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Watch displaying wrong date and time

This morning I received a call on my cell phone and received the normal "new call notification" on my Forerunner 230. I answered the call and went on with my day. Around noon I noticed my phone's smart lock was not working. Usually that means loss of BT connectivity with the watch and reboot of watch will solve the problem. When I looked at my watch it was still showing the incoming call notification from earlier in the morning and would not respond to any input. So I held the light button to power cycle it. Ever since then my watch has the wrong date and time. I am able to successfully sync both by initiated from Garmin Connect app on phone and by the menu option on the watch. Still the time will not display properly. Rebooted both devices. Still no help. I reverted my watch face to the default one. So that's not the problem. I also reset the watch twice by holding the light button for 15s. No help. What next? Only had the watch for 1 year. Is it garbage?

Update: I tried "Restore Defaults" option on watch. Of course had to reset the preferences, but also has to repair to my phone (Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge). Before pairing the watch indicated 9:46am Wed Jan 3rd. After pairing and syncing the time updated to 3:49am Wed Jan 3rd. (The real time was 2:42pm Fri Jan 5th.) What is going on with this thing??

Update: Issue solved by activating GPS by starting a workout.

0 ASmugDill over 7 years ago

So I held the light button to power cycle it. Ever since then my watch has the wrong date and time.

Doing a hard reset, which is what you did, will cause the FR230 to lose the correct date and time.

I am able to successfully sync both by initiated from Garmin Connect app on phone and by the menu option on the watch. Still the time will not display properly. Rebooted both devices. Still no help. I reverted my watch face to the default one. So that's not the problem. I also reset the watch twice by holding the light button for 15s. No help.

None of that does anything. Your phone is not the proxy for everything that is true about the universe, as far as the Garmin watch is concerned. Your phone's clock is not a trusted source of current date and time information.

Update: Issue solved by activating GPS by starting a workout.

Exactly what one would expect after reading the FR230/235 Owner's Manual:
The device may need a clear view of the sky to acquire satellite signals. The time and date are set automatically based on the GPS position.

(See also http://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/forerunner230/EN-US/GUID-19B2E11C-9AB1-4DF1-BB26-FED262AF80B8.html and look under “Set Automatically”.)

0 justinhhamilton over 7 years ago

Yep, same problem for my wife's FR230. Time was off by about 9-10 min. I checked to make sure time was set to automatic, then launched an activity to lock on GPS. Howver, her FR230 never finds the satellites, waited a good 10 minutes or so. I have a Fenx 5 which locks on to GPS right away, so I know it's not my area. I also tried a complete reset by "Restoring Defaults", and setting everything back up. Still unsuccessful...

checking the software versions (listed below), I see version 0.00 for GPS. Guessing this is related to my issue??

Menu -> Settings -> System -> About

Forerunner 230
Software Version 7.5 (bdd586f)
GPS: 0.00
Display: 2.20
BT/ANT: 2.40
Connect IQ: 1.4.1

Thanks!

0 ASmugDill over 7 years ago

After a hard reset (or a crash of the operating system) of the watch, my experience is that it takes a long time (often more than ten minutes) on the FR235 – and, by extrapolation, the FR230 – for the watch to lock onto a usable set of GPS satellite signals, even if you have synced with Garmin Connect to retrieve the most up-to-date EPO data.

However, it is unusual for the GPS module version to be reported as 0.00. Personally, I'd do a factory reset and then a sync with Garmin Connect, to so if that fixes the issue.

0 justinhhamilton over 7 years ago

ASmugDill thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately that didnt work for me either. I still have no GPS firmware installed, or at least version 0.00 anyway... I even tried installing beta code 7.52 hoping it would pull through the additional firmware files for gps, display, Bluetooth, etc. nope, just upgrades the watch firmware. I have since downgraded back to 7.50.

Thinking I need to find a way to "format" the ForeRunner 230 and reload with a complete software stack.

What are the current rev's for these items anyway??

Forerunner 230
Software Version 7.5 (bdd586f)
GPS: 0.00
Display: 2.20
BT/ANT: 2.40
Connect IQ: 1.4.1

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

DDHammer starting a work out with GPS worked when time and date was wrong. Weird, husband's watch had problem and mine, his wife, didn't. My question is what made it "stick" on wrong date to begin with.