Five Helpful Tips Every Garmin Forerunner 165 User Should Know.
The Forerunner 165 is an affordable and reliable running watch for Garmin users who want serious metrics without unnecessary complexity. It slots below the 255/265 series, offering a bright, colorful touchscreen and robust basic running features—GPS, heart rate, sleep and stress tracking, and support for structured workouts—without some more expensive extras like maps or a solar battery. (If Garmin’s numbering system confuses you, we’ve got you covered .)
The Forerunner 170 replaced the 165, but it remains a user favorite—even if most owners don’t use it to its full potential. Here are my favorite life hacks and hidden features to help you get more out of your Garmin Forerunner 165.
Add a flashlight to the controls menu and customize it for better visibility at night.
The 165 may not have a built-in LED flashlight like more expensive models, but it does have a “torch” feature that turns the watch’s bright AMOLED display completely white. The flashlight isn’t available by default, but you can go to “Manage” (by holding the “UP” button) and add “Flashlight” as a menu item. Once added, you can unlock the red light mode by pressing the “DOWN” button until it cycles through the modes. Red light is easier on the eyes, especially at night, compared to the harsh white light that comes with the default setting.
Customize the control menu to create your own hotkeys.
Unlike the 265 and above, the 165 doesn’t support customizable shortcuts for hardware buttons like Garmin Pay or the aforementioned flashlight. The solution is to organize the Controls menu items purposefully, placing everything you use during a run (flashlight, Do Not Disturb mode, music controls) at the very top, so it’s always accessible with a swipe, rather than hidden in a list. (And instead of scrolling through the options one by one on the watch, look at this list and purposefully organize the control menu.)
Use this workaround to get your Forerunner 165 to display breadcrumbs.
The 165 may not have a full on-screen map like the more expensive Forerunner models, but it will still show you a route if you download it from Garmin Connect—meaning you can follow a set route even on a watch without a map. (It just won’t show surrounding streets.)
Create your own activity profiles instead of editing the default profile.
Instead of constantly switching between data screens for easy runs and track workouts, you can duplicate the “Running” profile and create multiple profiles with different fields, alerts, and automatic lap counting settings. It sounds obvious, but you might not know that you can add multiple “Running” profiles to your activity list at once.
Personally, I recommend simplifying the data display on the screens. Pace, heart rate, and cadence are sufficient for most workouts. Everything else (altitude, calories, laps) can be displayed on a secondary screen, which is best viewed during recovery runs rather than during intense workouts. You can customize these settings directly on the watch, or the easiest way is in the Garmin Connect app:
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Click Actions and Apps , then select Startup .
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Select Data Screens and select the screen you want to edit.
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Click Layout to select the number of data fields (1 to 4) you want to display on this screen.
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Select data fields to change the metrics displayed (e.g. pace, distance, heart rate zone).
For more accurate data, pause before uploading your data to Strava after your run.
Every runner I know has encountered syncing issues between Garmin and Strava. If you’re one of those people who hits “sync” immediately after stopping the watch (like me), here’s my advice: slow down. Give Garmin Connect two to three minutes to process the activity file before it’s sent to Strava. During this time, Garmin finishes GPS smoothing and segment matching. If you upload your data too early, you may experience sudden pace spikes or missed segments that never seem to correct themselves.