Garmin Connect draining my iPhone battery

same problem with Forerunner 255 firmware 28.05, iPhone 16 Pro iOS 26.6, Connect 5.27.3.3

Background usage disabled, no access to position… and this morning , 10% battery drain for…10 minutes background usage (supposed to be disabled)!

Sounds funny to me that somehow the app continues to work in background despite being told not to.

Many of us simply want the app to be active and syncing with watch ONLY when it is launched (ie active) with NO battery being drained otherwise. 

Developpers will do what Product is requesting, so please Product Team, listen to your customers.

Thanks.

Same here. New iphone 17 iOS 26.6. Garmin forerunner 55. Connect 5.26.3.3. Settings on app to not do anything background, location off, notifications off. 9h of background usage… 

Same here. New iphone 17 with iOS 26.6. Garmin forerunner 55. Comnect 5.27.3.3. Location off, notifs off, background off. And today 9h of background activity and everyday the same…

It's not the App that's the issue, it's the phone and bluetooth. If the phone is close enough to establish a connection it will connect to the Garmin even if the phone has the App or not. I've 2 Garmin devices and I've had to either disable bluetooth on my phone or on the watches and it's easier on the watches as the phone is also used in the car so not really an option.

So problem isn't with the App or watch, it's the phone in my opinion

I don’t think that would show up as Connect draining battery if it was a background Bluetooth issue.

I also leave my phone on flight mode overnight with Bluetooth disabled and the battery drain is consistently still happening, so feels more app related than anything else.

it's a shame garmin are super lax at responding on here and we’re left guessing at causes. They haven’t actually confirmed if their development team are aware of an issue, which should be the first thing they rule out

Hi SpencerGT , indeed it's a very good remark !...but the iPhone is showing Connect App as the source of the battery drain, which means iOS is clearly observing CPU/memory usage from the App...

Maybe the truth is somehow in the middle, in the relationship between App and iOS bluetooth ? I also disabled bluetooth on the watch (same reason as you, not possible to disable it on the phone) and no battery drain... but I have multiple bluetooth devices connected to the phone (Bose headset) with corresponding app, and no battery drain.

What seems reasonnable, is to say : Garmin, there is an issue in the way you have your app and your devices interacting via bluetooth, so, as it's not an isolated incident, please reproduce it, understand what's happening, and fix it.

It’s the app. I hade android before and it was not a problem. low usage of battery. Turning off Bluetooth is not and options. Because I want to revive notifications all the time. 

Hi, I think the statement about it being a "middle" thing might be correct.

Why because if you remove the Connect App from the phone you'll see not drainage/usage, again that's my opinion and only from my ways of tring to find cause/solution. I think the phone associates the App with the connection and is therefore waiting for the App to open and this "maybe" where the time/duration comes from in the batter usage stats.

I'm also not sure how the battery usage stood prior to earlier updates from around iOS 18 to the now 26.6

I'm quite happy to disable the connection on my devices to reduce battery use as my fix