How to Reset Garmin Forerunner 265 and 265s

Garmin’s affordable mid-tier Forerunner portfolio gets two new watches – the Forerunner 265 and 265s. There’s a premium model too, dubbed, the Forerunner 965. The newer watches come with an AMOLED screen, a nifty set of health features, music support, and more. All thanks to the GarminOS. Yes, the new Forerunner 265 series also run on the GarminOS, it is undoubtedly one of the best smartwatch OS, but just in case your watch got frozen, hang, or stuck somewhere, or if you’re looking for a fresh start, then read along to know how to reset Garmin Forerunner 265 and 265s.

There are a number of ways you can utilize to reset your Forerunner smartwatch. And the best thing is, two methods save your data too. Yes, you can save your health/fitness data as well as the songs stored on the watch for offline playback.

There are plenty of reasons behind the laggy behavior or frozen issue on a smartwatch. A simple reboot will resolve a big number of common issues. Whether you want to perform a simple reboot or hard reset, you are in the right place. In this article, I am going to share three ways to reset the Garmin Forerunner 265 or 265s which include a soft reset, hard reset, and master reset aka factory reset methods.

Let’s dive right into the steps.

How to Reset Garmin Forerunner 265 and 265s [Soft Reset]

A soft reset aka a simple reboot addresses a number of issues on the Forerunner 265 series. Yes, if any app is behaving weirdly, you can perform a simple reboot so it will kill the background activity as well as the cache stored in the background. This troubleshooting method is also good if you’re facing issues with GPS, fast battery drain, or some other function not working properly. Here’s how you can perform a quick soft reset on your watch.

Note: Although, this method will not remove any data, but still, suggest you to sync your data before performing the reset on your watch.

1. Press and hold the Light button till the watch turns off, it will take 15 seconds.
2. Now you need to turn on the watch.
3. Press the Light button on your watch for a couple of seconds, it will start working again.
4. That’s it.

This is one of the easiest and best ways to quickly reset the Garmin Forerunner 265 or 265s without losing the important health data, if you’re still facing some issues, you can try performing the hard reset on your watch.

How to Reset Garmin Forerunner 265 and 265s [Hard Reset]

The best thing about the Garmin Forerunner watches is that you can reset it without losing all of your personal data, music, and activities. The same can be done on the new Forerunner 265 series. Here’s how you can perform a hard reset on your Forerunner 265.

Note: As I said earlier, this method will not delete music and activities data, but still prefer you to sync up the data quickly before performing the method on your watch.

1. Open Settings by pressing the Up button.
2. Now press the up button one more time to see the System Settings option.
3. To enter the System Settings press the Start Stop button.
4. Now use the Up and Down buttons to see other options in the Settings.
5. Once you see Reset, tap on the Start Stop button to enter the Reset Settings.
6. Find Reset Default Settings and then press the Start Stop button to perform a hard reset.
7. That’s it.

How to Reset Garmin Forerunner 265 and 265s [Master Reset]

For a fresh start, Master Reset is a good option for Forerunner 265 or 265s owners. A master reset will wipe out all data available on the watch so make sure to back it up before performing it on your watch. Here are the steps for a master reset.

Note: You will lose all data on your watch by performing a master reset, yes, you will lose your activity data, health data, personal information, music, and other stuff. Not only this, but you will also lose the learned training data such as Vo2 Max and more.

1. Power off your watch, by pressing the Light button once.
2. When the power icon is in front of the Start Stop button, press it.
3. Now press the Up button to open the Settings > System Settings > Reset.
4. Under Reset settings, select Delete Data and Reset Settings.
   
5. That’s it.

Master Reset for Frozen Screen on Garmin Forerunner 265 / 265s

In case your Garmin Forerunner 265 or 265s is frozen and you’re unable to go to Settings for Reset, then there’s a workaround that you can perform to master reset your Forerunner 265.

1. Press and hold the Light button, Start Stop button, and Back button at the same time until you listen to the first beep.
   
2. After first beep, leave the Start Stop button, but keep holding the Light button and Back button.
   
3. Once you hear the second beep, leave the Back button.
   
4. Now you will see the master reset process taking place on the Watch’s screen.
5. That’s it.

Once done, you’ve to set up the watch from the scratch, here’s a step-by-step guide on how you can pair the Garmin Forerunner 265 or 265s to the smartphone (both Android and iOS). Now you’re familiar of how to reset Garmin Forerunner 265, if you still have any doubt tell us in the comment box.

See Also:

• How to Add Music to Garmin Forerunner 265 and 965 [2 Ways]
• How to Pair Garmin Forerunner 265 and 265s [Guide]
• How to get Pixel Watch Faces on Garmin Watches
• Can I Swim with my Garmin Forerunner 255?
• How to Restart Garmin Forerunner 955 (Soft and Force Reboot)
• How to Reset Garmin Forerunner 255 and 225s