Garmin CIRQA: why I stopped using it

I took Garmin CIRQA off my biceps and went back to a Polar Verity Sense. CIRQA’s upper-arm heart rate is as good as it needs to be, but it doesn’t reliably save the workouts it records, and a reference sensor that occasionally loses a session is no use to me.

I bought CIRQA to replace the Verity Sense as my permanent second reference on my upper arm during accuracy testing. On paper, it had the perfect design for the job: a physical button to start a session, all-day wear, and data that feeds straight into Garmin Connect. I will go back to it once Garmin fixes the recording problem. In the meantime, Polar sent me a new Verity Sense, and it has worked perfectly, fixing the old button problem.

Accuracy was never the problem.

In the repeat-interval test from my CIRQA review, with CIRQA on the biceps, the bias (difference) was +0.2bpm against WHOOP MG, +0.3bpm against Polar Sense, and −0.3bpm against the Garmin HRM 600, all with tight limits of agreement.

The occasional wrist accuracy failure I recorded, including a 20 to 30bpm under-read in open water, disappeared on the upper arm. DC Rainmaker reached the same conclusion in his 30-day review: on the biceps, CIRQA delivers chest-strap-level heart rate.

The problem is whether the data makes it to Garmin Connect at all.

What goes wrong

CIRQA sometimes records a workout and then fails to save it, sometimes never records it in the first place, or maybe it gets overwritten and ignored if a watch also recorded the workout. There is no warning either way. You find out when the session is missing from Garmin Connect. I reported this early, and it has been on this site’s running CIRQA bug list since. The exact cause is still unclear, because owners on the Garmin Forums thread describe several different routes to the same result.

The scenarios reported so far.

• Button start, then End in the app. Opening Garmin Connect after a button-started session brings up an “Activity in Progress” prompt with Resume and End options. Tapping End discards the session. One owner lost more than eight workouts before realising it was not a sync delay. A Garmin moderator has now confirmed that End does not save the activity, and that the only way to keep it is to tap Resume, then stop and save from the recording screen.
• Start the app, then End on the same prompt. Two owners report the same prompt appearing for sessions they started in the app, with the same loss. One was running firmware 3.20 and Connect 5.29 on iOS; the other had a Fenix 9 Pro set as primary device.
• Mixed start and stop. One owner started a session in the app, stopped it with the button, and lost it.
• A missed button press. One owner’s second press at the end of a strength session did not register. The prompt then appeared, End was chosen, and the session was gone.
• A frozen app. Some owners find the app’s end button stops responding, and force-closing the app loses the session. This has been reported since August.
• Recording alongside another Garmin device. I lost three important workouts where I pressed the button, nothing saved, and nothing auto-detected either. A friend lost a strength session the same way. In each case, I was also recording with an HRM-600 or a Forerunner 970, which is the only common factor I can find. Separately, auto-detection never fired in my testing when I also wore a Garmin watch, even with CIRQA set as the primary device.
• Auto-detection gaps. CIRQA missed a 60-minute ride of mine on 2 August. DC Rainmaker lost a full 60-minute ride and split a three-hour ride into three separate activities. Extending an activity afterwards does not recover the missing heart rate, because CIRQA only records at full rate once it believes a workout has started.
• Sensor stops after charging. Three owners on r/Garmin report that the optical sensor does not restart after a charge until the band is powered off in the app and back on with the button. The band shows as connected and synced throughout.

Garmin’s own manual describes the button workflow as one press to start and another to stop (perfect! how it should be), with the activity appearing in Garmin Connect after the band syncs. Neither firmware 2.50 nor the eighteen-item firmware 3.20 changelog lists a fix for lost activities, and Garmin has given no date for one.

Why that rules out a reference sensor

A reference sensor has one job: record every session I test. Test sessions are hard to repeat, because the weather, the route and the effort all change – often I run a half marathon or do a 5-hour ride, they are not trivial to repeat. When the reference file is missing, the whole comparison is void, and I usually discover that only after the session has finished.

Garmin’s Resume workaround only covers one of the scenarios above. It does nothing for the button presses that saved nothing while I was also recording on another Garmin device, and it relies on remembering a counterintuitive tap straight after a hard effort. A lost session also removes that workout from Training Load and every recovery metric built on it, which undermines the other reason to wear CIRQA.

What would bring me back?

The answer is simple. Just fix the bug and make it work properly.

If you own a CIRQA now

• If the “Activity in Progress” prompt appears, tap Resume, then stop and save from the recording screen.
• Start and stop each session the same way, either both on the button or both in the app.
• Check that each important session has appeared in Garmin Connect before you rely on it.
• For a race or a test you cannot repeat, record on a second device as well.

Quick answers

Why do Garmin CIRQA workouts disappear?
The most common cause is tapping End on the Activity in Progress prompt in Garmin Connect, which Garmin has confirmed discards the session. Owners also report lost sessions after missed button presses, app freezes, and, in this site’s testing, button starts while another Garmin device was recording.

How do I stop losing CIRQA workouts?
When Garmin Connect shows the Activity in Progress prompt, tap Resume, then stop and save from the recording screen. Start and stop each session the same way, and check that it has appeared in Garmin Connect afterwards.

Is Garmin CIRQA accurate on the biceps?
Yes. In this site’s interval test, biceps-worn CIRQA was within 0.3bpm of WHOOP MG, Polar Sense and the Garmin HRM 600. The problem is recording reliability, not accuracy.

Last Updated on 26 September 2026 by the5krunner

the5krunner

tfk is the founder and author of the5krunner, an independent endurance sports technology publication. With 20 years of hands-on testing of GPS watches and wearables, and competing in triathlons at an international age-group level, tfk provides in-depth expert analysis of fitness technology for serious athletes and endurance sport competitors. ID