I could use some suggestions on what I could do to improve battery life on the Instinct. It would be the perfect compromise of cost/features for my uses if I could just get half of what is advertised. I'd be content with a week, but I'm not getting close to that. I consistently lose 1 bar (>20%??) in less than 24 hours.
I am not doing any GPS or Activities yet, and wouldn't dare until I figure out how to get decent battery life first. I am currently on 2.76 and have done a complete reset and have tuned down and disabled much of what I would think would help, but am still not getting near 1 week while others including the reviews state with the default stuff enabled they are getting at least a week.
I also have disabled all widgets except the face, HR, steps, and my day, and have even tested this with the phone set to disconnected/off. The below is a summary of how I currently have it configured, and have had this issue on both 2.60 and 2.76.
Please, any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!!
2.76 - Software version 20% - Backlight 8s - Timeout 1st (top) - Watch face OFF - Move alert ON - Move IQ OFF - Gesture OFF - All sounds and vibration options SMART - Data recording
Phone: CONNECTED - Status ON - Status ON - Smart Notifications OFF - Alerts
With 2.80 sw, around 1h activity daily(sometimes GPS, sometimes not), couple notifications per day, wake up alarm, watchface not updated every second, no auto backlight, I only get around 5 days battery life. That's comparable to any other sporttester on the market. I chose Instinct mainly because of long battery life announced. But disappointed. Do you get more days during such a light usage?
I charged mine on Tuesday and have had a 30-60 minute work out each day (only one with GPS). I still have yet to loose a bar of battery on the indicator.
Hello, I have the instinct since its release to the market, it has always been the duration of the battery one week with 7/9 hours of gps, with the latest firmware, the 2.80, the battery only lasts 4 days with use of 4/5 hours of gps.
OP here. I checked in on my post here a couple of times after that post and saw no activity, so I let it die, but now see additional questions and others’ similar issues. So as an update:
I always get mine through BestBuy because they have always offered an OTC warranty which is far more efficient and user friendly than Garmin’s. That said, and since I was within the 90 days of original purchase, right after my last post here I went in and returned for full refund and immediately re-ordered the same color shipped “rushed” to my house. At the net extra cost of $0, I had my replacement 2 days later.
Out of the box, I left it at 2.60 and set all the same settings as I’ve indicated atop this thread, basically putting it in the identical configuration as my previous faulty one with most of the features detuned or disabled. I got somewhere around 17 or 18 days, which is over the baseline specs unsurprisingly since I had disabled most of the baseline functions.
I then re enabled all of the base functions again as it would be out of the box, undoing all of what I turned down or off, and then charged it to 100% (once the circling animation stopped). From this I then safely got just over the “2 weeks”.
Now that it seemed to be good in its default state, I deemed it safe to say my original unit was bad and this one is good. So next I updated it to 2.76 (latest beta at the time) and added the widgets I intended to use, synced more frequently to the phone app (typically every couple of days), and did some activities. I still got basically the “2 weeks”.
I have since updated to 2.80, which is still what I’ve got on it now. Typical use is maybe a couple activities a week, some of those with GPS, and a couple of phone syncs per week, which still keeps me basically at the “2 weeks”. Frequently I head up to the mountains, from where I’ll record GPS activities for long stints (~10 hours?), after which I’ll top off the battery every couple of days as the need arises.
My first purchase was clearly faulty, and this one is definitely not. All in all, I’m very happy with this model as it’s got everything I need and use, and nothing I wouldn’t.
*Side note: For whatever reason, BestBuy doesn’t seem to offer an extended warranty on this model. Not sure why and wish they would. I just hope it continues to work without the many faults in the Garmin watches I’ve had in the past that the BestBuy warranty has saved me on. Time will tell…
My dealer accepted exchange for a brand new device. Now the battery still shows as full on fourth day after recharged. Looks like my first device was faulty.
My dealer accepted exchange for a brand new device. Now the battery still shows as full on fourth day after recharged. Looks like my first device was faulty.
4/14. Purchased Instinct "new" from REI. Opened box item that was either returned or at least played with in the store since the screen sticker was gone and finger prints all over. 4/14. (PM). Fully charged 4/15. 1.5 hr run with GPS + Glonass. 4/19. (PM) Nearly dead, fully charged.......... (5 day battery life) 4/21. 2.5 hr hiking trip with GPS + Glonass, lots of watch playing during the hike. 4/23. (PM) Nearly dead, fully charged.......... (4 day battery life) 4/26. (PM) Nearly dead, fully charged.......... (3 day battery life) 4/27. Found this forum post and decided to swap for a new watch. Noticed that my software was on 3.20 revision at this time. 4/28. (AM) old watch had 2 bars left right before I reset it for the REI swap. New Instinct software 3.20. 2 bars right out of the box. Not charging yet. 4/30. That's today... Still have 2 bars in the morning... To be continued.
Note. I wear it 24/7 including sleep. I only remove it when in shower. Calls-only notification. Back light gesture always on but 4 sec time out and 5-10% brightness. Push sync twice a day. I do play with the buttons a lot though, it's a cool watch. My wife hates it since Flamed Red doesn't "go" with anything. Maybe it doesn't "go" with anything she owns, but my Flamed Red Instinct perfectly matches my orange Asics; my Ibis Ripley V2 OG in Orange; my big red REI backpack... So not sure what she's talking about.
In conclusion: yeah, Garmin has a bad batch of watches floating around out there, still...
Something weird just happened. My Instinct went down to 1 bar just before lunch, then shortly after lunch it went back to 2 bars... Boston Market, 3 piece dark meat with veggies and green beans.
I have an issue with my Instinct running out of battery in around 24-48 hours.It looked like a Garmin Connect software update bvis phone was simply 'hung' with the blue bar continually only half way up.
I just updated via Garmin Express. The Instinct just did its thing. I am hoping that will resolve the issue.
[I just updated to 4:00 which was apparently released today?]
The device is pretty much as default. I have a few notifications throughout the day, quite a few. Maybe 20 or 30. I use GPS for running for up to an hour a day. I currently have not change to Tru Track.
