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Disappointing battery life

I have just upgraded from a Fenix 5 to a Fenix 5 plus and so far I am finding the battery life to be a lot less than I would expect.

I used to get nearly 2 weeks battery life out of the Fenix 5 but so far the Fenix 5 plus has used 25% in 2 days, both watches are set up and used exactly the same.

I know the Fenix 5 plus is supposed to have slightly less battery life but at this rate it is not even going to last a week.

Does anyone know if this will improve if I cycle the battery a couple of times or if this is normal for this model

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0 Former Member over 6 years ago

Have you tried turning auto upload to off in wifi settings? It made a huge difference on my 5s battery drain problem.

0 StefanWilliams over 6 years ago

I don't have it enabled, have no use for the WiFi - have only enabled it once or twice to sync a Spotify playlist or two. Believe me, tried every power saving option that you could think of.

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

You might have wifi turned off but if auto upload is on it will continually ping the phone in order to try and upload your activities,hence your battery drain.

0 StefanWilliams over 6 years ago

No, like I said it (WiFi and auto uploaded) is turned off (btw, auto upload in the WiFi settings doesn't ping your phone, it pings the WiFi network, of which I have none configured).
Personally, not looking for advice (although others may find it useful if they wish to try), as I said I've tried everything and in 45 pages of thread the only known fact is that PABD is a thing and nobody knows the cause, so just hoping that this information helps Garmin sort it out (doubtful, but who knows)

0 Gr4z over 6 years ago

No, like I said it (WiFi and auto uploaded) is turned off (btw, auto upload in the WiFi settings doesn't ping your phone, it pings the WiFi network, of which I have none configured).
Personally, not looking for advice (although others may find it useful if they wish to try), as I said I've tried everything and in 45 pages of thread the only known fact is that PABD is a thing and nobody knows the cause, so just hoping that this information helps Garmin sort it out (doubtful, but who knows)

How do you turn off WiFi upload but leave the WiFi configured so Spotify can you use it?

0 StefanWilliams over 6 years ago

How do you turn off WiFi upload but leave the WiFi configured so Spotify can you use it?

I said I used it once or twice for Spotify. That was months ago (well maybe 6 weeks). Been turned off since (to save battery). Haven't used it since, and if I do I'll enable it when I need it, otherwise it's enabled needlessley. Cheers...

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

How do you turn off WiFi upload but leave the WiFi configured so Spotify can you use it?

Just turn wifi auto upload off, Spotify does not need this to sync with your phone's playlists

0 Former Member over 6 years ago

You can try out these tips as well :

https://www.activejr.com/how-to-impr...-fenix-5-plus/

0 Gr4z over 6 years ago

You can try out these tips as well :

https://www.activejr.com/how-to-impr...-fenix-5-plus/

Now turned off Wifi upload but left WiFi on. Settings, Wifi, auto upload, turn to status off.

Spotify can continue to use it, but I have to manually sync my activities now. That's fine for me, let's see what difference it makes to the battery.

Thanks

0 Nehows over 6 years ago

This is quite frustrating. I've got this issue since I bought the watch and tried every single tip for reducing the battery consumption. I'm testing several things and just realised it's not only post activity drainage, it is whenever I use the GPS. For instance, I'm traveling for leisure 4 days. I fully recharged my Fenix 5s beforehand and unplugged just before leaving hoping it will last in watch mode only the 4 days. Battery consumption was more or less ok (I kept track with the battery widget and consumption was around 0.7 to 1%/hr) until I checked the altitude. It was way off(-200) I calibrated the altitude (the watch uses GPS) and the watch was with 30% battery. Approximately 5 hours later when heading to check the time, watch was off and no battery whatsoever... So it looks like the drain is not after an activity only, but whenever it uses the GPS.

A couple of weeks ago I contacted Garmin regarding this issue, and showed some prove of the battery drain (2.2%/HR while working sitting on my desk). Their reply was: 'we know there is an issue, we are working on it". I hope they can find the issue and solve this problem.... although my fears now are (and as some people point out in this thread) that they will release a new version of the watch and move one, and we will be stuck with this problem.... hopefully my fears are wrong....

In any case, another thing to add to the list of tips for saving battery in the meantime they solve this is to avoid auto-calibrate altitude, etc???

P.s.: sorry for my English, it's not my first language.