Swim 2 crashes and restarts during pool swim (Software Version 2.90)

Hello,

During my pool swim workouts, the Swim 2 watch will occasionally crash and restart itself. The result is that I will have an incomplete log of my workout. I purchased a Swim 2 at the end of November (2022). It has Software Update 2.90 (the latest available)

Details...

Product: Swim 2 watch

Software Version: 2.90 (latest available at time of this post)

When it happens:

  • I will swim a workout that has been created in Garmin Connect.
  • When pressing the lap button to complete an interval, the Swim 2 watch will sometimes crash/restart itself.
  • I have had it crash/restart when going to "save" a completed workout (but this is rarer)
  • I swim 5-6 times every week. It happens at least once in 3-4 of those workouts.

Why this is a problem:

  • After crash/restart, some data will be available in Garmin Connect but it will be incomplete.
  • The swim will not be logged on my watch display (showing distance)
  • Often, the last few lengths/intervals are missing from the workout.

Additional notes:

  • The v2.90 release notes for the Garmin Swim 2 software indicates "Fix occasional device reset upon completing a Garmin Connect swim workout" - this is clearly is NOT the case. The issue persists in v2.90.
    • I see that there are numerous forum posts of this crashing, but many are several months/years old. v2.90 still has this crashing issue.
  • I have tried disabling Bluetooth phone connections during my swims - this seems to have no affect on crashing/restarting
  • I do not have any third-party widgets installed. Only built-in Garmin widgets are installed
  • The distance and time duration of my swim do not seem to be a factor. I have had the watch crash during a short 400 yard swim and in the middle of a 3000 yard swim.

Current workaround (not ideal):

  • I now program several shorter workouts for a single session - so if I experience a crash/restart, I know I will not risk losing a larger portion of my workout data.
  • Same issue for me in the same circumstances. Very annoying, please Garmin fix this bug.

    This is the Garmin SWIM 2, it cannot crash during swimming workouts, it's ridiculous.

  • After another week of using the watch I have a few additional notes that may help the Garmin watch developers:

    • This last week I began ensuring that my watch was worn snugly above the wrist bone (diagram here).
    • I still disable the Bluetooth connection to my phone before my swim.
    • Since wearing the watch in this manner, I have not had a crash during a workout where my data is lost.

    So it seems possible that watch crashes are related to the watch is not fully secure during a swim. This is only a hypothesis based on the fact that the way I wear the watch is the only thing that has changed in the last week.

    Even if related to the way the watch is worn, it still seems to be problematic for the watch to completely crash/restart due to this and perhaps my data preservation safeguards be put in place int he event of a crash... examples:

    • After restart - presenting the user with an option to the resume workout
    • After restart - presenting the user with an option to save any unsaved data
  • Sorry, no way "crashes are related to the watch is not fully secure during a swim". I already ride MTB, did trails with it, never crashed (nor any other Garmin).
    Try a hard reset (clean start) and see how it goes. If not good, you will have to contact support (and get a replace).

  • Wearing the watch snug affects only the HR measurement. 

    Crashing during "workout" is a software bug, what Garmin is unable to fix completely. I never experienced such crash, but I never used the swim workout function either. Getting the watch replaced does not help, as it is a software bug.

  • I have had this issue for at least 6 months and garmin have been very unhelpful and uncommunicative about the whole thing.

    I restarted the watch and disconnected the phone every time I swam but it still happened 1 in every 2 or 3 swims. 

    Ond update that I've found recently is that if I charge it fully 12-18 hours before I swim, I do not have this problem. I have completed 6 workouts now with no crashes, which has never happened before.

  • That is a total guess on my part but there def is some correlation with SWIM 2 watch-wrist security and the affects of this bug. I was doing watch resets regularly to see if it solved the problem. It wasn't until I was more careful in securing my watch during swimming that the crashing lessened greatly (but not completely) I don't own any other Garmin watches so I can't speak to their performance.

    All I know is that there are numerous SWIM 2 reports of this happening to other users on this forum - Garmin doesn't seem very responsive here.

  • I went a whole two weeks without the crashing bug recently. Then just this week, I had two crashes: one time I did have a lower battery, today I had a fully charged battery.

  • i have this problem on a brand new swim 2 running software v2.9. Do users find this only occurs on swim workouts with repeats? has anyone tried editing the workout to remove repeats (just copying the set multiple times) to see if it resolves?

  • Hi, I will try to do a "workout" to see if there are issues. I've been using the Swim2 for ages (hundreds of sessions) without problems, but very rarely I used "workouts"...

  • Yeah, for me this only happens when I finish the last lap in a repeated set in a workout. No other time.

    I can't copy a set multiple times because I don't create the workouts manually, but I would expect it to work.