Forerunner 970 – 30 bug fixes and changes so far….and that’s just the ones listed
More: Garmin Forerunner 970 Critical Review
Garmin’s premier triathlon watch, Forerunner 970, has been a runaway success for the company, probably exceeding initial launch expectations. It’s an awesomely featured watch that I love. But…
Now that new features and all the techy code are more consistently reused across models, this seems to have improved the watch’s reliability and reduced the frustrations caused by features that don’t work as expected. That said, the official changelogs show almost 30 changes, and the real figure, including those not listed, is almost certainly significantly higher than that, as evidenced by bugs that I have experienced that are now fixed and still not listed!
I’ve said before that I also use the Apple Watch betas. Garmin’s released software, in my opinion, is similar in quality to Apple’s developer betas. This is due to many factors, but it’s not unreasonable to expect a multi-billion-dollar technology company to invest in better testing before relying on the free testing provided by its communities.
Feel free to share your favourite bugs and frustrations below. It won’t help get them fixed, but it might make you feel better.
For completeness, here is the full list of changes and fixes. At least the official ones.
12 Aug 2025 – Public Beta 12.64
- Fixes reboot in sleep mode
- Fixes reboot when saving swimming activity
- Fixes issues editing settings in activity focus mode
- Fixes evening report showing too early
- Fixes DND mode settings affecting non-DND
- Fixes custom focus mode watch face edit affecting current watch face
- Fixes secure connection issues with inReach
- Fixes other minor issues
- Updates translations
5 Aug 2025 – Public Beta 12.60
- Fixes potential issue with optical heart rate measurement
- Fixes reboot when starting a mobility workout
- Fixes accidental notification dismissal
- Fixes spike on elevation chart
- Fixes deleting voice notes
- Adds running tolerance watch face field
- Ensures evening report shows only once per night
- Fixes other minor issues
Garmin forerunner 970 Review ❌ all the cr*p bits ❌ a negative perspective
29 Jul 2025 – Public Beta 12.59
- Fixes reboot issues
- Improves battery saver prompt timing
- Improves custom activity focus mode enabling after profile selection
- Fixes evening report cosmetic issues
- Fixes other minor issues
22 Jul 2025 – Public Beta 12.58
- Adds track run daily suggested workouts
- Adds gentle early alarm (up to 30 minutes) based on sleep quality
- Adds calculator app
- Supports creating custom focus modes
- Adds new recap messages to evening report
- Adds bedtime recommendation to evening report
- Supports starting a race from the morning report
- Supports automatic rest timer in strength activities
- Supports cycling power guide
- Updates personal records to use elapsed time
- Supports viewing timing gate auto laps aggregated by 5 km on Garmin Connect
- Adds spectator messaging
- Supports voice notes app
- Enables additional motorsports activities
- Adds stocks widget
- Fixes various issues causing reboots
- Improves UI responsiveness
- Fixes breathing variation display issues
- Improves breathing variations graph clarity
- Fixes phone assistant not responding after notifications
- Fixes muted state persisting after call or assistant volume adjustment
- Fixes AutoShot detection in golf
- Fixes various evening report bugs
- Fixes display glitch on some watch faces when seconds ring reached zero
- Fixes display artefacts when dismissing notifications
- Fixes timing gates failing to load for unpinned activities
- Fixes CIQ data fields not saving
- Fixes other minor issues
- Updates translations
14 Jul 2025 – Software 6.18
- Hotfix: reduces false screen touches
Mid-June 2025 – Software 6.17
- Hotfix: improves expected battery life on watch face
- Updated translations for Japan SKU
- Changes to support manufacturing
the5krunner.com © 2010-2025
Reader-Powered Content
This content is not sponsored. It’s mostly me behind the labour of love, which is this site, and I appreciate everyone who follows, subscribes or Buys Me A Coffee ❤️ Alternatively, please buy the reviewed product from my partners. Thank you! FTC: Affiliate Disclosure: Links pay commission. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Reminds me of when I bought a 645 right after it was released, the watch was a buggy mess for maybe 9 months until Garmin sorted it out. Hopefully the 970 isn’t as bad as that was. Personally despite liking shiny new toys couldn’t see a reason to move on from a 965, maybe a 975 in a few years but a min of 9 months after release 🙂
I’m using the latest beta of the 970, and the device is pretty much perfect. I use it for running, trail running, open water, cycling, and pool use, and I’ve had no issues at all. There’s still some issue with the distance in open water, and also with the voice assistant, which isn’t very responsive with Siri. Otherwise, the watch is fantastic. If they added four selectable brightness levels to save some battery life, that would be great. For me, it’s one of Garmin’s best watches right now.
I agree it is a fantastic watch. check out my reivew where i prompt the reader to think about usability and other issues. normally most reviewers 9me included) only focus on features…obvisouly garmin has millions of those
Quite happy with the 970 so far, but the most annoying bugs for me are:
1. Crashes. I’ve encountered 3 random crashes, luckily not during a activity. It just makes it hard to trust the watch whenever something like that happens.
2. Sync from the watch not working. It just never completes regardless of connection type (BT or WIFI)
I just hope that they take their time to stabilize the next release (12.X) before the public release or after release with bugfix update instead of postponing fixes for critical issues like crashes to the next quarterly update.
you MIGHT get one crash on an Apple Watch developer beta.
so i think i am agreeing with you here. i’m happy with mine too. I jsut question sometimes WHY we are so happy with a device that SHOULD be better.
Any news / leaks about Edge 850?
no, things have gone quiet there
garmin is less leaky than they used to be
It’s particularly acute this year as Garmin is in a push to completely rewrite into a unified “Garmin OS” across the entire range that is derived from the fenix 8 platform.
There are clearly 3 operational branches in flight and merging right now: fenix 8 (relatively stabilized), f970(570), and X1. The thing that Garmin does is release the hardware when it is ready even if the software is still quite rough.
i love “Hotfix: reduces false screen touches” – openly not actually fixing the problem, just making it less bad.
i still get frequent ghost actions on my 965, even after the usual garmin support “we don’t know what to do so we’ll just replace the device”. that said, i’m not sure it is all a matter of false screen touches since some are actions i don’t think can be done with touch eg start activity, seems to be just seriously buggy software as usual