Ever since the v26.30 update, my Descent Mk2i battery had started to drain at the rate of about 45% per day, giving me 2 days of battery time, against at least 10 days previously. I tried every trick in the forums to come out of this including
- a simple power off / on
- warm restart (holding down the LIGHT button for >30s)
- Delete Data and Reset Settings from the MENU.
- Unprompted Reset procedure
- Delete all files using a computer connection and then Reset.
- Disabling incident detection
- Changing watch face to minimal data
Nothing helped. I had given up hope. I didn’t bother with Garmin Support because there were enough reports in the forum where users had been told, against all logic, that this wasn’t a software issue and to recheck settings or that the battery was indeed dead. In any case, Garmin India is a bit retarded and don’t service the Mk2i, erroneously believing that the “i” stands for inReach capabilities and is disallowed in India. With a heavy heart, considering the recent spate of reliability issues and poor local support, I set my mind on moving over to the Suunto ecosystem.
One day, just about the time I started to research the Suunto models, I forgot to charge my Garmin and it went dead early that night. I only noticed in the morning and connected it to a charger. When it came on, I found that it was completely reset - maybe due to the extended off time - and I had to set it up all over again. But what came as a pleasant surprise was that the battery was now back to normal - draining about 10% a day and giving me about 10 days on one charge.
So if you are also facing a battery drain issue, and none of the Reset procedures help, maybe the solution is to let the watch go dead without switching to Low battery mode. Allow it to stay dead for at least 12~24hrs before you connect it to a charger and allow it to charge up to 100%, and hope for the best.