How to get the Garmin heart rate monitor to work after a Battery change

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This week I tried to change the Battery on my Garmin heart rate monitor ( HRM2-SS ). The change itself is not that difficult – only remove the 4 screws at the backside, open the cover, change the old Battery with a new CR2032, close the cover and place the screws back. After that the Heart rate was not shown in my Forerunner or Edge…
To fix the problem I tried to reconnect the monitor with the forerunner manymany times – without any success.
A colleague of mine who uses a (optical) nearly similar polar heart belt, gave me the hint to short-circuiting the monitor for a few minutes. Bypassing the battery contacts should cause a reset of the device. This could easily done with a paper clip or by inserting the battery in the wrong direction. The contacts of the monitor are installed in a way that the misplaced battery will only cause a bypass between the two contacts. Be careful: don’ t give reverse polarity to the device – only bypass the connectors!
After this procedure the heart rate monitor build up a proper connection to my garmin computers and every thing works as expected. By the way – i love my Garmin devices!

262 thoughts on “How to get the Garmin heart rate monitor to work after a Battery change”

  1. Hello Tracy,
    open the battery case, remove the battery, locate the 2 small metal pieces which are connected to the battery, connect them
    with the paperclip.

    Greetings,
    Daniel

  2. Thank you Daniel! : ) I tried the turn upside down trick and “evenly” applying full contact to the back of the case. It works now!! Wahoo, however I have fully stripped one of the screws now. On the Garmin site for blogs – sad to see I am not the only one looking for a replacement screw or two or three. ;o) Thanks again for your kind reply and explanation!! Any advise how to get my bike cadence sensor to sync back after changing its battery? It worked for me last year – not playing nice this year. Going to check for that perfect 3-5 mm gap.

  3. Thanks for that tip. I had the same problem and you procedure worked like a charm.
    And I was already shopping for a new monitor, silly me 😉

  6. Thanks. This worked for me also. Just one more tip. Make sure you’re away from any 2.4 GHz wireless sensors like wireless LAN (WiFi). My device just woulnd’t pair next to my laptop while reading this. Moved away a bit and it paired immediately.

  7. None if these worked for me. I connected the metal pieces. I was away from any wifi. I was away from my phone. I think I’ll try making an aluminum foil hat.

  9. Crap – these instructions don’t work! I have an older Forerunner 210 and just purchased a “refurbished” 610 with another HRM. The old HRM works fine with the 210 but not the 610. The new HRM doesn’t work with either one. I’m trying everything to get one of my HRM’s to connect to the 610. I may have a 3rd HRM in a drawer.

  11. this is a superb thread , i was at the end of my tether , put your battery in backwards for 2-3 seconds flip it around and hey presto , couldnt believe it could be that simple , back synced to my vivo active , thanks very much indeed

  14. Daniel:

    Your tip worked well for me…restored connection to my Garmin 705.

    Thanks,

    John

  15. Awesome! As someone above said, I was about to give up and buy a new one.
    I had only removed the battery to try it in my cadence sensor, to see if that was the reason why it wasn’t working.

    So, thanks, worked for my Edge 800.

    You would think Garmin would publish this in the manual……

  16. what type of screwdriver did you use? I can’t seem to find one small enough.

  20. No, your suggestion will not work for me.
    My Forerunner 610 will not pair with my HRM2-SS.
    I guess no alternative except to replace my HRM.

  21. Worked for me too. However, I hope don’t have to remove those screws too often: the Phillips heads are starting to get pretty worn.

  24. Worked with paper clip on my 4 small screwed on back model after replacing battery to no avail – I think the original was 3.5 years old – so I had already discarded before I read this – thanks for your post

  25. worked also for me. Just mounted the battery in backwards mode. The first time did not work so I executed the procedure a second time waiting ca. 5 min with the battery inserted on the wrong side and finally it worked.

    Thank you a lot.

  26. Thank You so much! Just worked for my 800.
    You saved me $$$. I like that.

  27. I was stuck and had no luck with Garmin’s troubleshooting pages and thankfully saw this. Thanks very much. Worked a charm!

  28. I followed the troubleshooting directions in my Forerunner 410 manual. Checked the battery voltage again. Tried pairing. No luck.

    Googled “garmin hrm2-s2 to see if I could buy a new HRM. Saw your post in the Google search list.

    THANKS!!!!!!! Put the battery in backwards, pulled it out, reinserted positive side up, screwed the back on, Forerunner detected it immediately. So very appreciative!!!!

  29. I try pull out the battery an wait 30 secs, put the battery backwards, and still isn´t work. Try to remove de sensor and paring again and still isn´t work. I try to reset my garmin edge 1000 and nothing happend.

    Do you have another method?

    Regards

  31. I’ve been trying to pair my new garmin premium HRM3 SS With my edge 510, I’ve tried reversing the battery first for a couple of seconds then again for 3-4 minutes and I still can’t get it to work. Any other suggestions?

  32. By the way everyone, all the above are great and work a treat…once you put the monitor on yourself. This is a very important part that was not mentioned, I found it on another BB.
    All good now ?

  33. Just tried this and it didn’t work, is the HRM2-SS compatible with the Edge 25?

  39. I could not get my Garmin HRM2-ss to connect ot my Galaxy Note 4. Ironically, it was because i was wasn’t wearing it at the time. Put it on like you are going to wear it and try to connect again in S Health. It connected instantly and has worked perfectly after days of trying weird ways to connect it. Now it works perfectly. I feel dumb 🙂

  40. Hi!!! I have the hr3-ss but i can not use with my iphone!!! What can i do??? Thank you!!!

  42. This issue is insane. How about just making a device that works/pairs when you insert a new battery, Garmin?

  45. Thank you, this worked a treat for me too. Another plus, I now have a new spare Garmin HR strap and a Polar Wearlink strap because I did go shopping as nothing else I tried had worked at all. BTW The Polar Wearlink strap works very well with he Garmin snap on HR pod from the premium strap.

  46. Thanks a million – my 2 sensors are working again perfectly fine !
    For one I had to replace additionally the battery, but this is standard after using it for quite a while.

    Regarding screws: take old electronic devices apart – here you’ll find typically one or the other screw,that fits 100%

  47. Thanks for this tip, my forerunner 305 is working again, but the screw in plastic cap has broke its thread on the strap part so have to wrap insulation tape tightly around it a few times, seems to hold! It was the first battery change for about 6 years, I cant believe it either!!

  48. Thank you that worked (putting the battery in upside down). After trying 4 new batteries, and around 20 reps of taking the back off my Garmin HRM3-SS I’ve finally been able to repair & re-pair it to my edge 1000. I’m now a frustrat Garmin customer!

  49. Wow, worked like a charm. I was already to go shopping for a new one. Thanks for the tip, awesome.

  50. I left the monitor body hooked up to the straps, wet the pick ups and then touched them together. Forerunner 610 mated with the heart rate monitor right away.

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