Products · Product
Garmin
Raised as a usability problem by 19 people on Hacker News over 17 years (2010–2026), in 20 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Watch stops working after iOS updates and must be fixed or re-pairedUnreviewed
20102026- Garmin watch stops working after iOS updates, so users must fix or re-pair it2025-03-18
- Watch takes over an hour to get a GPS fix even in open skies2025-01-21
- Garmin watch with iPhone can't reply to texts or do most things, only shows notifications2024-12-19
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 22 complaints
- Workout builder is hard to use when workouts change between sessions2026-10-15
- APIs break across firmware versions and testing is hard2026-05-10
- Must manually toggle wifi mode and back, with cumbersome multi-step workflow to fetch data2026-02-25
- Pilot reportedly triggered autoland accidentally and couldn't figure out how to turn it off2025-12-22
- Garmin watch stops working after iOS updates, so users must fix or re-pair it2025-03-18
- UI feels inconsistent and fragmented, as if built by unrelated teams2025-01-28
- Gas-switch alert covers the screen, hiding depth, and can't be disabled2025-01-21
- Watch takes over an hour to get a GPS fix even in open skies2025-01-21
- App shows a blank screen at startup without internet access, so history won't load on slow connections2025-01-14
- Garmin watch with iPhone can't reply to texts or do most things, only shows notifications2024-12-19
- Map panning feature is hidden, took months to discover2024-11-04
- Garmin app refuses to add the watch even though Bluetooth pairing succeeds2024-01-26
- Entering transponder codes and COM frequencies requires finding soft keys and tracking the boxed field, which is slower and harder than physical knobs2022-08-17
- Adjusting volume on the watch itself is a pain to do2021-07-14
- Updates make routing worse and GPS reception less reliable over time2019-04-18
- The watch's user interface is clunky and hard to work with2018-01-30
- Commenter finds the G1000 cockpit interface clunky and unintuitive2017-11-07
- UI feels clunky and suboptimal, carried over from older smaller devices2017-11-03
- Rejects valid email addresses containing a plus sign on some services2016-09-08
- Needs six separate computer apps to manage one GPS device, all buggy2015-02-24
- Searching for places more than 5 miles away takes forever2012-03-24
- Hard to use because the user is accustomed to Google Maps2010-12-03