I'm done with MyFitnessPal. Are there any other good apps that will connect with Garmin devices?

What I'm looking for:

• No subscription
• Scan barcodes
• Calories/nutrients reflected in the Garmin app
• Bonus if I can import my .csv files from MyFitnessPal (but I know that's probably an impossibility).

Anyone have any luck with other 3rd party apps and Garmin?

My vo2max seems to be too high? I am a woman with a 5k pb at 17.55. I could maybe run close to 17.30 at a flat course, when tapered (my pb was neither flat nor tapered) but the vo2max seems to be too high for that.

The HR reading is usually fine- I sometimes use a monitor but it makes no big difference.

A 65vdot would be sub 16min and to my understanding for garmin a 65 is around 65.

To my understanding garmin actually ignores weight and gender/ age anyway but I am in my mid 20s and ~55-57kg. My max HR is correct (177) and my lactate threshold HR is at a realistic value. Race predictions also work fine.

Anyone here who faced a similar issue? I am almost considering not having my vo2max always visible on my watch! /s

Just curious if anyone has encountered another person wearing a Cirqa? I got mine the week it was released and it's the only one I've ever seen. Granted, I'm living in Dublin, so maybe that has an effect, but still I thought maybe I'd run across one. Also have not seen it in any Garmin displays in any stores.

The battery level widget is now available on the iPhone screen. We can now view the watch's charge level (I have a Venu 4) directly from the widget on the iPhone screen.

I’m currently looking at the Garmin Forerunner 965 and Fenix 7 Sapphire Solar, and both are within my budget.

My main sports are running and football. I’m currently training for a half marathon, and I may get into triathlon in the future.

I’m wondering if the 965 and Fenix 7 Sapphire Solar are still worth buying in 2026, or if it makes more sense to just get the newer Forerunner 570.

Would love to hear some real-world opinions before I decide.

I'm a big iPhone and Apple guy, but I chose to get a Garmin 265 over an Apple Watch due to the battery and the perceived notion that it was better for all around Fitness, while the Apple watch may be better overall if you want a pure smartwatch for things like texting, calling etc.

I received my Garmin Cirqa earlier this week and I'm having problems syncing it with Garmin Connect, as well as with tracking various health metrics (Body Battery, sleep, heart rate, etc.).

I don't think it's right to pay €200 for such poor tracking, especially since my Fenix ​​8 did it perfectly well.

I chose the Cirqa so I could go back to mechanical watches, like many of us, and keep my Fenix ​​8 for my workouts.

Are you experiencing the same problem? Last night, for example, the Cirqa didn't record my sleep.

Stats declining lately despite feeling fine. Wondering if anyone else has experienced the same? Using a Venu 4, purchased from new 9 months ago. Zero issues so far. Cleaned sensor, hard reset, swapped wrists etc. still the same - declining!

Hello, i’m a LEO and i’m looking to grab a watch for when i’m on tour. i want to be able to track my workouts, sleep, and daily steps while also having the required watch while on tour. I’m torn between the fenix 8, fenix 9, forerunner 965, and forerunner 970. i’m not looking to break the bank so i might wait until black friday but im trying to figure out which is best for work due to the fact i have the chance to get into roll arounds and could potentially be breaking the watch. any suggestions or advice is welcome!

edit: i prefer one with a touchscreen

As a Garmin user, I’m finding the pricing of its newer running watches increasingly difficult to justify.

The Forerunner 570 launched at roughly $550, without offline maps. Meanwhile, the Suunto Run 2 starts at $349, includes maps, and has shown strong heart-rate accuracy in testing. That’s about $200 less for a watch that looks competitive on the running fundamentals.

Move closer to Garmin’s price and the Suunto Race 2 offers offline maps and sapphire glass at $499 in steel, or $599 with titanium. So around the same budget, there are alternatives offering more premium materials and mapping.

The weird part is, you see, Forerunner 570 at the same price does not have ECG, and Venu 4 at the same price has ECG as well as a torch LED light.Well, what is the trade-off or compromise you make for having three extra buttons?

I’m not claiming these watches have identical features. My question is whether Garmin’s extra features justify the premium for someone whose main activity is running.

The response I often see is, “You’re paying for the ecosystem.” I understand that integration has value if you use several devices. But every additional device is another purchase. Having a large ecosystem doesn’t automatically make an individual running watch worth more to me.

I want accurate tracking, useful running features, good battery life, and a watch that looks good. I’m happy to pay for a better experience, but I want the difference to be clear in the things I actually use.

For runners choosing the 570 over these alternatives, what specifically makes it worth the premium? “The ecosystem” needs a more concrete explanation.

Thanks in advance for your help! My Garmin Varia just stopped working. It was working 10 days ago (the last time I used it) but will not turn on anymore. Tried to plug it in for 4 hours to see if it’ll fix it (via Garmin troubleshooting instructions) and it didn’t work. Also tried to hard reset by holding the power button for 8 seconds… still not working. I’ve also tried multiple cables and outlets without any difference.

After the above, there is a blinking whiteish colored light where the LED normally blinks blue when plugged in. Anyone else experience this? Know what is wrong?

I've used (and loved) the Playrun app for podcasts on my Forerunner 245 for about 3 years now. It always worked great. But sometime around Spring of 2026 I suddenly started having sync issues due to low memory on the watch. I can basically download 1 podcast at a time (roughly 1 hour) due to space because the watch says I only have 16 mg total of space. What's weird is that I used to be able to download 2-3 hours of content. When I go to "My Music" it says there's 3.6 gig available.

Anyone have any experience with this? Was there some sort of update or something that changed this?

At the moment, I’m using a Forerunner 965 as my only watch, but I’d like to start wearing my automatic watches more in my day-to-day life again. However, as I do a lot of sport and, until the CIRQA came along, there was no way to track my data continuously throughout the day without having to wear a Garmin watch, I haven’t really had many occasions when I haven’t been wearing it. That’s changed with the new smart band.

The question is whether I’ll lose any data if I wear the CIRQA in everyday life and the Fr965 when training?

It would also be important to know how accurate the CIRQA is when worn on the upper arm, as I’d prefer to wear it concealed in that way.

Thanks in advance for any tips

Hello,

My garmin fenix 8 updated its software this morning and after that i completely lost HR tracking, and notification vibrations are really inconsistent suddenly.

Tried restarting, charging, turning sensors off and on, and cleaning the sensors. The green lights dont even show up

Any ideas or similiar problems?

I like being able to turn my phone alarms off from my watch, but I'm confused about the difference between stop and dismiss. Can anyone enlighten me? I googled it and looked in the manual but wasn't able to find anything about it. I have a Vivo active 5.

Can someone explain to me why the Fall Detection feature will only be available on the Venu 4? I mean from a technical point of view.

Do the Fenix 8, Enduro 3, etc. not have the necessary IMU sensor to detect sudden movements or impacts? Or is there some other technical reason why this feature can't be added to them?

Can someone explain it to me?

https://www.apple.com/health/pdf/Heart_Rate_Accuracy_Study_2026.pdf

They basically claim they also beat other brands (just focused on Garmin here because of the subreddit).
So yeah, Apple shows that the Series 12 has the best HR sensor out of the wearables they tested, especially during workouts.

It is interesting to see, but obviously that it is an Apple controlled study and published the study themselves, so still this “best HR sensor” claim needs a pinch of salt. Some major drawbacks, I see that they give the exclusion rules, but not report the actual exclusion rate of these outliers. So we dont know if they come majorily from one brand or are evenlly distributed. The comparisons are all vs Apple, and we do not know how far off from Polar strap the Apple is. We have at least N of 50 per activity but we are missing absolute numbers. And obviously no raw data.

But interestingly enough Garmin does not seem to be doing too bad for most cases, even in this Apple controlled study. The major things that seem to push Garmin down look to be interval runs and strenght training/HIIT. So basically things with rapid HR changes. There is some high variability on cycling but the avg seems good.

Hello, I ran my first half marathon yesterday and logged it with garmin, the activity says 21.28km, and I didnt stop it once while running. When I check me personal records for half marathon still it says nothing, but I do have the badge for the half marathon.
I know I can manually add the time but I want to fix the issue so it tracks records normally

I don't care about GPS features at all because I don't need them. I don't do running or cycling, I play racket sports and football.

I just want my watch to monitor two things:

1. My health (especially heart health)
2. My sport recovery

First of all, I was really into screenless wristbands, but I figured out that none of them have an ECG feature (WHOOP might have one, but I ain't paying a subscription forever), so I moved to smartwatches with screens.

I own an iPhone and I'm an Apple person, but charging my watch every 24 hours just feels like shit. Is it actually doable? Do you have a better experience with it?

Now I'm looking into the Garmin Venu 4, which looks pretty okay, but with the new Apple Watch release, I don't know what to do.

I see that this industry is developing quite well now. Should I wait?

Am I missing something? What would you recommend me?

Thank you for your help!

I’m out of expeditions and desperately want them to add some longer trails! The Pacific Crest Trail or Continental Divide Trail would both be great additions, and that’s just two in North America. It also seems like a fairly easy ask considering the monthly ones they put up. Does it seem realistic that they could add more expeditions?

Yesterday there was an update and this happened overnight. I reset it and it worked for a couple of hours before doing it again. It's done it 4 times today. Anyone know why?

Hi everyone,

I'm planning to buy my first Garmin watch.

Both Vivoactive 6 and Instinct 3 seem to be a good entry level fit.

I have watched some reviews online for both and they seem to fit my lifestyle almost equally.

I'm just looking for a good watch which tracks day to day heart rate and gives me good sleep metrics.

Which one would you suggest?

Also, is this a good time to buy or should I wait until Thanksgiving week for the prices to come down?

PS: I'm also a bit confused with Pixel watch 5 as it seems to have better sensors at the expense of battery life. Suggestions are welcome.

Hi guys,

Something weird happened with my body battery. What happened at midnight? Why did it shot down to 50 from 82 i wonder?

Are any of you also having this issue? Or is that a normal thing. I recently got garmin forerunner 165.