Summary
- Garmin watches are experiencing a new bug causing crashes while loading GPS activities.
- The company suggests turning the device off and back on to fix the issue.
- The suggested fix isn’t working for every user or every watch.
A few months ago, around the end of 2024, users reported that their Garmin watches were repeatedly crashing. The watches began to show an unexpected IQ logo with an orange exclamation mark and would be rendered unusable for a while.
Very recently, as reported by TechRadar, there’s a new bug in town that’s causing the watches to crash again, but in a slightly different way this time. This one includes watches as well as cycling computers, and these devices are crashing while loading a GPS activity. A blue triangle has replaced the IQ logo and exclamation mark.
The list of watches affected by this issue is long. According to TechRadar, it’s affecting Epix, Fenix, Forerunner, Instinct, and Venu models, among a few others. The blog reports that even the entry-level Forerunner 55 and the latest Instinct 3 aren’t safe from this issue.
Garmin is urging users to try the most popular way to fix a gadget
Garmin has taken notice and responded with a banner on its site suggesting the classic “Did you try turning it off and back on?” fix. The banner reads:
“We are aware of an issue causing some devices to be stuck on the start up screen or a blue triangle. To resolve this, press and hold the power button until the device turns off, then power it back on, and sync with the Garmin Connect app or Garmin Express”.
The fix sounds pretty straight forward, except, unfortunately, it may not work for everyone. TechRadar mentions a user who tried rebooting their watch, but to no avail. And Garmin knows this. So, it has also added “If this does not resolve your issue, please click here for more information” to the suggestion, with an embedded link to a support article. The article goes over dedicated solutions for different Garmin series, including the Forerunner, Instinct 3, vivoactive 4, and a few others.
We reached out to Garmin for a comment on the crashes, but, so far, they have just responded with what we already know, “We are aware of an issue causing some devices to be stuck on the start-up screen or a blue triangle”, and a link to the Garmin support page.
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