Forerunner 970 - Recent Threads

Too Laggy to use

2161209 — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 21:28:53 GMT

I got my Forerunner 970 today but will be refunding it. The watch is incredibly laggy. It consistently takes several attempts to swipe left to get from the main watch face to the next menu. It also doesn't register touches to select things, such as the confirm/deny options that appear top right and bottom left. If you can eventually get it to start an activity, when giving it a short test, it lags like *** swiping between screens, doesnt register swipes or touches. The map feature is unusable, and even at walking pace it doesn't load sections of the area ahead or takes forever when it does finally attempt to refresh. This is not a £600+ watch. I needed to upgrade because my Samsung's battery is not longer good enough for running longer distances, but it's a much more polished and USABLE interface, it is at least capable of running the software it has, with an equally bright screen. Not impressed at all with Garmin, seems incredibly overhyped.

RE: Too Laggy to use

dtunney — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 13:20:35 GMT

I am not defending the 970 performance as it is pants. But in this case move to a ConnectIQ field like exact pace. The lag in this case is the averaging of the pace with the default pace field.

RE: can't sync activity

4559356 — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 07:37:20 GMT

Same +1

can't sync activity

3275488 — Sat, 30 Aug 2025 14:52:37 GMT

This the 2nd time in 2 weeks that FR970 didn't sync activity (running) with Garmin Connect. Late after, some others activities sync normally.

I tried to upload manually the .FIT file and also was not possible with an error message.

I'm really disapointed with Garmin. I used to use COROS and never had this type of problem.

Yay! v16.37 fixed the bluetooth music-playing crash/reboots!!!

LMOrunner — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 02:05:32 GMT

So far it seems to be working great without any crashes/reboots! I have not tried it out with an activity or GPS yet, but will update if any issues with that. Thank you, Garmin! (now please fix it on my other watch -- the Epix Pro gen 2)

RE: Yay! v16.37 fixed the bluetooth music-playing crash/reboots!!!

Instinct N — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 06:17:22 GMT

This issue also occurred on the Venu 4, which made people upset.

forums.garmin.com/.../venu-4-crashes-when-listening-to-music-on-version-16-37

Suggestion to Add ‘SkiErg’ Activity Profile to Forerunner 970

JG Kim — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:27 GMT

Dear Garmin Team,

I hope this message finds you well.

I am a user of the Forerunner 970, and I would like to express my appreciation for the quality of your products and the continuous improvements you provide through updates.

I am writing to respectfully suggest the addition of a “SkiErg” activity profile to the Forerunner 970.

In recent years, indoor training trends have evolved significantly, and SkiErg workouts have become increasingly popular among fitness enthusiasts. The SkiErg is not only an effective full-body cardio machine but is also widely recognized in competitive fitness events such as HYROX, where it is included as an official component.

Despite this growing popularity, there is currently no dedicated activity profile for SkiErg on the Forerunner 970. From a user’s perspective, this feels like a noticeable gap—especially considering that some less commonly used activity types are already included.

With that in mind, I would like to suggest the following options for your consideration:

Adding a dedicated “SkiErg” activity profile
Alternatively, introducing a more general category such as “Indoor Ski”
Ensuring that SkiErg workouts can be tracked and analyzed independently rather than being grouped under unrelated activities

I believe that implementing this feature would greatly enhance the user experience, particularly for those who regularly engage in indoor training. Many users, including myself, would highly appreciate the ability to track this workout more accurately.

Thank you very much for taking the time to consider this suggestion. I look forward to seeing Garmin continue to evolve with user needs.

Sincerely,
A Forerunner 970 User

RE: Too Laggy to use

FlipStone — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 12:41:32 GMT

Hmmm, never really noticed that... Sure, there is a small delay but instant pace is not accurate anyway. For me a 3s smoothing makes sense and is acceptable.

RE: Running economy is inconsistent between widgets and the connect app

Garmin - CF — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 22:46:06 GMT

5576443 I am in the process of sending you a new email to get more information for a ticket with the color issue you are noticing. Please double-check that you received this!

Running economy is inconsistent between widgets and the connect app

5576443 — Sat, 13 Dec 2025 18:09:13 GMT

As in the title, the differences aren't big but it's just strangely inconsistent, especially the "best" value, here are photos and screenshots to showcase the issue:

Round Trip course disappearing

Ghestem99 — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 15:46:30 GMT

Each time I create a round trip course and follow it on the map after a while the map disappears and is replaced by the default screen. I'm not able to get the map back. I tried resetting the watch but that did not fix the problem. Touchscreen is off. Any help would be appreciated.

RE: Round Trip course disappearing

Wayne Cavanagh — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 19:57:38 GMT

Do you get turn by turn voice notifications when using round trip? I never have.

Finished brick training to connect

2752735 — Sun, 12 Apr 2026 19:14:55 GMT

I made a Brick training in connect, send it to my watch, did the training, are able to see the training on my watch… but i can’t see it in connect. I turned everything on/of etc. Sync etc. Etc. But noop… nothing

Spoken street names possible?

2988393 — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 11:01:48 GMT

I have had a Forerunner 970 for about a year now, and i've never fully understood if this watch is capable of giving you spoken street names with turn by turn directions on a course you create in Connect while out on a run

I make new courses often and run them but have never had spoken turn by turn instructions, but i read something recently that made me think it is possible. I figured that was wrong, but wanted to double check here.

is this possible?

RE: Spoken street names possible?

2988393 — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 23:09:21 GMT

thanks for putting it to rest for me 😃

RE: Spoken street names possible?

Garmin - AL — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 21:42:08 GMT

Street names are not available for the turn by turn directions on the devices.

RE: Sleep mode broken since last update

Garmin - AL — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 20:58:11 GMT

If you are experiencing issues with the sleep tracking of your device please follow the steps in the following article in order to resolve this issue:

How Do I Get the Most Accurate Sleep Data on My Garmin Device?

Sleep mode broken since last update

3875271 — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 14:41:32 GMT

Sleep tracking has become unreliable at best. I now need to adjust the time they I fell asleep, as it is often late by 2-3 hours, even when sleep focus is already on.

Forerunner 970 manual sleep mode trigger canceled by evening report

Spectre9 — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 10:11:42 GMT

Software version 16.37

I had to sleep earlier than my scheduled bed time i set. I triggered sleep mode manually before the evening report. I woke up to toilet to find out that my sleep mode was canceled and replaced with rvening report.

Is this a normal behavior?

Interval time field deleted?

8936828 — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 20:03:53 GMT

During running interval training i often change my time field between Elapsed Time (total activity time) and interval time (stopwatch time for the current interval). To my surprise and frustration interval time no longer exists!

When following a programmed interval session it is good to know the current stopwatch time of the interval, Has anyone noticed Interval time is now deleted? What option do we now have to view current time of an interval?

Garmin forerunner 970, version 16.37

RE: Too Laggy to use

Whatever — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 18:55:22 GMT

Changing pace while running is also a shame. You speed up, and the watch responds with a 3-5 second lag. I think I need to look for a different brand.

RE: HRV baseline and training readiness are gone after the update yesterday

TORCIDA1 — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 15:43:06 GMT

I have same problem

HRV baseline and training readiness are gone after the update yesterday

6410122 — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 08:13:17 GMT

Hello,

Yesterday an update went through on my watch and since then my HRV baseline and training readiness have been gone, even though I've been wearing the watch consistently for the past weeks. Is this a bug? Tried restarting the watch and the app on my phone (which also had an update), but nothing helped.

How can I fix this?

RE: Too Laggy to use

FlipStone — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 11:54:17 GMT

Agree on the maps/navigation part, that really is pretty embarrassing...

In general use I mostly have no issues, I do feel it's "on the edge" just about all the time. Barely holding on, but for now it's holding on. Sometimes during an activity a start stop can feel slower, but yeah... maps are really a shame.

The 970 is almost the perfect watch for me, but the cpu really takes away a lot from that.

Not nap detection

8457203 — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 15:55:33 GMT

I did three naps during this week and only detected the first one [emoticon:ca08b2c27c2f40e993e89508acf29e0b] (before the first firmware update)

Which ones are the conditions for get detected or is it running bad after thw firmware update?

Thanks in advance. Best regards,