Garmin GPS meltdown: PSA do not do any GPS activity today & temp fix

As reported on this sub and others, many Garmin GPS watches are crashing and are stuck in a boot loop today. This is caused whenever a user attempt to start a GPS activity.

Affected models includes the 255, 265, 955, 965, Epix Pro, Mk3i and doesn't appear to be limited to those running beta firmware.

Soft reset will not work.

You can however hard reset your device (refer to manual as devices with different button configuration will have different methods of hard reseting).

You will not lose any data that were previously synced. Once your Garmin has been factory resetted, you can pair it with your phone again and have your data restored. This includes your training data.

However, do not attempt to start a GPS activity of any kind (even for calibrating the altimeter). This will cause the boot loop and you will have to repeat the process again.

In the meantime, until Garmin releases a fix, if you have to work out, start an activity that doesn't involve GPS, or disable GPS tracking in the setting.

I went out for an outdoor run using treadmill run and the activity saved just fine onto Garmin Connect. This will undoubtedly screw up my treadmill calibration but, hei, better than nothing. If you need a map then Strava is there...

Update

u/weathergraph posted a solution that may help with getting your watch up and running again:

https://reddit.com/r/Garmin/comments/1ic1btf/failed_garmin_update_blue_triangle_boot_loop_here/

Update 2 via DCrainmaker

Garmin has confirmed that the crash is caused by a corrupted CPE file. The file has been removed from the server.

Syncing your devices with Garmin Connect or Garmin Express will now download the non corrupted CPE file.

If this doesn't work, soft reset your device and try again. And if that doesn't work, hard reset your device and then try again.

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2025/01/garmin-watches-are-crashing-when-trying-to-start-gps.html