Forerunner 970 freeze during workout – Garmin Coach + Spotify

tesz 27 days ago

Model: Forerunner 970
Firmware: 6.17

Issue:
During today’s scheduled Garmin Coach workout, my watch froze halfway through the activity.

The Spotify app was running in the background the entire time (not sure if that's relevant). The screen went completely black and became unresponsive — no reaction from touch or buttons.

However, the optical heart rate sensor was still active (green LED blinking as usual), and the Bluetooth connection to my headphones remained intact — I assume this because I didn’t receive the usual voice prompt from the headphones when Bluetooth disconnects.

The watch was previously synced with the phone, and the Garmin Coach plan was downloaded.

After holding the LIGHT/CTRL button, the device restarted after a noticeable delay. When it powered back on, the activity was still open but had been paused.

I also noticed that data related to Body Battery and stress levels from the previous hours was missing after the reboot (not sure if that’s expected behavior — I hadn’t paid attention to this before).

This is the first time I’ve encountered such an issue (after completing around 5 successful workouts), but I’ve seen several other Forerunner 970 users on forums reporting similar problems with the watch freezing during activity.

Could you please clarify:
– Is this a known issue?
– Are firmware updates addressing this planned or in progress?

Additional question:
Are there any logs on the watch that I can access / send for troubleshooting? I'm a developer, so I'd be happy to assist by providing any technical data that might help identify the root cause if this happens again.

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0 William Ashley 26 days ago

I've had this happen twice. The first time, as I was about to reboot it, it unfroze itself and my GPS track was correct. The second time, today, it froze up again and had to be rebooted. Once again, no GPS track data was lost. This feels like it's just the UI hanging, and everything in the background (sensors and recording) are unaffected.

I can confirm that hitting the activity button doesn't pause, or at least if it does there's no beep or vibration. The only button response is holding the power button for a while to reboot.

0 Zak 17 days ago

Yes, I’m experiencing the same issue! I wasn’t expecting the watch to perform like this. I’ve owned Forerunners before and never found them to be this laggy or slow.

Does Garmin need to optimise the software here? Have they rushed the release of software for a product that maybe wasn’t quite ready? It feels like they’re following a trend we’ve seen a lot in the tech industry lately—release the product first, fix the software issues later.

0 William Ashley 17 days ago

This has happened a couple more times to me. The most recent it happened 0.5 miles into a walk without any course active, and without there having been _any_ interaction with the map (pan/zoom). The only thing that's consistently involved, for me, is that I always have the map view up during activities.

0 Alex Gr 15 days ago

Happened to me today, 15mins in the run with spotify running in the background (also connected with HRM600 chest strap) and the screen froze. Music stopped (bluetooth connection with headphones lost), no HRM or watch heart rate recordings. The session was recorded up to 1min before the screen froze. Wasn't able to reboot or do anything during the run. Once i got home and connected it with the charger it finally rebooted. It was the first time this happened but i am now worried if this is a software defect and will happen again until there is an update.

0 Alex Gr 15 days ago

Happened to me today. 15mins in the run, spotify in the background and HRM600 chest strap connected the screen suddenly froze. Music stopped, headphones and HRM disconnected. Nothing was recorded in the background, only up to 1min before the screen froze. I couldnt reboot or do anything during the run. Had to go back home and connect it with the charger when it finally rebooted. This is the first time it happened but i am now wondering if there is a software defect and it will happen again until there is an update..

0 William Ashley 15 days ago in reply to Alex Gr

Alex, FYI you can force-reboot by holding down the power button for a long time (might be upwards of 30 seconds). Just keep holding it, the watch will reboot. It's a hardware-level reset and will still work no matter how badly the software may be stuck.

0 Former Member 14 days ago in reply to Alex Gr

My 970 is going back tomorrow. This is the second one as i thought I had a dodgy watch. Turns out it’s the software 6.17 is the culprit. I’ve had Forerunners before and this is the most rushed forerunner ever. Going to get the Enduro 3.

0 Alex Gr 14 days ago in reply to Former Member

Hey Gaz have you faced other issues with the 970 so far? When you say 6.17 is the culprit , did garmin make any statements that it’s problematic or is this your view?

0 Former Member 14 days ago in reply to Alex Gr

When I purchased the watch it was on 5.13 firmware version and everything was fine, no crashes or reboots etc. It automatically updated to 6.17 and then all the problems started. Phoned Garmin Support and they are aware of the issues reported but they couldn’t give a timeframe when an update would be released.

0 xyan 14 days ago

I think you’ll have to explicitly enable logging (when you file a bug via support and they investigate). But I really don’t know what’s going on with the FW of the watch and the watch itself. As you can see even garmin people normally asking for details are gone and not interested anymore and there’s been nothing on the FW horizon for too long. No beta no hot fixes nothing.