The Garmin smartwatches crashing are running firmware versions 11.16, 20.29, and others cited in online forums.The issue could be related to a problem with Garmin’s Connect IQ platform (CIQ), possibly the Storage.setValue() function. The latter is used by apps and watch faces to save data. Once the affected watch faces crash, other faces crash as well until the watch is restarted. But that doesn’t permanently fix the problem as the watch will continue to crash and show the “IQ!” error message even after being shut down and turned back on.
“Originally I thought it was the battery. I think that it is the watchface integration with Garmin. It shuts down randomly, mostly at night. Now sometimes when I invoke an activity, after connecting with GPS and I press the start button on the VivoActive 4, it just shuts off. Recently, even after I hit a goal, like steps for the day, it just randomly shuts off. I tried a hard reboot while the watch was charging, I tried powering to full, etc… It was still happening. I just changed watch faces to see if that helps. I have had a Garmin watch since 2018. This is super frustrating.”-Resthink, Reddit subscriber
Example of the IQ! eeror message seen on some Garmin smartwatches. | Image credit-Garmin
Another Garmin owner says that he has been seeing the IQ! error message frozen on the display of his Fennix 7 timepiece. He has been experiencing this issue one to two times per month.
Considering that this problem has been affecting Garmin users for as long as a couple of months, let’s hope that an update exterminating this bug will be released soon.