Tutorial - Forerunner 245/245 Music ：Getting Started

[@nadinedavey-rogers407]

Best instruction i could find! Simple and to the point1 better than the phone's own instructions. Thank you!

[@d2az691]

Yes, I'm new to this ... but -- When you say to "press a button" you have your index finger on one button and your thumb on another. Which of the two are you pressing?

[@chris-sc]

I second this. The video really obscures which button is being pressed, as the presenter puts his fingers on two buttons at the same time. Not very useful.

[@lalitnegi2690]

if you see carefully the button he only press using the thumb. the other finger is below the button for grip only

[@bendtherules0]

Useful. I just got the watch today.

[@1Lotusflower]

Good run through!

[@robphilpott43]

I just need a simple step by step guide for getting my new Garmin to record the distance and time of my runs. Frustratingly, I can't find this anywhere, and this tutorial is too brief and superficial to be of much use.

[@gunnevi57]

Alerts ro contacts does not work in Sweden it seems?

[@shatteringairfist191]

So no map trail where u have run by?

[@mona8055]

This super helpful! Thanks

[@skateata1]

My watch came in today. The weather takes time to load though

[@laineyy5006]

Which button is save button?

[@hughmacdonnell9096]

anyone know how the 245 music connects with Strava considering you won't have your phone on you while running?

[@bhees]

This watch is absolutely awful to figure out. The manual is awful. So I came here hoping maybe a 'getting started' video tutorial would help, but no, it's awful too. It's like you have to already know your way around the watch before the video makes sense. So I've got a random thing on the watch screen, five buttons to choose from... what button do I press to get back to the beginning? Or to get to anything that makes sense? Give me some idea of how the basic menu structure works, please! This video is no help at all. I've never had a problem figuring out a Garmin product before (I've had maybe half a dozen) until buying this piece of junk watch. What a disaster.

[@mattbell8426]

It's so simple to figure out. I don't know how it could be any clearer, or how much more you need things to be spelled out for you. Maybe the "piece of junk" watch isn't the problem here.

[@bhees]

​@@mattbell8426 >"I don't know how it could be any clearer" Well, I sure hope you're not in product usability and/or documentation! Here's several things they could do: 1) Make the button labels legible to people over age 45. They're microscopic. I didn't even know there *were* button labels until I pulled out a magnifying glass just now. Garmin should put the same level of effort into the button labels as they put into their branding. I can read the high-contrast silvery GARMIN lettering just fine. Maybe I wouldn't have written that screed last week if I could tell the names of the buttons without referring back to the manual which I had forsaken the previous week. 2) Don't make the user pair the watch straight out of the box. If anything goes wrong the user doesn't know how to navigate their way through the menus yet. This was me a couple weeks ago. The stupid app told me 'pairing failed' and there were various things I should try on the watch. I'm like "I'm on step 1 in the manual; I don't even know wtf the settings menu is or how to find it". Idiots. 3) The watch has at least 3 menu systems and they work in 3 different ways. Just pick one. Geez. All the menu navigation stuff is a mess. And that's IMO now, *after* I know the basics. 4) Scrolling lists need to look like scrolling lists. Garmin's don't. The idea that two or three words constitutes a vertically scrolling list is not intuitive. Once you know it, it's "obvious", but that's not really what "obvious" means. This hung me up early on. It doesn't help that the choice you select is in the *middle* of the screen, not the top. Or that the START STOP button is the button you use to select stuff (the guy in the video just flies over that -- "just 'select it' he says, but you can't even see which button he's pressing). It also doesn't help that the UP button makes the list slide down, whereas the DOWN button makes the list slide up. I know, it's old school, you're not sliding the list, you're going to a point up or down from where you are and the list slides in the opposite direction. But Apple figured that one out like ten years ago and they're right. 5) Pressing START STOP from the watch face puts you into a 4th mode, not a menu, and in this mode the BACK button doesn't work. What a disaster. I think this was where I was stuck when I wrote my initial comment. I don't know how they should fix it, but they need to fix it. 6) The guy in the video needs to take a lesson or five in understanding a new user's point of view. This is a "getting started tutorial", after all. He's skipping over stuff that is probably "obvious" to someone who works with Garmin watches all day long, but needs to be explained to a new user. I already mentioned the menu navigation stuff he ignored. But even 'here's where you cycle through pre-loaded widgets'... okay, what's a widget? How do I go for a run and see how far I ran... is that a widget? It sounds more like an ad than a tutorial. --- Ten years ago I had a Garmin watch and I could go for a frigging run and it would tell me how long it took and how far I ran. Why does it have to be so complicated now? Maybe back then the lady at the store gave me a 2-minute lesson on how to use the watch so it became "obvious", whereas the current watch I bought online so there's no 'lady at the store'. But still, the video should cover it. This whole 2022 experience has been a disaster. The amount of features Garmin can cram into a watch has far exceeded their ability to explain those features and make them easy to use.

[@mattbell8426]

@@bhees I appreciate you taking the time to write all of that. What's interesting though is that I haven't experienced any of these issues and I've never owned a Garmin product before. I only read the brief summary of what each button was, then I set it up using the app with no issues. I was then able to immediately use the watch as there are only 5 buttons to remember. To start an exercise you press the start button, I really don't think that is complicated (the button is also red, in case you can't read the label). Scrolling through the menus I also don't have an issue with. I appreciate the UI is a little clunky in some areas, but I think it's forgivable considering how easy I've found the product when using it lately. Your experience has been different so you're absolutely entitled to your own opinion, but I find it difficult to sympathise when I haven't experienced those problems.

[@anitabeel60]

I agree its like you already have to know what your doing. im annoyed. I have an apple watch but I want to learn this one. all the ones that are being negative your not helpful. I came on here to for help not negativity.

[@phumeoli]

I just ordered this watch. Is it suitable for cycling?

[@earlgrey2130]

You ordered a smartwatch before even knowing its features??.. Bro..

[@stasheAUS]

where is the brightness settings? its shows in manual but not in settings...please fix this asap

[@bendtherules0]

Follow this - www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/forerunner945/EN-US/GUID-C9A5E731-8826-4AD0-8087-F6E2EAC625D6.html I enabled the backlight on flip gesture using this guide. They should really make it the default.

[@stasheAUS]

@@bendtherules0 problem is there is no level settings for brightness. Select Keys and Alerts to turn on the backlight for key presses and alerts. "YES available" Select Gesture to turn on the backlight by raising and turning your arm to look at your wrist. "YES available" Select Timeout to set the length of time before the backlight turns off. "YES available Select Brightness to set the brightness level of the backlight. "NOT available"

[@bendtherules0]

Afaik, brightness level is not there for garmin fr245. Only available in higher models.

[@rafaelmartintorres6306]

how long your wrist?

[@bonghy]

Is it available in every Malaysia Garmin shop as of today?