Garmin Swim 2 - Recent Threads

Swim 2 crashing during open water swim.

3343014 — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 14:26:48 GMT

Hello,

I've just experienced my Garmin Swim 2 crashing during two different open water sessions, in two days.

After the crash, I could restart the watch, and it continued measuring the time, but not distance, calories, etc.

The problem seems similar to this: [mention:3c67ffc132b24f41b3988a8b6b56594c:46448885d0e64133bbfbf0cd7b0fd6f7]

However I've used the watch for open water swimming a month before (using the same settings), and I have also ran with it several times - and never experienced anything like this. I also use it for pool swimming almost every day.

When looking at the activity in Connect, the GPS track is completely wrong:

(This is the first activity - the second is also wrong, but not to this degree).

The battery was fine, I could use the watch after restarting it.

Software version is 3.10.

Not recording distance in open water mode

Jemclones — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 13:26:52 GMT

Hi. My swim 2 has a full GPS signal when swimming outdoors. I swan for 30 mins but it only recorded 37m of distance when it should have been over 1500m. I tried again today and it only managed 23m distance over 28 minutes, which should have been over 1500m. Please help.

RE: Not recording distance in open water mode

Garmin - KS — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 20:56:56 GMT

It looks like Peggy was able to help! 😁 (Thanks, Peggy!)

If anyone else is experiencing distance inaccuracies during open water swims on your Swim 2, please be sure to follow the suggestions outlined here: Tips to Improve Accuracy of Open Water Swim Activities

RE: Not recording distance in open water mode

Jemclones — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 19:12:34 GMT

Thanks for the update. I’ve changed the gps setting. It was in the Russian one. I was in France when it failed so will try again when I’m home. Much appreciated. 👍

RE: Not recording distance in open water mode

Peggy — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 09:37:54 GMT

Hi - Garmin got in touch - I realised I never installed Garmin Express. I connected my Swim 2, which said the software was up to date and running 3.10. I changed my GPS settings to GPS and the European one (I had been using GONGLASS or whatever the Russian one is.)

Open Water was recorded accurately in the past 2 swims, but the calories are still wrong with both open water and pool swims.

Garmin wrote me an incredibly detailed response asking for loads of information - I haven't had time to reply yet!

I also bought myself a new Forerunner 170 which has way more features than I need... Haven't taken it out of the box yet 😛

RE: Not recording distance in open water mode

Jemclones — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 14:47:51 GMT

Thanks for that. This has only been a few weeks too. Wondering if a cheeky software update caused the issue. Think my watch is just over 2 years old so not happy. Please let me know if Garmin have a fix. Thanks again.

RE: Not recording distance in open water mode

Peggy — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 10:42:29 GMT

Hi - I'm having exactly the same problem and it only started in the past 2 weeks. My last open water swim logged only 644m for 40 min! Like you, it says the GPS is working, but it's not. The app no longer shows a map or location of where I've been, either.
I've tried updating the software, shutting down and restarting the watch, but nothing works. A month ago it started miscaulculating calories in pool swimming. I've contacted Garmin but am waiting for an answer.

I bought this one in 2024; based on the previous two Garmin Swim 2s I have owned, they seem only good for 2-3 years before something goes terribly and incurably wrong.

RE: How can I create new personal record categories, like 300m?

kochmans — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 11:15:54 GMT

Currently not possible.

How can I create new personal record categories, like 300m?

CharlieWatkins — Sat, 16 May 2026 14:48:30 GMT

I want to make my own personal record categories. Any ideas? Seems like the Garmin options are fixed

Garmin Swim 2 turns off when using GPS

Swimming — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 18:34:06 GMT

After the last update (I think it was in November 2025), the watch turns off by itself.

I'm testing it every day in Run mode. After 4 or 5 km it turns off.

Important: the battery seems to be fine, because outside of GPS mode it stays charged for more than three days, which was normal since I bought it.

Software Version = 3.10.

RE: Garmin Swim 2 turns off when using GPS

kristian_kostov — Sat, 23 May 2026 15:56:32 GMT

My investigations are the same, i swim everyday with this watch. Batery is gone and there is no way to be replaced. The device is over. Today i replaced it with Forerunner 165.

RE: Garmin Swim 2 turns off when using GPS

PG — Mon, 18 May 2026 15:17:57 GMT

I tend to think that there are some notification/pool length/data display setting combination what triggers this issue. I still never ever experienced this problem, but earlier I found some buggy combinations. (33m pool length/vibrate every 10 lengths combination, or in OW case vibrate every 100m works just fine).

Do not expect Garmin to solve this issue, last time I reported a bug, the first line "support" refused it as it is not a problem (earlier I reported and described several major bugs what were fixed fast, but that was in the early after release days). Swim2 is now in the EOS state.

RE: Garmin Swim 2 turns off when using GPS

2219565 — Mon, 18 May 2026 13:57:51 GMT

I am still having these issues despite the bodge job of turning features off. I am increasingly considering leaving garmin for my next watches as the customer support is poor amongst what i have experienced with other brands, like Wahoo releasing a fix within 48hours for their cycling computers, despite them being a decade old. Garmin, sort it out

Vibration every second after starting lap

John F — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 14:13:46 GMT

I did a hard reset (system > reset > delete all) and after reconfiugring everything I started a swim activity. When starting a lap, the watch now vibrates every second! before doing the reset, it was vibrating only during the 3 second count down (which I do want to keep). If I enable "alerts during activity" then it also make a screech every second, but that I'm happy to disable.

If I disable vibration entirely then it goes away but I want to keep vibration for the 3 second countdown as it helps push off the wall more accurately when timing sprints.

Any ideas?

Running firmware 3.10

(there is no Metronome function on the Swim 2)

Where can we download old firmware versions?

John F — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 13:27:08 GMT

Is there a place where we can download older firmware versions?

RE: Garmin Swim 2 turns off when using GPS

John F — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 13:16:59 GMT

Damn, I just posted about this on Rreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Garmin/comments/1s1dw46/garmin_swim_2_watch_started_shutting_off_minutes/

First off, I think I can rule out the battery. This problem started appearing a few months ago. I kept applying all the new firmwares whenever prompted hoping it fixes it.

If I don't start an activity, the watch continues for several days until battery dies, every time. Heart monitor always active too, bluetooth on too.

The moment I start an activity, e.g. swimming, even if merely hours after fully charged, it shuts down - goes black - and no buttons work to bring it back on again. When I plug it back in to charge, it comes on by itself immediately, with the charge indicator showing 3 bars out of 4 right off the bat and finishes charging in just a few minutes, suggesting there was battery left (as expected). The again, if I don't start an activity, it goes on for many days.

The watch had all the firmware updates applied.

Is there a repository of old firmwares I could try to apply? My feeling is it's firmware related ... because if it's planned obsolescence then it's really cruel :)

EDIT: After a reset (delete all) it now vibrates every second during swimming activity mode. Previously it was vibrating only on the 3 second countdown timer before starting a lap. I could go a few laps (with those 3 second vibrations enabled) before it was shutting down though, so it doesn't seem like vibration was the problem in my case. I now HAVE to disable vibration entirely as the vibration every second is too annoying. I really wanted the 3 second vibration timer though, helps to push off the wall at the right time when timing sprints.

RE: Garmin Swim 2 turns off when using GPS

Swimming — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 20:25:40 GMT

I thought the same thing at first, especially after finding other reports on this forum related to battery life. However, what caught my attention is that if you don't use the watch during physical activity, starting with 100% charge, the battery lasts as long as it always has. In my case, about 3 or 4 days before needing to be recharged. At the same time, after the shutdown failure (during activities), when I plugged the watch in to recharge, the indicator was almost full, with only one bar flashing to indicate charging progress.

RE: Garmin Swim 2 turns off when using GPS

Swimming — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 20:22:22 GMT

Yes, I did a soft reset before start a thread in this forum.
I don't remember the firmware version, but I can confirm that in November 2025 the watch displayed the "System Update Available" message. After that update, the problem reported here started to appear. Turning off Vibration Mode seems to have solved the problem. However, I believe there is a flaw in this last update, especially since other users have reported the same issue.

RE: Garmin Swim 2 turns off when using GPS

slogfester — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 01:27:18 GMT

Turning off vibrate has not worked for me. I only used it for indoor swimming anyway.

For me it's seems to be all about battery level. The lower the battery level when you start a workout, the greater AND sooner the risk of shut-down. Even if you start at 100% battery level the risk is not zero.

RE: Garmin Swim 2 turns off when using GPS

PG — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 23:12:10 GMT

I have vibration ON, FW 3.10, and NO issues.

Did you try a soft reset after the update? - hold upper left button pressed until watch switches off. Then power on. This is the general recommendation if anything weird happens after update, this clears all the stuck states and data. Also this is the general recommendation after any update, having weird issues or not.

RE: Garmin Swim 2 turns off when using GPS

Swimming — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 20:10:46 GMT

I believe the Garmin Technical Team needs to investigate this bug and release an update to fix it. Coming here and mentioning that we found a way to bypass the root cause of the bug doesn't represent a structured approach to considering and resolving the issues we are reporting.

RE: Garmin Swim 2 turns off when using GPS

Garmin - KC — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 16:36:51 GMT

Hey, there! I'm so glad to hear that some of you have found a workaround that seems to help.

slogfester have you been able to try this workaround posted by Swimming?

[quote userid="2177841" url="~/sports-fitness/running-multisport/f/garmin-swim-2/427916/garmin-swim-2-turns-off-when-using-gps/1999057"]

I did more tests and the problem stopped occurring when I turned off the vibration mode (see link below). I had noticed that it would turn off around the time I reached 1 km, when the watch indicates the pace for that distance with a vibration and by changing the background color.

https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/garminswim2/EN-US/GUID-3F67C7B7-6AAE-4E82-9EE0-A6326CBC618D.html

[/quote]

Although this workaround appears to be successful, if any of you would like additional assistance, please leave another comment so we can continue this discussion.

My swim 2 won’t sync with my phone.

mellon196 — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 16:10:17 GMT

my swim 2 won’t sync with my phone despite trying to reconnect, resetting everything etc. any suggestions

RE: Garmin Swim 2 turns off when using GPS

PG — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 13:00:01 GMT

I am on 3.10 since it was released, and I have no turning off issues at all.

RE: Garmin Swim 2 turns off when using GPS

Swimming — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 11:42:26 GMT

For me, there was an update to version 3.10 in November 2025.