Forerunner 945 - Recent Threads

New TopoActive Europe 2026.11 available for FR945 on Garmin Express

JC — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 17:58:37 GMT

FYI, the latest offline maps can now be updated for free through Garmin Express.

Can't pair my 945 to the phone (Google Pixel 8a). that worked before.

4781135 — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 11:32:00 GMT

Can't pair my 945 to my phone (Google Pixel 8a) that worked normally for over a year.
First, my 945 frequently lost connection to the phone.
I tried to fix this, unpaired my 945 and can't paired it again.
Did a factory reset on 945.
Deleted Garmin Connect App (and all the other apps).
Nothing worked.
Garmin Connect sees the 945, gets paring code but the pairing fails.
Same happens after retry.
Seems like that the connection is doping.

RE: Can't pair my 945 to the phone (Google Pixel 8a). that worked before.

8226424 — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 20:44:01 GMT

I tried the steps above. When plugging the watch in the power outlet, the blue triangle appears, I then hold the power button for 60 seconds and the blue triangle disappears and the screen remains blank, tried this several times

RE: Can't pair my 945 to the phone (Google Pixel 8a). that worked before.

Garmin - DK — Thu, 02 Jul 2026 19:06:41 GMT

Thanks for the post, 4781135 . While you've done most of them, please try all steps in this Support Center article: Garmin Connect App Bluetooth Troubleshooting

When going to pair, do so through the Connect app rather than through your phone's Bluetooth settings.

8226424 - Try this Support Center article to proceed beyond the blue triangle. If that doesn't take care of it, please create a new thread detailing what is happening so it can be addressed.

RE: Can't pair my 945 to the phone (Google Pixel 8a). that worked before.

8226424 — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 16:10:39 GMT

I have the exact same issue with my Samsung phone and now my watch has the triangle of death. Have you received any assistance for this yet?

Are the hardware versions sold in different countries different?

6540963 — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 07:34:16 GMT

I am a Chinese user. The firmware version that 945 can be updated to through Garmin Connect is 13.00, while the forum's top post shows that 13.70 has already been pushed, service.cn@garmin.com response is 'inconsistent device version'. May I ask if Garmin's products sold globally have this situation? Do I still have a chance to upgrade to 13.70?

I am getting odd Vo2 max readings.

7098099 — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 16:05:41 GMT

I am getting odd Vo2 max readings. I have two watches, a vivoactive 3 and a 945, and lately I have been wearing both for my runs. I am 72. The vivoactive 3 has my Vo2 max at 37 and a fitness age of 56. The 945 has my Vo2 Max at 38 and a fitness age of 66.5. Doesn't make sense. Seems that a 38 should produce a lower fitness age than a 37. Any insights that might explain these readings?

RE: I am getting odd Vo2 max readings.

Garmin - DK — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 16:44:30 GMT

This has to do with how your watches figures fitness age. The vivoactive 3 uses your VO2 Max estimate, whereas the 945 uses an improved Fitness Age. Improved Fitness Age takes into account resting heart rate, activity intensity, body fat percentage (or your height and weight), and a gender selection of male or female. More info on Fitness age here: What Does Fitness Age Mean in Garmin Connect?

Forerunner 945 Will not Power On

Pmccloud — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 22:05:15 GMT

Ok so I have now had my 3rd Forerunner 945 crash and turns out the cause of the crash was most likely pushing a button while swimming. I just finished a chat with Garmin customer support and they said the watch is not designed to have buttons pushed if the watch is underwater as it can break the seal around the buttons. WHAT????

This is a multisport watch. There is a lap feature for swimming but you have to push a button to activate. Garmin does not believe this is a product flaw. I pressed Garmin on this and they said "it says it in the owners manual". Which you can find in the owners manual, but that doesn't get around the fact that this is marketed as a multisport watch you can use to track swimming. Am I carzy to believe that on a watch marked as a swim tracking watch I should be able to push a button while in the water swimming?

The solution Garmin proposed was I can exchange it for a refurbished model if I payed $140 or they would give me 25% off a new model (FYI - also not designed to push buttons while swimming).

I loved the watch when it worked but would suggest no one use it to track swimming unless you want to risk it failing and Garmin not standing behind the product.

Watch stuck in boot loop

1508894 — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 23:01:58 GMT

The watch won’t boot, displaying blue triangle followed by versions menu, over and over.

Tried to plug it to a computer, she is detected but not mounted, I can’t push an update with webUpdater, even if the watch is detected bywebUpdater. The watch is not detected by Garmin Express neither.

I already tried both hard and soft reset methods.

Nothing worked,

can someone help me please[emoticon:c4563cd7d5574777a71c318021cbbcc8]

Screen damaged and won't switch on

9804555 — Mon, 19 Jan 2026 22:36:05 GMT

Hi,

Recently, my Garmin Forerunner 945 screen started to show signs like delamination around the edges. Apart from that problem, the watch continued functioning ok but now while swimming it died and won’t switch back. It was almost fully charged at the time.

I followed all the steps in the “My Forerunner 945 Will No Longer Turn On” help page but nothing worked.

Is this a common problem with the Forerunner 945? Up until now it had been very reliable.

RE: Screen damaged and won't switch on

Bagpipes333 — Wed, 27 May 2026 20:31:19 GMT

Did your screen look like this? Delamination around the edges, getting progressively worse? This is an older unit at 935 (8 years old)… it has been a terrific watch! unfortunately I just got off the phone from Garmin and there’s no workaround and no replacement products available for purchase.

based on your experience I suspect it’s going to fail relatively soon so I should start looking for a new watch.

RE: Garmin Pay In Canada - list out of date

6071194 — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 23:28:16 GMT

Interestingly, it appears the Scotiabank cards work with Garmin Pay .. in the Turks and Caicos?!?

Garmin Pay In Canada - list out of date

amlsmith — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 13:51:51 GMT

Garmin Pay is no longer supported by Manulife Bank VISA. The list of Canadian card that can be loaded to Garmin Pay are very very few.

RE: Garmin Pay In Canada - list out of date

amlsmith — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 20:22:38 GMT

Agree!! I'll be cancelling the Manulife shortly. I have a Brim Financial now, and just loaded it. I'll try it the weekend and report back if it fails! lol (Brim is actually CWB, so, yeah, there is also that)

RE: Garmin Pay In Canada - list out of date

DoctorCool — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 20:14:54 GMT

This really pisses me off. I did not want a new credit card from Manulife. The whole reason I obtained the Manulife CC is because I wanted to be able to use Garmin Pay. Now Manulife/Garmin has broken this functionality. Enshitification indeed.

How to change activities from swim to swim/bike/run as it was https://drive.google.com/file/d/19pfTgkwMr28QTZExDw2LVMV5vtqTaXIx/view?usp=drive_link

7350573 — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 18:14:55 GMT

How to change activities from swim to swim/bike/run as it was

drive.google.com/.../view

RE: Garmin Pay In Canada - list out of date

mguaylam — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 15:41:04 GMT

I can confirm the same issue — Manulife Bank (Visa) has dropped Garmin Pay support.

What's ironic is that Manulife recently switched their credit card infrastructure to Brim Financial's PaaS (Payments-as-a-Service) platform. So the card is now Canadian-issued through Brim's stack — and Brim's own Mastercard does support Garmin Pay. But somehow the Manulife Visa running on that same platform lost Garmin Pay in the transition. Go figure.

I contacted Garmin about updating the participating banks page, but while we're at it, here's the real state of the Canadian list as of March 2026:

No longer valid options:

Manulife Bank (Visa) — Garmin Pay support lost after migration to Brim's platform
STACK (Mastercard) — shut down entirely in September 2023
CWB (Mastercard) — acquired by National Bank of Canada in March 2025, no longer exists as a separate entity, National Bank does not support Garmin Pay
Aura (Mastercard) — prepaid card built on the STACK platform, not a real credit card

Geographically restricted:

ATB Financial (Mastercard) — Alberta residents only (provincial Crown corporation)
Affinity Credit Union (Mastercard) — likely restricted to Saskatchewan members

Remaining options that actually work Canada-wide:

Brim Financial (Mastercard) — free, no annual fee, available to all Canadians. Main downside: no automatic full-balance payment from an external bank. You have to add Brim as a bill payee and pay manually or set a fixed recurring amount.
Questrade, U.S. Bank Canada, Zoomer — niche products, not practical for most people

So for most Canadians outside Alberta, Brim is essentially the only viable option for Garmin Pay right now. The participating banks page seriously needs a cleanup.

RE: GPS fix time increased / GPS firmware downgrade

Bembel75 — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 07:33:11 GMT

Thanks for your reply - I know, worked on this 945 for years. And no, I don't live in the city centre of Bembeltown (nice touch with the city name though 😊) but have had these issues with the high buildings at all events as well.

With my new 970 I already get a GPS fix inside the house going down the stairs but I wanted to continue using the 945 and give it to one of my kids...

GPS fix time increased / GPS firmware downgrade

Bembel75 — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 11:30:55 GMT

For my FR945 to get a proper GPS fix (green GPS notification), it takes at least 15, usually 30+ minutes. For a few months I have ignored it and just adjusted the distance when running or cycling, but eventually I got annoyed by it.

So I dug deeper into the watch and found the ephemeris data (CPE.bin file in the Garmin/RemoteSW) present, but it seems the software doesn't pick it up ("CPE : Missing" in System/Info).
Deleting the file, the folder, synchronising with Garmin Connect, by WiFi and Garmin Express always brought back a fresh copy of the CPE.bin file, but did not change anything in the behaviour above.
Factory resetting the watch a dozen times (with different firmware versions), deleting the device's xml file or anything else I found in the forum did not help either.

So I have started to downgrade the firmware, hoping a legacy version of the firmware would downgrade the GPS firmware as well. Though I have tested a lot, the only firmware that does not get downgraded is the GPS - it keeps its version at 6.60 - if the main software is lower than its respective GPS version, the GPS version shows up with an exclamation mark like this "GPS : 6.60 (!)".

It was rather challenging to get legacy versions of the FR945, did not get them from Garmin, but have tested these:

Main software: 2.80, 6.20, 6.85 beta, 9.00, 9.56 beta, 9.58 beta, 10.40, 11.03 beta and of course 13.70

Firmware versions of other aspects of the FR945 get downgraded, like ANT/Bluetooth, WiFi, SensorHub and CIQ - just GPS stays on 6.60.
Is this maybe the firmware versions I have tested, do not come with a GPS firmware portion? I have also created a "force.tmp" file in the Garmin folder...

As the watch's hardware works perfectly well, getting a manual GPS fix without using the ephemeris data after approx. 30 minutes and the activity is flawlessly recorded, I assume the latest GPS update might have bricked the ephemeris data file to be picked up and used for speeding up the GPS fix.

Has anyone had this issue, too, and found a way to fix it? Or does anyone have other firmware versions or knows how to (temporarily) downgrade the GPS part of the watch's firmware?

I would lilke to reprogramm the GPS part of the watch's firmware - or downgrade and test - to make sure I can continue to use this really expensive piece of hardware.

Any help would be hugely appreciated!

RE: GPS fix time increased / GPS firmware downgrade

andorsn — Sun, 22 Feb 2026 18:55:59 GMT

This works just fine on my 945 with FW 13.70 and GPS 6.60. CPE is shown as “current” and it gets a fix almost instantly.

The watch used to have problems in the past, but I’m not entirely sure if they were due to the CPE file not being updated or not getting picked up. It worked better the more sky was visible, e.g. starting between the highrises of Bembeltown would not be ideal.

RE: GPS fix time increased / GPS firmware downgrade

Bembel75 — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 14:09:21 GMT

If you read this - I still haven't been able to solve the issues.

Whoever owns a FR945, I would really appreciate if you could take a look at this folder on your PC - it is where Garmin Express for Windows caches firmware updates:

C:\ProgramData\Garmin\CoreService\Downloads\PrimaryFirmware

On my Windows machine I can only find the "PrimaryFirmware_PrimaryFirmware.006-B3113-00.13.70.0" (= firmware 13.70) folder which doesn't help, but if you have older versions, it would really help me.

Thanks so much in advance!

Watch connected to Gramin Express but not recognized

Changry — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 21:32:55 GMT

I have an interesting problem with two contradictory messages ---> green light indicates the watch is connected, but Garmin Express is asking for the device to be plugged in.

Has anyone here experienced this before and able to offer a solution?

chronic training load has stopped

Wayne C — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 02:50:07 GMT

chronic training load has stopped updating, I only get acute training load. Is it just me? or is it a more widespread issue?

RE: Screen damaged and won't switch on

9804555 — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 21:54:25 GMT

I opted to go with the garmin exchange where I return the watch and receive a refurbished model for £135.