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Forerunner 955 - Bugs and issues

I thought it might be nice, or usefull, to have a single topic with confirmed bugs and issues with the forerunner 955 watches. Having the solar myself and noticing at least 2 serious bugs, this is good to know for users and Garmin themselves. Perhaps it can be stickied?

People can comment or mention bugs in the comments, or message me directly, and if confirmed by others (or me) I will update the main post. Preferably with as much info as possible.

BUGS

Maps and navigation

  • Navigate -> Use map: Impossible to select target location (FW 10.10)
    https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/running-multisport/f/forerunner-955-series/296161/can-t-select-target-using-map-to-navigate

    Trying to use the map to navigate to a target point doesn't work. Most of the times the crossharis needed to select a location aren't visible and long-pressing start (usually needed to select the location) doesn't do anything. There are also no other ways to select a location on the map. Sometimes they DO appear and selecting the location is possible, however actually starting the navigation reboots the watch.

    *Edit*
    This seems to happen when the location you select results in multiple options (in my case for example ', , ') if I somehow am able to select a location with no alternative options it does not seem to crash. Crosshairs still appear only the first (few?) times after a reboot.

  • Starting a course directly from the "Navigation" app redirects you to the 'Navigation selection screen' (which  is then a bit hard to get out of)
    https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/running-multisport/f/forerunner-955-series/298420/cant-start-a-course-on-my-fr-955/1443050#1443050

    When going to the Navigation activity and select a course to follow it seems to load the course but then redirects you to the same selection screen where you get the option to again select a course, point of interest, etc. Pressing back once stays in the navigation screen, you need to press back a few times quickly to exit. When then starting another activity the course selected above IS loaded. Other ways such as selecting a saved location DO work and selecting a course for navigation directly from another activity also works.

  • Some custom maps might crash watch?

    Hard to verify

  • Incorrect/garbled rendering of custom maps
    https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/running-multisport/f/forerunner-955-series/301385/rendering-of-custom-maps-broken/

    3rd party OSM based maps seem to render incorrectly, while working on the fenix 7 and FR945 watches.

  • Autozoom - Map toggles between extremely zoomed out view and normal zoom level (when showing turns/changing view?) during navigation

    While using navigation and with map autozoom set to enabled, the map screen switches between a way zoomed out state making it impossible to see context regarding streets, etc and normal view when you switch screens or when an instruction is shown. Again switching screens toggles it back, this actually could be reproduced constently (both during cycling as walking activities). When autozoom is disabled and setting a specific zoom level manually this doesn't happen.

  • Map Zoom level reverts back to default (FW 10.10)

    When zooming in or out of the map the zoom level is not retained, it however reverts back to the default zoom level when going back to the map/different screen. Scrolling/pannign around IS saved/stored.

    Apparently this is by design, and can be fixed by turning of auto-zoom for maps:
    https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/running-multisport/f/forerunner-955-series/296512/forerunner-955---bugs-and-issues/1433961#1433961

Touch:

  • Swipe from left to right on the map (in order to pan) triggers the menu to open

    When making the swip motion from left to right on the map to pan it will open the menu (and exiting can reset zoom on map if autozoom is set). A workaround is to either swipe slowly, or don't remove your finger from the screen right away but let it rest for just a bit longer before releasing the touch screen (might take some getting used to). Not limited to maps, also in other screens.

    Fixed in 11.12

  • Touch with a map screen in an activity only works when "General Touch" is enabled

    When touch is enabled for an activity but not for general use, touch can not be used on the map-datafield for that specific activity. The map touch funcitonality ONLY works when general touch use is enabled, no matter the specific activity settings

  • Widgets are not touch interactive

    Unlike with other touch devices, trying to use touch to scroll through graphs on widgets does not work.

System:

ConnectIQ:

Widgets:

Activities:

  • The thing is not accessing the data, the myday and health status widgets contained shortcuts to other widgets as far as I know.

    So you could go to heartrate widget, body battery widget, etc from within that my-day/health-status widget. It is perfectly possible still to access all the stats themselves. 

  • The thing is not accessing the data, the myday and health status widgets contained shortcuts to other widgets as far as I know.

    Interesting - I don't think the 935 My Day widget works like that (that's my only experience with it.) You just get a summary page afaik, which is why My Day Advanced was created -- so you don't need to add all 4-5 widgets.

    Sorry for misunderstanding. The reddit comment makes more sense to me now -- I didn't understand the full context.

    But if it helps, My Day Advanced is like all 5 widgets in one (My Day, Steps, Floors, Intensity Minutes, and Calories).

    Whether Garmin internally removed the ability for a native widget to open another native widget is an interesting question. But as far as I know, CIQ widgets never had that option, right?

    And I'm not sure how a user would be able to easily tell the difference between:

    - My Day widget has a shortcut to other widgets like Steps

    - My Day widget simply reimplements some of the same functionality as other widgets like Steps (for example, that's how My Day Advanced works)

    (you could probably tell by opening settings after the 2nd widget is launched, but would the user really care about which implementation was used?)

    If Garmin removed the "shortcut" functionality, there's no reason they couldn't have gone the "reimplement widget functionality" route (just like My Day Advanced).

    Unless they don't think My Day makes sense in a glance world.

  • I have the 945 and my day + my health seemed to work like that. It showed you the overview and clicking on a specific item got you in that specific widget with it's full functionality.

    Implementing the same stuff twice would be strange, though hey... it's garmin ;)

    But yeah, I was thinking about recreating the myday/myhealth widgets myself but put it on hold realising that wojuldn't be as straightforward (would mean a LOT of work implementing all those details) but now I just think I'll create something like My Day Advanced and show it in my own way.

    I really dislike needing all the specific widgets, makes it so cluttered and cumbersome to go through them so having most important stuff in one place wojuld be nice.

  • Next bug

    I have activated the lighting with only one button press.
    If I now press down and navigate a bit through the menu, the light turns on again automatically although I have set it to turn on only by pressing a button.

    Does anyone else have the same problem?

  • I have the 945 and my day + my health seemed to work like that. It showed you the overview and clicking on a specific item got you in that specific widget with it's full functionality.

    That's interesting as 935's My Day just shows the overview. If you press START while the widget's "front page" is displayed, you get the same overview but in reversed colors which seems pointless lol. (Like as if they just *had* to implement a 2nd level view for all widgets to be consistent, even if the 2nd level view shows the same stuff as the top level view.)

    As a matter of fact, if 935's My Day did what you described, then it seems like My Day Advanced would be pointless.

    I still think the reddit comment is a bit confusing, as the OP simply asks for an overview, while the comment alludes to "displaying information from other apps" (as if "My Day" literally has to "ask" the Steps app how many steps you took today). That could be interpreted in different ways, and I'll reiterate that users wouldn't care whether Garmin is opening another app or simply displaying the same info that the other app would've displayed. The assertion that this was the "end of summary apps" is also something I disagree with, since obviously CIQ summary apps still exist. I also disagree that either glances or super apps have fundamentally restricted what widgets can do. I don't know of any CIQ functionality that's been lost, except for the fact that on some newer watches:

    - you can no longer launch a CIQ widget while an activity is running (beyond looking at the top-level glance)

    - GPS disconnects when you do look at a CIQ widget glance while an activity is running

    But neither of those things is related to that post.

    Might be easier just to ask the My Day Advanced dev to port the app over. It's pretty good - I have no complaints.

  • I'm also disappointed in the influencer/review community.  Either they were given 955s that were pre debugged or their reviews purposefully distorted the gravity of the issues with the 955 software at launch.  I really trusted these reviews in the past... 

    I feel like major bugs on release are par for the course for high-end Garmin watches. 945 LTE still has issues after all this time.... (to be fair I think they got rid of the major issues. but there's quite a few usability issues/bugs/quirks around navigation.)

  • Yes. Reported it it garmin. It’s certain glances that trigger it. The original firmware for the 945lte had this problem too. 

  • Firmware: 10.10

    Bugs:

    1.) Backlight completely disabled and only possible when I press the Light button. That's how I had wanted it and set it. However...
    When I press the Down key, the light turns on automatically in the menu.
    I have already studied the settings and set everything correctly.

    2.) When updating to version 10.10, I had to do a complete reset because the clock crashed in the run menu.
    After the reset, the problem was gone.

    3.) navigating through the map is a problem: if I want to move the map a little to the left, it is recognized as a "back" gesture and I fly out of the map view.

    4.) I have deactivated the touch operation and only activated it for certain activities.
    Despite the fact that the touchscreen is supposed to be activated while running, the touchscreen does not wwork 

    5.) I have disabled smartphone app notifications on the 955.
    However, notifications of my emails still come in.

    1. My 955 shutdown on me mid workout this morning and on another run.  It did not show my intervals on the track or distance run but it shows the distance I ran and the map before the watch rebooted.