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Issues with Brand New Garmin Vivoactive 3?

So on Amazon Prime Day, I finally pulled the trigger on a Vivoactive 3. It arrived 2 days ago and I have noticed a few "issues already." Within 30mins of setting up the watch, it completely seized up and required me to crash it.

Yesterday, the music controls screen was kinda frozen. the controls worked but the screens weren't updating. It was showing a song i had listened to like an hour prior. pressing pause, skip, etc would make my phone do the action, but would not be reflected on the watch. the volume control would also work, but the display of the volume was frozen.

Also a few times yesterday, it appears that the heartrate monitor just decided to stop. it would say "measuring" then bounce over to no reading, but the LED's were not turning on. I had to reboot the watch for it to "fix" it this time. the previous time it just started working again. I'm not sure if it was because data recording was set to smart or not, but if that's the reason, then its strange because i was up and about.

I turned my watch off last night to preserve battery life. The battery was around 75% when I turned it off, but somehow had drained down to 34% when i turned it on this morning... I'm super confused...

Also, just as a little history: A few years back, I had bought the Vivosmart HR. Enjoyed the watch for 2 weeks and then it just straight up bricked... wouldn't turn on, wouldn't charge, nothing. I returned it and ordered the Polar A360, which i've been using ever since. Wanted to pick up something with GPS, as I'm trying to get back into running.

Am I just so unlucky with Garmin devices or are these things not to be concerned about? I'm particularly interested in the heartrate situation, though.

For reference, I updated my watch upon setting it up using Garmin Connect. The SW listed in the watch was 5.40, the GPS 4.40, Sensor 6.20. 30mins ago, i installed Garmin Express on my computer and updated it through that because for some reason, my watch would not update past 5.40 through Connect. It is now on SW 6.60. GPS and Sensor are unchanged

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

There have been several issues posted with people having issues with FW 6.60. You can revert back to a previous FW version, but this would only be temporary if you're connected to your mobile or Express. Unlike most Garmin devices, the VA3 has automatic updates and you can't prevent them if using Express or GCM. There will most likely be a updated FW addressing what some are experiencing, but when that will happen is anyone's guess. It's your call on what you want to do.

0 Fluffranka over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

I'm gonna see how it goes over the next few days before making a decision. I don't wanna return it, but I also would like to have a fully functional watch...

Just sucks that both Garmin products I purchased almost instantly had issues...

0 4240880 over 5 years ago

The watch cannot turn off normally. After turning it off, notice the backlight is still on. I had this issue for a while now and I do a hard reset (hold the power button for 15 seconds) to turn it off.