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Instinct 2/2X Solar is Not Always Solar Charging When It Should Be

Vlad B
over 1 year ago

Hello, my Instinct 2X doesn't charge by sunlight or charges max 1% per day even though I get strong exposure to the sun. Is this normal?

I bought the watch because of all the hype they created around the idea of unlimited power. Ok I get that the watch still needs to be charged by cable from time to time. But barely getting 1% for a full day of exposure makes the solar charge function useless. Garmin marketed this watch as twice more capable of extracting power from sunlight but it doesn't seem to work.

I'm attaching a photo of today's solar exposure, i left it on the balcony in direct sunlight, no shadows, it was on power saving mode all the time.

I did many similar trials and never got more than 1% charge. I also wore it during August at a festival where i would get max sunlight exposure daily. Still no more than 1% charge per day.

.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to garminfongbeast.com
    garminfongbeast.com said:
    does the new release of firmware 14.12 fix the issue related to the battary not charging correctly from solar after being charged via USB?

    There were actually 2 solar charging related issues. If anyone continues to have an issue with solar charging immediately after charging your Instinct 2 series watch, please update this thread. Thank you.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Garmin - Chris

    Hey Chris, thanks for confirming this!  I was wondering the same thing. This will be a very welcome update.

    EDIT: Disregard! I restarted the Connect app and in came the update!

    Regarding your 100% release comment - Today I turned my "software update" choice to "auto update = on" but I'm still seeing "no updates available" listed in Garmin Connect.  Any tips? Does it just take a while for the app talk to the Garmin servers?

    Thanks again.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 9241610

    Hmmmm... welp it seems that was only a "TZ" (time zone?) update. Still no 14.12 for me. 

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 9241610
    9241610 said:
    Still no 14.12 for me

    Use Garmin Express to update your watch. If there is no update available even with GE, then I recommend checking whether you do not own an APAC model. In such case, you will likely have to wait a few months more for the update.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to trux

    Hmmm interesting.  That seems to be a desktop program, yes?  Do I really need to connect my watch to my computer to get the update?

    Edit: PS: thank you for taking the time to reply!

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 9241610
    9241610 said:
    Do I really need to connect my watch to my computer to get the update?

    No you do not need, but it may take a few days or weeks more if you wait for the OtA update. And personally, I prefer always doing the firmware update in a controlled way over the cable, after having fully charged the battery, and cleaned up the storage. That prevents otherwise relatively frequent problems with high battery drain, or even bricked watch due to failed update of the complementary firmware packages for sensors.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Garmin - Chris

    I believe the 14.12 update fixed the issue. I have an Instinct 2S Solar and just charged up to 100% via USB, let the battery drain to about 95% (without restarting), then successfully registered solar charge.

    Before the latest update, I could not register solar charge after charging via USB without first restarting my watch.

    Thanks for the fix!

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to p.shindig

    Thank you for the update! Good to hear the solar charging issue is resolved.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Garmin - Chris

    Hi, I'm having a NEW issue after the update on my Instinct 2s solar. I had been using the soft reset workaround previously since my watch was doing the thing where it wouldn't solar charge after USB charge until I reset.

    Anyway, I think it is working better (chart of solar intensity seems to be more accurate and consistently updating) but now every other time I navigate to the solar intensity glance and click into it to see the real-time solar charging, it shows the solar meter (in the round sub-screen) with a line through it. Backing out of the glance and going back into it again fixes it about 50% of the time. Other times after repeated attempts to refresh the glance, I've just given up and restarted the watch. I can't tell if it's solar charging but the actual display icon is glitched, or if the actual charging function is glitching and its intermittently not accepting solar power. 

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 6322425

    I can second this same phenomenon.  At first I thought it was a bug too (and it may still be?) but after a few views of all the "vertical lines" on the graph, I half convinced myself it was some new "feature" to designate that there was no (or at least below some unknown threshold) solar charging in the times between the vertical lines. And if there had been no solar at all in the previous 6 hours, the little icon would have a line through it to designate that. 

    Are you certain you had solar exposure during those "icon with line through it) times?