Keep Fenix 5 backlight on?

Former Member
Former Member
First off the online manual for the Fenix 5 is useless. It says there is an auto and manual mode but neither of those exist. They did on the Fenix 3, but not this one. There is a watch mode and an activity mode. Within those is no auto option I can find. The only option that kind of makes sense is in timeout section. Still if I set it to "no timeout" the light still goes out on its own. Typically after 15 seconds. Maybe I am missing something but for the life of me, I cannot find a way to keep the light on.
And for the record...I have owned many Garmin watches through the years including the Fenix series. I cannot understand why Garmin doesnt pay somebody that knows software. Every new model is like we are alpha testers which is crazy to me.
  • This is a bug and I've reported it to the beta team. No Timeout should keep the backlight on.

    EDIT: Feedback from the beta team is as follows:

    Are you seeing this on the watch face screen? If so, this is by design.
    To preserve battery, in this specific situation, if backlight is set to ?No Timeout? and the device is showing the watch face, the timeout setting is ignored and the backlight should go off after about 5 seconds.
  • You can use gestures to turn on the light.
    At least when the watch is on wrist it is convenient and works reliable.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 8 years ago
    Thanks for both responses. Mdietinger..I have used the gesture option which works fine for daily use. My issue was more towards the workout light. Many times I am at the track after dark and really love to have the light always on during this period. Unfortunately it is not doable at this time due to the bug that Pete reported. At least I know its not the watch ;-)
  • Pete's subsequent feedback about battery saving only applies to when it is in watch mode. In workout mode, with No Timeout, the backlight stays on. Note that if the backlight is triggered by gesture, the backlight will turn off when you rotate your wrist back to vertical (ie. end of gesture). If you want to have it on permanently regardless of wrist position, disable gesture, and activate the backlight via button press.
  • After upgrade to version 7, still the same error. With no timeout backlight get off after cca. 1min. still a bug?
  • No, not a bug. A design feature to preserve battery life. If you need the backlight indoors or at night, experiment with the gesture settings.