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.
  • Interesting point - I exclusively use workouts and they almost always use repeated sets. The sets I do would be quite cumbersome to remove repeats from since I like to do interval training (e.g. 4x100, 2x50, 3x100, 4x25...). Some use fixed rest periods, others use timed interval rests (e.g. 50 on the minute)

    The crashes DO seem to happen on the last lap in a repeated set. But it is not consistent. I can get through a long workout with many repeats one day... but then a few days later, that same set will have a crash on one of those last laps.

  • Do you find it crashes on preset timed rests, or only when using the lap button?

    I have same set up and same issue!

    each time mine has crashed has been in a multi-layer repeat session, and towards the end of a repeat when I press the lab button to start a rest. The connect app does say it skips the last rest in a repeat block, I might try and reshuffle where the rest breaks are and see if that helps, there could be some flakey code for how it knows to skip the last rest in a set

    do you know if the swim 2 generates log files which might help find the problem?

    I haven’t trawled through the forums yet, do people have the same issue with other watches when following swim workouts or just the swim 2?

     

    very disappointing considering it’s a watch that’s meant to be specifically for swimming - not impressed with how often it crashes considering I’ve had it less than 2 months

  • Same issue for me: it seems that crashes when I press the lap button to finish the last repeat of a set...I will try to notice if it's always this situation to cause a crash

  • It is definitely right after a Lap Button press and usually following the last repeated interval. The other day I had this repeat in my workout:

    • 4x50 Butterfly
    • Fixed rest time: 15 seconds

    On the 4x, it crashed immediately when completing the final interval and pressing the Lap Button. It should have initiated what would have been the 30 second planned rest before starting the next part of the workout.

  • @Steve if you want edit a workout created with third part service you can long press the workout on the app and select "duplicate" and then edit it

  • have you spoken with Garmin via chat? they are replacing my watch - it's less than a month old

  • Do not go that way. This is a software bug, not related to individual HW. I personally experienced this crash only once, when I tested the CSS test workout at home by shaking the watch. But as I never used workouts, my watch never crashed in reality. But people keep complaining, and only with workouts, so this is a real problem.

    If they replace your watch, the next one will behave the same way.

    Keep pushing Garmin, in this thread you made some valid analysis, this amount of data should be enough for Garmin to reproduce the problem and correct.

  • I agree, most likely software bug

    Unfortunately I think to get a software fix from Garmin, it might take a few people to jump through all their hoops. Ive seen enough people posting saying they save the same issue, so hopefully some will follow suit and contact Garmin too

    They probably have a standard workflow for fault handling, and initially its probably cheaper for them to issue new hardware than pay their software developers for 'x' days/weeks to debug, test and implement new software release...it's likely once a threshold is reached for the same fault, they will then move to software investigation...

    Considering most repeats within a workout are likey to end with a rest, and that the crashing seems to happen when most people press the lap button to start the rest period, I'm going to try the following 3 things this evening:

    1) Disabling the 'auto rest' in pool swimming settings in case it's a problem where i'm pressing the lap button while the software is in the middle of commencing auto pause. Maybe also giving it a few seconds after i finish a set to press the lap button, i'm usually pretty keen to hit it as it touch the wall, but there could be something in  when the lap button is pressed, compared to when the watch is calculating the end of a length. I read somewhere it basically looks for lack of movement for a second or two which is when you would push off from the wall at each end, I wouldn't be surpised if there is a software loop there where it tried to work out if you're still swimming...and if you hit the lap button right in the middle of that...

    2) Disabling bluetooth connection to phone

    3) Reworking some swim workouts to remove rest at end of a repeat (the workout creator says the last rest is skipped in a repeat set, so this could be where it falls over if there is some bad coding around skipping the last rest break). 

    I want to stick with the workouts on the watch, as I build drills into my training and the watch never logs these correctly - if a drill or kicking is build into a workout, then it better reflects total swim distance

  • Just a comment on the drills. There is a drill log function, you need to count and enter laps, but it is always correct that way.

    Regarding paying software developers, ironically when people started to complain about the totally useless "Intensity minutes" change, Garmin fixed the issue in 2 weeks!

  • @PG just seen your post from a few years ago linking to this thread:

    https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/running-multisport/f/garmin-swim-2/234914/watch-crashed-during-css-test

    Joy

    guess my theory of how to get them to look at the software was wrong...not going to hold my breath on this issue if it's still not fixed after so long