Updates & Downloads

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Forerunner 945 software version 8.09 Beta

as of October 21, 2021

Download (26.64 MB)

View installation instructions

Notes:

• For any issues that you encounter please fill out the form included in the download and attach it to an email to [email protected] Please note that you may not get a response to the email unless we need more information on the issue you report.
• Although this software is believed to be reliable, it has not yet been released for production and should be used at your own risk.

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Change History

Changes made from version 8.02 to 8.09:

• New HIIT activity. Workouts can be downloaded from Garmin Connect.
• New bike activities, including eBike, eMTB, Cyclocross, Gravel Bike, Bike Commute, Bike Tour, and Road Bike.
• New Tennis activity.
• New Snowshoe activity.
• Add a Golf setting for disabling activity file recording. Highlight Golf, access the menu and go to Golf Settings -> Record Activity.
• Updates to Garmin Pay.
• Improvements to the resting heart rate algorithm.
• Minor SpO2 updates to improve messaging.
• Populate stress with a chest strap if available in Breathwork and Yoga.
• Fix an issue that could cause interference with Firstbeat driven metrics like Body Battery, VO2 Max, and Intensity Minutes.
• Fix some issues found in the previous beta, including an open water swim issue and a PacePro download issue.
• Other minor bug fixes and improvements.

Changes made from version 7.80 to 8.02:

• [Notice] A bug was discovered in this beta related to open water swim activities. If the activity is paused and resumed, then when it is eventually saved some corruption of the activity file can occur. If the activity is completed uninterrupted, there appear to be no issues. The cause has been identified and a fix will be provided in the next beta.
• Updates to Daily Suggested Workouts. Includes some updated descriptions and a more gradual base run buildup.
• Add a setting to enable/disable workout audio prompts. In the menu see Audio Prompts > Workout Alerts.
• Add a setting to enable/disable activity recording during a golf round. Highlight the Golf activity, then see Golf Settings > Record Activity.
• Allow the lap key to advance workouts to the next step regardless of the lap key setting.
• Fix an issue that could cause a smart trainer connection to interfere with pace from a foot pod.
• Fix an issue that could temporarily prevent temperature and altitude readings after a pool swim activity.
• Other minor bug fixes and improvements.

Changes made from version 7.20 to 7.75:

• Improve GPS ephemeris downloads
• Fix a barometer issue that could lead to inaccurate elevation
• Other minor improvements and bug fixes

Changes made from version 6.20 to 6.85:

• Added sleep tracking widget with sleep score and insights by Firstbeat AnalyticsTM.
• Added the ability to rate the perceived effort and feel of a Run, Bike, or Swim activity. The prompts appear during activity save. Go to [Activity] Settings > Self Evaluation for options.
• Added Ultra Run activity profile.
• Added VO2 Max for Trail Run activities.
• Improved results for daily Body Battery calculations.
• Updated Intensity Minutes determinations to align with guidance from CDC.
• Added metabolic calories into the total calories reported in the calories data field and recorded in the activity file.
• Improved feedback on stress level readings.
• Improved altimeter auto calibration during activities.
• Improved power meter calibration and settings.
• Improvements to swimming activities.
• Fixed some metronome interference with wrist-based cadence.
• Other minor improvements and bug fixes.

Changes made from version 5.50 to 6.04:

• Improve the software update process for external accessories. Installation prompts will now appear after an activity to avoid interrupting activity start.
• Improvements to heart rate broadcast.
• Add more smartphone app logos for smart notifications.
• Block music controls and disconnect headphones in airplane mode.
• Fix a rare issue that could cause heart rate data to appear flat in Garmin Connect.
• Fix an issue that could prevent LiveTrack from starting when Auto Start is enabled.
• Fix a graphical issue with workout alerts when the background color is set to black.
• Fix an issue sometimes causing distance remaining to not display the hundredths digit.
• Added alerts for ClimbPro to notify of upcoming climbs
• Added descents to ClimbPro when enabled for non-cycling activities.
• Other minor improvements and bug fixes.

Changes made from version 5.30 to 5.32:

• Fixed an issue that caused CIQ watch faces to display 0 calories.
• Added improvements to prevent dropped phone connection.
• Other minor improvements and bug fixes.

Changes made from version 5.09 to 5.15:

• Fix some ANT sensor connection issues.
• Fix some bugs in Pool Swimming activities.
• Various other improvements and bug fixes.

Changes made from version 5.00 to 5.09:

• Added support for Daily Suggested Workouts, which are recommended based on previous activities. You can disable this from activity settings. (Run/Bike > Menu > Training > Workouts > Today's Suggestion.)
• Added support for the Track Run activity, which allows you to record outdoor track data, including lap splits and distance in meters, on a standard shape 400m track.
• Added support for Improved Recovery Time, which takes your stress, sleep, relaxation, and physical activity into consideration.
• Added support for Bouldering and Indoor Climb activity profiles.
• Added support for Grit and Flow features for mountain biking activities. Grit measures the overall difficulty of a ride, and Flow measures how well you maintain your speed throughout the ride.
• Improved optical heart rate performance.
• Updated the look of the Alarm screen.
• Updated the main workout data screen to indicate High, Low, or In Range for the current target.
• Various other improvements and bug fixes.

Changes made from version 4.40 to 4.87:

• Added support for FE-C and Smart Trainer control. See options in Bike Indoor activity.
• Added support for workout videos. The video files can be downloaded via Garmin Express or over WiFi. These videos will display when using an MSN workout that supports them. Download MSN workouts through Garmin Connect.
• Added support for displaying courses to viewers of the user's LiveTrack sessions. Various other LiveTrack improvements
• Added in-place editing of data fields
• Added additional options to Live Event Sharing. Triggers added for Every Mile and Transitions (allowing for multi-sport use)
• Numerous improvements to music experience, usability, and WiFi
• Improved Incoming Call handling
• Fixed problem with device spinning/freezing on activity save due to unintentional file build-up. Note: device will need to sync to Garmin Connect after software update to resolve this issue.
• Fixed problem where certain user's maps took an excessive amount of time to load on boot and were generally sluggish in use
• Greatly improved Around Me search times
• Updated numerous widgets to improve usability and look
• Fixed inability of device to record longest swim PR
• Moved Recovery HR to option on save/discard screen
• Updated post-activity summary pages
• Improvements to segments handling
• Improvements/fixes for on-device weather. Fix instances of missing data.
• Improvements to phone connectivity
• Fixed HRV stress page layout
• Fixed a few issues with Virtual Running and workouts
• Various other improvements and bug fixes

Changes made from version 4.40 to 4.41:

• Updates to improve phone connection reliability

Changes made from version 4.20 to 4.29:

• Improvements to GPS
• Fixed training modes (workouts, intervals, set a target, etc.) in Virtual Running to allow connection to phone app
• Changed filtering of activities for Race an Activity. List of activities is now narrowed to those within the same general sport type.
• Fixed missing auto-run setting in Ski
• Improvements to rep-counting
• Improvements to floor-climb when the user is jogging up/down stairs
• Added SkiSkate profile
• Added BackCountry Ski profile
• Improvements to music playback/sync/providers
• Improvements/fixes to payments
• Made several improvements to Breathwork
• Made several WiFi related improvements
• Various other fixes and improvements

Changes made from version 4.00 to 4.06:

• Add new Virtual Run activity profile. This enables broadcast of speed and heart rate information to virtual running applications such as Zwift.
• Add Widget Glances, a new way to view widget information. The option to enable is found in the Widgets menu.
• Add Low Heart Rate to the Abnormal Heart Rate Alert feature.
• Various improvements for battery performance.
• Fix an issue that was causing loss of treadmill calibration data. For best results, perform an outdoor run before your first treadmill activity.
• Improvements to breathworks
• Miscellaneous bug fixes and improvements.

Changes made from version 3.30 to 3.77:

• Add Garmin Swim 2 Features: Advanced Swim Workouts, Auto rest, Critical Swim Speed, Swim Pacing Alerts
• Added all-day respiration, respiration widget, and breathwork activity
• Improved treadmill calibration
• Added Pilates
• Improvements to audio playback, audio apps
• Fixed crash that could occur on activity save at high elevation
• Fixed issue where sometimes heart rate and PulseOx data would not show when all-day PulseOx was enabled
• Various other fixes and improvements

Changes made from version 3.08 to 3.15:

• Added test code to track down issue with save at high altitude. Please see readme for beta.
• Improvements to segment achievements
• Improve stress readings
• Improvements to media player
• Improvements to phone connectivity
• Fix blocky elevation issue
• Improvements/fixes for Spotify
• Fix potential device freeze on activity summary loop.
• Improvements to headphone connectivity
• Improvements to sensor connectivity
• Fix backlight gesture bug introduced in 3.46 beta
• Various other fixes and improvements

Changes made from version 2.80 to 3.08:

• Added PacePro feature.
• Added additional data field configurations (5 and 6 field).
• Added graphical gauge data fields (i.e. Heart Rate, Cadence, etc.)
• Improve ANT+ and BLE sensor management
• Bluetooth software update to address battery life issues that could occur on some devices
• Improvements to headphone pairing and media player
• Improvements to golf
• Improvement/fixes for Connect IQ
• Some improvements for segments/Strava segments
• Various other fixes/improvements

Changes made from version 2.70 to 2.72:

• Added ability to enable wrist-based heart rate for swimming (pool and open water). This feature is enabled by default. To enable/disable this feature: 1. Open Menu 2. Scroll to 'Wrist Heart Rate' and enter menu 3. Scroll to 'While Swimming' and toggle to 'On'
• Fix swimming cadence/stroke rate
• Improvements to PulseOx settings
• Various fixes for ConnectIQ

Changes made from version 2.50 to 2.64:

• Added ability to enable wrist-based heart rate for swimming (pool and open water). To enable this feature: 1. Open Menu 2. Scroll to 'Wrist Heart Rate' and enter menu 3. Scroll to 'While Swimming' and toggle to 'On'
• Added Connect IQ 3.1 functionality.
• Fixed issues with LiveTrack
• Addressed rare issue of hourly alert drifting off of hour
• Fixed lapping issues in adaptive training plans and workouts
• Addressed 'Around Me' search time when using North Up map
• Fixed issue of duplicates of a user in GroupTrack
• Enabled support for Approach CT10 golf club trackers
• Added Sight N' Go feature

Changes made from version 2.40 to 2.48:

• Fixed bug that would slowly fill temp folder with unnecessary files
• Enable phone position injection to improve GPS fix times after moving long distances
• After Sunset added for backlight gesture option
• Added option to disable/enable lap key for activities
• Various golf improvements
• Added contextual menu accessible from activity paused screen
• Various other improvements

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Installation Instructions

1. Connect your Forerunner 945 to your computer using the USB cable.
2. Download and unzip Forerunner945_809Beta.zip. Place the GUPDATE.GCD file in the \GARMIN folder of your device's internal storage drive. From the RemoteSW folder, copy the 006B310705.GCD and GUP3114.GCD files to the device's \Garmin\RemoteSW folder.
3. Disconnect your device from the computer, approve the update on the watch, and wait for the update to finish.
4. If you would like to revert to the last public release software, place the GUPDATE-780.GCD file in the \GARMIN folder. Rename GUPDATE-780.GCD to GUPDATE.GCD. Copy the 006B379905-415.GCD and GUP3590-701.GCD files from RemoteSW\Downgrades, place them in the device's \Garmin\RemoteSW folder and rename them to 006B310705.GCD and GUP3114.GCD. Disconnect the device to install. NOTE: If you revert to an older version of software, all of your settings will be reset to defaults.

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