My Garmin Forerunner 570 started acting up after a recent workout, and now it’s not tracking correctly or syncing like it should. I rely on it for daily runs and training data, so I need help figuring out what went wrong and how to fix it fast.
Start with the easy stuff.
- Reboot the watch. Hold Light for 15 seconds until it powers off. Turn it back on.
- Force a sync in Garmin Connect. If it hangs, close the app, reopen it, then sync again.
- Check Bluetooth on your phone. Toggle it off, then on. If needed, remove the watch from Bluetooth and pair it again through Garmin Connect, not phone settings.
- Clean the sensor area. Sweat and grime mess with HR and workout tracking.
- Update firmware. On Garmin Connect, look for pending updates. Bad sync and bad tracking often show up after a half-installed update.
- Hard reset if the glitch stays. Backup first if your data matters. On many Forerunners, hold Light until off, then use the button combo from Garmin support for master reset.
- Test GPS outside for 5 to 10 mins before a run. If pace and route are still off, GPS config might be corrupted.
If syncing fails after all this, uninstall Garmin Connect and re-install it. Annoying, but it fixes a lot of weird stuff. If tracking is still broken after reset, I’d suspect a sensor or firmware bug, not user error. Garmin support needs the activity files at that point.
I’d check whether the bad workout itself corrupted the activity file, because that can mess up both tracking history and sync behavior in a way that looks bigger than it is. @viajeroceleste covered the usual recovery steps, but I would not jump to a hard reset too fast. That’s kind of the nuclear option.
A few things that are worth checking first:
- Open the activity on the watch if it’s still there. If it freezes, won’t load, or shows weird stats, that file may be the culprit.
- Plug the watch into a computer and see if Garmin Express recognizes it normally. If Express sees it but Connect Mobile doesn’t, the issue is more likely phone/app side than watch hardware.
- Check storage on the watch. If it’s nearly full, sync and save behavior can get flaky.
- Disable any Connect IQ apps/watch faces temporarily. A buggy data field can absolutely wreck post-workout behavior. Seen it before, annoyngly often.
- In Garmin Connect, look for duplicate device entries. Sometimes the app keeps an old pairing profile and things get wonky.
If GPS tracking is off specifically, make sure satellite system settings didn’t change after the workout. Also re-syncing the EPO/CPE satellite data can help after a few days of weird location lock.
If it only started after one run, I’d honestly suspect software hiccup over dying hardware. If it keeps dropping HR, GPS, and sync all together, then yeah, maybe bigger problem.
I’d go one layer deeper than @viajeroceleste on the sensor side.
If your Garmin Forerunner 570 is still recording but the data is nonsense, check whether the workout profile got altered. Sometimes a run activity ends up with auto-pause, GPS mode, or data recording changed accidentally, and it looks like the watch is broken when it is really one corrupted profile setup. Creating a brand-new Run profile and testing that can isolate it fast.
Also check time drift. If the watch clock is off, sync and activity matching can get messy. Force time sync from GPS outdoors, then sync again through the app.
One thing I slightly disagree on: storage issues do happen, but bad sync right after a workout often points more to a stuck background process than low memory. A simple powered-off rest for 10 minutes can clear that better than repeated restart attempts.
If metrics like HR, pace, and GPS are all wrong together, inspect the sensor hub:
- remove external sensors from the watch
- test wrist HR only
- clean the back sensor and buttons
- make sure battery saver did not get enabled
Pros of the Garmin Forerunner 570:
- strong training metrics
- reliable ecosystem
- usually quick GPS lock
Cons:
- occasional app pairing weirdness
- Connect IQ add-ons can cause strange behavior
- Garmin sync bugs can be annoyingly opaque
If a clean test activity still saves wrong, I’d export anything important first, then escalate to Garmin support before doing a full wipe.