#6 The Deep Dive Fix Files: Week Ending 3 July 2026

This is a weekly roundup of significant sports tech problems that the endurance community has encountered and, where possible, resolved. Each entry covers the issue, the affected hardware or software, and the current best fix or workaround known to the community.

Garmin Enduro 3 re-entering sleep mode after waking within the scheduled sleep window

On firmware 22.35 the Enduro 3 returns to sleep mode on its own after you manually end sleep focus, provided you are still inside the scheduled sleep window. Wake up, end sleep focus, then stay still, and the watch drops back into sleep mode and stops delivering notifications. The same behaviour appears on the Instinct 2X.

Garmin confirmed that while the watch remains inside the scheduled sleep period, re-entry into sleep mode is driven by activity level rather than by the manual end you just performed. Low movement reads as a return to sleep, so the watch re-enters the mode. A sustained burst of movement blocks the re-entry, and starting any timed activity blocks it for the whole session, which makes starting an activity the more reliable of the two.

The durable correction is configuration rather than firmware. Set the sleep schedule in Garmin Connect so the scheduled wake time sits ahead of your actual rising time. Once the watch is no longer inside the scheduled period when you wake, the inactivity logic stops firing and the watch holds normal mode.

Garmin Fenix 8 pace stuck at 0:00 during intervals after software 22.35

Since software 22.35 the Fenix 8 drops running pace to 0:00 during a run and holds it there while GPS keeps tracking the route correctly. It starts when you enter a faster interval block, on track sessions and quick training intervals, and once it locks the pace field stays at zero for the rest of the activity. Distance still records, but running dynamics, running power and the pace data on Garmin Connect are all corrupted. File inspection found enhanced_speed falling to 0.000 metres per second after the first thirty seconds and staying there.

The trigger is the change into high speed rather than the sensors. It has been reproduced with an external heart rate strap, with a foot pod, and on GPS alone. The fault is filed against 22.35, and at least one owner reports it survived the update to 22.38.

Pausing the activity and resuming it restores the pace field, but only for a while, and it tends to fail again at the next hard interval. Garmin’s troubleshooting runs through confirming no battery saver mode is active, restoring the activity to defaults, and reinstalling the firmware, with a factory reset without restoring a backup as the last step. None of these has been confirmed to hold through a fast interval session.

Garmin Edge 850 ClimbPro showing the wrong real-time gradient in Free Ride

On the Edge 850 the ClimbPro page in Free Ride shows a gradient and elevation profile that do not match the road under the wheels. While you are still on a steep pitch, the profile and the position marker have already moved onto the flatter section ahead, so the real-time gradient reads low while you are working hardest. Owners measured the marker running roughly 300 metres ahead of their actual position.

The fault also shows when following a loaded course, where the full route is already on the device, which points at the position estimate on the DEM map rather than at any gap in the route data. The 31.29 changelog carried a line about fixing the ClimbPro page, yet the owner who reported the issue confirmed it persists on 31.30.

Until Garmin corrects the position estimate, read the climb from the road and your power rather than from the real-time Free Ride gradient, because the reading belongs to a point ahead of you rather than to the ramp you are on. The same offset distorts the distance-to-top figure.

Suunto Race and Vertical power meter dropping to zero watts after Auto Pause

On the Suunto Race and Vertical, after the Bluetooth device management was reworked, a paired power meter can sit at 0 watts when an activity resumes, most often after a coffee stop or any Auto Pause. A Wahoo head unit on the same bike keeps reading power from the same pedals, so the loss is isolated to the watch. Owners report it with Wahoo Speedplay and Powerlink pedals and with Favero Assioma, and several add that the watch crashed when they tried to restart the session.

Suunto’s community manager states the watch attempts to reconnect at all times provided the sensor was present at the prestart screen, and that a reading of 0 watts is not the same as a dropped sensor. One identified trigger is the phone taking over the Bluetooth link to the pedals.

The only reliable recovery owners have found is to end the activity and immediately start a new one, which restores the power reading at the cost of a split file. Turning Bluetooth off on the phone during the ride, and confirming the meter is shown at the prestart screen, reduces how often it happens.

Garmin Forerunner 970 treadmill distance and pace wrong after firmware 17.33

After stable software 17.33, the Forerunner 970 records treadmill distance and pace well outside the real numbers. Owners report runs half a mile or more out over a single session and pace wrong by two to three minutes per mile, with the error consistent for each user but inconsistent in direction across users. The same fault appears on the Fenix 8 and the vivoactive 6 after their updates, which points at the shared software rather than one model.

The cause owners traced is corrupted stride length and vertical oscillation values introduced in 17.33. Stride length dropped from around 1.05 metres to around 0.85 metres on the same runs at the same cadence, and that figure feeds the indoor distance estimate, so each calibration pass compounds the error.

Garmin’s first response is to recalibrate and to record several outdoor runs with GPS so the watch retrains its stride length model from real distance. Owners confirm that calibration on its own does not hold, so the outdoor runs are the part that matters. Correcting distance by hand in Garmin Connect after the run, or pairing a foot pod, sidesteps the broken stride model for individual sessions.

Suunto Vertical 2 screen going black during exercise after a battery mode timeout

On the Suunto Vertical 2, after the Q1 software 2.53.42, the screen can go fully black during an exercise and stay black until you end it. The trigger owners identified is the display timeout. When a Custom battery mode sets the timeout to 10 seconds, the watch eventually stops waking the screen during the activity, so raising the wrist shows nothing. The workout records correctly underneath, but the display will not come back on.

The behaviour sits in how the battery mode sets the display timeout rather than in the panel. Performance mode sets the timeout to off, so the screen stays available throughout the session, while a Custom or lower battery mode with a short timeout is where the black screen appears.

Run the activity in Performance mode, or raise the display timeout in your Custom mode above 10 seconds rather than leaving it at the minimum. Some owners report the watch reverting the battery mode to a default after the update, so check the mode is still set the way you want before a long session.

Suunto Vertical 2 battery percentage misreporting after a full charge

On the Suunto Vertical 2, owners report the battery falling fast straight after a full charge, around 1 to 4 percent in the first hour with the watch barely touched and no activity running. The watch reads 100 percent off the charger, then shows 96 to 99 percent within an hour of light use.

A soft reset points at the cause. Several owners charged to 100, watched the figure drop, then performed a soft reset and saw the level jump straight back to 99 percent. A counter that recovers on reboot indicates the percentage calculation is wrong after a charge cycle rather than the cell discharging. One owner confirmed the same behaviour after 13 days down to 2 percent, a fresh charge, the rapid false drop, then a reset back to 99.

The reliable workaround owners use is a soft reset after every full charge, which restores an accurate reading for the rest of the cycle. Turning off Bluetooth Discoverable once the watch is paired to the phone reduces genuine drain alongside the reporting fault, and on a new unit a full discharge and recharge cycle calibrates the gauge.

Garmin Edge 850 WiFi sync and firmware update failures

On the Edge 850, and the wider 50 series, WiFi sync after boot often hangs and firmware updates over WiFi fail. The unit connects to WiFi, sits on Checking for Updates for around five minutes, then returns Transfer Failed or Download check failed. Owners report the same device updating cleanly only through Garmin Express over USB.

A stuck initial sync blocks the update check. Every boot the Edge connects to WiFi and tries to sync, and when that sync hangs the search for updates is refused with Transfer already in progress. Owners measured throughput on the device dropping to a few kilobits, well below what the same network gives an Edge 530 or a Fenix 7.

Assign the Edge a static IP on your router, disable any VPN, and remove Connect IQ apps and data fields, which one owner reported clearing the block. When WiFi will not complete, update through Garmin Express over a USB cable. Garmin addressed the sync itself in software 31.29, and one owner confirmed the 850 then synced reliably after startup, though the first install of 31.29 may still need Garmin Express.

Suunto Race 2 notifications sticking on screen during activities

On the Suunto Race 2, a notification that arrives during an activity can stay on the display for a long time or refuse to clear until you press the middle button to dismiss it. It covers the data screen at the point you want pace, time or the route, and owners report it from the day they got the watch, unchanged across software updates.

The behaviour is not limited to phone alerts. Owners describe in-activity notifications behaving the same way, the slow-down alert when you pass a target threshold, the 50 percent marker, and guide prompts, each sometimes lingering, sometimes holding on screen until a button press. That points at notification handling on the watch rather than the phone link.

The workaround owners settled on is disabling phone notifications for the specific sport modes where they intrude, since the watch offers no single global switch for activities. This removes phone alerts during those sessions rather than fixing the dismissal fault, and it does not touch the in-activity prompts, which come from the sport mode itself.

Garmin Edge 1050 not connecting to the Varia RTL515 unless the radar is powered on first

On the Edge 1050 running software 31.30, the head unit will not pick up the Varia RTL515 if the Edge is switched on and finishes booting before the radar. Power the radar up first, then switch on the Edge, and the two connect every time. Owners confirm the same order dependence, and note that the older Edge 1030 Plus paired in either order.

The fault sits in how the 1050 manages sensor connections rather than in the radar. One owner describes the 1050 connection state as poor in general, with sensors that fail to connect at the start, drop mid ride, then reconnect on their own. The RTL515 itself behaves normally once it is paired.

The reliable workaround is sequence. Power on the RTL515 and let it settle, then switch on the Edge 1050, which finds the radar during its own boot. Keeping the sensor connection set to Open or ANT+ rather than the encrypted Bluetooth mode also helps the pairing hold.

Garmin Edge 1050 showing Fuel and Hydration popups during navigation with alarms off

On the Edge 1050 with current firmware, Garmin route navigation keeps producing Fuel and Hydration popups, the Time for more energy prompt and the drink and eat targets, even when Food alarm, Drink alarm and Consumption tracking are all set to Off in the ride profile. Owners report it during trail navigation, and add that it does not happen when navigating with the Komoot Connect IQ app.

The cause is that the alerts are attached to the course, not to the global alarm settings. A course built with nutrition and hydration targets carries its own schedule, and that schedule overrides the Off switches in your activity profile while you follow the route.

Edit the course rather than the profile. Open the course on the device before you start, scroll down to the Nutrition and Hydration section, and turn the targets off there. The popups then stop for that route. The device offers no single global switch, so the targets have to be cleared on each course that carries them.

Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM showing wrong average power on the device and app

On the ELEMNT ROAM the average power can read wrong while the underlying recording stays correct. The fault is sporadic and does not appear on every ride. When it happens the 3 second power freezes on the display, and both the lap average and the overall average power come out wrong, live on the head unit and afterwards in the Wahoo app. The same ride opened in Strava or Intervals.icu shows the correct averages, which confirms the recorded FIT file is intact.

The problem is not limited to power. Another owner reports calories logged as absurd figures, around 4 kcal across a 40 mile ride, while the SRAM pedal data and a heart rate strap both record realistic values. The same behaviour appeared on the Bolt v2 and the Roam 3, which points at the calculation and display layer in the head unit and the Wahoo app rather than at the sensors.

Treat the device and app averages as unreliable when the freeze occurs, and read the true numbers from the FIT file. The ride uploads to Strava or Intervals.icu with the correct lap and overall averages, so the training data is recoverable even when the screen and the Wahoo app are wrong. Nothing on the device side has been confirmed to stop the freeze.

Garmin Forerunner 165 playing navigation voice prompts through the phone during a course

On the Forerunner 165, starting a course under Navigation then Courses triggers spoken turn prompts played through the phone as media audio. The prompts continue with every Garmin Connect notification disabled, the phone restarted, the app reinstalled, and all watch sounds turned off. Owners report the behaviour has persisted across models for around two years.

Audio prompts play on connected Bluetooth headphones if any are paired, otherwise on the phone paired through Garmin Connect. The Forerunner 165 does not carry the per feature turn prompt toggle that higher watches such as the Forerunner 965 and Fenix 7 expose, so there is no dedicated on watch switch for navigation prompts.

The setting to try first sits on the watch itself. From the watch face hold the middle left button, open Audio Prompts, and set it to Off. That toggle governs the announcements the watch pushes out to the phone or to headphones during an activity. If it does not silence them, disconnect the phone Bluetooth for the duration of the run, or turn off notifications and announcements for Garmin Connect at the phone operating system level.

Garmin Edge 1050 showing Open Connection sensor warnings during rides after firmware 31.29

After the Edge 1050 updates to firmware 31.29, repeated Open Connection pop ups appear during rides, one for each paired sensor and several times per ride. The message blocks the map until it is acknowledged, and riders report missing turns because the pop up covers the navigation screen at the moment a direction is due.

The warnings resist the obvious cleanup. Removing sensors can trigger the device to reboot, a removed Varia can still show in the sensor list afterward, and re pairing brings the pop ups back for every sensor. A factory reset cleared the problem for the original poster, after which the pop up appears only occasionally when many sensors sit close together, such as in a start pen.

The firmware path is the less destructive first step. One rider saw the warnings on both 31.29 and 31.30, usually after waking the unit from sleep when it failed to reconnect to the sensors, and reports they stopped after moving to 31.31. Update to the current release before resetting.

Garmin Edge 840 rebooting mid-ride after a Connect IQ crash on firmware 31.29

On the Edge 840 running software 31.29, a Connect IQ app or data field crash can power cycle the device in the middle of a ride. After the reboot the head unit keeps showing navigation, speed, power and heart rate while it has quietly stopped writing per second records. One rider lost about 83 minutes and 28 km as a straight line gap on the map, while total distance, lap summaries and ClimbPro splits were retained.

The same firmware brings a cluster of related faults. Riders report Connect IQ crashes, a Varia RTL515 that connects but reads as disconnected on the device, the unit freezing, and map tiles failing to fill part of the screen at the 100m zoom level. The per second stream stops while trip totals keep accumulating, which indicates the recorder is left in a broken state by the crash and the reboots rather than a clean power off.

The workaround is to roll back to 30.18, the last release this rider found stable. Place the GUPDATE.GCD update file in the Garmin folder at the device root, eject the device, and follow the prompts. Back up the Activities and Courses folders before flashing, since a downgrade can clear device data.

Garmin Forerunner 570 Start/Stop button unresponsive during strength training after firmware 17.33

On the Forerunner 570 running software 17.33, the Start/Stop button stops responding during longer strength training sessions, so the activity cannot be ended in the normal way. The press registers as ignored and the watch stays locked in the running activity. Owners date the onset to the 17.33 update, with no instance of the fault on earlier versions.

The reliable recovery reported so far is to trigger a rest period from the activity controls and wait. After a short delay the Start/Stop button responds again and the session saves normally. This does not prevent the freeze, but it returns control without a hard reset that would put the recording at risk.

A full reset clears several of the other 17.33 regressions on the 570, including the daily suggested workout failing to appear and the sleep display dropping the battery percentage. Back up settings through Garmin Connect first, since the reset returns the watch to factory state. Garmin support has closed out most of the reported 17.33 issues on individual accounts, which points to a corrected firmware rather than a setting on the watch.

Garmin Edge 1050 SRAM eTap gearing fields blank and reconnect looping after firmware 31.29

On the Edge 1050 with SRAM eTap or eTap AXS running software 31.29, the gearing data fields for gear combination and gear battery go blank at a brief stop and stay blank when the ride resumes, until the next shift repopulates them. Older firmware refilled the fields the moment the wheels turned again. Riders trace the change to 31.18 and confirm it continues on 31.29 across several bikes.

A worse variant appears after a longer stop such as a cafe break. The head unit then cycles every few seconds through connecting to the eTap gearing, filling the fields, disconnecting, blanking them, and reconnecting, for the rest of the ride. The looping only occurs while the 1050 holds a Bluetooth connection to the Garmin Connect app, and disabling phone Bluetooth for the ride stops it.

A device reset does not help. One rider reset from the System menu, completed setup, then removed and re-added the eTap sensor, and the loop returned within a couple of seconds on the next ride. That places the fault in the firmware rather than a corrupt pairing. Garmin staff on the thread have asked affected riders to collect ANT logs, which indicates the cause is not yet identified internally. Riding with the phone disconnected from Connect is the practical way to hold the gearing fields stable.

Suunto Vertical and 9 Peak Pro backlight and raise-to-wake activating during activities after software 2.50.26

Since software 2.50.26 on the Suunto Vertical, 9 Peak Pro and the AMOLED Race models, entering an activity start screen changes the backlight behaviour. Reaching the start screen, without starting the activity, switches raise-to-wake on even when it is disabled in settings, and it then stays on for the whole activity. Owners reproduce it about half the time, and some closer to eight times in ten.

A second form leaves the backlight on permanently after you back out of the start screen to the watch face, so it never times out and drains the battery, and on MIP watches the brightness jumps to a high level. One runner on the Spine Challenger North found the screen lit on every wrist raise while navigating at night and flagged the battery cost across a multi-day event.

The way to clear a backlight that the bug has switched on is to toggle the setting off and on again, either under Control Panel then Backlight, or under Settings, General, Display, Standby. That resets the state until the next activity start screen triggers it again. The fault is a software one, present across MIP and AMOLED hardware, and owners still report it on current firmware in June 2026.

More from last week’s Fix Files roundup.

Browse every issue in the archive at the Deep Dive Fix Files hub.

Last Updated on 3 July 2026 by the5krunner