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

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Daniel Wasser

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”

Huw on October 12, 2020 at 12:26 said:

Genius ! Thank you so much for this one – amazing ! Reversed battery, placed in strap for 2 mins then removed and replaced the correct way and bingo it paired immediately.
FanAnn on November 11, 2020 at 13:09 said:

This worked for me – thank you!! Inserted the battery the incorrect way – attached it to the strap, waited a few minutes, then removed and turned the battery the correct way – and hey bingo my Garmin Edge 1000 paired my heart rate strap immediately.
Ernst on November 24, 2020 at 16:09 said:

Solved my problem with heartratee brest motitor too. Thougt it was broken after keeping the brest monitor on during shower. 30 seconds battery in opposite position to shorten the circuit did the trick. Paired imediately again after that. Thanks for this post!
Rline on December 1, 2020 at 15:52 said:

Works like a champ. Couldn’t get the heart rate monitor to re-pair with my Edge 1000 after changing the battery. Re-removed the new battery, inserted it upside down for 2-3 mins, replaced it again correctly and immediately paired.
Matt on December 7, 2020 at 20:13 said:

There is no way that worked! I honestly tried this as a last ditch effort, and it worked! I put the battery on backwards, re-assembled it, waited two minutes, took it apart, removed the battery, waited ten minutes, put the battery in correctly, assembled it, and immediately it connected!
Phil on December 8, 2020 at 17:40 said:

Yep, it worked. I couldn’t get the strap working after a battery change, so I was resigned to thinking I’d need a new one as the same thing happened with my previous one. Tried this method and it worked on both, so now I have 2 working ones, haha! Christmas has come early.
Stephen on December 10, 2020 at 1:20 said:

Came across this after trying myraid ways to get HRM to pair as obviously nothing to lose but process really sounded naff. And now, HRM paired with Garmin again… cheers.
Chris on December 27, 2020 at 16:16 said:

OK, so its crazy why this should work but it does. Went to put my HR strap on today. Dead. Not connected and would not connect. Switched the battery, still dead. Found the advice above, flipped the battery over, waited a few mins then put it back the right way, and bingo, strap working again. Perfect!
Daz on January 1, 2021 at 15:35 said:

This really does work. Brilliant. Thought I was going to have to buy a new HRM but this sorted my problem. Thank you..
Andrew Smith on January 10, 2021 at 13:36 said:

Wow what a star!!! What a fab fix just spent an hour messing this morning 👍❤️💪💪💪
Andreas on January 21, 2021 at 14:12 said:

I had the exact same problem with my HRM3-SS.
Tried to re-fit the battery and cleaned the contacts. Still did not pair. Then I found this post so I flipped the battery to reset the device for about a minute or so. Then put it in the right way, closed the device and voila, my forerunner 235 found it straight away. Thanks for the tip!
Mike Goddard on February 4, 2021 at 14:45 said:

Worked like magic! Bought a new strap a few years ago thinking old one was broken after putting in a new battery. Same happened recently with second strap. Reversed battery on both straps for a few minutes today and – hey presto – I now have 2 working straps!!
Peter on February 11, 2021 at 16:52 said:

It works! Had the same problem after replacing the battery. Just tried it – reversed the battery, left it for few minutes, then put the battery back the correct way and hey presto – connected straight away. Thanks a bunch for the post!
Max on February 17, 2021 at 23:13 said:

This works!! Haha
Sebastian on February 20, 2021 at 15:35 said:

Works like a charm! Garmin should get this on their website 🙂
Randy Quan on February 20, 2021 at 22:58 said:

Totally worked for me. Replaced the battery the normal way, and nothing.
Flipped the battery for 3 mins upside down, then placed it back and the HR connected to my phone instantly.

Thank you!
Sean Maynard on March 17, 2021 at 5:50 said:

I was upset and skeptical. It worked. Saved me $$$. Thanks!!!
Mark on March 24, 2021 at 13:22 said:

same here, worked for me after trying numerous other resets etc! Great post!
Phillip on March 27, 2021 at 3:02 said:

That was very helpful and saved me money! Took my HRM to the Garmin service centre, who told me it was broken and I had to buy a new strap+sensor for HK$650… which I baulked at. Then found this fix and it works a treat. So happy, thank you.
Anonymous on March 31, 2021 at 10:35 said:

Worked for me too. Thanks for sharing.
Anonymous on April 4, 2021 at 21:43 said:

I just purchased a new sensor without checking in your post, ugh
Raphael on April 25, 2021 at 10:09 said:

My HRM wouldn’t connect with my Forerunner 235 even after replacing the battery (twice). Thanks to your post, the problem has been resolved.
Great post! Wonder why Garmin does not mention it in their websites.
Mac on May 3, 2021 at 11:00 said:

Ridiculous, but it worked a treat.
I did 10mins battery reversed.
5mins with no battery
Then reassembled. Worked straight away.
Thanks for the tip 👍
DMT on May 5, 2021 at 14:25 said:

I found my Garmin HRM1G would flash the heartbeat indicator but never display a rate on my Vivofit 3. After new batteries in both, reset/resyncing the Vivofit, the problem persisted. Instead of reversing the battery, I used a paperclip held across the terminals for 30 seconds. When I re-inserted the battery, it worked right away. Thanks for helping me out with the idea!!
Paul on May 23, 2021 at 15:00 said:

It worked. You just saved me however much a new HRM strap would have cost. I applaud you!
JGW on June 6, 2021 at 16:29 said:

Yup, just worked for me too. Thanks!
matt on June 7, 2021 at 10:24 said:

WHAT?!
I would NEVER have expected this voodoo to work. I only tried because of the long list of supporting comments here, otherwise i would never have believed it. And indeed: now my Garmin HRM-4 Run now works once more.. I would certainly have thrown it away had i not encountered this (ten-year-old) post. Thanks!
Matiss on June 9, 2021 at 4:29 said:

Thank you!! Short circuit FTW!
Whitey on July 9, 2021 at 12:45 said:

Wow like others thought it was trashed, worked instantly and connected
Cheers
BILL on July 24, 2021 at 19:08 said:

WORKED FOR ME THANKS
Dan on August 3, 2021 at 17:28 said:

Yet another success, thought I was in for a new strap, or that water had leaked inside (mine is a blue garmin swim HRM strap). shorted the two contacts together and it worked. Garmin definitely needs this on the website, who in their right mind thinks they need to short a device to make it work for a battery change??? C’mon, really? Thanks to poster.
Jenn on August 8, 2021 at 19:28 said:

Worked for me, with Garmin HRM-Swim that I hadn’t used in years and honestly thought was just broken. Garmin probably knows this, and probably sells a lot more HRM because of it.
Daniel on August 12, 2021 at 2:19 said:

This worked for my wife’s HRM Duel. Thank you for posting this idea. It made perfect sense when I read it!
Jeff Castles on August 13, 2021 at 10:07 said:

Yeap, that’s a winner. Thanks
Jack on August 13, 2021 at 21:38 said:

Holy capacitor batman, it works! Many thanks to the genius who figured this out!
Bart on August 15, 2021 at 19:17 said:

Thanks for this!
Ed on August 17, 2021 at 19:03 said:

This really works – Garmin Edge 510 with HRM. Many thanks for tip!
Alison Binsfeld on August 20, 2021 at 17:20 said:

Thanks for the hint! This is the second HR strap I have used this trick on when replacing the battery 🙂
Johnson on August 23, 2021 at 9:23 said:

Hi, i have the some issue after changing battery. I tried the opp battery placement for
3 mins and it didnt work. So i tried using a safety pin to connect the 2 battery contact point for 3mins. And it works!
Oleksii on August 25, 2021 at 8:16 said:

@Johnson, thanks for a hint. Only two batteries rebooted my device and made it pairable again! After 4 months of not using it!
Dick on September 18, 2021 at 11:02 said:

I see a lot of successes. Unfortunately in my case it didn’t do the trick. An about 3 year old HRM-SWIM, hardly used, maybe twice in a pool. Didn’t work. Replaced battery, then found out this post and followed the instructions, but so far, no success. Brand new batteries which might have been laying four a while but with a ‘best before-date’ of 2027
Anonymous on September 25, 2021 at 8:48 said:

Did not work for my HRM-Tri.
Dom Wannasirikul on September 26, 2021 at 11:56 said:

This is amazing!!! Work like a charm
Milos Jankovic on October 24, 2021 at 19:08 said:

Amazing!!! My HRM Run died 18 months ago. I retired it and bought some cheep hrm on aliexpress, which worked, but it was often loosing contact. Now, I’ve dug my old HRM Run to try this and it suddenly came to life.
Kev on October 29, 2021 at 11:28 said:

No way…..

Thankyou, Thankyou, Thankyou

Worked like a charm.
additin2 on November 7, 2021 at 8:13 said:

This method worked for me as well. Thank you for sharing this wonderful information!

I went ahead and outlined the exact, detailed steps (with pictures) I took to get my HRM working on my blog here (along with my experience with this issue)

https://additin2.blogspot.com/2021/02/garmin-heart-rate-monitor-not-working.html
Phil B on November 28, 2021 at 19:59 said:

Thanks – worked for me too!
Jose Pedro Martins on January 18, 2022 at 13:58 said:

Thanks mate, just save me some €€ !!! 🙂
Tim on January 19, 2022 at 8:19 said:

Thanks for that! Worked as advertised 😎
Graeme on January 19, 2022 at 15:02 said:

Honestly, i knew this wasn’t going to work for me and i was WRONG! Only tried n desperation – if it weren’t for this post I’d have ordered another one. Thank You

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

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