There's yet another free update for your Garmin watch – it's like Christmas come early

By Cat Ellis
published

Garmin has skipped beta testing and is rolling the new software out to everyone straight away

Skier wearing Garmin Fenix 7 watch
(Image credit: Garmin)

Garmin is rolling out yet another update for your GPS watch, this time resolving issues related to winter sports. 

These tweaks were included in the recent beta software release for Garmin Instinct 2 watches, which began rolling out to members of the company's public testing program earlier this week, but Garmin initially decided not to bundle them into December's stable update for Fenix 7 devices.

The December update added long-awaited features including overnight skin temperature tracking, Sleep Coaching, and a more detailed Body Battery score. Fenix 7 series watches that didn't yet offer comprehensive wrist-based running metrics like running power, cadence and stride length now do so, and there are improved watch faces available through Garmin Connect IQ.

As Alex Alderson of Notebookcheck explains, this week's additional update (v15.76) fixes a bug that meant ski and snowboard runs weren't always tracked correctly, and another that meant the total descent in ski and snowboard activities wasn't properly recorded.

Get the update

It's rolling out now to all Garmin watches in the Fenix 7 family through the Garmin Connect app, including the regular Fenix 7, Fenix 7 Pro, Epix (Gen 2), Enduro 2, Marq (Gen 2), Quatix 7 and Tactix 7. The company decided to skip beta testing and go straight to a live release, but members of the testing program can still get it now.

"We did not initially offer this update as a Public Beta, however, anyone enrolled in Public Beta also has the option of requesting this update immediately," Garmin explains on its official forum. "On your watch, you go to Menu - System - Software Update - Check for Updates. (You can request the update now even if you are not within the target rollout percentage.)"

Cat Ellis
Cat Ellis
Editor

Cat is the editor of Advnture, She’s been a journalist for 15 years, and was fitness and wellbeing editor on TechRadar before joining the Advnture team in 2022. She’s a UK Athletics qualified run leader, and in her spare time enjoys nothing more than lacing up her shoes and hitting the roads and trails (the muddier, the better), usually wearing at least two sports watches.