Low power mode during an activity?

With the Forerunner 235 when the battery got below a certain percentage (10% I think) during an activity the screen would be blacked out in part to conserve power. I noticed today during a long run the 5S+ battery was low and then boom... powered off.No warning.

I was running on a trail so I am not exactly sure when it turned off but I did see beforehand it was around 6% and the screen was "normal".

Is there a setting somewhere to set the watch to go into a low power mode or to conserve screen battery drain?

I couldn't find one so far. I would be happy to sacrifice screen display (unless button pressed) and to have lower accuracy GPS when the battery is low so at least it records to the end of an activity. Not sure if it's a configuration or a "new idea" for developers :confused:

Top Replies

Garmin - Chris over 3 years ago in reply to gautig +1 verified

If this is what you are referring to: - you mentioned the Fenix 5, the Fenix 5, 5+, and 6 series have a Power Save Timeout setting within your activity settings.

- Power Save Timeout Settings

All Replies

0 Dr Phil over 6 years ago

Might be a useful feature, but surely the simple thing to do is to make sure there is sufficient charge in the device before starting?

Granted I've only had my F5S+ since Friday, but I've not seen a setting. In fact I've not seen it on any of the Garmins I've had in the past that I can recall - 305, 310, 910, 920 and 935.

0 WheatiSm over 6 years ago

FR235 Low Power mode... useful for those days when you planned a 5 mile run but ended up doing 15 ...ciq.forums.garmin.com/.../1427527.jpg

0 jim_m_58 over 6 years ago

I'm not sure that's a low power mode. I think it's just a warning that your battery is getting low. Blacking out part of the screen does nothing, as the screen still gets updated the same way, even if it's mainly black.

0 gautig over 3 years ago

Has anyone figured out if it possible to let Garmin fenix 5 go to low battery mode like Garmin 235 did? It has happened to my few times that the watch go out of battery during activity and without any warning.

+1 Garmin - Chris over 3 years ago in reply to gautig

If this is what you are referring to: - you mentioned the Fenix 5, the Fenix 5, 5+, and 6 series have a Power Save Timeout setting within your activity settings.

- Power Save Timeout Settings

0 docau over 3 years ago in reply to gautig

I ran my Fenix 5 Plus (latest release firmware) down to 3% battery during an activity last week. At 10% I got a warning that it was running low. I think there may have been an additional warning a little further along, but I could be making that up.

I didn't notice any other difference as at ran down - the screen was definitely still on when I look at it during that window, and GPS tracking continued as normal. When I hit the end of the trail it was on 3% and I was able to manually save the activity, and it actually managed to make it a few more hours until I put it on the charger (without the GPS running).

I've run it out of battery once before during an activity, and from memory when it hit something below 2% it auto-saved the current activity, then powered itself off. The track from the resulting activity synced fine (after a charge), but was obviously truncated at the point that it powered off.

0 Garmin - Chris over 3 years ago in reply to docau

docau

Thank you for your post. I am sorry, there is not a feature in your watch that allows swapping into a lower power mode during the middle of your activity after your low battery alert takes place. Your activity needs all the metrics and information being provided for your end result metrics. IE: Using GPS and the optical heart rate sensor, altimeter etc.

0 gautig over 3 years ago in reply to Garmin - Chris

I have always had all my activities on Normal mode. That helps but is not what I was looking for.

0 gautig over 3 years ago in reply to Garmin - Chris

That is a shame, as it was a normal feature on my old Garmin 325 watch.