Battery issues after update 19.20

After updating my Fenix 6X to version 19.20, my battery is draining extremely fast. I took my watch off the charger at 0600 this morning with 100% and by 1400 it was already down to 70% charge. Before the update I would maybe be at 97%. I haven’t even used the device to track any activity, listen to music, and my pulse ox is turned off.

Top Replies

Gary over 2 years ago +4

Me too

My battery life is awful now.

Fenix 6s

It's nearly half what it was (and i had pulseOx on all day before). I'm basically getting a day less endurance for approx 50% battery consumed. I was getting…
AlfredoCasaretto over 2 years ago in reply to RickM +3

Same here, about 30% per day
Before the update batery lasted 7 days, today 3 days

hopping fast solution for this issue
eezytiger over 2 years ago in reply to Azonic +3

Yes. It is now on 79% after a 42 minute dog walk with GPS+GLONASS, WHR and Tempe connected. There was also 10-15 minutes GPS soak while driving to the park.

.

The only evidence I have of the drop from…

All Replies

0 Davide_Mores_Fenix over 2 years ago in reply to Gary

Hi, are you telling me that you have reverted back to stable version 16.7 and continue to have problems with abnormal consumption? Because if this were true, then I don't know what to do anymore. I don't trust to install the new beta (19.75) because then I risk not understanding anything anymore. However I am also noticing various problems with the altimeter, I do not understand why garmin modifies the things that were fine before.

0 Gary over 2 years ago in reply to Davide_Mores_Fenix

Davide_Mores_Fenix said:
Hi, are you telling me that you have reverted back to stable version 16.7 and continue to have problems with abnormal consumption? Because if this were true, then I don't know what to do anymore. I don't trust to install the new beta (19.75) because then I risk not understanding anything anymore. However I am also noticing various problems with the altimeter, I do not understand why garmin modifies the things that were fine before.

hi

no - i have not been given the option to roll back to 16.70

I want to roll back because the 19.20 official firmware and upwards (betas) are useless in comparison.

I've been trying the betas in desperation.

Officially you can't roll back to old public releases, unless you have tested a beta. Then you get a rollback firmware to the most recent public release.

For example, beta 19.74 rollback went back to 19.21. (at least on my fenix 6s).

0 krihal over 2 years ago

I turned WiFi off and now the battery is draining at a more normal rate. Might just be a coincidence, but who knows.

0 Martin Poland over 2 years ago in reply to krihal

I Turner off heart rate wrist monitor and its seems its now good, but in 16.70 firmware I used wrist hr monitor and was ok.

0 5135968 over 2 years ago in reply to 5135968

Replying to myself I'm now at 65% down 19% from 24 hours ago with 2.5 hours GPS used since yesterdays post.

Thats 35% power burnt over a 2 day period with only 3.5 hours of GPS since fully charged.

This is looking like the 4th Fenix I am going to have to RMA due to power issues - in just over 26 months over the Fenix 5 and Fenix 6 lines this is the 4th in a row that has had issues with power, either charging / USB failure or rapid power drain.

This is with a Fenix 6 Sapphire.

0 RussPitcher over 2 years ago

Well after all the information I provided Garmin in the case I opened they requested that I return my watch for replacement. I sent it off last week and got the replacement yesterday. It forced me to install firmware 19.20 so I did that and then set it up exactly the same as the old one - same widgets and data fields, same WiFi connection and the same all-day PulseOx monitoring. The result? Basically the same battery performance as my old watch. It was fully charged yesterday at about midday and now it's down to 79%. The Battery Widget (dsapptech) reports 20.47% drain per day which is marginally better than the older watch (~23%/day) but that's with only a single day's use. Before v19.20 I would have around 10% per day drain with exactly the same settings. There is DEFINITELY something in this firmware that is causing excessive drain with PulseOx monitoring. I would love to revert to a v18.x or earlier firmware to compare, but that doesn't seem to be an option. I guess I'll just report my findings in the case and see where it takes me.

0 Gary over 2 years ago in reply to RussPitcher

RussPitcher said:
Well after all the information I provided Garmin in the case I opened they requested that I return my watch for replacement. I sent it off last week and got the replacement yesterday. It forced me to install firmware 19.20 so I did that and then set it up exactly the same as the old one - same widgets and data fields, same WiFi connection and the same all-day PulseOx monitoring. The result? Basically the same battery performance as my old watch. It was fully charged yesterday at about midday and now it's down to 79%. The Battery Widget (dsappetch) reports 20.47% drain per day which is marginally better than the older watch (~23%/day) but that's with only a single day's use. Before v19.20 I would have around 10% per day drain with exactly the same settings. There is DEFINITELY something in this firmware that is causing excessive drain with PulseOx monitoring. I would love to revert to a v18.x or earlier firmware to compare, but that doesn't seem to be an option. I guess I'll just report my findings in the case and see where it takes me.

I'm really sorry for you to have a) experienced this and b) went through the irritation of getting a replacement device and still no resolution.

I'm saying this just because a) i'm in the same boat and b) therefore totally sympathise.

I sent an argued but a mildly ranty message to support about all this.

I too believe it's firmware related but can't exclude the possibility of some kind of hardware malfunction. After all, they pack A LOT into a small space and sensitive components must have some level of fragility to them. I have been facing the possibility of exchanging my device. It was offered initially but hasn't been discussed more recently.

I pointed out that battery consumption is appalling now (bear in mind i have a 6s, so it's got weak endurance compared to higher end fenix 6 series devices) - i'm running 19.75 beta.

I at least was getting under 1% p/h consumption SOMETIMES on i think 19.20 (even though that was poor compared to 16.70).
literally yesterday, i tracked nothing with my watch beyond sleep and normal metrics like HR, steps, etc and consumed 31% battery in 21.53 hours i.e. 1.44% p/h basically doing nothing (though ok sleep tracking does occur). I did have pulse Ox on all day (but i always have had). I turn off bluetooth, except when i want to sync.

I've copy/pasted the final part because i genuinely believe it's relevant to garmin and their customers:

"Garmin have to take ownership for anything they've done to cause this with their firmware changes.

Your customers deserve to know, yet from the anecdotal evidence on your forum, they haven't and don't. You only need to look at forum posts from a few years ago, to see this is nothing new.

I've spent the most amount of money i've ever spent on a watch, on my fenix 6s. If I'd bought a pro, i'd have spent £500+.

Firmware changes that ruin a watch's endurance have real usage impact. I actually now have to think about whether i'm going out to use GPS tracking for an hour and how much juice is left in the watch. That's how degraded an experience i have with your product.

You will create REAL resentment amongst customers unless you resolve this and i only chose garmin because you in theory have good hardware and fitbit have a paywall for some of their online metrics.

Your market share is not robust enough to be flippant with customer experience.

I read your market share is now 8%, trailing samsung's 11% and apple's market dominance with 52%. You've lost 2% in the last year alone.

I nearly bought a samsung but bought my fenix 6s on the basis of its significantly better battery endurance. Now i'm charging every 2 days (with trivial usage), which is what i'd have to do with a galaxy watch. In fact, the latest galaxy watches have 4 days endurance.

Unless this is resolved, i know exactly who i'm NOT going to be buying from next time and i'm going to hugely resent the very large sums of money i spent on a Garmin product previously. Samsung's cheaper too.

Finally, i know if you can resolve these issues, i will NOT be updating my firmware unless i can be certain the update doesn't wreck my user experience. You've burned any trust in your software updates and when a customer can't trust a manufacturer, you've got big problems."

I don't think it's wrong to share the reply (it was reasonable) and i'm not trying to trap anyone, nor have i revealed the agent's name (garmin europe though):

"Thank you for your email, we appreciate the feedback, I can confirm your issue is being looked into via the case you have been added to regarding the battery draining since the software update, this is an issue we are aware of and the previously provided beta software is the current temporary workaround, as this is a beta software this is not guaranteed to be 100% stable. I am sorry you feel you have lost confidence in Garmin, this issue is being taken seriously and is being resolved through the investigation you have been added to."

So they know / have acknowledged it's a problem.

As an aside, picking up on your forced to install firmware. When i moved to 19.20, i 'thought' i was obligated to but then wondered if there was an discard option (i've never looked for one). I've always just patched to the latest firmware. I have seen a workround which involves changing one of the config files on the watch (i think the idea is that you change the stated firmware to a future number). I don't know if it works. Nor do i know if it's safe to modify in this way.

Sadly, it's just how i now feel about Windows OS updates. At one point, i felt you could apply them (going back a few years) but now i will hold off, for a little while, feeling obliged to check if there are any reported issues with them. What a state to be in, when you can't trust software updates from manufacturers. It truly is an erosion of trust to have reached this point. AND i'm a new garmin user. I've not even had my first device for a year.

Regards,

Gary

0 chrabcio over 2 years ago in reply to Gary

Turning PulseOx monitoring off helped in my case. Now it shows 22 days, Last activity 31h with GPS+GLONAS and ANT left me 24% battery.

0 Davide_Mores_Fenix over 2 years ago in reply to RussPitcher

Hello, this means that it is exactly a software problem, but I don't understand why you were forced to immediately install the new stable firmware (19.2), is it a mandatory procedure when there is a new device? However this is the fact that I don't want to send my f6xpro solar back, I'm not sure if I would solve the problem.

0 RussPitcher over 2 years ago in reply to Davide_Mores_Fenix

When I was setting it up, as soon as I’d connected it to WiFi it popped up on the phone. The only options were install now or automatically install overnight. Given those options I decided to install immediately as this would also show whether the hardware change alone had made a difference.