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The watch turns itself off/freezes when navigation is used during outdoor (trail or road) runs.

CO
1 month ago

My recently purchased Forerunner 970 has been turning itself off when I follow a preinstalled course from Strava during an outdoor “Bike” or "Trail Run/Run" activity. To turn it back on, I need to press the “Light” and “Start” buttons simultaneously. Once it restarts, navigation resumes exactly from where it left off.

In my bike settings, I’ve configured the watch to pause navigation when I stop briefly. However, during longer breaks—such as stopping for coffee—the watch shuts down completely. This has happened three times over the past week. I’m using GPS-only mode. I already installed and am using the latest firmware. 

  • 0 1 month ago in reply to Fozzee1970

    Thanks for the reply. I hope to get that support here actually. 

  • 0 1 month ago in reply to CO

    You are more likely to get support by calling support! This is just a user forum and your issue is clearly a software bug not a "how do I do this' question. Even if one of the Garmin moderators answers they won't be able to help if it's a bug. You will still need to raise a support case. 

  • 0 1 month ago

    This morning, after completing a trail run with navigation same thing happened and the watch turned itself off. After turning it on, while saving the completed activity, once again the watch turned itself off. 

  • 0 1 month ago

    I wanted to add that this issue occurred specifically when I was using GPS-only mode, following Strava generated course, and moving through environments with poor satellite visibility, such as rainy weather, tunnels, and dense forest. In clearer conditions, the watch functioned without issue, which suggests the power-off may be triggered by a combination of GPS-only mode and temporary GNSS signal loss during navigation. Can it be the case? 

  • 0 26 days ago

    Update on Power-Off / Unresponsive Screen Issue (Forerunner 970) - 17.08.2025

    I’d like to provide an update on the ongoing issue I’ve been experiencing with my Forerunner 970 while following courses. Once again, I was using a Strava-generated course during an outdoor trail run. The weather was clear, and the trail was mostly open, so satellite reception should not have been obstructed. During the activity, the watch once again malfunctioned, but I am not sure though whether it turned itself off or the screen simply became unresponsive. When I pressed the buttons to reactivate the screen, voice command came up, then I exited that, the data screen reappeared. After that point, I noticed another problem: the gesture feature stopped working properly. Every once in a while, I glanced at the watch, the screen stayed dark. To reactivate the screen,I turned my wrist down and then back up to look at the watch, the screen remained dark and I had to press a button to view my running data. 

  • 0 26 days ago

    I need to enter another update. The watch powered itself off in smart watch mode too. I was not doing/recording any activity simply I was sitting and watching a movie. This is new!! 

  • 0 26 days ago in reply to CO

    My did the same, it’d crashed 3 times in a week during activities, then while doing nothing but being a watch, the screen went blank, AOD stopped working and it was totally unresponsive. 5 minutes of this and it rebooted back to normal.

    I couldn’t trust it after this, so it got returned for a refund and I went back to using my FR965. It’s never crashed in over 2 years, my 970 crashed 4 times in the first week of use, with 2 different firmwares.

    They may sort these issues out with future FW updates, but I couldn’t wait for them!

    Good luck getting it sorted.

    Andy.