Garmin "blue triangle" bug fix instruction No 6: WAIT – be patient
The recent Garmin “blue triangle” smartwatch bug unveiled an underlying issue with its software. For some users, the outage was the last nail in Garmin’s coffin.
Image by Peter White
The recent Garmin “blue triangle” smartwatch bug unveiled an underlying issue with its software. For some users, the outage was the last nail in Garmin’s coffin.
The new year for Garmin started with many smartwatch users complaining about their devices getting bricked.
Last week, users online started reporting their smartwatches shutting down and only showing Garmin’s blue triangle logo.
Among the affected smartwatches were Garmin Forerunner models and the latest Garmin Fenix 7 and 8.
Soon, users came to the conclusion that the bug could be related to Garmin’s software update as they tried to revive their devices by re-syncing, rebooting, and even enabling factory resets.
Garmin: aware of the issue but not doing much about it
After the situation became widely discussed online, the company said it was aware of it and provided users with steps to revive their devices.
At first, users were advised to simply turn off and turn on their smartwatches and basically hope for the best.
While Garmin reported solving “the underlying issue,” some users were still expected to not be able to use their devices.
This is where the situation gets rather annoying, as users are then asked to “complete a factory reset,” which essentially means that users will lose some recent data. They’ll need to set up Garmin Wallet again and customize watch faces and data fields, among other things.
Annoyingly enough, Garmin’s instructions on how to fix the watch aren’t really that user-friendly, as they ask you to go through a 7-13 (for Fenix) step process. “WAIT – be patient,” step No. 6 reads.
Fixes that don’t solve anything
As Garmin can be quite harsh on its owners, saying they are being unproductive or giving them a low sleep score, annoyed users took this opportunity to bite back.
“My Garmin just hit a 100 sleep score itself,” joked another Reddit user, with another adding: “Sweet revenge, who is unproductive now?”
The situation soon escalated and reached a point where users no longer want to use the company’s products.
“I got the blue triangle of death and no fix for me. No update has worked, nothing. So after years of Garmin, I’m leaving,” wrote one user on Runners Loving Running Facebook group.
As a person who has been mainly hearing praise from those who have been using Garmin and thinking of making a switch myself, my initial thought was that maybe the reaction to the recent shutdown has been too strong.
That was until I came across a four-month-old Reddit post that referred to a very similar issue that many Garmin users had been facing recently.
“Garmin's attitude towards bugs (or lack thereof) makes it impossible for me to recommend them to anyone,” wrote the user.
While during the “blue triangle” bug, a number of users were mad that their workout, run, or sleep score hadn’t been recorded, what about situations when a user is in the middle of a hike or a dive and their watch shut down?
“Garmin devices are supposed to be reliable. For example, diving watches – if they freeze or crash unexpectedly, you're now stuck in a pretty serious predicament,” shared the user.
They noted that some of Garmin’s watches, such as the Instinct 2 series or Descent Mk3, are advertised as reliable devices that can be used outdoors and underwater. Users often trust these devices to the point where they don’t even take their smartphones with them.
However, if they’re in the middle of a hike where there’s no service and their watch crashes, there’s a high chance they’ll get stranded in the middle of nowhere.
What surprised the user further was how Garmin support reacted to their concern about the watch freezing while on the road.
“[...] the response I got was shocking – that it's ‘intended behaviour’ since the number of points in the GPX activity is so large. Might I remind you that this is an activity recorded by the watch?” explained the Redditor.
They also stated that they had to “convince” the support to file a bug report, and they haven’t heard about the outcome of the situation.
“I really like Garmin products. The hardware is solid, and the visual appearance is great. But the software lets them down,” concluded the Garmin user.
Others online also agreed that while Garmin smartwatches have been reliable for their hardware and battery life, the unaddressed bugs made them rethink their choice.