The firmware update Garmin shipped to fix the CIRQA has ended up breaking one of the band's best features. Since firmware 2.50 rolled out on August 20, a growing number of owners report that Bluetooth heart rate broadcasting no longer works, while the ANT+ side of the same feature is completely fine.
If you haven't updated yet and you broadcast your heart rate to Zwift, TrainerRoad, or a bike computer, you might want to wait.
The update that was supposed to help
Firmware 2.50 landed with a one-line changelog: "improvements to OHR." That's optical heart rate, and the update was widely expected to address the dropout bugs owners had been complaining about since the CIRQA's rocky July launch.
Instead, the update introduced a new problem. The original report on the Garmin Forums, from a user named Fedesanga, is a clean before-and-after. On firmware 2.32 and earlier, his CIRQA broadcast heart rate over both ANT+ and Bluetooth to:
- Garmin Edge 530 and Edge 840
- Zwift on iPad Air
- TrainerRoad on iPad Air
- Rouvy on iPad Air
- Strava on iPhone 15 and iPad Air
After updating to 2.50, everything changed. The Edge computers now loop endlessly between "Connected" and "Disconnected." Rouvy and TrainerRoad on iPad get no heart rate at all. Strava works on his iPhone 15 but fails on the iPad Air. And through it all, ANT+ keeps working normally.
What the symptoms point to
The details in the thread are telling. During the connect-disconnect loops, the CIRQA's module status LED doesn't flash at all. On every device tested, the band shows up as an available Bluetooth heart rate sensor and pairs, but the connection never holds.
That combination (detected, paired, then dropped) suggests something in firmware 2.50 changed the Bluetooth connection parameters themselves, rather than the sensor failing outright. The iPhone 15 still working while the iPad Air doesn't points the same direction: this is a BLE compatibility regression, not broken hardware.
Other owners in the thread are hitting the same wall:
- A spin bike computer that stopped working entirely after the update
- MyWhoosh over Bluetooth failing, while ANT+ to an Edge 1040 still works
- One Zwift racer who had to drop out of a race mid-event because the band paired but disconnected within seconds
One comment stings a little: the owner said broadcasting was "literally the only reason I favored the Garmin over a Fitbit Air or Whoop."
ANT+ is your workaround
Here's the practical bit. Garmin's Edge computers search for ANT+ sensors first by default, so if you delete the CIRQA and re-pair it, it will usually come back as an ANT+ sensor and work fine. That's the workaround getting the most confirmation in the thread, and it matches what the original poster found.
The catch: anything Bluetooth-only is out of luck for now. iPads running Zwift, TrainerRoad, or Rouvy have no ANT+ fallback, and neither do most smart trainers and gym equipment. If your setup is Bluetooth-only, the safest move is to hold off on firmware 2.50 until Garmin ships a fix, or grab a cheap ANT+ dongle if you're on a Mac or PC.
Garmin knows, no ETA yet
A Garmin representative replied in the forum thread, asking for diagnostics (LED behavior, reconnection behavior, detection on iPad) and confirming the problem has been forwarded to the team, with work on a resolution underway. No timeline given. Garmin says any updates on the investigation will be posted in the thread itself, so it's worth bookmarking if you're affected.
This lands on a band that hasn't had an easy few weeks. Since our CIRQA review in early August, the band has gone from launch-week paywall backlash to a firmware update that fixes one bug and creates another. There's even a separate forum thread reporting that 2.50 didn't fully resolve the alarm bug for some users, with the device buzzing on and off through the day.
There's a deeper irony here for Garmin. Broadcasting is exactly the feature that justifies the CIRQA for indoor cyclists and Zwift racers, the people most likely to buy a screenless band over a chest strap. Breaking it on Bluetooth, the protocol virtually all of those apps use, hits the core audience. We covered how ANT+ is slowly dying across the industry, and Bluetooth is supposed to be the replacement. Having the replacement fail while the legacy protocol soldiers on is the kind of detail owners will not forget.
Bottom Line
If you own a CIRQA and use Bluetooth heart rate broadcasting, don't update to 2.50 yet. If you already did, re-pair over ANT+ on any device that supports it and follow the forum thread for Garmin's fix. Garmin says it's on the case, but with no ETA, ANT+ is carrying the load for now.
We'll update this piece when Garmin ships the fix, or when the thread goes quiet.