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

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.

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0 6322425 over 1 year ago in reply to 9241610

Well, not sure--like you not sure if it's a glitch or not. But sometimes I've tested by putting it in direct sunlight and then navigating to the glance, where it shows the line through the symbol and it doesn't switch over to charging. So can't confirm that the lines on the chart correspond to the line through the symbol and indicate a lack of sun exposure in those moments, but if it DOES mean that, then surely the line thru the symbol should switch off when the device is in direct sun?

0 9241610 over 1 year ago in reply to 6322425

I sort of tried this same thing myself a minute ago... but only with a table lamp. After a restart and a few minutes... I am seeing some "sun" exposure logged on the graph and a vertical line just before that. I'm now mostly convinced (but still not positive) this is a further bug. There is not much difference in light now than there was 2 hours ago. And somehow I'm getting readings now. It seems my restart "fixed" it. I don't know if it fixed the ability to "collect" solar... or if it fixed the ability to display solar collected. To further the curiosity, even when there was solar logged on the graph, the icon had a line through it. The second time I navigated to the solar chart, I watched the icon change from "with a line" to "without a line". On top of that, I also can't tell whether that is a designation of the "live" reading... or something else entirely.

Basically, I'm confused about what is intentional UI design and further, what is it trying to say if it is intentional. Maybe we just need some coaching?

Note/edit: it is remotely possible that 2 hours ago my watch was just beneath my cuff... not it is not. But that doesn't really explain the whole "line vs no line" icon thing.

0 1459194 10 months ago

I have just received my Instinct 2S solar surf edition and exactly the same thing happened. Off the bat it was Solar charging nicely, first full usb charge and now it seems defunct. I live in Africa there is a lot of sun. I have the 14.12 update and its not working. Soft reset kind of got some solar back but it keeps stopping - well isn't consistent in it's function.

Don't think this bug is fixed.

Maybe I should return this for the non-solar version.

+1 Garmin-Laurie 10 months ago in reply to 1459194

Hello,

I am sorry to hear there are still some concern with the solar charging. There was the hope that this was resolved with the SW version 14.12, and for many this was the case. However, for those who are maybe still seeing this concern, I would like to collect some specific examples. So, for anyone still having this concern, please feel free to reach out to me via Private Message.

I would love to know specifics like:

Does the solar charger ever work? Keep in mind, is not supposed to function with a screen protector, or when the battery is fully charged.

If this stops working, does a hard reset return it to working again? For hard reset, hold the Light button until the watch shuts off, as opposed to selecting power off. Then power this on again.

Thank you in advance for your assistance in helping us address this.

0 borfoci 9 months ago in reply to Garmin-Laurie

Dear Laurie,

my watch showed 8,5K Lux hours a couple of days ago and by the evening on the same day my battery went up from 97% to 100%. Do you know about this kind of issue as well? The watch is on 14.12 firmware. I did not do a hard reset because neither before nor after have I experienced this. I found the 8.5K hours realistic because I was not out that day too much and the sun just occassionally showed up among the clouds. So I suspect the battery percentage should have been wrongly displayed however I have not dropped much since then.

thank you!

0 1459194 9 months ago in reply to Garmin-Laurie

Dear Laurie,

Thanks for the specifics, after the last small update- there was a subsequent one even though I had the 14.12 update and that seems to not have changed, which after a soft reset seems to have solved the issue.

I now have a more serious one where the buttons have failed to work and on hard reset it's stuck on a loop of reset default yes or no.

I see this is a defect based on another thread - https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/instinct-solar/304078/garmin-instinct-solar-surf---stuck-on-reset-default-settings-yes-no

I'm quite sad, this was expensive but useful when it worked.

I will DM you about the latter issue and what I should do next?

all the best

0 2639312 7 months ago in reply to Garmin-Laurie

Hi dear Laurie,

I just noticed that my Instinct x2 solar tactical watch is not getting charged through solar power!
the watch is consuming the battery power and not getting charged even having exposure to the Sun many days.

I already read your replies to other customers with the same issue and tried to apply same advised ways, but sadly not worked any of them for my case.

Kindly please advice.

Cheers

0 bluefish 7 months ago in reply to 2639312

2639312 said:
not getting charged even having exposure to the Sun many days.

Maybe it overheated ?

How did you expose the watch to the sun? On the wrist ?

0 2639312 7 months ago in reply to bluefish

I mean the watch was on my left wrist for so many days and exposed to sunlight. But not getting charged through solar power. Just showing on its screen the hourly lux intake.

0 Vonnikins 7 months ago

Hi Vlad,

On a slight tangent, how do you add that ‘daily avg solar’ view by day of the week on your watch face please?

I can see a view of the current day, and need to look on the app to see previous days, and this method does not show weekly / monthly either. Feeling slightly data neglected! Thanks, V