#7 The Deep Dive Fix Files: Week Ending 17 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 Connect course creator freezing on Most Direct routing after the web update

After the recent Garmin Connect web update, the course creator freezes the moment the Routing Type is set to Most Direct and a pin is dropped. The map stops responding and the course cannot be extended. Most Direct is the option formerly called Follow Roads, so anyone building courses along real roads is exposed. Owners reproduce the freeze across different browsers, computers, and separate Garmin accounts, and clearing the cache, switching browsers, logging out, and moving to a second machine all end the same way.

Switching the Routing Type to Most Popular continues to snap to roads without freezing, and freehand routing works at the cost of placing many more pins by hand. The Garmin Connect mobile app is unaffected, so a course can be built on the phone and synced while the web tool is down. Garmin has an open ticket and states the problem is corrected in Connect web release 5.25.2, though some owners still report the freeze after that release.

Garmin Instinct 3 Solar restarting and looping during long GPS activities

The Instinct 3 Solar restarts during GPS activities, and on long sessions it can restart repeatedly for the remainder of the effort. The behaviour has been present since release and continues on firmware 13.29 and 14.14, with the worst cases tied to activities past ten hours. One runner saw the watch crash nine to ten hours into a race and loop for the remaining two. The Solar model is affected far more than the AMOLED version.

The cause is storage and memory pressure. A crash writes a compressed RAM dump into the Garmin Debug folder, which can exceed thirty megabytes, and when free space is already low from a growing activity file the watch cannot write the dump and crashes again, producing the loop. Owners force-reboot before a long activity by holding the Light button for about thirty seconds, then clear the Activity, RemoteSW, Screenshot, and Debug folders and delete unused courses and workouts. Recording in smart mode with HRV, temperature, and third-party fields off keeps the file smaller, and UltraTrac reduces it further on very long routes.

Garmin Edge 1050 restarting mid-ride and saving a corrupted file

The Edge 1050 can restart mid-ride on a nearly full battery and prompt a firmware update on reboot. Declining the update lets the ride continue on screen, but the saved file stops logging at the restart, and the section after it loses heart rate, cadence, and power. One rider lost most of a 500 km Everesting this way, and others describe it as a repeat fault, in one case the fourth partial ride loss on the same device.

To recover what was captured, connect the Edge to a computer, open the Garmin Activities folder, and open the FIT file in a FIT viewer or repair tool. Everything logged before the restart is present, but data after the recording stopped was never written and cannot be restored. Garmin Connect rejects a repaired file that shares a timestamp with an existing activity, so the original activity must be deleted first. For the next long ride, stopping and saving the moment the unit restarts, then starting a new activity and merging the legs, protects everything recorded up to the crash.

Garmin Edge 1040 stuck in a reboot loop after firmware 31.29

After the 31.29 update the Edge 1040 drops into an endless reboot loop, showing Saving Diagnostics, cycling through a blank screen, restarting, and repeating. Powering off is the only thing that halts it, and it re-enters the loop on the next start. A soft reset does not clear it, and for several owners the update arrived as a forced install.

A hard reset is the first recovery, and one rider cleared the loop on the second or third attempt at the cost of the widgets and configuration. Where a hard reset does not hold, loader mode offers a route out: connect the Edge to a computer, hold the Lap button for about thirty seconds until Loader shows USB MTP Mode, then rename the offending map files from .img to .img.bak. One owner traced the trigger to the regional Geocode Map file and stopped the loop by renaming it, though on-device address search then fails until a clean map is reinstalled. Several reports tie the crash to the TopoActive 2026.10 maps, so staying on the 2025.10 maps keeps search and routing working while the firmware fault is open.

Suunto 9 Peak Pro phantom vibrations during activities and daily wear

The 9 Peak Pro produces short phantom vibrations unconnected to any notification, during activities and in daily wear. On the final firmware, 2.50.28, owners report them far more often than on earlier versions, in one case moving from rare to weekly. The vibrations coincide with the compass auto-calibrating, which the watch triggers near magnets, motors, and speakers, firing a pulse each time.

Keeping the watch away from magnetic sources reduces the vibrations, which is difficult for anyone working around motors, and a watch reset does not stop them. The behaviour sits in firmware, and with 2.50.28 the final release, a real correction depends on Suunto suppressing the vibration that fires on compass calibration.

This issue remains unresolved — if you have encountered it and found a fix, the discussion is open on r/the5krunner.

Wahoo SYSTM jumping back to the home screen on Windows after v7.105.0

After the SYSTM v7.105.0 update, the Windows app jumps back to the home screen whenever the calendar opens or a workout is started or downloaded, leaving it unusable. The same version runs cleanly on Windows 11 and macOS, and one affected user is on Windows 10, which points to the install rather than the release. Uninstalling and reinstalling fixed the identical behaviour on iPhone and iPad but not on the Windows laptop, and checks of antivirus, firewall, network, and disk space came back clean.

The step that worked was a full uninstall followed by deleting every Suf and Wahoo file from the %appdata% directory, then a fresh install. Leftover files in %appdata% carried the broken state across an ordinary reinstall, so removing them by hand was the part that mattered.

Garmin Forerunner 970 recording three to four times too much elevation gain since firmware 17.33

Since firmware 17.33 the barometric altimeter on the Forerunner 970 drifts upward through an activity, so a run with about 147m of real climb records 400m or more, and even a downhill walk shows a gain. The drift correlates with the watch pausing or the pace dropping to zero, since every stop produces a sharp drop and a spike on resume, accumulating across the activity. Calibrating from a weather station before the run does not hold, as the altitude climbs again within minutes.

The most reliable correction sits in Garmin Connect on the web. Opening the activity and changing the elevation source to the Garmin DEM recalculates gain from the map surface and repairs the saved total, the VO2 max input, Grade Adjusted Pace, hill score, and the figures sent to Strava. It does nothing for the live field during the run. Setting the barometer to Altitude mode rather than Auto has not stopped the drift, which points at firmware rather than a blocked sensor port.

Garmin Edge 1050 ClimbPro starting late or ending before the summit without a route since firmware 31.30

Since firmware 31.30 the Edge 1050 triggers ClimbPro in the wrong place when it runs without a loaded route, starting a hundred metres early or partway up and announcing completion a few metres before the summit. Riders report the behaviour began two to three weeks ago and was absent on the 30.xx software. With a course loaded the feature behaves, and one rider found that fixing the GPS mode to a multi-band setting kept ClimbPro accurate whenever a route was on the device, leaving only the no-route Free Ride case broken.

Building the ride as a course, even a rough one, is the practical way to keep ClimbPro accurate until the firmware is corrected. The end-of-climb error has a separate cause, since the ClimbPro climb database does not always match the road, so the top can register early or late on routed climbs as well. Reinstalling the Europe map and a factory reset did not help the no-route case, which places the fault in how the current firmware builds climbs on the fly.

Garmin Forerunner 970 screen turning grayscale after restoring settings from Garmin Connect on firmware 17.33

On firmware 17.33, choosing Restore All Settings from the Garmin Connect backup leaves the entire Forerunner 970 interface in grayscale. The watch face, menus, glances, activity screens, and maps lose colour, while the startup logo still shows full colour, so the panel itself works. The fault reproduces every time the cloud backup is restored.

Turning Color Shift on and setting the mode to Blue Light Filter brings the colour back immediately, though the grayscale can return if the setting is switched off. A cleaner route is to skip the cloud restore during setup: Reset Default Settings returns the watch to full colour, and configuring by hand avoids pulling the corrupted display value back onto the device, at the cost of re-creating the activity profiles. The evidence points at a corrupted Color Shift value stored in the backup, since a local reset clears it and only the cloud restore reintroduces it.

Garmin Fenix 8 audio navigation calling the wrong turn after an off-course detour on software 22.35

On the Fenix 8 running software 22.35, the audio turn guidance repeats the planned instruction for a junction rather than checking the direction of approach. After a detour that rejoins a junction from a different direction, the watch still calls the original turn, which points back toward the blocked road. While off the line the watch stays silent, gives no spoken off-course warning, and alerts only with a beep and buzz after a set distance. One owner set this out as a reproducible defect with a 100 percent failure rate.

The instruction for each junction is tied to the planned approach vector, and the watch does not test the actual approach, so it replays the stored turn. Running the saved course with recalculation turned on lets the watch generate fresh instructions from the current position, which removes the stored wrong-turn call. Where recalculation does not suit the route, the on-screen map track stays correct even when the audio is wrong. A longstanding forum member argues this is old behaviour rather than a 22.35 regression, and Garmin has not confirmed a change.

Suunto Race 2 recording distance short compared to Race S and Vertical 2

On the 49mm Suunto Race 2, recorded distance comes in short against the Race S, Vertical, and Vertical 2 on the same activity, roughly 1 to 1.5 percent, in one case about 250m over a 20km run. The raw GNSS track is good, and the shortfall appears once the watch applies its speed and distance processing, most visibly during pace changes and turns. A Suunto forum moderator states the Race 2 has measured short by design in some cases and that the next firmware changes this.

The short figure is written into the total Suunto sends out, so the same number reaches the Suunto app, Strava, and TrainingPeaks. On Strava the web-only Correct distance option recalculates from the recorded GPS track and repairs the total, run per activity by hand. For runners training to pace, the short distance also reads through to live pace, and a Stryd or similar footpod feeds a calibrated pace and distance that bypasses the GNSS filter until the firmware arrives.

Garmin Forerunner 970 ending sleep tracking after a brief night wake

On the Forerunner 970, a short wake in the night, such as a bathroom break around 5am, ends the sleep session, and the watch does not reopen it when the wearer falls back asleep. The reported total then reads much shorter than the real figure, dragging down Body Battery, Training Readiness, and the recovery numbers. The behaviour is not universal, so the trigger appears to be how long and how fully the wearer wakes, and the same sleep algorithm runs on the Fenix 8 and Epix Pro.

Garmin Connect allows manual editing of the sleep window, and correcting the start and end times restores the recorded duration that feeds Body Battery and Training Readiness. The edit does not rebuild the missing sleep stages for the second block. No firmware fix is confirmed, and the request on the thread is for split-sleep detection to return, so the manual edit remains the only reliable correction.

Garmin Fenix 8 freezing and rebooting on activity save on software 22.38

On the Fenix 8 running stable software 22.38, the save screen spins after Save is pressed, then the watch freezes, reboots, and loses the activity. It appears on running, cycling, and pool swimming and was also present on 22.37 and 22.35. Short activities and long stationary sessions save cleanly, so the trigger is the content of a real, moving activity, which points at the end-of-activity summary pass where the watch processes recorded data before writing the file.

The error log shows the recording module asserting first, followed by a forced Bluetooth reset, placing the fault in the save finalize path rather than a dropped phone link. Turning Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off before saving stops the reboot but leaves the save screen hanging. A factory reset does not help, and a fresh replacement unit crashes the same way, indicating a firmware fault. The practical step is to send the error log and diagnostics through Garmin so the fault is on record.

Garmin Fenix 8 and Enduro 3 crashing after installing beta software 23.11

Garmin released beta software 23.11 for the Fenix 8 AMOLED and Solar, Fenix 8 Pro, Enduro 3, Fenix E, Tactix 8, and Quatix 8 on 1 July, and it carries a documented fault. Garmin states in the beta announcement that 23.11 introduces a crash when the watch records an Indoor Climb activity, with a later release to fix it, and some owners also report repeated restarts after the update installs.

The direct step is to avoid starting an Indoor Climb activity on 23.11, since that is the named trigger, and the rest of the beta records normally. If the watch drops into a restart loop, a master reset clears most boot loops: with the watch off, press power to start it, then hold START and BACK, releasing START after the first beep and BACK after the second. Garmin pushed beta 23.12 within two days to patch several restart causes and a treadmill calibration fault, so moving to 23.12 keeps the beta while clearing the worst instability. The beta also disables diving and ECG while installed.

Garmin Edge 850 Mark Location doing nothing on the elevation data screen on firmware 31.31

On the Edge 850 running firmware 31.31, opening the options menu from the elevation data screen and choosing Mark Location does nothing. The screen returns to the elevation view instead of the naming step, so no waypoint is saved. One owner logged it as a bug and a second rider reproduced it and filed a ticket.

Location marking still works from the Navigation menu on the home screen, which saves and names the waypoint as normal, so the fault is limited to the shortcut on the elevation data screen. Powering the Edge off and on does not restore the shortcut, which places the fault in firmware 31.31 rather than a one-time glitch.

Suunto Vertical and Suunto 9 Baro showing a black grid instead of the map during navigation

On the Suunto Vertical, Vertical 2, and Suunto 9 Baro, the offline map can render as a black grid or grey blank in place of the terrain during navigation, with the waypoint and point-of-interest icons still visible on top. It appears at many locations rather than one fixed spot, most often once the map is zoomed out to 500m and above, while the 200m view and closer still draws correctly.

Zooming in or out one step forces the tiles to redraw and clears the grid on the spot, and a soft reset, a hold of the middle button, clears it when a zoom change does not. The fault tracks with the map region, since Suunto asks affected owners to post the coordinates where the grid appears so the tiles can be rebuilt. Re-downloading the offline map for the region through the Suunto app removes the grid for good in that area, where a zoom change or soft reset only clears it for the session.

Garmin Forerunner 970 Back to Start returning no routable roads on software 16.37

On the Forerunner 970 running software 16.37, selecting Back to Start returns the message that no touring compatible roads were found, and the routing completes only about one time in ten. Reinstalling the watch does not help, the latest TopoActive map is present, and the watch keeps trying to reinstall a map on every boot without success.

Standing still while the route calculates is the workaround owners have found: stop for around twenty seconds, select Back to Start, and do not move until the calculation finishes, since movement during the calculation appears to cause the failure. Switching the routing mode to Use map draws a direct line back rather than searching for routable roads, at the cost of spoken turn guidance. Garmin listed a fix in the 17.25 beta that did not carry into the 17.33 stable release, so the failure can persist on current firmware.

Garmin Forerunner 970 selecting the wrong menu item when scrolling and swiping back

On the Forerunner 970, scrolling through a menu and tapping selects the wrong entry, usually the one above or below the finger, and swiping right to go back registers as an accidental tap that opens a menu item. It happens in about one interaction in ten and differs from the classic ghost touch where inputs register with no finger on the screen. Software recovery steps, including a reinstall, a full reset, and a beta update, do not change it.

A warranty exchange resolves it. The owner who raised the report swapped the unit and the replacement did not show the fault, and other owners report the same swipe registering as a tap on units bought around April and May 2026, which points at a touchscreen hardware defect on a batch. A fresh unit set up the same way behaves correctly, so a settings restore is not carrying the fault across.

Garmin Forerunner 970 screen dimming to black in sunlight

On the Forerunner 970, the screen auto-dims the moment bright sunlight hits it, dropping to an unreadable level or going blank, and holds in that state. Adjusting the brightness setting has no effect, and the watch can read as low brightness in Garmin Connect while showing high on the watch. The behaviour starts after a few weeks of otherwise normal use.

Reloading the last software update restores auto-brightness for some owners: on the About screen under System, press the light button eight times, then confirm the prompt to reinstall. The recovery is often temporary and returns after a reboot. For other owners the reload, a full reinstall, and a factory reset all failed. Garmin traced the fault to the ambient light sensor and is replacing affected units under warranty, and a replacement watch behaves correctly, which points at a sensor defect on a batch.

Garmin Edge 1050 not connecting to Fenix 8 for extended display during a triathlon

On the Edge 1050 paired with a Fenix 8, the extended display function fails to start, and the head unit searches for the watch continuously without connecting. It shows most in group settings and triathlons, and after a Fenix 8 software update some owners could not connect the two at all. The same failure is reported on the Edge 840.

A full reset of the Edge restores the connection for some owners. Disabling every other sensor gives the most reliable result: turn off, rather than delete, the heart rate monitor, power meter, lights, radar, e-bike, and electronic shifting, then start extended display, and it holds through repeated laps on the Edge 840 and the Fenix 8 Solar on current software. Disabling the phone-to-Edge connection also clears the fault, though turning off all the sensors is the safer step for a race.

Suunto app not loading saved routes on Android

In the Suunto app on Android, the saved routes list fails to open and shows only a loading spinner, leaving no way to send a route to the watch or delete routes already stored on it. It ran for about a month across stable app versions up to 6.10.7, with the spinner never resolving for most, while one beta user saw the list load after around twenty-five seconds.

Re-pairing the watch cleared the spinner for one owner and is worth trying first. Importing a GPX file and sending it straight to the watch is the reliable way to get a route across while the list is broken, though it does not restore access to routes already on the watch. Suunto app version 6.11.8 fixed the routes tap, and owners confirmed the list loads normally after updating.

Suunto 9 Baro uploading only partial routes after app 6.10.7

Since Suunto app version 6.10.7, routes sent to the Suunto 9 and Suunto 9 Baro arrive on the watch truncated, with only part of the planned track transferring, so navigation stops partway even though the route looks complete in the app. The same happens whether the route was built in the Suunto app, Strava, or Komoot. The affected 9 Baro units are on watch firmware 2.26.8, unchanged for around two years, so the fault sits in the app.

Clearing the app cache and data, restarting the watch, and a full firmware reinstall all leave the problem in place. Rolling the app back to version 6.8.13, sourced as an older APK, restores the full upload straight away. The later Suunto app release fixed the upload, confirmed by an owner who synced a previously failed route and saw the full track in the preview, so updating the app removes the fault.

Garmin Venu 4 crashing when opening the morning report on firmware 17.33

On firmware 17.33, the Venu 4 crashes while reading the morning report. Swiping through the report is fine, but tapping to select a component drops the watch out of the report, after which it powers off and restarts, and the report cannot be opened again that day. The frequency has climbed for several owners from about once a week to daily, with no music or background activity running.

The same crash appeared on firmware 15.16, was fixed, and returned on 17.33, which points to a reintroduced regression. The practical workaround is to swipe through the morning report without tapping into any component. The 18.12 beta lists fixes for issues that reset the device, so beta users may see relief, though ECG is unavailable in the beta.

Garmin Edge 1040 ClimbPro screen not popping up automatically after firmware 31.31

After firmware 31.31, the Edge 1040 shows the Climb Ahead banner when a climb approaches, but the ClimbPro screen no longer switches in automatically, leaving the rider swiping through data pages to find it while already climbing. The cause is the update turning off the Pop-up on Climb Approach setting, leaving the ClimbPro data screen in place but clearing the toggle that brings it forward.

Re-enabling the setting restores the behaviour, through Menu, Activity Profiles, the profile name, Data Screens, ClimbPro, then Pop-up on Climb Approach set to On, confirmed working on the next ride. Some riders also report gradient reading problems on the Edge 540, 840, and 1040 after 31.31 that 31.33 does not resolve, which is a separate fault the pop-up setting does not address.

Garmin Edge 540, 840 and 1040 gradient readings jumping after firmware 31.31 and 31.33

On the Edge 540, 840, and 1040, the gradient field throws spikes of around plus and minus 8 percent across flat and rolling ground after firmware 31.31, and 31.33 has not settled it. Riders describe the reading lagging the real slope by three to five seconds, showing a different value on every lap of the same hill, and giving opposite figures on the climb and descent of one ascent. Reports come from several countries on all three models, which points to a software fault in the gradient calculation.

A third-party Connect IQ gradient field, with XOSS and the advanced grade apps named most often, improves the display when the calculation distance is lengthened to smooth the output. The Connect IQ field can only work with the barometric altitude the firmware feeds it, so an unstable altitude limits the gain. Garmin support points owners to the altimeter and calibration, but owners had already cleaned the sensor and calibrated before posting and the fault stayed, and a warranty hardware swap does not address a software regression.

Garmin Edge 1050 giving no left or right turn after firmware 31.33 and TopoActive 2026.11

On a new Edge 1050 running firmware 31.33 with the Europe map updated to TopoActive 2026.11, turn-by-turn navigation announces Continue on the street and never states left or right. The voice and banner count down the distance into the turn, then drop it and hold on Continue on the street after the junction has passed. The same result occurs with a route built in Garmin Connect and a destination calculated on the device, so the route source is not the cause.

The fault sits in the map update. Moving from the Garmin Cycle Map EU 2024.10 layers that ship on a new Edge 1050 to TopoActive 2026.11 leaves the old 2024.10 cycle maps installed and active alongside TopoActive, and the routing engine loses turn guidance while both sets are enabled. A clean map reinstall fixes it: delete every map except the Worldwide DEM Basemap, then reinstall TopoActive from scratch, a download of around 17 GB for a full continent. Deactivating the 2024.10 cycle layers in the map manager is a faster first test.

Garmin Forerunner 970 showing No Data in Training Readiness and a frozen HRV status widget after firmware 17.33

After firmware 17.33, the Forerunner 970 shows No Data in Training Readiness and leaves the HRV Status widget frozen, with the 7-day average and baseline gone and the watch reporting determining baseline despite constant wear. The nightly HRV is still measured, since the baseline graph keeps drawing the overnight trace, and only the 7-day average and readiness figure sit blank. Garmin Connect often still shows a correct HRV status while the watch glance stays empty, so the underlying data is usually intact.

A factory reset is the step to avoid, since it clears the accumulated HRV history and restarts the multi-week baseline from zero, lengthening the gap before the on-watch status returns. In the reported cases the watch rebuilt the on-device status on its own once enough qualifying nights of unbroken wear accumulated on 17.33. Some owners also describe the VO2 max graph dropping out of the glances after the update, which returns as the metrics repopulate.

Garmin Forerunner 970 metronome beeping off beat while running after firmware 18.12

On the Forerunner 970 running firmware 18.12, the metronome keeps an accurate average rate but places individual beats unevenly once running is underway, so the spacing drifts while the count per minute stays correct. Standing still the beats are even, and the fault appears with movement, which points to the step and cadence detection running during the activity conflicting with the metronome timing.

Garmin engaged on the report and said its team tested the latest public beta and found it corrected the off-beat metronome, so enrolling in the beta is the current route to the fix. One runner installed the 18.12 beta and still heard the problem, more frequently in his case, so the beta has not resolved it for everyone. The Preview under Run Settings usually sounds correct because the issue mainly appears once the run is underway.

Suunto Vertical 2 and Race 2 incline target missing from custom sport modes after software 2.56.18

After installing software 2.56.18 on the Vertical 2 and Race 2, the incline target does not appear in the exercise options when starting from a custom sport mode. The target section lists target, duration, and distance, and the gradient or incline target is absent, while the rest of the target options load normally. A moderator confirmed the option is present in the default sport modes and that the fault is specific to custom modes on this software.

The data for the feature is already on the watch, so the limit is in how custom modes expose the setting. Starting the activity from a default sport mode such as default running or trail running restores the incline target, and rebuilding a profile from a current default template rather than an older custom mode carried over from previous software restores access. Open water swimming does not offer the incline target, and that is expected.

COROS Pace 3 dial not scrolling and buttons unresponsive after the 2026 firmware update

Following the 2026 firmware wave, some COROS Pace 3 units show the dial not scrolling and the buttons not registering a press, and in some cases the dial stops responding shortly before a watch that will not start at all. COROS attributes most dial and button faults to debris trapped around the housing rather than the firmware, and the failures concentrated on units two to four years old, so a mechanical cause responds to cleaning where a software fault would not.

The documented step is to rinse the watch under warm running water for 30 to 60 seconds while gently rotating the dial and pressing the buttons to work the debris loose, then dry it and test again. If cleaning does not restore movement, hold the power button for about 15 seconds until the COROS logo appears to force a restart. COROS has said it will replace units that fail to start after a recent firmware update, so a Pace 3 that stays dead qualifies for a warranty claim.

Garmin Edge 850 Bluetooth heart rate and Magene speed sensor broken after firmware 31.33

After updating the Edge 850 to firmware 31.33, two sensor connections that worked on 31.30 and 31.29 stop behaving. A phone or watch broadcasting heart rate over Bluetooth pairs and shows connected, but the heart rate field keeps flashing and reads searching, so no heart rate reaches the unit. Separately, a Magene speed sensor over Bluetooth ignores changes to the wheel size setting, so the displayed speed stays fixed and distance and speed run wrong for the ride. Garmin shipped 31.33 to correct sudden GPS signal drops, and the change appears to have altered how the Edge negotiates Bluetooth sensor sessions.

The reliable interim fix is to connect the affected sensors over ANT+ where they support both, since the speed sensor applies the wheel size correctly over ANT+ and an ANT+ heart rate source avoids the broadcast pairing fault. Where a sensor is Bluetooth only, remove it from the sensor list, restart the Edge, and pair it again before the ride. If ANT+ is not an option, rolling back to 31.30 by placing the GUPDATE.GCD file in the Garmin folder over USB restores the last release before these issues.

Garmin Forerunner 970 adding an artificial distance jump when Track Detection is turned off mid run

On the Forerunner 970, toggling Track Detection off partway through a Run activity injects a large false distance into the recording. In the reported case the activity gains roughly 3.9 km in about one second the moment the feature is switched off, so a run that should read close to 10.6 km saves as around 14.5 km. In the FIT file the accumulated distance jumps by roughly 3925 m, which matches the distance covered before Track Detection engaged earlier in the run, so disabling the feature reapplies that earlier offset a second time.

The practical avoidance is to stop toggling Track Detection during the run, leaving it on for the whole activity, or to start in the dedicated Track Run profile with the lane set and keep that profile through warm up, intervals, and cooldown. For a file already affected, the duplicated distance can be edited out of the FIT file and the activity re-uploaded, which recovers the correct total.

Garmin Edge 1050 going black and rebooting when it re-routes off course

With course navigation active on the Edge 1050, riding off the loaded course and letting the unit recalculate makes the screen go black and the device reboot, whether navigation is paused or a re-route is chosen, with a Saving diagnostics message on restart. The activity is not lost and continues in the background, but navigation breaks at the point it is needed. The fault was reported on public firmware, on 30.18, and on the 31.20 beta, so a routine update has not resolved it.

The reboot writes a RAM dump, which Garmin staff asked affected riders to upload through Menu, System, Diagnostics, Upload RAM Dump. The workaround is to avoid an automatic recalculation while riding, by stopping navigation before deviating or planning to rejoin the original course. Because the activity survives the reboot, resuming it as soon as the Edge restarts keeps the ride in one file.

More from last week’s Fix Files roundup.

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

Last Updated on 17 July 2026 by the5krunner