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Crowd source test: can you hotkey from activity and have GPS still running while you view widgets?

derek87
over 2 years ago

hi 935 friends, i am hoping i can get you guys to test something out. if you are willing, please post your results here and note the firmware you are running.

here's the test: 

when you are running, use a Hot Key to push the activity to the background to view your watch face or widgets. after doing so, when you come back to the activity, has the watch continued to log GPS data or did it stop logging data (and turn of the GPS) while you were looking at your widgets/watch face.

i was 99% sure that on my 935, running FW13.30, the GPS kept running because i would frequently do this while hiking or running to check my step count or weather widget.

on my new 945LTE, when i use the hot key function, the GPS stops logging. i opened a ticket with Garmin and they said that my new watch is performing as it should, and this is not a bug. moreover, they claim that an internally tested 935 behaves the same way. this has me really befuddled because as i mentioned above, that was not my recollection/experience.

i sold my 935 therefore i cannot test it. so i am hoping some of you folks can. i can only guess that maybe Garmin wiped out this feature (purposefully or inadvertently) sometime after FW13.30. but that's just a guess/hypothesis.

thanks in advance for your help!

  • 0 over 2 years ago

    Hey this is a pretty interesting question to me, as I use this feature (return to widgets during activity) quite a bit. 


    I tested this with a walk activity by adding the GPS data field, which shows 0 to 5 bars. I got a solid GPS Lock (5 bars) before switching to widgets, and observed the data field after returning to the activity. 

    What I found is that as long as you only look at a watchface (native or CIQ) or a native widget, then the GPS stays connected. (When I return to the activity, I still have 5 bars). As soon as you switch to a CIQ widget (even for 1 second), then when you return to the activity, the GPS data field shows 0 bars. At this point, the signal strength usually quickly returns to 5 bars, and you may get a “GPS ready pop up”. 

    I have no idea if this is new behavior or not, as I coincidentally usually only look at the watchface and non-CIQ widgets during an activity. (usually my widgets are ordered in such a way that most of the native widgets are closer to the watchface — on either side — than the non-native widgets)  

    Not sure if this matches what you’re seeing with your watch. 

  • 0 over 2 years ago in reply to WillNorthYork

    thanks for the reply. yes, this was my recollection too for my 935. this is not working with native watch faces or widgets on my 945 LTE. i'm hoping engineering will look into this because their last claim was that it was functioning as designed which to me is an excuse rather than a real reason or truly hearing my concerns of losing an important feature.

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    Same thing is happening with the Fenix 7 while it worked fine with Fenix 6 and 5.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to KrapfenKringel

    thanks for following up. i have no clue what Garmin has and why this important functionality has been removed. i tried it once on my 955 and it too exhibits this behavior of dropping GPS when viewing widgets or a CIQ watch face. (i only use CIQ watch faces so never explored using a stock one to see if GPS still works)