Random reboots of the Suunto 7 during recording an activity

olymay

BAD news everyone!

After a successful run on Thursday where my Suunto 7 worked perfectly whilst following a run, I went out today on the exact same route, with the exact same settings aaannnnddddd…

IT CRASHED!!!

However, this was different to previous issues. I started off on the default running info screen so I could keep an eye on my pace. When I got to the part of the route with a number of turns, I switched to the map view (I have this set to always on screen) so that I could easily and quickly see where I needed to go.
After maybe 10 minutes of this mode, I switched back to the default screen to check my pace. I left it on this screen and when it switched to the powersaving display (thinner fonts etc) it crashed the Suunto Wear App and went to my clock face. Cue much swearing from me!!
This was at around 5km in the run, when in the past it crashed at around the 1km mark or sooner.

HOWEVER… I again opened the Suunto Wear App a little further in the run and it it openedd on the default running screen and was still tracking my run with all data present and correct!! Great I thought, it was just a blip. But, once it tried to go to the powersaving display again, it crashed again.
I tried this a few times and the same thing happened every time. I decided to stop fiddling as it seemed to be continuing to track my run, just without showing it to me.
At the finish line I was able to open the Suunto Wear App (it was still tracking!) and stop the run fine. When I got home it synced the data to my phone as normal, which is a huge relief!

However, this is a £400 activity focussed watch that seems to require a factory reset before every run in order to work properly.

Am I frustrated? Nope. I am absolutely &@%$ING SEETHING FURIOUS!!

Bulkan

@olymay so sorry to read that. I’m frustrated reading you. So I don’t know what to tell you more than reach support and ask for a solution.

At least we’ve discovered is a bug know and top priority to fix it but without ETA.

olymay

@Bulkan I have contacted support on three occasions. Every time they log my issue and inform me that someone from the technical team will contact me within 24-48 hours. I have never been contacted. I have utterly given up with Suunto customer service.

Reading Pavel’s comment about Suunto acknowledging the issue (this part is good news) then saying they are relying on a third party, WHAT!?!? Firstly, this is a software issue, not hardware - the fault was introduced after the recent update. Second, I was under the impression that a Suunto watch would be made by Sunnto. What third party are they referring to? Or are they just fobbing off because they are either unable or unwilling to fix it?

I’m now starting to look at my friend’s Garmin Fenix 6 with more and more envy

Brad_Olwin

@olymay I think they are referring to Google. The watch is a partnership.

Bulkan

@olymay the suunto 7 uses wearOS that’s google.

Look at the page of suunto of your country and give them a call.

pavel.samokha

@olymay Well, Suunto produces devices and writes software - but all this work is based on components from different suppliers - one company supplies a heart-rate sensor, another - chipset and so on. Typically all this components come with SDK which may also contain bugs and etc.
I quite understand your frustration (I have similar issue) and sorry for that, but well - as for all affected it started to happen without clear reason why I am not surprised it haven’t been found during testing - this shit happens even to expensive products.
I’ll keep an eye on it and let you know if there is any news. Let’s wait for next update.

olymay

@Brad_Olwin Possibly. But the problem seems to be with the Suunto Wear App, which I doubt Google have much (if any) involvement with.

@Bulkan I have done this. Three times. Each time they promise someone from ‘Technical’ will get bet to me within 24-48 hours. This has never happened. I expect better when I have spent over £400 on one of their products.

@pavel-samokha You have a point there, maybe there is a clash between components/software. But it seems to be purely within the Suunto Wear App since the recent update. As it seems to crash (at least for me) when the display switches to the powersaving mode, maybe as a short term fix they could give us the option to dissable this powersave screen? At least until they fix the greater problem here. AT least it would allow me to use the watch as per it’s intended function.

I know I am ranting here, and I work in technology so I really do understand that this sort of thing can (and does) happen. I am mostly angry at the appalling customer service. Promising to get back to me and then they don’t. Each time I call up they tell me this is a highly unusual problem and they have never heard of it before (they clearly do not read these forums then do they!). They have suggested sending my watch back for a month (they will have it for 14 working days, plus transport and processing either side, comes to roughly a month) and it sound like that won’t remedy the situation at all.

I am getting much better info and response from here on the forums.

I am angry at the response by Suunto. I don’t want to take my frustrations to social media, but I may have to resort to that in order to get a response and acknowledgement from Suunto.

Mi_chael

@pavel-samokha

Do you know when (approximately) will be available the next firmware update?

pavel.samokha

@olymay said in Random reboots of the Suunto 7 during recording an activity:

us the option to dissable this powersave screen

It makes sense to me, I’ll try to pass this to the team.

@olymay said in Random reboots of the Suunto 7 during recording an activity:

I am mostly angry at the appalling customer service.

Not an excuse, but possible explanation I see is that first-line customer service is really can’t do anything with modern bug except to offer you to get watch for service.

@Mi_chael said in Random reboots of the Suunto 7 during recording an activity:

Do you know when (approximately) will be available the next firmware update?

Sorry, even if I had known I wouldn’t comment on anything like release dates - both because it may change due to various reasons (like a major bug in last minute) and just I suppose I’m not allowed to. Trying to do my best to be helpful here and not saying anything forbidden, probably I need a masterclass from @Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos

Mi_chael

@pavel-samokha

Ok, don’t worry. I understand.

pilleus

@olymay said in Random reboots of the Suunto 7 during recording an activity:

But it seems to be purely within the Suunto Wear App since the recent update. As it seems to crash (at least for me) when the display switches to the powersaving mode

Exactly the same experience here. And I think it depends on one of the settings in “gestures”, which also activate the coprocessor if a powersaving watch face is choosen.

I enabled AOD therefore and I think this is a solution to avoid this bug. Try to use it and disable all the options in “gestures” except “tap to wake”.

Maybe it’s working.

olymay

@pavel-samokha Thank you! You are doing a grand job and in just a few messages have given me way more information than three calls to customer service which have totalled over an hour.

I’m sure you already have done, but please stress to Suunto that this has rendered the Suunto Wear App on my watch completely useless.

I do realise that the first-line customer service are limited in what they can do, but when they promise that the Technical Team will contact me in 24-48 hours and I get nothing, either they are lying to me, or the Technical Team are ignoring me. Either way, that is poor and I am furious.

I have now just factory reset my watch for the fourth time in a week. I should not have to do this with a £400 watch (in fact I would be annoyed if I had to do it with a £40 watch!!).

Again, Pavel you have been great and seem to be making progress with Suunto that the rest of us are unable to do so.

I know you are unable to give us any dates as to when a fix may be released, but if you could give us a rough estimate (i.e hopefully within the next four weeks) please? If this goes on for much longer then I will be returning my S7 and getting something that actually works (maybe go back to my £10 plastic Casio!)

olymay

@pilleus Interesting! I will try a few combinations.

My usual settings are:

AOD: On
Tilt to wake: Off
Touch to wake: Off

pilleus

@olymay there is a third option in “gestures” for Suunto’s watch faces which are listet to save energy. I think this may cause the issue. With other watch faces it’s grayed out.

I used the 3100 essential watch face during the period of crashes,which is also designed to use the coprocessor.

Now I use a different watch face and didn’t experience the problem until now.

olymay

@pilleus Ah, yes, I know what you mean, the ‘power saver watch face’ with ‘power saver tilt’.

I use the default Heat Map watch face (it’s gorgeous!) with the power save feature turned on. I will try disabling this and see what happens…

EDIT
Just disabled the ‘power saver tilt’ and it made no difference

alex kennedy

@olymay i think you have sealed the deal with me. I was looking at the Suunto 7. With poor support I won’t be buying their watch. Working in tech industry a simple update that they are delayed but no contact is not on.

Bugs and poor battery life with crap.support…no thanks

Egika

@alex-kennedy and that is the message you registered your account here for?
Thank you for letting us know - I just don’t get of what added value this posting is…

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@alex-kennedy hi alex. Can you elaborate? Not all users have this specific issue and the support is well Since you don’t have the watch I assume, and I would assume you have not contacted support, what’s the issue here exactly ?

olymay

@alex-kennedy please don’t let me put you off. The Suunto 7 is an outstanding watch and as long as they can rectify this issue (which as already mentioned is not widespread) then I will once again be extremely happy with it.

Jamie BG

@alex-kennedy
Poor battery life - maybe to a fitness watch when used as a smartwatch, but compared to most other true smartwatches i.e. wear os/iOS and even latest Tizen its battery life is as good if not better.
In terms of continuous GPS tracking, unless you are talking about the sort of ultra fitness watches like Baro9, Fenix, 945 etc it seems to fare quite comparably - especially against other like fitness watches with touchscreens like Garmin Venu etc - got very similar battery life while tracking. And these watches do not have the same level of connectivity or screen as the suunto 7 (all power hungry activities).
If you can’t live with that then would consider that a true smartwatch isn’t for you.

Poor support - maybe, but then maybe not when you consider how regularly they are updating and how many feature updates there are. Currently seems that there are only a couple with the tracking/crashing issue - I suspect the percentage is small, and I agree it does need to be fixed, and we have advised that it will be. I don’t know how regularly other smartwatches/fitness watches are updated, but considering that since I got this watch Suunto have done two major updates and google is regularly updating, got to give them kudos on that.

only bug issue relating to suunto is this crashing, which most of us don’t seem to have. There seem to be 2/3 users with this issue?
Google assistant - latest update from google seems to have this working better than ever - much better than any other wear os update. Even managed to get it to add a calendar event - note sure it could that prior to recent update.