#9 The Deep Dive Fix Files: Week Ending 31 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 Edge 1050 not showing distance to the next turn after TopoActive 2026.11

On the Garmin Edge 1050 the map banner at the top of the navigation page shows only Go to and the street name, and the countdown distance to the next turn has gone. Turn Guidance is enabled and the turn list still shows every street and distance, and the same GPX file behaved correctly on an Edge 530. A factory reset, a new activity profile, and setting Navigation Prompts to Map did not bring the distance back.

The fault appears after the map set updates to TopoActive 2026.11. The update leaves the older Garmin Cycle Map 2024.10 installed and active alongside the new maps, and the routing engine drops the distance readout, and for some riders the left and right turn instructions, while both map sets remain enabled.

Removing the old maps rather than leaving them switched off is the step that holds. One rider deleted every map except the Worldwide Basemap, powered the Edge off, then reinstalled the region map from scratch, and the countdown distance and the turn directions returned. Disabling the Garmin Cycle Map 2024.10 in Map Manager without deleting it restored the countdown for at least one rider, so a quick test is to disable the old map first and ride a short section. Reinstalling over Garmin Express and USB is far faster than Wi-Fi, and a full power off after deleting and again after reinstalling is part of the sequence that works.

Wahoo ELEMNT Bolt V3 ride not syncing to the app or Strava

On the Wahoo ELEMNT Bolt V3 the ride summary sits in History on the head unit, yet no route or map appears in the Wahoo app, and the FIT file is not visible when the Bolt is connected over USB. The ride never reaches the Wahoo cloud, so it never passes on to Strava or Komoot.

The failure follows dual recording. The Bolt records the ride while the Wahoo app on the phone records the same ride in the background. When the phone battery runs down near the end of the ride, two uploads start and both stall, and the app can no longer pull the completed ride from the Bolt. One rider traced the problem to the phone powering off mid upload while a second recording was still running.

The recovery that worked is to recreate the ride by hand. Open the Wahoo app, manually create and enter a ride, and type the figures exactly as the Bolt History summary shows them. The app then finds the route that was ridden and offers two data sources under the three dot menu, the Bolt data and the app data. Selecting the Bolt data restored the exact stats and the route, and the ride synced to Strava, where the app data was corrupt and did not work. Stopping the app recording the same ride as the head unit avoids the tangle.

Garmin Edge 1050 Varia RTL515 connected but giving no radar alerts after the latest update

On the Garmin Edge 1050 the sensor list shows the Varia RTL515 as connected and the head unit can still control the light, but the radar symbol in the top corner flashes and no vehicle alerts or overlay appear. Cars pass with no warning, and the failure carries a real safety risk. The same setup worked before the last one or two firmware updates, and riders report it with a Wahoo radar and on an Edge 530, while a Fenix 7 or a phone connects to the same radar without trouble.

One rider narrowed the trigger to the Edge waking from sleep rather than a full power off. After the update, waking the unit leaves the radar half connected, so the Edge lists it as paired yet never receives the alert stream, and deleting and re-adding the radar in that state does nothing.

Powering the Edge off completely rather than letting it sleep keeps the radar connecting properly on the next start. When the connection has already failed, the sequence that clears it is a hard reset of the Varia together with a power cycle of the Edge, then re-adding the radar. A partial reset does not hold, and the fault can return within a day. Garmin has not shipped a firmware fix at the time of writing, so the full power off is the reliable interim step.

Garmin Fenix 8 treadmill pace and distance wildly off after software 22.35

After the 22.35 software update the Fenix 8 records treadmill pace and distance that is badly wrong, and calibrating after each run makes it worse rather than better. Owners who were within 5 to 10 percent before the update are now out by 70 to 80 percent, with a 5 km run saved as 5 miles or more and pace shown at around 3 minutes per kilometre when the real effort was over 5 minutes. One rider traced the cause to stride length jumping from about 0.88 m to about 1.32 m while cadence stayed the same, which points to a firmware fault in the treadmill distance calculation. The same fault appeared on the Vivoactive 6 after software 17.33.

Garmin released a public hotfix on 22.41 on 23 July 2026. On the watch, hold Up to open the main menu, then Watch Settings, then Software Updates, then Check for Updates. The rollout is staged, so if no update appears, try again the next day. Some units land on 22.38 first and still show incorrect pace, so keep checking until 22.41 or later installs.

Installing the update alone does not fix the reading. The next treadmill run will still be very wrong until you recalibrate once. Run on the treadmill until the watch registers 2 miles at a steady pace, stop and save the activity, then enter the treadmill distance when the calibration prompt appears. The fix reached the Public Beta first on version 23.12, so enrolling in the Public Beta program is the faster route if the public hotfix has not appeared.

Garmin Edge 840 and 1040 not installing the 2026.11 maps in Garmin Express

Garmin Express v7.29.0 does not reliably recognise that the 2026.11 map has been released for the Edge 840 and 1040, so it only offers to reinstall the 2025.10 map. Other riders see the map appear to install but then get a message that an update is available which cannot be applied for lack of space, even with 2026.10 already on the device. The internal Map Manager over Wi-Fi is also very slow for the multi gigabyte regional maps.

Update the Edge to the latest software before touching the maps. As of early July 2026 that is 31.31, and it carries map related fixes that matter here. For several riders the 2026.11 maps unlocked in Garmin Express once the device was on 31.31, with no further steps.

The step that reliably works is to remove the old cycling map from the device first. On the Edge, go to System, then Map Manager, then Cycling Maps, select the installed map, open the top right menu and choose Remove. Clearing the old map frees the storage and makes Garmin Express see a device with no map, so it offers 2026.11 as the default install. Install over USB rather than Wi-Fi, since Central Europe alone is about 6.3 GB and downloads in around 17 minutes over a cable against several hours over Wi-Fi. After the install, do a full power down and leave the Edge on external power for an hour or two so it can reindex.

Garmin Edge 1050 radar disconnect popup staying on screen after the radar reconnects on firmware 31.33

On firmware 31.33 the Edge 1050 drops and then restores the radar connection at least once on most rides, and you can tell the radar has reconnected because the approach beeps return and the vehicle dots march up the side of the screen again. The problem is that the sensor disconnected popup at the bottom of the screen does not clear itself once the radar is back, so it sits there covering the lower data fields until you deal with it. Riders report it with a Varia and with third party units such as the Coospo TR70 over ANT+.

The immediate way to clear it is to tap the popup to dismiss it. If you ride with the screen locked to avoid changing data fields by accident while swiping, you have to press the power button to unlock the screen first, then tap the popup, which is why some riders end up stopping to do it.

Garmin’s suggested steps are to confirm the Edge and the radar are both on the latest software, remove and re-add the sensor, and perform a soft reset on both the Edge and the radar. At least one rider on 31.33 carried out all of these and the popup still stuck, and Garmin is now collecting unit IDs, sensor details and video to investigate, so this looks like an open firmware fault rather than a pairing problem. Garmin also asked whether any other sensor is connected when it happens, since the affected rider had SRAM Red eTap gearing paired alongside the radar.

Garmin Forerunner 265 training status reset to Detraining after a GPS time zone glitch

On the Forerunner 265 and 265S, a GPS glitch during an outdoor activity can push the watch clock into the wrong time zone at the moment the activity saves. Owners describe finishing an evening run and seeing the time jump forward by several hours, in one case by 13 hours. When Garmin Connect processes that activity, it reads the time shift as a long break in training and rewrites the load figures. Acute load has dropped from over 800 to single digits, chronic load from 1.5 to 0.0, and training status from Productive to Detraining, all from one corrupted timestamp rather than any change in training.

A restart of the watch clears the wrong time, after which the clock corrects itself. This fixes the display but does not bring the load values back, since Connect has already recalculated them and gives no manual option to rebuild acute or chronic load from the activities that are still in your history. Recording a normal training week rebuilds the numbers slowly, but the immediate reset stands.

The failure follows a GPS positioning error, so anything that gives the watch a cleaner fix lowers the risk. Updating to the current software, letting the watch acquire satellites in the open before you start, and keeping your phone nearby so the correct time can resync over Bluetooth all reduce the chance of a corrupted timestamp. Garmin has not published a fix, so filing the affected dates and your unit ID in the forum thread keeps the pattern on record.

Garmin Fenix 8 Sleep Alignment data missing and reset after software 22.41

After installing software 22.41 on the Fenix 8, some owners find that Sleep Alignment has lost its history and now reads Use for 3 weeks, even though the data was present the day before the update. The gap shows on the watch and in Garmin Connect on both web and iOS. In at least one case the Morning Report also failed to appear the first morning after the update. The activities and the raw sleep records are still there, so only the Sleep Alignment feature behaves as if it has just been switched on.

The first thing to confirm is that the reports are still enabled, since an update can flip a toggle. Hold Menu, then Watch Settings, then Notifications and Alerts, then Report Settings, and check that Morning Report shows Report On. A power cycle followed by a fresh sync clears some post-update glitches. One owner ran the power cycle several times with no change, which suggests the reset sits server side rather than as a stuck sync on the watch.

Garmin staff have asked affected users to send screenshots through the support form and are gathering reports, so this reads as an open issue on 22.41. A factory reset will not bring back the lost baseline and will cost you the rest of your history, so it is worth holding off.

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

Garmin Forerunner 970 activity not appearing in Garmin Connect or Strava

A single recorded activity can stay stuck on the Forerunner 970 while everything else syncs normally. Owners report that steps, sleep and other activities reach Garmin Connect, but one run or hike sits on the watch and never appears online or on Strava. Repeated syncs do not move it, and recording a fresh activity to force a sync pushes the new file through while the stuck one stays behind, which points to a problem with that one activity file rather than the sync connection.

The basic steps come first. Syncing again from the Connect app, confirming the app is on the current version, and, if you can reach a computer, running a sync through Garmin Express sometimes clears a file that the phone sync skips.

When one activity refuses to sync, a manual upload of the FIT file usually works. The file sits on the watch under the Activity folder when you connect it to a computer by cable, and you can upload it to Garmin Connect through the import option on the web site. If the manual upload returns an error, the file itself is likely damaged, which is a separate problem and explains why no amount of syncing moves it. If you are away from a computer, the file stays in history and uploads later, so keeping the activity on the watch until you can reach one is the practical option.

Garmin Edge 1040 showing Invalid course after importing a FIT course from Garmin Connect

Importing a course FIT file into Garmin Connect, on the web or in the iOS app, can produce a course that syncs to the Edge 1040 but then refuses to open, showing Invalid course, Delete. The course looks normal in the Connect phone app, with the map and course points all visible, and only the device rejects it. The same import path worked in late May 2026, so this is a recent regression rather than a problem with your file.

The fault sits in the import pipeline. Garmin Connect cannot even re-import a course FIT that Connect exported, and third party course files that pass a clean integrity check fail in the same way. Courses that were already on the device before the regression still open, which rules out the watch and the sync transport.

Two workarounds keep you riding. A course created before the regression still delivers and opens, so an existing course object sent to the device is fine. For a new route, importing it as a TCX rather than a FIT loads on the device, although the TCX path strips the course points, so you lose the nutrition and pacing prompts that come with them. Garmin staff have asked affected riders for sample files and are looking into it, so this reads as an open issue on the Connect side.

Garmin Edge 1040 crashing and saving diagnostics mid-ride after firmware 31.33 and 2026 maps

On firmware 31.33 with the 2026 maps installed, some Edge 1040 units crash mid-ride, show saving diagnostics, and run a recovery routine that forces a stop of a minute or two before the ride resumes. Others crash every few minutes while changing settings in the menu. The crash log points to a memory fault in the device software rather than anything in your ride data or GPS signal.

The most useful lead traces the crashes to the map data. Installing 31.33 together with the 2026 maps appears to leave old map files in place instead of overwriting them, and the mix of old and new map data corrupts the files the device reads during navigation.

The fix that has worked for riders is to rebuild the maps. Connect the 1040 to a computer, open the Garmin drive, and move the large .img map files, each of which runs to gigabytes, off the device into a folder on the computer. Disconnect and restart the 1040, plug it back in, open Garmin Express, and reinstall your chosen maps. After that clean reinstall the crashing stopped for the riders who tried it. Garmin has not shipped a newer x40 firmware that addresses this, so the map reinstall is the practical option, and it is worth doing before a long ride.

Suunto Vertical 2 freezing when enabling and disabling a SuuntoPlus app during an activity

On the Suunto Vertical 2, turning a single SuuntoPlus app off and back on from the in-exercise menu can lock the watch. If you disable and re-enable one app repeatedly without leaving the menu, roughly once a second, the interface freezes after about ten toggles and does not recover on its own. The activity keeps recording underneath, but the screen and buttons stop responding.

The cause traced in the report is a memory leak in how the watch handles the apps. Disabling one app inside the menu never runs the cleanup step that frees its script, so each re-enable leaves another copy of the app in the shared memory the apps run in. Once that memory fills, the watch wedges, and larger apps fail sooner because they cannot fit in the fragmented memory that is left.

There are two practical workarounds. Leaving the SuuntoPlus menu between changes runs the cleanup that the single-app path skips, so toggling apps that way avoids the freeze. If the watch has already locked, a short pulse on the charger cable un-wedges it without a full reboot, and a reboot clears it as well. The behaviour reproduces with Suunto’s own stock apps, not only third party code, so it reads as a firmware fault rather than a bad app on your watch.

Garmin Fenix 8 AMOLED sluggish and freezing mid-activity after software 22.41

On the Fenix 8 AMOLED, software 22.41 has left some units sluggish across the interface and prone to freezing during an activity. The freeze forces a hard reboot, and once the watch restarts the activity resumes from the point where it stopped, so the recording survives. A green message reading sleep focus settings updated appears after each reboot, which points at the sleep focus feature rather than the activity itself. The watches that show this were solid on the previous version and are not running custom apps or watch faces.

The workaround that has held for affected owners is to toggle sleep focus mode off and on once from the watch. A single on and off cycle returned the watch to its pre-update behaviour, and the green popup about sleep focus after each reboot is the clue that the setting is in an inconsistent state that the toggle clears.

If the toggle does not hold, Garmin support suggests resetting the affected activity through its activity settings and selecting Restore Defaults, then reinstalling the software from Watch Settings, System, About, pressing the Light button roughly eight times and selecting Reinstall software. A clean reinstall of 22.41 addresses cases where a single setting did not survive the update.

Garmin Edge 1050 ClimbPro rider position wrong on long climbs

On the Edge 1050, the ClimbPro rider position sits in the wrong place on the elevation profile for long climbs and segments. Where the whole profile fits on the screen the marker is correct, so the error only shows on climbs or segments long enough that the profile is scaled down. The same offset affects the ClimbPro list marker, the marker in the zoomed profile view, and the rider and Virtual Partner markers on the segment page elevation profile.

Garmin corrected this in the 32.10 beta. The change log for that build lists the ClimbPro list marker offset, the marker position in zoom view, and the rider and Virtual Partner positioning on the segment page, alongside a fix for incorrect grade in the post ride climb analysis and reversed compass east and west readings. The current stable release, 31.33, does not carry these fixes.

The beta is available to registered units only and is requested from the device. With the Edge on Wi-Fi, open the Main Menu, select System, select About, then Check For Updates, and install the latest build, which is 32.14 at the time of writing. One owner reported that Garmin Express stopped recognising the Edge after moving to the 32.10 build, so it is worth keeping a note of your current version before you opt in.

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More from last week’s Fix Files roundup.

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

Last Updated on 31 July 2026 by the5krunner