Enduro 3 Sync Issues and disappointing battery life

Garmin Enduro 3 (software version 12.35)

I recently finished a 100 mile winter race in the UK which took me 27 hours. The first time using the ultra activity 'GPS only' on a long run and only other thing I changed was connection to phone off (wifi off also). I was using this to test for a longer race and not expecting solar to be of much benefit in winter. I had two issues and just wondered if anyone else was having them:

#1 - After the race I synced my watch to the mobile app but it didn't upload to Garmin Connect. I was really interested too view what had been a difficult race but as I was away for a long weekend I couldn't download the fit file until I got home to my laptop. When I got home I tried uploading it to Garmin Connect and it said it was already uploaded but no details (attached screen shot). I deleted it from Garmin Connect and tried uploading the fit file again manually several times but Garmin Connect just says 'An error occurred with your upload. Please try again'. The file size copied from the watch is 8.1 Mb. I am able to view the fit file in seconds on sites like GPXSee, Fit File Viewer and uploaded it to Strava with no problem but I can't upload it to Garmin Connect. I will try and attach the fit file to this post.

#2 - Battery Life - As said I was on 'ultra' activity disconnected from mobile so 'GPS only mode' and left heart rate on. I had loaded the course to navigate however as it was a well marked route (UTMB) I only flicked onto the map screen maybe 10 times for a few seconds to check a junction. Gesture backlight was on as it would be a real faff in the dark without it. So 27 hours burned 43% of battery which means a real life ultra in GPS only mode with no blue tooth would give me just over 64 hours of battery life. This is a bit less than I was expecting but is that a real life reality.

My son has a Trex 3 and it seems to do all the basics quite well2025-01-24-12-00-09.fit

Top Replies

seilogramp 6 months ago +3 suggested

BILLYREEDNI said:
it said it was already uploaded but no details (attached screen shot). I deleted it from Garmin Connect and tried uploading the fit file again manually several times but Garmin Connect…
Ligax 6 months ago in reply to 5725972 +2

Steady screen - less drain and compass not used
Ɛpsilon 6 months ago in reply to BILLYREEDNI +1

Navigation is the burner. Set the map to North up not track up and use the map page only when needed. Go to the usual HR page otherwise

All Replies

0 seilogramp 6 months ago

BILLYREEDNI said:
it said it was already uploaded but no details (attached screen shot). I deleted it from Garmin Connect and tried uploading the fit file again manually several times but Garmin Connect just says 'An error occurred with your upload. Please try again'

This will work - BILLYREEDNI-fixed.zip

Fixed using Fit File Repair Tool

Note that if you see the message, 'This file has already been uploaded,' refer to this post for instructions on how to upload the corrected file and understand why this might be happening - Help Fixing a Corrupt .FIT File

Congrats on the finish!

0 BILLYREEDNI 6 months ago in reply to seilogramp

Thanks so much for taking the time to fix my file and the explaination. It uploaded perfectly.

Much appreciated.

Billy

0 5725972 6 months ago

it happened to me too several times - probably there is a bug with the file transfer - I was able to download the file through the computer and to upload it to Strava and from Strava to connect,

About battery life - usualy it about 1.5% per hour with auto select.

With sun exposure - it's less. here it was 9.5 hours run and battery burn 11%

0 BILLYREEDNI 6 months ago in reply to 5725972

Thanks for feedback.. I have installed the battery app also to get a better idea

0 Ɛpsilon 6 months ago in reply to BILLYREEDNI

Navigation is the burner. Set the map to North up not track up and use the map page only when needed. Go to the usual HR page otherwise

0 5725972 6 months ago in reply to Ɛpsilon

why North up?

0 Ligax 6 months ago in reply to 5725972

Steady screen - less drain and compass not used

0 D.R. 6 months ago

Auto backlight does shorten things in my experience (I had a 7S Sapphire die during an ultra because I kept looking at it in the dark, whoops).

0 BILLYREEDNI 6 months ago in reply to D.R.

I think I was probably looking at it quite a bit during the night for no real reason and suspecting that might have been the main issue.. Thanks for highlighting that.

+1 silentvoyager 6 months ago

I think that the gesture backlight in the real culprit in your particular case. I don't own Enduro 3 but in my experience with Fenix 7X, Garmin's gesture backlight works really poor when running on trails. It activates way more often than it should resulting in excessive battery use. It works especially bad when running downhills - the backlight remains lit pretty much the entire time. At some point I did some calculations and concluded that the gesture backlight increased the battery usage at least 2x compared to Garmin specifications.

Switching to GPS only should not be necessary if we are to believe Enduro 3 specs. The navigation is also not a huge factor as long as you don't stay on the map screen the entire time. A couple of years ago I finished a 100 miler in 31.5 hours. My Fenix 7X GPS was configured to use All Satellites mode and the navigation was on the entire time. There was still about 30% of the battery remaining at the end. When I configured the watch for the race I did turn the backlight off completely (not even button presses) because I figured out I'd have a headlamp during dark hours. Also, I turned off connection to the phone during activity. These are the only changes I did. Compared to that, Enduro 3 is supposed to do much better. Enduro 3 should be able to handle a 100 miler with the GPS in the highest accuracy mode, with dual-band GPS turned on the entire time.