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Battery-draining bug: AOD updating every second even when in "low power" mode

myaro
over 1 year ago

For the last few weeks, I've noticed a serious battery-draining bug. Instead of updating once per minute, it's updating once per second constantly. 

I'm using a watch face that makes it clear when the screen updates / paints:

  • There's an option to show the "draw time" in milliseconds on this face, which means I can see each time it updates (even if the time doesn't change)
  • The face has a built-in "burn-in prevention" that offsets the entire face a few pixels from the center with every paint (even if the time doesn't change)

I imagine most other CIQ watch faces don't have these features, so you'd never know they were updating when they shouldn't (and draining the battery).  But I bet they all are doing this.  I'm using the LUXE Relux Daytona (RLX) watch face.  And I've seen this on the LUXE Carrera GAT, too.  (Both are pretty popular with a few thousand downloads).

Occasionally, I'll look down at my watch without gesturing to wake it, and I'll notice it is updating every second when it shouldn't be.  In low-power mode, it should only be updating every minute.  

Here's a video of this bug in action.

Notice that every second, you can see proof that it is getting updated/painted:

  • The entire face moves a little bit on the screen (the burn-in prevention feature on this watch face is causing this)
  • You can generally see the red numbers on the left updating, which is a setting I enabled on this face that shows how long (in milliseconds) the most recent draw took

I intentionally took a really long video (over 60 seconds showing the bug occurring) so you can see that this isn't just a developer issue (painting the low-power mode when it's in high-power mode).  I'm not interacting with the device for far longer than the 4-second timeout, and it's still going after 60 seconds.

I imagine this is why my battery life recently on my Epix Gen 2 pro (51mm) has been so disappointing.  

I wonder if this has something to do with all the battery-draining posts lately?  

https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/epix-2/355565/new-epix-pro-51mm-battery-no-way-near-claimed

Details:

  • Device: Epix Gen 2 Pro 51mm
  • Software: Version 15.77 
    • But I noticed this on prior versions, and it hasn't gone away with recent updates or device restarts, so I'm finally getting around to reporting this now

(I recorded another video back on Dec 14th with a different watch face and without the red "draw time", so it's been going on since at least then.  You have to look a lot more closely in this video, but you'll see how the entire watch face is moving around every second relative to the screen because of the burn-in prevention feature working.)

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to bluefish
    bluefish said:
    I personally don't know of any CIQ watchface that uses the battery as sparingly as build in watchfaces do.

    I would add myself to that pool of developers that obsess about battery efficiency.  That's why I'm here in the first place: I built a setting into all my faces that publicly shows the draw time of each frame, since I believe in offering transparency.  Enabling that setting is one of the ways I was able to detect this Garmin bug causing the face to draw more often then it should be.

    I certainly don't maximize only for battery-efficiency.  In fact, I choose to build designs that generally would be quite battery-intensive (if not for some clever architecture).  But I do a lot of work to make sure I'm being as efficient as I can while still delivering really compelling designs, often including shadows, 3D shading (e.g. concave dial borders & date windows), dynamic 3D shading (e.g. as the hands move around the dial), and really tiny details (like "screws").

    Here's more about my approach to engineering:

    https://luxelion.com/see-why-luxelion-is-superior

    And here's a close-up shot showing some of the really fine details I obsess over in my designs:

    That's the stuff you can see.  There's plenty behind the scenes that you can't see that I obsess over.

    I'll continue my research on this, but I'm definitely looking for others who can help me corroborate this issue so I can present a more compelling case to Garmin to fix this.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to myaro

    Sounds like this has turned into an infomercial - I'm out!

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to gaijin
    gaijin said:
    Sounds like this has turned into an infomercial

    Sorry about that.  I was originally trying to keep my status as a developer out of this, since I'm just here as an Epix customer trying to see if others can corroborate this issue that doesn't seem related to any one CIQ watch face.  

    As noted, this sounds very familiar to this post from a different watch face:

    https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/epix-2/308779/watch-face-updates-coming-every-second-while-in-low-power-mode-on-9-33

    But I figured it would be relevant context to add that, when it comes to Connect IQ watch faces, I'm not a beginner, and I take minor details very seriously.

    Anyway, back to the issue here: can anyone else report having a similar issue?

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to gaijin

    Bye........

    How dare anyone try to comment on a perceived bug with Garmin and back it up with info and video.

    There was me thinking it could be raised here.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to myaro

    The point still remains. If the battery drain goes away with a stock watch face then the problem is with the 3rd party watch face.  It matters not where the root of the problem lies. Whether the problem is with Garmin or the watch face developer is really irrelevant if removing the watch face removes the excess battery drain. 


    There are always posts about excessive battery drain from someone after every update. The causes are many and varied and cannot necessarily be isolated. However, what is apparent is that a large number of the issues can be attributed to the addition of 3rd party products from the CIQ store. And of course there are also those who don’t have anything other than default settings etc who also report excessive battery use following a software update. The addition of 3rd party products adds additional complications when trying to resolve battery drain issues. That is why it is frequently suggested that users with said problem remove all 3rd party products and see if the problem occurs. 

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Dr Phil

    Imagine for a moment Garmin provide an App/API to allow developers to produce Watch faces for their watches and those faces have issues. How can you assert the issue is with the face and not the software provided to enable them?

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to SJW
    SJW said:
    How can you assert the issue is with the face and not the software provided to enable them?

    It matters little to the user of the 3rd party product where the problem lies if removing it removes the problem being experienced. If a problem with a 3rd party product is identified it’s then up to the developer to work with Garmin to fix it. The user can only remove the cause of the problem and report it to Garmin and the developer. 

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Dr Phil

    You are not a developer are you?

    if a Garmin CIQ watchface is updating every second in this scenario contrary to Garmin’s published behavior is is not the watchface developer at fault

    Either the documentation iis wrong or the CIQ subsystem is not behaving as expected, assuming the evidence the developer has posted is correct.

    If you think the developer is wrong, explain why. 


    if the developer is correct and he is providing compelling evidence, the fix is Garmin’s side.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 5135968

    It's like fanboy central where users can't and shouldn't raise issues about Garmin - hilarious!!

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Dr Phil
    Dr Phil said:
    it’s then up to the developer to work with Garmin to fix it

    I wish it actually was that easy, but one developer has very little sway over what Garmin chooses to fix.  There are many unaddressed issues in the developer-focused "Connect IQ Bug Reports" section.  I post frequently when I discover issues, but it is a roll of the dice what will get prioritized.  (Understandably so: they have a WIDE platform to maintain, which inevitably will result in a large number of issues that pop up)

    Recently, one of my items got immediately acknowledged and, I'm told, is getting fixed in the next release.  That was amazing.

    Other times, something important (to me) will get overlooked and sit unaddressed for 10+ months (like this one).  That's less encouraging.

    But the above issues are issues with Garmin's SDKs -- the tools developers use.  Only developers would notice those issues, so I post those in the developer-focused bug reporting fofurm.

    By contrast, the issue I'm reporting here in this thread is different.  Any customer can notice this problem.  And I find that bringing these issues here helps me help Garmin understand the impact of the issue.  And it may help other customers understand that the issues they're experiencing have a known cause.  That has worked well in the past.

    For example, I started a thread here a few months ago that got another very important Garmin platform issue resolved. 

    I'm hoping this thread will help do both for this fairly serious battery-draining issue.

    5135968 said:

    if a Garmin CIQ watchface is updating every second in this scenario contrary to Garmin’s published behavior is is not the watchface developer at fault

    Yes, that's a good summary of the issue.  Who knows how many customers are impacted by this and don't even know it!

    SJW said:
    It's like fanboy central where users can't and shouldn't raise issues about Garmin - hilarious!!

    You're right.  We are generally here because we love Garmin.  Loving Garmin also means helping Garmin fix issues and make their products even better, so we should all be on the same page about raising those issues.

    Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!  I can't wait to see what Garmin has in store for us in 2024.  (And I really hope it includes some bug fixes like this one. Wink)