v9.36 Official Software Fast Battery Drain

Can you explain why others doesn't have battery drain ?

I am another user getting much lower battery life after updating to 9.33. I have done a soft and hard reset (but not the factory reset). I have no saved Garmin or Strava segments and AOD is off. My sense is that the accelerated drain is present both during activities and in normal (tied to iphone) use. I’d estimate on the basis of the past four days of the new firmware that battery life has roughly halved to between 8 and 10 days of normal (non-GPS/music) use. 

Just for my curiosity i'm trying AOD off and gesture on and don't have any issue at the moment.

It's a short test but i was at 85% at 4:55pm and i'm at 85% at 7:00pm and the actual estimate is 14 days of battery.

As i mentioned in other posts, i never had issues and just switching between AOD modes should not be the issue...otherwise, someone would have noticed it already.

-I tested all the alpha/beta versions

-No strava or segments of any type

-No 3rd party apps/watchfaces/whatever

-Music from spotify from time to time

-I do a soft reset after each update

-Normally, i'm with AOD on and gesture off

-Touchscreen off majority of time

Not sure if there's anything else worth mentioning. Will update if i notice any increase in the next hours/days.

Skordilovich said:

Can you explain why others doesn't have battery drain ?

Why others *don't ?...
"Others" means nothing actually. Not everybody having issues report them anyway.

Garmin Engineers are taking that issue seriously and are aware of it. That's important.
An Epix sold for 16 days of battery life in Gesture Mode as written on their site.

https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=SYHHBWNgOL2oz1ZJYiV8L6

• Smartwatch Mode: Up to 16 days
• Battery Saver Watch Mode: Up to 21 days
• GPS Only: Up to 42 hours
• All Satellite Systems: Up to 32 hours
• All Satellite Systems + Multi-band (sapphire only): Up to 20 hours
• All Satellite Systems + Music: Up to 10 hours
• Max Battery GPS: Up to 75 hours
• Expedition GPS: Up to 14 days
  
  This is the moral agreement we got when buying an Epix.
  
  Mine used to be better than my previous Fenix 6 pro with its 14 days of battery life.
  
  
  Now let's wait for the next Beta.
  9.33 Release has offered a lot of new upgrades, Auto Sat being one of the most spectacular.
  Let's give some time for Garmin to propose another Beta once they will have found the culprit.
  
  

Did anyone of the people having the battery issue actually really test how long the watch can work without charging after a full charge, or are you just reporting what the battery gauge tells you? 

I fixed the battery drain on my Epix by changing the watchface from famous hex version to a plain watchface with steps. So not sure, if it was the watchface or one of the real time values besides the steps. 

trux said:

are you just reporting what the battery gauge tells you? 

I have try to calibrate the watch but as I use it and need it, I haven't found the day/moment to kill it to 0%.
A discharge watch in the morning is not practical for me. So I charge it before going to bed and leave home with at least 50% left.
Gaugewise anyway yesterday 21h00 I have recharged it to 78% and now it is 71% at 09h00. 7% in 12 hours seems great but I have used the Battery Saver and sleep mode all night... and it would get 14% of drain in 1 day. Half from the 16 days on one 100% charge, the projections are giving.
A problem is how often I use Tracking and GPS which are the real battery drainers and which change all the projections.

Again, I just wait for Garmin to fix it now that it is recognized. because if Battery calibration is necessary for each new Alpha or Beta... I won't stay in that program. But let's stay positive and let's wait for Garmin's next move.

You can only find the true battery life if you fully charge it, and then use it till it dies. If you do not let it die, you will never know whether the gauge is right or not, and will not find how long it actually still can work. It may tell you you have 5% left and still run for a week longer.

I am not sure the new firmware has been around long enough for most people to be able to do that yet. Has there been some suggestion from Garmin that the battery gauge may simply have lost calibration during the update process?