New user here. I was using a Samsung GearFit 2 that I still have but had some issues with, GPS was iffy and Tizen. My phone is a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge on AT&T. Now I am not a power user and do not install a lot of apps. The last app i installed was PowerAmp Music Player in September. The battery on my phone is typically around 50 - 60% at the end of day (use is generally from 6:00AM - 10:00PM EST). I have been using the Vivoactive for about 1 week. The first three days I noticed my battery was down to about 20 - 30% by 6:00PM and was getting low battery warnings starting a couple of hours later. I initially thought that it synched when I opened the app and noticed at the bottom it synching with the device, but then I noticed as soon as I opened the app the step count on the device and app were the same. A few days ago I received a brand new phone, OnePlus 3T. When I set it up I only setup my email accounts and the Garmin Connect Mobile, no other apps installed other than stock. Same issue occurred, battery level down to around 10% or lower by end of day. So yesterday I go back to the Galaxy S7 Edge. 0 phone calls and 0 texts for the day. The only thing I used the phone for was checking emails and using the Garmin Connect Mobile. I had two 3.2 mile walks using GPS. By 7:00PM Battery was down to 8%. I do not want to have to turn Bluetooth on and off and am wondering if their is a fix for this that I am not seeing. I checked the app and cannot find a setting to turn synch on/off or an option for manually synching only. Wondering what other people are doing?
Sometimes the Google Play Services cause battery draining. Search them at the installed apps (Settings - Options - Taskmanager? Don't know it, have a german phone). Uninstall them, go back to the factory version. A few moments later one of your other apps will say that there is an error, old Play Services etc. Tap on that message. The latest version of the Play Services will be installed. Then it should be fine again. Sometimes Google Plays Services are corrupted, so you have to repair it.
I have nailed my battery drain issue down to this process...wakelock WeatherConditionsRequest. GC seems to be over doing the weather requests for location. My fix was to remove the location permission for GC in my phone settings.
This breaks the Garmin weather widget but I am sure there are third party weather widgets that should help.
Removing the location permission from GC has solved my battery issue over the weekend. Weather widget not working, but everything else appears to be in order.
Thanks for finding this.
This has happened to me in the past, then stopped happening either with the introduction of a new OS version or a new GC version, and it's back since about 3-4 weeks ago.
I'm with a Nexus 5X on Android 7.1.2, using the latest GC.
When I use BetterBatteryStats I see the wakelock causing this drain is Bluetooth_timer. I've also pinpointed GC is the culprit.
Anyway to communicate to Garmin this is a showstopper?
I've had a couple of huge battery drain issues with Garmin Connect on my Google Pixel. Took my battery from 50% to 5% in an hour and the phone was warm to the touch (which usually only happens if you use it for VR).
This was the case for me for a long time up until a few months ago. Then it seemed like it was fixed around the beginning of 2017, and it's been back since around the beginning of April. I noticed a huge decline in battery life instantaneously after upgrading to Android 7.1.1 (but I can't tell if GC was also automatically updated at the same time) - 1-1.5hrs SOT* (~8-10hrs total usage) vs 4.5hrs SOT* (~18-26hrs total usage).
*SOT = Screen on time
So currently I'm refraining from connecting my phone to my watch, making it both a dumb watch and making it difficult to sync activities - otherwise my phone dies before I get to lunch. This is something Garmin must be notified about, by as many people that are experiencing it.
I suggest everyone who is facing this issue submit a bug report to Garmin about this.
I was randomly asked by the GC app to give feedback yesterday and it opened a mail template. I don't know how to trigger this feedback manually, but you can just copy this template and send it to them.
The text is just an example.
To: [email protected] Subject: RATED:User feedback ---
You rated Bad
Describe your issue:
Garmin Connect is draining the battery and rendering the smartwatch features of the Forerunner obsolete - using the feature will drain the battery more than twice as fast as it would have without the connection on.
I have tested both turning off the phone's Bluetooth, and turning off just the Forerunner's bluetooth - both result in normal battery life again.
GC is the certainly the culprit of the battery drain. BetterBatteryStats reports a wakelock called bluetooth_timer which prevents the phone from going into deep sleep.
Also my phone battery is drained since the last update from Garmin Connect Mobile app last week around 14 april 2017
it empties twice faster than normal
Finally I have figured out the problem I was originally having - no help from GC or Google. Weather may have been a source of problems for some, I'm sure it is, but I never wanted weather on my watch so it wasn't ever turned on. That said, even upon first connect I turned on Smart Unlock - so that when my watch was connected the phone would be unlockable without a pin/password/pattern. Turning this off, along with the same in my car's Bluetooth, made it so that my phone suddenly gained back all of the battery Connect took. Now I only have Bluetooth_timer wakelocks at a rate that doesn't seem to much kill my battery compared to how it was before.
I also have done a lot of other things unrelated to GC - not rooting - to get better battery time as well. But at least I was able to solve this problem. I still get a lot of Bluetooth wakelocks throughout the day but it is now much lower and doesn't seem to make a huge impact on battery. I think Garmin could still optimize their app to only update steps and activities periodically (a time setting would be great - I could set it to something like 1 time per hour) and then help to prevent those battery issues. Now if only I could solve the nefarious IMSService wakelock. ;P But that's for another forum.
