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Battery issue, known bug

Hi!
Since i bought my Fenix 5, one month ago, updated to v 12 on the first day of use, battery life has been awful.
Without recording any activity, the watch battery drains 25-30% every day.
I always kept 20% display light for 4 secs and only after dark on wrist move.
In the last weeks i tried disabling activity tracking as well as Move IQ and stopped wearing it while sleeping. I just left on phone notifications and HR, but that didn’t make much difference, just a few percentage points per day.

So I called the italian support center, where a not very polite operator told me that Garmin was aware of a bug affecting not all but many F5 units and was responsible for the heavy draining of the battery. He told me that it’s not a hardware related issue so it is pointless to return it, and that i just have to be patient and wait. When i replied that this device is available since more than 1 year and this should be enough patience for a bug so serious, he just told me that there was nothing he could to.

So I took a look at this forum, but except some poeple complaining, didn’t find case so severe as mine.
I’d like to know if this is really a known bug and if Garmin is actually working on that.
Also it would be helpful to know in there is other people on the forum with my same issue.

Thanks

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0 Tom.Alf over 5 years ago

Hi, tried to downgrade my Fenix 5s from 13.00 to a previous version but it's not recognized by any computer... Is it an issue in 13.00 version too ?
??Please Garmin, release a new version quickly... I can't get used to recharge my Garmin every day...

0 briviopc over 5 years ago

hi,

Hello
from a week I installed the fw 12 ... my watch is reborn ... currently I am at 60% of autonomy and it is from last week that I do not load it since I installed the fw (and it was 90%).

0 Tom.Alf over 5 years ago

Fenix 5s with new firmware 13.30

Still the same. Battery drops very fast. 60% per day.

Even after an hard reset and removing all watch faces and widgets...

Just like with the firmware 13.00, my watch is not visible when plugged to a computer. It worked with previous version. I can't downgrade.

0 djimbel over 5 years ago

My Fenix 5 with v13 was terrible with the battery, around 18% per day. Did a downgrade to v12.50 the other day and everything is back to normal, around 7% per day.

0 5minslastman over 5 years ago in reply to djimbel

My SN 53 FT is updated to v13.30 and get about 8-9% per day average in just normal watch with Bluetooth connectivity and back light on 100% for 8 seconds set to "on after sunset". All other setting are pretty standard tracking the normal stuff (steps/HR/sleep/etc). GPS reduces battery life but only as expected. I use a external Garmin HR chest moniter ANT+ for all of the training tracking as it's far more accurate than WHR but this doesn't seem to affect battery life.

This is my 2nd F5 as the first one had really badly corroded charging contacts after 8 months, replaced by Amazon for a new unit as Garmin only offered me a refurbished unit.

0 greydarrah over 5 years ago

Mines only lasting about 2 or 3 days since updating to 13.3. I got a solid week or more on 13.

0 david2s over 5 years ago in reply to briviopc

I also downgraded my watch from v12.50 to v12.00 and now my battery lasts about 12 days or more.

0 greydarrah over 5 years ago in reply to greydarrah

Never mind...I recharged, rebooted and now all is back to normal.

0 Tom.Alf over 5 years ago

Is there a way to downgrade with Bluetooth connection from my Android smartphone ? I mean a way to have access to the folders and files on my watch.

Since the firmware 13.00 my watch is not recognized by computers

0 Tcornall over 5 years ago in reply to Tom.Alf

Just a suggestion, because it has happened to me, that the PC not recognising might be due to a poor cable connection rather than the firmware. I found that the watch would charge, but the PC wouldn't connect to it. So I looked at the USB cable and sure enough one of the pins was 'stuck in' (They have little internal springs). Cleaning the cable so that all the pins came out to the same extent fixed it.