying bits of the case is the only way to open it.

RE: Garmin 55 switched off while running.

3569013 — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 06:30:55 GMT

My forerunner 55 is experiencing the exact same issue

Heart Rate Alert Broken After 11.03 Firmware Update

8542794 — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 18:03:00 GMT

Is anyone else experiencing this? My watch no longer beeps to alert me when I am running and out of my heart rate zone after last software update 2 weeks or so ago. I rely on this watch to keep my heart rate at certain levels per my cardiologist. I can't believe that they could be releasing fimeware with errata and letting customers beta test and find their bugs. Especially when I am probably not the only one relying on this watch to monitor heart rate during exercise per a doctor's orders. Has anyone found a way to fix this? I have checked all the settings and everything looks right.