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Various problems with my Garmin 645M watch

I bought a Garmin 645 Music Watch a few months ago and I have several problems with it:

1.After I push the start button for a run, it immediately stops again ( the next second) by itself and I'll need to push the start button again to make it work!

2.When walking and or hiking it gives me the wrong kms. I noticed that when I go for a hike and take a lunch break, the kms and time continue to add up. Very weird, when you're sitting still and you see kms being added. Even when I have pushed the stop button, the kms continue to add up. Yesterday, when hiking 15K in the mountains, the watch switched itself off, during a lunch break and I had to start all over again.

3.I have been wearing my watch 24h a days 7/7 since I bought it a few months ago. However for the last few nights I had to take my watch off at night, as I'm wearing a splint.  I noticed in the mornings that the watch shows 450 calories used, while it has been laying idle on my bedside table all night. I doubled checked at midnight and it went to 0.

Needless to say that I'm not impressed with Garmin at all. I was persuaded to buy a Garmin watch after many problem free years with TomTom.

I did my homework before I bought the watch and the 645M sounded great. I now did a bit more research and there seem to be quite a lot of problems with it.

I have not done a factory reset yet, as I'm afraid that I will loose all me info in the Garmin Connect on my computer. Someone suggested to delete all the info from my phone at the end of every month. This seems to help for some people, but hope that for a watch, which costs quite a lot, an easier solution can be found.

TIA for your help from a very disappointed and unhappy Garmin user.

  • Thanks, I tested it as well with running with the same results as you.

    It's a shame that this problem is not mentioned in the reviews or manual of this watch. It is mentioned in the reviews that it is good for walking and hiking as well. Clearly it's not. It's really only good for running. I have spent a lot of money on a watch, which is no good to me. I will make a mention of it in the Youtube reviews, so others won't make the same mistake as I.

  • I think it should be clearly stated in reviews and manuals that the watch is only good with a continuous movement,

    It is clearly stated:

    The GPS location accuracy of Garmin outdoor watches is around 3 meters (10 feet), 95% of the time. This means, at any given time, your watch will save your location within 3 meters of your actual location. If your watch is recording a GPS location every second and you do not pause an activity while standing still, your watch can record up to 180 meters (590 ft) in just 1 minute. When in an area with degraded GPS signal, your watch can record even more distance while stopped. The distance recorded while standing still is a representation of GPS Drift. 

    support.garmin.com/.../

    And here:

    Recording GPS while stopped is one of the biggest contributors to inaccurate distance in an activity. Setting your device to pause when you are stopped, can greatly reduce the amount of additional distance recorded. For instructions on enabling auto pause refer to your owner's manual.

  • Hi there,  thank you for that, but my point is that my watch adds 3k to my 15k hike, when it’s set to pause when I stop. 

  • Understood, but what I posted is the extreme and when at a stop.  Slowing down (speed/pace) will contribute to this added distance also.  This is why you don't have as much deviations while running or cycling as you would when hiking (much slower pace) or swimming (when the watch is underwater depleting GPS signal).  It's the nature of the beast and affects all GPS wearables.  Do other manufacturer's use different algorithms to smooth or filter out these deviations?  Most likely, but I've yet to find a manufacturer who's device is like night and day compared with the competition.  I've recorded many great hikes using my Garmin and some poor ones.  When looking at the poor recordings, environmental factors such as overcast weather, my pace, terrain and even the canopy from vegetation explains the differences.  I personally don't care for the auto pause feature as I find it's hit or miss, so I make it a point to manually pause my hikes when necessary.  Does the 645 have the 3D speed or 3D distance feature and are you using it?  If so, and your hikes don't include moderate to high elevation changes, turn it off as people have found this can cause the issue too.  And I have no idea what Garmin defines as moderate to high elevation changes.  Slight smile

  • Thanks for your advice. Before Garmin, I used a TomTom for years. When it a hike was advertised to be 15K, my watch actually said 15k and not 18, so I wasn't aware about the deviations until I started using Garmin. So in my mind, a better technologie does exist. Anyway, I will try it without 3D on my hikes with little elevation.

  • FR 645 doesn't have 3D speed or 3D distance setting. I see now there is no solution to this problem. Just for an example; my friends have FR 245, Instinct and one has Suunto 9. Nobody has the same problem as me and they can leave their activites running during pauses. My GPS goes crazy even during very short pauses (10-30 seconds). Not to mention if I sit down for 5 minutes or more. And I mostly hike during sunny weather, high enough that there are no trees. Very dissapointed with this watch. 

  • It is not clear to me if it is only a FR645 problem, as I have now spoken to various people and they all seem to have problem with GPS. On another note there also seem to be a serious problem with the Garmin bike computer. I sometimes doesn't upload for days. The long and short of it is, that I am moving away from Garmin. It has been a total waste of money. I will mention on the various Youtube channels, who promote this watch to only buy it if you're a runner. Hopefully I can help a few others saving their money.

  • Some update. I managed to get my watch replaced with Garmin for FR945 with me paying extra of course. It's been a few days of testing now and I can now tell you this watch is not much better with this problem. It still adds extra distance when I am standing still. A 550€ watch that can't understand when I am not moving. Not to mention a bunch of other useless stuff this watch has that look good on paper but are so innacurate that are useless. Like this pulse ox sensor, totally useless since it can't measure correctly. Seems Garmin is a joke. My friends' Suunto 9 knows every time he stops and doesn't add extra distance. Since this watches both have the same GPS from Sony as far as i know, I would say the problem is in bad Garmin software. And trying different sattelites or setting recording to every second won't help you solve this problem. It's pointless. 

  • at this point I guess you don't know how to use the watch. I have been using the 645 for two years and have never had your problems

  • What's there to know lol? Press start twice to start activity. The watch should do what it's been made to do. Good for you.