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Forerunner 970 crashes during races and training – anyone else?

dietmar_schulte
5 days ago

Hi everyone,

I'm reaching out because I've had repeated issues with my new Garmin Forerunner 970 freezing and crashing during long runs – including races – and I’m wondering if others have experienced similar problems.

Here’s what happened:

  • Zugspitz Ultratrail (106 km) on June 13, 2025
    The watch froze around kilometer 65. I tried restarting multiple times, but nothing worked. I had to start a new activity to continue recording, which means I couldn’t track the race as a whole.

  • Marburg Night Marathon (42.2 km) on July 5, 2025
    The watch froze 2–3 times during the race. After restarting, it continued recording, but this made the experience very frustrating and unreliable.

  • Today (July 13, 2025)
    The watch crashed again – twice in a row – during a regular training run. In this case, I was also listening to locally stored music via Bluetooth headphones. Not sure if this is related, but worth mentioning.

I've been a loyal Garmin user since the Forerunner 305, and this is my sixth device. I really expected better performance from a top-tier watch like the 970, especially in terms of reliability during races and long runs. Right now, I can't trust it for my main events.

Has anyone else experienced similar crashes or freezing issues with the FR 970, particularly during longer activities or while using music playback?

Appreciate any feedback or suggestions.
Thanks

  • 0 5 days ago

    I have similar problem, and if you read the forum this issues is well documented. The device has a lot of bugs and customers are waiting for an update. But nothing happen for now.  and  was active in the first period to give support, from some weeks nothing happen and bugs remain on 750€ device. Really disappointed ! 

  • 0 5 days ago in reply to Deiv

    I have this same problem ...

  • 0 5 days ago

    Mine has frozen twice so far. Each time while I was navigating a route and ran briefly in the opposite direction (because I wanted to do do some extra km).

    If this happened to me during an ultra race like it did to you, I would return the watch unless an update came soon

  • 0 4 days ago

    I am having the same problems.

    It has crashed on me several times already during running workouts and hiking trails. The screen goes black for 15-20 seconds without responding. If you pause an activity and turn on the flashlight it stays locked without being able to turn it off, only by force restarting it would respond again.

    The repetition counter in gym exercises does whatever it wants, you can see that you have marked 49 repetitions, press the button and it changes to 24 when I did 15 or 20 repetitions of an exercise that should be simple to count.

    Interface laggy, maps very laggy (more than normal for Garmin)....

    Indeed, it looks like a product in Alpha state. A disgrace. I'm going to have to return it to the store, as I did with the Enduro 3.

  • 0 4 days ago in reply to Deiv

    I wonder is the silence because a recall is coming? Some of the problems, particularly with the speaker popping seem hardware related.