I'm very dissappointed with Garmin because they are not able to solve the problem and they don't recognize it. Battery consumption is higher with the device turned off than turned on. In 8 hours turned off it can consume 10% while turned on it can require more than 24 hours to consume the same amount. It is the second device that I've received and with the same problem. Anyone else with this problem? Technical support's last answer is that the device is not prepared to be turned on/off and justifies in that way the battery's behavior. Are you kidding me?
Cubix85, strange I reported this to Garmin back in April 2017
would you be so kind and check again this time before powering down your watch(long press) turn your phone off or turn off your bluetooth connection in the watch just to disable time sync via bluetooth after powering on ;)
Thanks OnlyTwo , last night I tried one more time what you suggested, turning off my phone, but again the battery discharged at 1%/hr. Actually my fenix waste about 24% of charge per day both if it is powered on or turned off. I tried to reset again the watch, I have no external widget, or whatchface...the watch is like just out of the box! I have only updated the firmware to the last version 12. :(
I have exactly the same problem. New Fenix 5 and discharging in 4 days, even with power off. I send the watch back and ordered another one, but this watch also has the same problem. I also have sent an email to Garmin the 24th of December but until now no reply. I read in the posts that many people have similar battery problems with recently bought fenix 5 watches.
In the past month I upgraded my first F5 from v10, V11 to V12. My second F5 was directly upgraded to V12. All versions have the same problem. It looks as if the watch is continuously leaking current. This can be caused by a hardware failure, such as a bad or wrong component in a series of watches?
I think is problem with the firmware, and not with the watch, because have no sense to get a exchange and find out you are in the same point.
I do the following, and the watch seems to have less drain and seems to work like in v10 and before.
(beware that this will back to default all so a backup is recommended and of course any data lost is not my fault)
Delete the following folders in the watch plugged to the computer as USB: "COURSES", "NEWFILES", "APPS" and "DEGUG/DEBUGGIN"
Then, disconect and perform the following reset:
Turn off the watch, once is turned off, hold the buttons "Start/Stop" and "Lap", whe you got the 2 buttons press once on light and the watch will start.
When first bip sound, release Start/Stop , and after the second bip release the "Lap".
Configure the watch with connect and that´s all for me.
I think is problem with the firmware, and not with the watch, because have no sense to get a exchange and find out you are in the same point.
I do the following, and the watch seems to have less drain and seems to work like in v10 and before.
@BLAU: An older firmware version, including V10 ( including all types of resets) did not solve the problem. So I exclude wrong firmware as the probable cause of the problem. Of course I can go back down to version 1, however, even if this would solve the battery problem (what I doubt), it would reintroduce all other types of problems that were solved in the later updates. Also the fact that the exchange to another watch did not solve the problem does certainly not exclude a hardware problem. As I mentioned in a earlier comment, a wrong or bad component in a series of watches explains the persistence of the problem. I also have found posts of people who mention similar battery problems of recently bought watches with serial numbers starting with 5Q.. Both my watches start with this number.
I told my experience, my watch is "realtive" new, bought in August, but checking my serial number do not see 5Q anywhere, are all numbers.
Garmin sure that have all the info, I sent an email to the beta developers that I´m still waiting for response, but in my opinion is extrange that a batch of watches became crazy at the same time, I don´t say that might can be a problem with a component or battery, but for me have more sense a firmware fault, as far as in the 5X happend something in this way.
Hope you got other watch and finally fix the problem.
I've done some more tests. 1. using firmware v10, v11 and v12 doesn't change the battery discharge rate, that remains about 1%/hr. This means that battery will last max 4 days (Garmin, 4 days is not the same as 2 weeks as you declared!) 2. if you disable phone syncing on the watch (and not only on the phone) and you turn off the watch with a long press on light button, the battery doesn't drain, BUT, the clock remains freezed as already reported. Garmin, are you serious??? Really you are not able to let the clock work during low power mode of the embedded electronic? :mad:
I'm on the same boat, no matter what settings or watch faces I have, I lose 1%/hour even with the watch off. It's my second watch, I'm starting to think is software but this is unacceptable...
