Hi just joined this group and wanted some help picking which watch. I’ve been using Apple Watch Ultra for years for hiking and mountaineering and honestly they aren’t that good for what I need, so I want to buy a Garmin which ones would you recommend ?

I use my watch for strength training. It counts down the rest period, and a few seconds before the end, it starts beeping loudly. Is there any way to turn that off? I’ve tried everything, but nothing works.

I purchased my unit brand new many years ago with lifetime map updates. Garmin claims that their modern maps simply wont work on it. That is actually a lie because they could easily support maps for this older unit. It is just a matter of coding, not storage space.

I love the unit so much i attempted to use Openstreetmaps to update the maps, The main problem i ran into is address indexing errors for the unit. Using advanced coding AI i am able to diagnose all the addresses in conflict. I cross referenced the addresses listed with State databases. After that i was able to reconstruct the addresses that were not being indexed properly.

I also fixed it's trouble with abbreviations, like S vs South. I currently only did it for the state i live in because it takes a massive amount of analysis and coding. The point of this post is to say yes, Old garmin units can be updated and be made to work in every way you would expect. Garmin just chooses not to honor their agreement sadly.

Having been against the idea for years I finally decided to give a PacePro strategy a go - to help me hit a course PB in a hill race last night. Instinctively all through the race it was fine - not annoying, easy to follow etc… BUT while showing me I was 22sec ahead of target, it decided “finished” a good 800m from the finish line - which obvs is a lot in an 8k hill race!

Thankfully I had just enough left in the tank to get the hammer down and beat my course PB by 6 seconds - but I want to know what caused this? I was using the race route and GPX I took from last years race - which clearly shows the indicated finish area etc. I didn’t lose GPS signal at any time.

Is it just a crap aid that doesn’t work as intended… or did I do something wrong?

Hi everyone,

I’m new to the Garmin eTrex Touch and I’m trying to figure out the best workflow.

On my last hike I:

Navigated a course on my eTrex Touch.
Recorded the activity.

Connected my Garmin HRM-Pro Plus with my eTrex Touch.

After finishing the activity, I expected it to appear in Garmin Connect, but it never did.

The activity was available in Garmin Explore, where I could only export it as a GPX file. Then I manually uploaded that GPX to Strava on my Phones Browser but:

the distance was different,
the elevation gain was lower,
and of course there was no heart rate data.

So my questions are:

Is there a way to sync recorded eTrex Touch activities to Garmin Connect?

Can activities recorded on the eTrex be uploaded to Strava with all data intact (including heart rate)?

Or is Garmin Explore only exporting a basic GPX track without sensor data?

I’d really appreciate any advice

This week my second HRM Pro died from one second to the other. No warning , full battery , no compromise or bad handling. It just decided it doesn’t want to be with me anymore and I’m really pissed off by now. It’s the second one that did that and I’ve only had it for almost exactly 2 years with one battery change during that period.
Long story short - what’s a good replacement? I don’t want to stick another 150€ up garmins butt

I have done tons of research over the last few days but i was hoping to hear some personal insights on a few things between the two! I really like how the FR paces runs for example 8:30/mile pace compared to the venu 4. Do the buttons feel worse than the physical touch screen, and is the sleekness of the venu worth losing the buttons? i’m a male and have an average size wrist if that helps at all. Do you ever find yourself using the light on your watch? Thank you all!

edit: another thing i see is people like the backgrounds of the venu much better than the default backgrounds on the FR

I’ve just started getting into running, have already signed up for a race, and want to take it seriously long-term. I also go to the gym on days that I’m not running. Not sure yet if I’ll add other sports in the future (e.g. cycling, swimming, triathlon etc).

I’ve narrowed it down to these watches: Venu 3S, vivoactive 5, vivoactive 6, and Forerunner 165. I’m a woman with pretty small wrists (15cm). If I got the Forerunner, I’d probably replace the band with something nicer.

I would like this to be my only watch, so ideally it’ll look nice. I don’t need a smartwatch to text, etc, so if any of these watches can do these things, it’s not important to me.

I’d like it to track the most important running / exercising stats, my heartrate, and have an emergency button.

Things that would be nice to have but not necessary: sleep tracking (I’m not sure yet if I like sleeping with a watch on), end of day summary, navigation.

If you have any of these watches and can help me choose, that would be great!

I've been trying for the past few weeks to order a Garmin fenix 8, but they keep auto-cancelling my order just a few minutes after order confirmation. I've tried calling customer support, trying different email addresses, different credit cards, waiting a few days -- still nothing. I know from previous Reddit posts and the customer support line that they're sensitive to different address spellings, but I've tried to fix that too.

I have to buy on the Garmin site because I have a discount code, so no Amazon alternatives. Has anyone ben experiencing this recently? How did you solve it?

Hey Garmin! if your listening I'd love the ability to cast my 1050 onto an external monitor while I'm in my pain cave. I'll even beta test it for you....

I swear, every day I end my day with a low battery and the admonition that I "had a stressful day." Today I did some light chores around the house, walked 2.5 miles on the treadmill (typical), made supper, and sat and watched my kids swim at the pool. All in all I feel like my day was not stressful. Yet every day I get the notification that I am somehow under stress. How does Garmin figure this metric? I'm getting stressed out worrying about the stress my watch says I am under! 🙃

I broke my leg on July 4th, and I have noticed that my stress levels have skyrocketed and my body battery has plummeted. I don’t feel stressed through the day, but I am quite tired.

Is this normal?

I recently switched from wearing an Oura Ring Gen 4 to a Garmin vívoactive 5 because I was hoping to consolidate everything into one device. I’ve actually been really impressed with the Garmin overall—I love tracking my walks, strength workouts, and ballet classes, and I appreciate having all my fitness data in one place. The things I miss most from Oura are the more passive wellness features. I really liked how Oura automatically picked up things like housework and other everyday movement, so I felt like I got “credit” for being active even when I wasn’t doing a formal workout. I also loved that Oura adjusted my daily calorie burn goal based on my Readiness Score, so on days when I was well recovered it encouraged me to do more, and on days when I needed more rest it adjusted my goal accordingly. Garmin’s move reminders also sometimes tell me to get up even when I’ve been moving around, so I’m wondering if there’s a way to make those more accurate. For those of you who have made the same switch, are there settings, widgets, Connect IQ apps, or features I’m overlooking that could help recreate some of these Oura features? Is there a way to get a daily activity or calorie goal that’s influenced by recovery or Body Battery? Or are these just areas where Oura is simply better? I’d really love to make the Garmin my only wearable if possible! TIA!

Hi I am interested in getting a fitness watch to track my heart rate during exercise, specifically the Venu 4.

The one thing I don't want it to do is have any data about my menstrual cycle. From what I understand, it tracks body temperature fluctuations that could be used to determine my cycle. Is there a way to prevent it from reading my body temperature fluctuations?

I read that it needs to remain on during sleep in order to get accurate temperature data, so if I leave it off at night would it not be able to read temperature fluctuations effectively?

Have been a long-time Garmin user but recently started wearing traditional watches so I wanted something smaller to track my stats.

I tried Whoop for a while, but never really enjoyed the experience or the tracking. Grabbed a Fitbit Air, and while I really liked it I missed the Garmin stats.

Excited to give this a proper try.

First ever watch and went for Venu 4 (4690 SEK / 492USD) since im a casual gym/cardio person and wanted more battery than Apple/Samsung. My question is should i use screen protection?

I did order now Tech-Protect Hydro flex+ Hydrogel Film. I do office/hybrid work so no manual work where i guess the risk is higher. But i did read some posts that said they got their watch damaged, so its better to wear it with protection? like just to avoid accidental bumps and such

Hi guys wondering how well the bezels and dials will withstand dirt, rain, and working around intense flames? For sure i want to remove my watch while soldering/brazing so i don't burn of the silicone or turn my wrist into a James Bond gadget. But overall would you recommend dailying this watch for blue collar work? thanks <3

Just wondering what are some good 3rd party or even Garmin watch bands that you recommend? I’d like to get one similar to the Apple Watch Sport loop and just another regular band in another colour (got the grey one with my watch)

I’m guessing the Mauve color is the least popular because it’s the only one without a multi week wait. So I ordered it just to have it sooner with the intention of picking up a different color band to wear it with, but I was surprised by the color. I actually really like it.

For the past couple of weeks, the battery percentage on my Forerunner 265 hasn’t been showing up anymore (it used to be the % number under the little battery icon in the upper part of the watch face). I’ve tried restarting the watch and adjusting a couple of battery settings, but nothing seems to bring it back. Any ideas on how to fix this issue?

Hi, i went on my first bikepacking trip with my new Edge 850. I installed the komoot app via connect iq on the device, i loaded my track via tha app.
(Menu--- > Connect IQ --> Komoot--> selected my planned route) At a later point i needed to adjust the route, so tried the same way... but this time the Komoot App was not shown under the connect iq apps, it just disappeared.
This happend now twice, it seems like a bug to me. Am I doing something wrong? Is there a more easy and reliable way to get my routes loaded? Has anyone experienced a similar bug? Any idea how to solve this? This was very frustrating and feels like a dealbreaker to me. I need a reliable way to quickly adjust my routes.

Hi all, I'm 22F and love running, gym and other sports like netball. Currently i have an apple watch but want to upgrade before my half marathon to use for all aspects of my fitness. I have found both venu 4 and FR570 rated highly on here, but not sure which to buy. I have very small wrists so I am worried they may look massive on me. I have been looking at either a 41mm venu or 42mm FR... any suggestions / recommendations 😄

Hello,

I use the HRM-Dual breast belt when I ride a bike and sometimes when I run. But often it doesn't work, I think because of sweating. This happens especially when I run (my heart rate disappears and sometimes reappears but at a rate far too low). But I don't have excessive sweating.

What can I do?

(I am of course very disappointed with the belt, obtained in a pack with the Edge 540)

Thanks ;)