Troubleshooting guide for high battery drain

In brief: Complete/verify the update with Garmin Express, reset the watch, and go through the full charging cycle (twice).

That advice works in the vast majority of cases of a sudden high battery drain after a firmware update, that we use to see here on the forum frequently. If it is not your case, if it does not help, or if you need more details, please continue reading:

Possible Reasons of High Battery Drain

  • Do this first of all in every case: Incomplete firmware update - firmware updates often come in several parts, and if the updating of some of the parts fails, it may lead to unpredictable behavior of the watch. Connect the watch over the USB cable to a computer with Garmin Express, make more free room on the watch (explained below), open the panel with the concerned watch, click the symbol ⟳, and install any pending updates. 

  • The battery gauge is decalibrated. Fully charge the watch and leave it plugged in for an hour more, after it shows 100%. Then disconnect, sync, and perform the reset (hold the Light button for up to 30s till the watch shuts down, keep holding the button through the emergency notification if any comes). No worry - no data, and no settings get lost, at the reset (unlike at the master reset to factory defaults)! When powered down, wait ~10s, and restart. Use the watch until it fully discharges and shuts down. This process should recalibrate the battery gauge. In some cases you may need to repeat the full charge and full discharge cycle twice, in order to reestablish the calibration.

  • You use excessively power-hungry options such as the PulseOx, GPS, or backlight - verify the settings and disable especially the nightly and all-day PulseOx options
  • You use a power hungry Connect IQ app or watchface. Uninstall all CIQ apps, to see whether it helps
  • There is an excessive usage of the Bluetooth (or WiFi) connection. That can happen for example when the watch continuously tries to download an update, and it goes on failing each time (i.e. due to low storage, communication problems, etc.). There are many other possible reasons though too (failed sync attempts, syncing huge segments, maps, ...). To confirm or exclude BT as the culprit, disable the BT ('Phone' option in the Controls menu) and WiFi (if available on the model) for a few days, to see whether it makes any difference
  • Also review the Tips to Extend the Battery Life on a Garmin Fitness Watch | Garmin Customer Support
  • There may be a shortcut on the charging contacts, caused by dirt, sweat, or salt deposits - use 70% isopropyl alcohol to clean the contacts. Soft fine toothbrush may help cleaning better the space around the pins. See also Cleaning the Charging Contacts on a Garmin Watch | Garmin Customer Support I also recommend using a protective plug for the contacts. You can find them on Amazon, eBay, Aliexpress etc for a bargain.
  • If nothing of the above helps, then the next step is the master reset to factory defaults, as the last resort.  
  • There is a hardware problem or an unknown issue - if the master reset did not help, then the watch may be defective or have an issue that you cannot resolve alone anyway. Reach out to the Product Support.

How to Avoid Battery Drain Issues After a Firmware Update

  • Disable automated updates in the settings
  • Watch the forum for new firmware announcements (typically at the end of each quarter)
  • When new firmware is available, and fully rolled out, connect your watch over the USB cable to a computer, and prepare the watch for the update - the process requires a significant amount of free space. If there is not enough free room on the storage of the watch, then the update may finish in an infinite loop draining the battery fast. You can remove all files from the folders //GARMIN/RemoteSW/, //GARMIN/Activity/, //GARMIN/Debug/, and unused fiels from //GARMIN/Text/, //GARMIN/Courses/, //GARMIN/Workouts/.
  • When the update is ready, and the storage cleaned, check for updates with Garmin Express
  • Let the watch charge to 100%, and wait a few minutes more before disconnecting the cable
  • Disconnect and let the watch do the firmware update
  • Reconnect and check for updates with GE again, to see whether the new firmware needs to download additional elements
  • Disconnect and do the reset (hold the Light button for ~30s till the watch shuts down, then restart)
  • Use the watch several days or weeks till a very low battery level, then fully recharge - that will re-calibrate the battery gauge in case the calibration was misaligned during the update

The rationale behind it is, that the OTA firmware updates are problematic, slow, and I suspect that they can even lead to a bricked watch, for example when the loading of an additional Sensor Hub firmware fails (occasionally, we see such cases on the forum). The download speed for the OTA update is intentionally throttled seriously, and it may take several hours or days to download the firmware. And when some additional components (SNS, GPS, languages, maps, zone tables,...) need to be installed, after the main firmware is in place, it may indeed lead to a prolonged downloading attempts in the next few days.

Besides that, the watch may malfunction, if all components are not updated to the latest matching versions in the same time. The installation of additional components may also fail if there is insufficient storage (especially a problem at watches with small memory, such as Instinct).

The next problem is, when the OTA update happens unattended in the night with a depleted battery. In the worst case it can theoretically lead to a bricked watch, if the battery dies in the middle of the upgrade. Depleted or a half charged battery may also lead to a decalibration of the battery gauge, which then reports wrong levels, and rapid discharging rates despite that the reality is often (though not always) all right.

Following the steps described above, should prevent all of this. I do always my updates in this way, and I do also install all available beta versions since many years on several Garmin models (hence having already done certainly over a hundred of firmware updates), and I never experienced any battery drain problems after an update.

  • Because of this, I believe the high battery drain is more of a firmware issue rather than a hardware problem

    If you tell the consumption remained the same even after downgrading the firmware, then I do not understand how you came to this conclusion.

  • Before the battery replacement, the drain was over 20% per hour. After replacing it, downgrading, and updating the firmware, the drain now fluctuates between 1% and 10% per hour. This variation suggests a firmware issue rather than a hardware problem. If it were hardware-related, I’d expect consistently high drain. That’s why I’m looking for alternative ways to ensure a clean firmware installation.

  • However, you wrote the consumption remained the same after updating to the latest firmware. It means the problem was not in the firmware, but rather in the settings. And the settings got reset to factory defaults by the downgrade, which explains, why the consumption dropped.

  • That makes sense, but I had already done multiple factory resets before downgrading, and the high drain remained the same. Do you think the downgrade could have reset something beyond just the settings? Maybe some component of the firmware or sensor calibration?

    Also, since updating back to the latest version didn’t increase the drain again, could it mean that some part of the firmware wasn’t properly refreshed before? I’m wondering if there’s a way to force a truly clean installation. Any thoughts?

  • Also, since updating back to the latest version didn’t increase the drain again, could it mean that some part of the firmware wasn’t properly refreshed before?

    Yes, I think it is possible

    I’m wondering if there’s a way to force a truly clean installation. Any thoughts?

    A safe method to update firmware is described on the first page of this thread. I recommend disabling OTA updates in the System settings of the watch, and always doing them only over the USB cable through Garmin Express. Some watches have also the option for reinstalling the firmware, in the hidden Developer menu (press the Light button 8× when on the screen System » About).