August 22, 2026

Trouble with the Garmin 66i -- again

It is sort of surprising how fussy and trouble-prone this device is. I was out on a hike, started (via Recording Controls) my activity so I can watch distance and such on the trip computer.

The first symptom was that after hiking 0.5 miles, the trip computer showed 3.68 miles. Why didn't we start from zero? Did I fail to stop (and save) my last activity?

I go back to main menu and try to access "Recording Controls" and it takes me to some altimeter page showing a graph of my ups and downs. There is now no way to access "Recording Controls".

Also, on my Trip computer page, some customization I did to show temperatures from my Garmin Tempe has partially reverted.

It looks like some Garmin update came in and has my device all screwed up. I am able to recustomize the temperature display, but I see no way to customize the main menu and fix the broken Recording Controls.

I'll set my powered up 66i next to my phone running Garmin connect and see if I get lucky with getting a bug fix update. I check that Garmin Connect is properly paired by going to More then "Garmin Devices". It shows my 66i and says "connected" and I click the blue arrow in a circle next to it and proper things happen.

On the 66i, Main menu -- Setup -- About tells me that I am running software version 10.20, which is what I installed back in 2025. But who knows how often Garmin actually changes the version number. There is also a big number (10.20 (1330057)) that may distinguish sub-versions. However, this page indicates that 10.20 from August 18, 2025 is the latest version:

Reset my 66i

Since it looks like I have the latest firmware installed, it makes sense to try a device reset. There are a variety of ways to do this, with increasing severity. '

Go to Setup -- Reset -- "reset all settings". This should save all tracks and waypoints, but restore default settings. This is the second choice from the bottom. I do this.
I power the device off and back on. It asks me for my language (this is new). Then it shows me a map of north america. Recording Controls still takes me to the elevation profile screen.

I don't really have any valuable tracks or waypoints, so I could go right away to the next level of reset, but I decide to connect up a USB cable and offload what I do have using the instructions I have here:

This works and only takes about a minute. Now I use Setup -- Reset -- "delete all". The device does the reset and then restarts. It spends a lot of time "loading maps". (I have OSM (open street maps)) on an SD card.

Once it finishes, it asks me to pick a language. Then it tells me my inReach needs activation. I decide to skip this. I check "Recording Controls" and it works properly now.

Just a note. I didn't need the following, but they say you can do the following to get a hard reset if the unit is not responding. 

Turn the unit off
Press and hold both PAGE and ENTER
Turn the device on.
Release the power button when you see the Garmin logo.
Release PAGE and ENTER when you see a question about erasing all user data.
Choose Erase (or YES) and press ENTER.

Pairing and activating

Pairing ends up being a weird trial and error process that sort of follows the 2022 notes. It seemed to work, but then didn't. So I started a new set of notes for 2026.
Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's backpacking pages / tom@mmto.org