Fenix 5+ power drain

Hello,

I've got a battery drain issue with my fenix 5+. They were not in use for the last 2 months. After powering up, updating (to SW 11.00) and charging the battery life became completely disastrous. In smartwatch mode it consumed aroud 0.4..0.5% per hour. But after first outdoor activity with GPS it started to burn the power like demon. Average consumption ranged from 1.5% to 2% per hour and never less. I tried rebooting and soft reset; this helped until the first GPS activity. After that the power drain returned to the extra level. All external sensors (including wrist HR) were turned off. Moreover, I've tried the beta SW (11.73) - nothing new: after resetting everything looks fine till the first GPS connect.

I love my watches, but the power drain is far off the specification and dissapointes me. I see that without any sport activity battery works well and could hold the charge up to 8..9 days. But it doesn't fit me.
Do you have any idea how to troubleshoot this?

PS: I tried to fully discharge and recharge the battery to recalibrate the circuits.

Thank you in advance.

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0 kvasimodoo over 4 years ago in reply to 6302159

Hi 6302159. I sent FW 11.74 to Andy, but your email tells me that your email doesn't exist!

0 6302159 over 4 years ago in reply to kvasimodoo

Thanks, I do not know why you got that message but I have managed to get the 11.74 from another forum post. I have downgraded the ANT driver to 5.05 and the power consumption has come back to normal. Thanks for your heads up.

Regards

0 Andy over 4 years ago in reply to 6302159

For testing sake I'm on the latest firmware 13.00 and latest ANT/BLE/BT 6.06. If the watch is rebooted, drain is norma (0.3% per hour)l. However, after any activity (I run with GPS and bluetooth headphones), drain is super fast (about 1% every 45 minutes). I rebooted earlier today and drain was normal and just went out for a run this afternoon and drain is superfast again. Going to see what the watch shows tomorrow morning. If drain is still superfast I will load the old ANT/BLE/BT 5.04 drivers and see if that helps after an activity to get normal drain.

0 5135968 over 4 years ago in reply to Andy

Downgrading ANT/BLE/BT the drain after exercise with headphones worked for me.

I went from 2 days battery life with minimal exercise, to only 50% loss after 3 days, including two 1 hour runs with music in that time. This is with 12.00 firmware with the ANT/BLE/BT downgrade.

I plan to send a bug report to Garmin with findings.

0 Andy over 4 years ago in reply to 5135968

Awesome, thank you for the news. Did you have to RESTART the watch at all after your runs/activities with ANT/BLE/BT 5.04? It seems like with any ANT/BLE/BT driver AFTER 5.04, a restart is needed on the watch to get back normal battery drain. Hopefully that is not the case with 5.04. Thanks again.

0 kvasimodoo over 4 years ago in reply to Andy

Hi, Andy. Being you, I'm more careful with that testing, because I'm not sure if you will be able to get back to driver 5.04 again in case of a problem from driver 6.06! It depends on whether garmin support blocked it again! It seems to me lately that there is an update to playing with fire! When one sees what the problems with the battery may be. Unless garmin comes up with an update with something big, I prefer to stay with the problem-free SW with the ANT driver. I recommend this to anyone who only has one piece of Garmin Fenix, and I prefer to leave the testing to a support that has an unlimited amount of Garmin Fenix for testing. Since I myself have experienced how annoying it is when the battery consumption is abnormally high, and I can't do anything with it !!! I myself tried to get a job here at Garmin here in the Czech Republic, for example as a testing technician, or a sports watch repairman, because I like this brand very much, but unfortunately I didn't get any answer even after half a year. It's a shame so great products, but I find Garmin's support for both products and communication with people very weak!

0 5135968 over 4 years ago in reply to Andy

No, after downgrade there is no need to restart. There is no increased power drain after activities now.

0 Andy over 4 years ago in reply to 5135968

Thanks, just downgraded to 5.04 a few hours ago. Going for a run in the morning when I wake up with GPS and bluetooth headphones. Crossing fingers that normal battery drain will ensue after the activity.

0 Andy over 4 years ago in reply to kvasimodoo

Thanks. I'm on firmware 13.00, Garmin pushed it to my device a few days ago. I have now since turned off auto update. I just downgraded the ANT/BLE/BT to 5.04 a few hours ago and will go for a run in the morning after I wake up with GPS and headphones. Hopefully, battery drain will be normal after the activity without a restart.

0 Andy over 4 years ago in reply to 5135968

Any possibility you still have the firmware 12.00 for the 5+?

I downgraded the ANT/BLE/BT to 5.04 and went out for a run this morning with GPS and bluetooth headphones/music. Before workout it was 51%; after workout (1 hr run) it was 40%, which is about right. Now, about 7 hours later, battery is at 35%. Battery drain is not as fast as before when I had the 6.06 ANT/BLE/BT driver. But still not as slow (0.3% per hour) as if I restarted the device with any ANT/BLE/BT driver version that is installed. Seems to be dropping just under 1% per hour, which is pretty bad.

Thinking about downgrading overall firmware down to 12.00 if you still have it. Trying to have the same exact setup you have to see if I can get normal battery drain. Here is a picture of all the versions of each driver I currently have installed besides the overall 13.00 firmware.

Thanks