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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 Tisztul_A_Visztula over 5 years ago in reply to kvasimodoo

Thx for the detailed expalanation.

0 9229825 over 5 years ago in reply to kvasimodoo

I am having serious drain issues and watch turns off by itself. How do I go back to old firmware?

0 Eric M over 5 years ago in reply to kvasimodoo

I tried it and it didnt help my situation. Watch is still draining battery like nobody on her own and went dead after 2 days even though no activity was done with the watch..

0 Dr Phil over 5 years ago in reply to 9229825

Download the available beta firmware. In the folder you will find the information and the files to revert your watch to the latest public release.

Be advised you will lose all your user data and settings and will have to set up your watch as new.

0 kvasimodoo over 5 years ago in reply to Eric M

And you don't have a widget or application uploaded there that has abnormal power consumption !? In Fenix 5x plus I use widgets: SC8 and SC9, applications: Sendpoints, Maps Nav and Locus Map, and accessories: Battery Gauge and Accuweather. I have nothing more and these certainly do not burden the batteries too much as I have tested. So try to check the things you have installed and then maybe I would see it on the wrong battery !? How old is your watch? Did you try to downgrade without uploading your backup? It can sometimes be a mistake in the backup! Sometimes it's good to upload without restoring the backup, and then maybe try it for 3 days if it didn't help!

0 Eric M over 5 years ago in reply to Dr Phil

0 Dr Phil over 5 years ago in reply to Eric M

While you cannot use the beta files you can use the latest public release that you'll find in there.

0 Eric M over 5 years ago in reply to Dr Phil

Cant find the link for latest public release for APAC model either. I upgraded mine through Garmin Connect last time.

0 Eric M over 5 years ago in reply to kvasimodoo

I reset my watch to factory default condition and didnt install any app, 3rd party watchface at all. I got this watch as a replacement for my previous unit with altimeter issue just about 1mth ago so it is basically brand new piece. I dont recall it draining power so fast prior to software update to version 11.00.

Too bad my watch is the APAC model so I do not think the beta firmware has got a compatible one to be used for downgrading unless there is a beta firmware meant for APAC model. I cant find any link for official released version either. APAC model seems to be only available to be updated throutgh GC.

0 Tisztul_A_Visztula over 5 years ago in reply to Eric M

Eric,

it was my personal fix:

”Fun fact. I had been struggling with illogical heavy battery drain, but having tried a lot of things I let my Fenix to discharge below 5% and let it die using constant backlight at 100%.

After I charger it to 100% and kept it on the charger for a night.

Although it was not a long time ago, I can say that the heavy drain disappeared.”

No data loss, no formal reset, just some sort of tabula rasa.