How to Fix Your Garmin Forerunner Stuck on the Triangle Screen

Garmin Forerunner users have reported an issue where the device becomes stuck cycling through the blue triangle logo during startup, rendering the watch unresponsive. This problem has been highlighted in various forums, instagram and Strava.

Understanding the Issue

The blue triangle screen is Garmin's logo display during the boot-up sequence. If the device remains on this screen without progressing, it indicates a startup failure. This can result from software glitches, corrupted files, or firmware issues.

This error is most likely caused by Garmin pushing (and keeps pushing) broken update to one of the watch subsystems (GPE.bin). Once you sync the watch (no matter if phone/wifi/garmin epxress), the file gets pushed to Garmin/RemoteSW, and installed on restart, activity start, or some time trigger, which will cause the device to boot loop. This is basically a Crowdstrike 2.0.

How To Fix Garmin Triangle Screen

How to Factory Reset:

1. Power off the watch. This can be done by holding the Light button (top left) for up to 30 seconds. Ensure the watch is actually really off, not just boot looping.
2. Press and hold Back (the bottom right button) and Start/Stop (the top right button).
3. Press Light briefly to power the watch on while holding the Back and Start/Stop buttons - ONLY PRESS LIGHT BRIEFLY, TO TURN ON THE WATCH, DO NOT CONTINUE HOLDING LIGHT (holding the light/power button for 10+ seconds will force restart the watch, which will interrupt this procedure).
4. After the first beep, release Start/Stop (so now you only continue holding the Lap button).
5. After the second beep, release the remaining Lap button. The reset is successful if the watch powers up and goes through the initial setup steps.

Note that you then need to remove 955 from phone bluetooth settings, and from the Connect app before connecting it again.

This will not delete your cloud backups (if you use them).

After The Factory Reset:

Set up the watch without connecting to phone or wifi. Only sync with a computer through USB cable and Garmin Express, but you need to make sure you remove the broken update file before disconnecting the watch.‍

It is also possible to restore the previous watch backup this way (Garmin Express → Tools & Content →Utilities → Backup, pick backup, let it sync, and again, remove the GPE.bin before unplugging).

Syncing through phone or wifi always downloads the broken update!

1. Turn off the phone sync (or watch bluetooth at all)
2. If you want to sync, sync through Garmin Express on a computer, but before unplugging, you need to delete the update file:
3. Quit (kill) Garmin Express
4. Open OpenMTP (or Android File Transfer) and display the device content
5. Delete all files (GPE.bin) in Garmin/RemoteSW/
6. Only then it is safe to unplug the watch

Conclusion

In summary, the Garmin Forerunner's blue triangle boot loop issue appears to stem from a faulty update to the GPE.bin file, causing devices to become unresponsive after syncing.

While solutions like forcing mass storage mode or reinstalling firmware can resolve the problem, staying vigilant with updates and regularly backing up data are key to avoiding future disruptions. If all else fails, Garmin Support remains the final line of assistance.