Garmin has released a hotfix to solve a problem reported with certain Forerunner watches, which could cause them to crash unexpectedly when tracking a run. Although rare, it was a serious problem reported by several watch owners on the company's forums.
According to the bug reports, workout tracking appeared to work as normal, but the watch crashed before saving the activity.
"When I try and save the session, I get the usual 'Perceived Effort/Feel' questions but then the watch immediately reboots and returns to the 'Resume/Save/.../Discard' screen." wrote one Forerunner 255 owner. "Also tried 'Resume' before attempting to save with same outcome."
Rapid release patch
Garmin suggested a temporary workaround for affected users (hold the middle left button on your watch, then select Change Sport > Run > Save), but now it has released software version 18.23 as a rapid release patch to fix the issue permanently. The update is rolling out now to watches in the Forerunner 255, 265, 955, and 965 series.
As Polly Allcock of Notebookcheck explains, it comes shortly after the release of software version 18.22, which was released without a beta testing phase.
Software version 18.22 added features including a new jump rope activity, the ability to undo accidental presses of the lap button, a Sleep Coach glance on the watch face, and many more. It also corrected various system and user interface bugs, including one where text would be clipped on activity summary pages, preventing you reading it all, and one where the backlight gesture would not work when the watch was in 'do not disturb' mode.
For full details, check out the official release notes on Garmin's forums.
- The best GPS watches: our top recommendations tested and rated
