Related
Options

Battery Drain Issue After Outdoor Activity on Fenix 8 AMOLED

ayehya
5 months ago

Hello Garmin Community,

I’ve been using my Garmin Fenix 8 AMOLED (51mm) for about two months now, and this is the first time I’ve encountered a noticeable issue. Here’s what happened:

A few days ago, I used the watch for an outdoor walking activity without my phone. I had my Apple earbuds connected via Bluetooth and was listening to music during the activity, which lasted about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

After the activity, I noticed that the battery had drained a good amount, which I assumed was normal given the bright sunlight here in Doha. However, after returning home and charging the watch, I started noticing an unusual battery drain. Specifically, the watch drained about 30% in just 20 hours, even though I wasn’t doing any activities during this period—just sleeping, sitting at my desk in the office, and walking a few steps around.

I’ve already disabled all the settings that could typically consume extra battery, such as:

  • Full brightness
  • Always-on display
  • Pulse Ox monitoring
  • Music playback
  • Wi-Fi (when not in use)

After doing some research and reading articles, I found a suggestion to restart the watch in case of a potential background glitch. I followed this advice, and since then, the battery performance seems to have stabilized. For example, in the first 13 hours after the restart, the watch only drained 3%, which feels normal again.

My Questions:

  1. Has anyone else experienced a similar issue after an outdoor activity with music playback and Bluetooth earbuds connected?
  2. Does Garmin actively monitor these forums, or do I need to raise this issue through an official support channel?
  3. If it happens again, are there any other troubleshooting steps I should consider apart from restarting the watch?

Additional Info:

  • Watch model: Garmin Fenix 8 AMOLED (51mm)
  • Software version: 12.35
  • Location: Doha, Qatar
  • Conditions: Bright sunlight during activity
  • Settings: Battery-saving features enabled, such as reduced brightness, disabled always-on display, etc.
  • Issue status: Seems resolved after a restart, but I’d like to understand the root cause or if this could indicate a deeper issue.

Thanks in advance for any insights or advice. I appreciate Garmin’s excellent products and want to ensure the best experience going forward!

  • 0 5 months ago

    Hi, unfortunately this is a lasting issue. To prevent the excessive drain after finishing and saving an activity, you need to restart the watch after the saving and uploading the activity to GarminConnect, ie a long-press of the upper left button until the watch goes off. Re-start the watch after 15-20sec. I am on Fenix 8, 43mm, Amoled. It is my 5th Garmin but this has far the worst battery performance. It is a pity that for a 1000+EUR watch, you need to go with this work-around. Hopefully, this can be addressed with some future fm updates before Fenix 9 is out...

  • 0 5 months ago

    I'm not seeing that behavior on my 51mm Solar (I'm on day 18 of current change with multiple activities and 6 hours of GPS time with 23% battery left). so,

    • Could the battery drain be specific to AMOLED
    • I don't play music while doing activity so, could it be the earbuds are not disconnecting from the watch or somehow the music isn't halting.

    You've been very specific in what was happening. Maybe with some collaboration we help figure this out.

    One question, are you using an external HRM? If so, what brand and model?

    My activities have been a mix of no HRM strap and a Garmin Pro+ HRM strap

  • 0 5 months ago in reply to kstate1980

    i am not using HRM strap, and the earbuds should be disconnected since i put them back in the case, i beleive there was something running and stuck in the background even though i stopped the activity, and garmin should investigate it

  • 0 5 months ago in reply to kstate1980

    Just using Garmin HRM strap, Tempe and Stryd. No music, nothing. There is a difference in the battery drain after saving activity + continuing using the watch as normal (high drain), and saving activity + reset (lower drain). I could imagine the best battery life time is achieved when the watch is switched off completely most of the time :-) It  was never the case with FR920, FR720, F5, F6 or F7.

  • 0 5 months ago in reply to ayehya

    I agree.

    The only difference between what you are doing and myself is:

    • Watch AMOLED vs Solar
    • Music
    • Earbuds

    So even though music is stopped and earbuds put back in the case, it could be a possibility that either the watch is stuck in the background on earbuds or music. Or the drain issue is related to the type of watch. 

    It would be interesting if you did an Outdoor Walking Activity without music and earbuds to see what happens to the battery after the activity.

  • 0 5 months ago in reply to DanBba1

    Are there any firmware updated for the Tempe and Stryd?

    • Remove the batteries from the sensors and reinstall them and see if anything changes

    If not

    • Delete both sensors from the watch and see what happens after activity

    If the battery drain stops

    • Add each sensor back one at a time, do an activity and see if one of them is causing the drain
  • 0 5 months ago in reply to kstate1980

    I had the same with my fenix8 51mm amoled for about 2 weeks. Nearly 25% per day. I tested everything including a factory reset and a beta firmware. No change. After 2 weeks I did the same activity (in my case emtb) as 2 weeks before ( in between I did skiing activities only).

    and after I stopped the recording of this emtb activity the battery drain was gone also.

    My conclusion is: in this 2 weeks this emtb activity didn’t stop completely… the gps sensors (and perhaps more) were still on.  Even when I started and stopped other activities like skiing.

    perhaps it could be an advice to start and stop all activities you did before the battery drain started…

    best regards 

    r11gs

  • 0 4 months ago

    I'm not sure this is related to those activities - I think it's the 12.35 software.  I have the fenix 8 amoled too, and since installed 12.35, my battery drain has been noticeably higher.  I've not changed any of my behaviour.  Restarting sounds like a temporary fix to kill whatever is running in the background, but hopefully garmin figures this out and gives us an update....

  • 0 4 months ago

    I'm not sure this is related to those activities - I think it's the 12.35 software.  I have the fenix 8 amoled too, and since installed 12.35, my battery drain has been noticeably higher.  I've not changed any of my behaviour.  Restarting sounds like a temporary fix to kill whatever is running in the background, but hopefully garmin figures this out and gives us an update....

  • 0 4 months ago in reply to kstate1980

    hey buddy.

    can you share your settings and softwareversion?

    im on day 10, with 10hrs gps and like 3 non gps workouts. currently on 13.14

    49% left

    best regards