#11 The Deep Dive Fix Files: Week Ending 14 August 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.

Suunto Vertical 2 and Race 2 power meter not reconnecting after a stop

On the Suunto Vertical 2 and Race 2, a paired Bluetooth power meter that loses connection during a ride does not reconnect on its own. The drop happens during a pause where the watch goes out of range for a few minutes, for example a resupply stop at a shop or a wait for a ferry. Once the link is gone, power records as zero for the rest of the activity, which pulls down average power, normalised power and TSS, and corrupts every metric derived from them.

The fault sits in the reconnection logic rather than in any one sensor. Riders reproduce it across a 4iiii Precision 3, Favero Assioma Duo and Assioma Pro pedals, and Magene and Rotor units, so the brand does not matter. A stop of around five minutes, or any spell outside Bluetooth range, is enough to break the connection, and the watch then treats the sensor as absent for the remainder of the recording.

There is no menu option to re-pair a sensor without ending the activity. The only reliable recovery is to stop the recording and start a new activity, which forces a fresh connection but splits the ride into two files. Keeping the watch physically close to the power meter during any stop reduces the chance of the drop, since the failure follows loss of range rather than a fixed timer.

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

Suunto Vertical 2 and Race 2 heart rate broadcast not reaching Wahoo head units

The Suunto Vertical 2 and Race 2 broadcast heart rate, and a Wahoo ELEMNT Bolt V2 or Roam 2 pairs with the watch and lists it as a heart rate sensor, but no heart rate value ever appears on the head unit. Software 2.56.18 did not change this, and owners who reported it against earlier firmware confirm the broadcast still fails.

When the watch broadcasts, the Wahoo identifies it as an ANT+ device and does not read the Bluetooth heart rate service, and the Wahoo gives no way to choose which stream to use. On a Hammerhead Karoo 3, where the rider can select between ANT+ and Bluetooth for the same sensor, the broadcast is received and works normally. That difference points to the head unit’s stream selection rather than the watch.

A Suunto moderator has confirmed the issue is under investigation and expects a fix in a future release. The release cycle runs at roughly quarterly intervals with no mechanism for hot fixes. Until a correction arrives, the dependable path for a Wahoo head unit is to pair a chest strap or armband straight to the Wahoo and leave the watch out of the heart rate chain.

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

Suunto Vertical 2 heart rate dropping to zero with a Coros armband and Stages power meter paired

On the Suunto Vertical 2 in cycling mode, pairing a Coros heart rate armband and a Stages power meter at the same time leaves heart rate reading zero while power records correctly. The watch also reports the armband at 0 percent battery when it is fully charged. The same two sensors worked together on the older Suunto 9 Baro, so the problem arrived with the Vertical 2 firmware rather than the hardware.

The likely cause is that the Stages power meter advertises a heart rate service alongside power, and the watch locks onto that empty stream instead of the armband. That explains why the armband appears connected yet delivers no data.

The direct workaround is to remove the power meter and confirm heart rate returns, which isolates the conflict, then pair the heart rate sensor over ANT+ where the device supports it so it does not collide with the power meter’s Bluetooth advertisement. Selecting the armband explicitly before the ride does not override the wrong stream once the power meter is present, so the collision has to be broken at the connection level.

Garmin Edge 840 Connect IQ data fields showing only the Connect IQ logo after firmware 31.30

On the Garmin Edge 840, firmware 31.30 causes Connect IQ data fields to display only the Connect IQ logo instead of the metric they should show. The fault hits every custom data field a rider has installed, and it appears most often on a normal free ride rather than when following a saved course. Several riders report the fields working for a few minutes at the start, then the logo returns and stays for the rest of the activity.

The most common recovery is to uninstall each Connect IQ data field and reinstall it from the Connect IQ store. This restores the fields for some riders, though often only on the second ride after the reinstall, and for others the logo comes back within a single session. Resetting the device and reinstalling the fields together has not produced a durable fix.

A more targeted approach is to load the Connect IQ fields one at a time until the problem reappears, which isolates the field that triggers it. One theory raised in the discussion is that the fault sits with background web requests, for example weather fields pulling data, a behaviour that arrived with the 31.x series. Some riders also saw their Varia radar drop its connection during the same rides.

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

Garmin Edge 840 elevation profile going blank after a route recalculation

On the Garmin Edge 840 running firmware 31.33, the elevation profile screen goes blank during navigation the moment the device recalculates a route. The trigger is a missed turn: the unit reroutes, the map redraws, and the elevation graph for the new route shows as an empty panel with no profile at all.

The likely cause is that the screen does not recalculate its scaling and offset when the route changes. A recalculation that shortens or reshapes the route still tries to fit the graph to the original climbs, so the panel renders empty rather than redrawing to the new elevation data.

The reliable workaround is to swipe away to a different data screen and swipe back. That forces the elevation page to redraw and the profile reappears correctly scaled to the current route. The recovery takes a second and does not require the ride to be stopped. There is a separate limitation to understand alongside this: the Edge 840 only draws an elevation profile when a route is loaded, so there is no rolling look-ahead profile during a free ride.

Garmin Forerunner 570 menu stutter and unresponsive touchscreen after software 17.33

On the Garmin Forerunner 570, software 17.33 leaves the main menus stuttering and slow to respond. Owners describe short freezes when dragging up from the watch face, opening the last seven days of history, loading recent activities and using the sport selection button. The touchscreen frequently ignores the first tap and only responds on the second or third.

A plain restart cleared the problem for at least one owner, who reported the menus running normally again afterwards. That path is the one to try first because it costs nothing. Heavier steps have been less consistent: other owners ran a full factory reset, reinstalled the software from the About screen by pressing the Light button eight times, and removed the Notification Glance, and still saw the stutter return.

The dependable fallback while the lag persists is to drive the watch with the physical buttons rather than the touchscreen. Every menu on the Forerunner 570 is reachable through the buttons, so a slow or unresponsive screen does not stop you starting or controlling an activity. The pattern points to software rather than hardware, since some screens respond perfectly while others on the same watch lag.

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

Garmin Instinct 3 Solar buttons freezing after saving an activity on software 14.17

On the Garmin Instinct 3 Solar 50mm, software 14.17 leaves the buttons unresponsive after you finish and save an activity. The watch looks frozen and none of the buttons react. This has happened across consecutive activities even though each activity saved correctly and synced to Strava. The key lock is set to off, and pressing the buttons to unlock does nothing because the buttons themselves are dead.

The reliable recovery is a soft reset. Press and hold the light button for about 10 to 15 seconds until the watch restarts. That clears the freeze and the buttons respond again. It does not affect the saved activity, which is written and synced before the freeze appears.

The freeze may come from a bad update install rather than the software itself. One owner reinstalled 14.17 and the freeze did not return on the next save. Reinstalling the same version, either from Garmin Express or by pushing it again over the air, is the step to try before anything more drastic.

Wahoo ELEMNT Roam 3 Strava Live Segments showing wrong ahead and behind times on long segments

On the Wahoo ELEMNT Roam 3, Strava Live Segments report an ahead or behind figure that does not match the real gap to your personal best. The error is largest on longer segments and on segments where gradient and speed change sharply. One rider recorded a 5.2 km segment where the unit showed more than 22 minutes behind against a personal best of about 17 minutes, with an estimated finish time that was clearly impossible.

The behaviour points to the unit estimating your result by extrapolating from average speed rather than comparing elapsed time at each point on the segment. On a segment that starts fast and flat then turns steep, the extrapolation overshoots and the ahead or behind number becomes meaningless. Short, steady segments generally read correctly, which is consistent with an extrapolation error rather than a mapping fault.

Wahoo support has confirmed this as a known issue with an internal ticket open, and riders report it unresolved across several months. The workable approach until a fix ships is to treat the ahead or behind field as unreliable on long or variable segments and to judge your effort on elapsed time.

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

Garmin Instinct 3 intensity minutes undercounting outside recorded activities

On the Garmin Instinct 3, a recent software update changed how intensity minutes accumulate when you are not recording an activity. On 14.14 a brisk walk in the correct heart rate zone added minutes steadily after the first few minutes. After the update, a 30 minute walk that stayed in zone 2 logged only 14 minutes, and the count jumps in odd increments that do not track the effort.

The first thing to rule out is the intensity minutes method. The watch offers a resting heart rate based option and a heart rate zone based option, and the two count very differently. Owners confirmed the fault while correctly set to heart rate zones, so if you are on the resting heart rate option a low count may be expected rather than a bug.

One owner restored correct counting by switching the intensity minutes method to auto, syncing, then switching back to heart rate zones and syncing again. That toggle appears to reset the calculation, and the next walk counted normally. A second owner reproduced the undercount on beta 15.14, so the fault is not limited to a single release.

Garmin Edge 1050 and 840 compass showing east and west reversed on firmware 31.33

On the Edge 1050, 840 and the wider 540, 550, 850 and 1040 range, the electronic compass reads east and west the wrong way round on firmware 31.33. The heading arrow and the compass data field point the reversed direction. This matters most when the map is set to orient by heading rather than by track, because the map then rotates to the wrong side whenever you slow down or stop and the unit falls back to the magnetometer.

The fault is in the firmware and not the sensor, so a hardware swap is not the answer. Garmin listed a fix for the reversed compass readings in the changelog for beta 32.10, alongside ClimbPro and grade corrections. Garmin released 32.10 to registered units and then pulled it within a short window, so the corrected build is not available to most riders at the moment.

While you wait for the re-release, set the map orientation to Track Up so the display follows your GPS course instead of the compass heading. In that mode the reversed magnetometer reading no longer rotates the map, and turn-by-turn navigation is unaffected because routing uses GPS position rather than the compass. Recalibrating the compass outdoors, away from metal and magnets, is worth doing because a poor calibration can compound the problem, but on 31.33 calibration on its own does not correct the swap.

Wahoo Kickr and Kickr Core wrong resistance and spin outs in Zwift with virtual shifting

On the Kickr and Kickr Core paired to Zwift with virtual shifting through Click, Play or Ride, the resistance no longer matches the gear or the gradient. Riders report needing two or three gears higher than before for the same power, resistance that drops away on a climb instead of rising, and spin outs where the flywheel goes light and cadence runs away for several seconds before the trainer catches up. The change traces back to a Zwift game update rather than trainer firmware, and it reaches the Kickr, Kickr Core and Kickr Move.

Zwift has logged this as a known issue and split it out by manufacturer for investigation. The most consistent workaround is to turn virtual shifting off and shift with the bike’s own gears, which restores normal resistance for riders who had lost it. ERG based workouts also behave, so the fault sits with the simulation and virtual gearing rather than power control in general.

A manual spindown calibration through the Wahoo app helps for a single ride and then fades, so it is worth doing before a session but it is not a lasting fix. Raising the in-game Trainer Difficulty to maximum does not resolve the spin outs, and in some cases it makes the resistance swings more obvious. Until Zwift ships a corrected build, the practical setup is physical gears with virtual shifting disabled for free rides, and ERG mode for structured workouts.

Garmin Edge not recognised by Garmin Express after installing beta 32.10

After installing public beta 32.10 on an Edge, some units stop being recognised by Garmin Express on the computer. The Edge charges and boots normally, but Express does not detect it over USB, which blocks map installs, backups and a manual roll back to stable firmware. Garmin released 32.10 to registered beta units and then withdrew it, and the pulled build is tied to the recognition problem.

The first checks are the ordinary connection ones because they clear most cases. Use a data-capable USB cable rather than a charge-only one, try a port directly on the computer instead of a hub, and restart both the Edge and Garmin Express. On the Edge, confirm the USB mode allows file transfer rather than charge only.

If Express still does not see the unit, reboot the Edge by holding the power button until it restarts, then reconnect it before opening Express so the computer enumerates the device first. Because Garmin pulled 32.10, the corrected build is not being offered over the air at the moment, so riders who need stable firmware should hold until the re-release rather than sideloading an older file. Riders still on stable software should skip 32.10 entirely.

Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar sensor hub stuck at 0.01 after firmware 28.05

On the Forerunner 955 and 955 Solar, the update to firmware 28.05 can leave the sensor hub stuck at version 0.01, and when that happens the sensor based metrics stop working. Heart rate, HRV, Body Battery, sleep tracking and step counting all go dead, and the battery drains faster than normal. The tell is in Settings, System, About, where the Sensor Hub line reads 0.01 instead of a normal build number. Repeated update prompts and a broken Check for Updates menu often appear alongside it.

The first thing owners try is a clean reinstall. A hard shutdown, a factory reset and a firmware reinstall from the hidden diagnostics menu are the standard steps, and some people cycle down to 26.08 or 27.09 through the official firmware links and then back up to 28.05. In most of the reported cases the sensor hub stays at 0.01 after all of this, so the sensors stay dead even on a clean install.

The reading that fits the evidence is that the flashing process during 28.05 does not itself corrupt the software, but it unmasks or triggers a memory fault that was already forming on the affected units. That is why a downgrade does not bring the sensor hub back. One temporary trick that revives some watches is cooling the unit in a fridge and then reinstalling, but the sensors fail again within a short time.

If the sensor hub will not move off 0.01 after a reflash, the practical path is a warranty or statutory claim rather than more software attempts. Garmin has been offering a paid replacement to a Forerunner 965 in some regions, and the price of that offer has varied between owners. In several countries the seller, not Garmin, is responsible for a fault that appears within the expected lifetime of the product, so contacting the retailer is worth doing before accepting a paid swap.

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

Garmin Edge 1050 showing Varia 820 connected with no radar alerts or light control

On the Edge 1050 running firmware 31.33, the Varia 820 can show as connected while giving no radar alerts and no light control. The setup that triggers it is the radar paired as a radar over secure Bluetooth and as a light over ANT+. If the radar is power cycled while the Edge is asleep, the head unit wakes and shows the Varia 820 as connected for both radar and light, but no vehicles are reported and the light cannot be controlled.

The trigger is the sleep and wake handling rather than the radar itself. Waking the Edge does not rebuild the real connection, so the Connected popup on screen is misleading. The unit reports a link that is not actually carrying radar data.

The steps that usually recover a sensor do not work here. Unpairing and re-pairing the radar does not restore it, and turning the Varia off and on again after the Edge has woken does not restore it either. The one action that brings it back is a full power cycle of the Edge itself, not the radar. The same behaviour appears on the Edge Explore 2 and with the older RTL515, which points at a general sleep and reconnect fault in the head unit software. Until Garmin ships a firmware fix, restarting the Edge before a ride, and not letting it sleep with the radar connected, is the reliable way to keep alerts working.

Garmin Fenix 8 Pro missing Garmin Messenger notifications with LTE forced to sleep on software 22.41

On the Fenix 8 Pro AMOLED running software 22.41, incoming Garmin Messenger calls and messages do not trigger any notification on the watch. The messages exist, because opening the Messenger app on the watch and choosing Check Messages pulls in the missed calls and texts straight away. Sending from the watch works at random, sometimes connecting and sometimes failing outright, while the paired phone shows every incoming message instantly.

The LTE module behaves as though it is being forced to sleep. With LTE set to Auto or to Always On, signal strength reads three bars indoors and four outdoors, but the signal icon on the watch face shows for a second and then disappears, and in the Controls menu it starts greyed out and only wakes after a moment. Weather over LTE, workout sync and LiveTrack all work normally, so the module and the account are provisioned correctly and the fault sits with push delivery and the always on setting.

The only working mitigation reported so far is manual. Opening Garmin Messenger and running Check Messages retrieves the missed messages and call notifications on demand, which covers you if you remember to check but does nothing for real time alerts. Garmin support pointed to the standard LTE and inReach troubleshooting article, and the owner confirmed those steps did not change the behaviour. Anyone relying on phone free contact during a run should treat incoming Messenger alerts as unreliable.

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

Suunto Race S high battery drain when idle and during activity

On the Suunto Race S, a number of owners report the battery falling by more than 10 percent a day with no activity recorded and the always on display switched off, and much faster loss during a GPS run than the watch showed when it was new. The behaviour appears in daily use and in training.

The first step that helps many people is a soft reset. Holding the upper right button for about 12 seconds while the watch is off the charger restarts it, and several owners report daily drain returning to normal afterwards.

When a soft reset alone does not hold, a reboot on the charger followed by a recalibration is the next move. Placing the watch on the charger and holding the upper button for about 60 seconds forces a reboot, and letting the battery run down to zero and then charging without interruption to 100 percent recalibrates the gauge so the percentage reflects the real charge.

Two settings drive a large part of the idle drain. Blood oxygen tracking and the always on display both cost a lot of background power, and turning blood oxygen off is the single change that most reduces overnight loss. If the drain stays high after a soft reset and a full recalibration, the cause is more likely battery health or a hardware fault than a setting, and a warranty or service claim is the realistic path.

Wahoo ELEMNT Bolt V3 FIT files not visible over USB with no export folder

On the Wahoo ELEMNT Bolt V3, connecting the unit to a computer by USB can show none of the recorded FIT files, with no export folder present in internal storage. Owners moving up from a Bolt V2, which exposed its files directly, hit this after a warranty swap and assume the new unit is broken. The Roam 3 behaves the same way.

The FIT files are there, but access to them is turned off by default. Opening the Wahoo app, connecting the device and opening its settings, then scrolling to the very bottom, reveals a FIT file access option. Enabling it makes the export folder appear over USB, and the folder sits low in internal storage, below Documents, holding every FIT file since first setup.

The setting only appears once the unit is on current firmware, and the Bolt V3 and Roam 3 often refuse to update over a home network. The units favour the 2.4GHz band, and owners who could not complete the update over home Wi-Fi finished it by running a phone hotspot, after which the update installed and FIT file access became available. If the export folder still does not appear after enabling the setting on current firmware, the remaining checks are the cable and the port, since a charge only USB cable shows the device charging but exposes no storage.

Suunto activities not loading on Intervals.icu with an error fetching activities

Athletes syncing a Suunto watch to Intervals.icu report a recurring banner reading Error fetching activities from SUUNTO when navigating the site, appearing over roughly the last two to three weeks.

The data pipeline itself keeps working. Workouts created in Intervals.icu still push to the Suunto app as SuuntoPlus Guides, and activities recorded on the watch, including runs from a Race S, still arrive in Intervals.icu. The banner is a failing background fetch against a Suunto API endpoint rather than a broken sync, and the same endpoint faulted in March 2025.

The standard step is to delete and re-establish the Suunto connection in the Intervals.icu settings. Some owners report this clears the error and some report it returns within a day, which points at the Suunto side rather than a local authorisation problem on the account.

Because activities and wellness data continue to load, the error can be treated as cosmetic until Suunto corrects the endpoint. It is worth confirming that recent activities and daily wellness entries are present before assuming any data has been lost, since the alert fires even when everything has synced.

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

More from last week’s Fix Files roundup.

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

Last Updated on 14 August 2026 by the5krunner