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Sudden huge decrease in battery life

9169298
2 months ago

Hello all,

I've had my instinct 2 for a bit over 2 years now. It regularly lasts over a week before I have to charge it. This past week something changed and all of the sudden it won't last 30 hours between charges. It seems to lose about 3-4% of battery life every hour. I did not change any settings on my watch.

I tried checking garmin app for watch updates, it's up to date with 16.11. I tried letting it drain to dead then charge to full twice, didn't help. Verified my settings by changing them, then changing back. Did a soft reset, then later a hard reset. Uninstalled all non stock apps/faces, turned off GPS, etc.

Online the only advice I get is 'turn off pulse ox' and other generic things that I did when I first got the watch to ensure a long battery life. Found Trux's guide on Friday and ran through it all, only a slight change of an additional few hours. I also tried updating to the beta 17.01 firmware after that didn't work.

Any ideas on how I can move forward?

  • 0 2 months ago

    Turn off Bluetooth (option Phone) on the watch, and see whether the high drain disappears. If so, then there is some communication problem that you will have to fix. Turn off the HR sensor, and again - if it helps, there may be a hardware problem with the sensor. Double check that the display backlight is not permanently on. Enable the Battery Saver - if the drain continues, the battery may be dead, or there is another hardware problem that you may not be able to fix. In such case, contact the Support and ask a quote for a replacement watch.

  • 0 2 months ago in reply to trux

    Thank you for the reply. I've turned off bluetooth and wrist HR sensor. Display backlight is set at 8 seconds timeout already with only 20% brightness. Currently at 82% and "43" days of battery. 

    I'll run battery saver if this doesn't pinpoint the issue. Any ideas on what would cause a sudden failure of the battery? This wasn't a gradual decline, it was fine one day then terrible the next.

  • 0 2 months ago in reply to 9169298
    9169298 said:
    I've turned off bluetooth and wrist HR sensor.

    I'd do it one at a time, in order to pinpoint the reason.

    9169298 said:
    Any ideas on what would cause a sudden failure of the battery?

    As I wrote - if turning off the BT fixes it, it is the BT, if turning the HR sensor fixers it, it is the sensor, if the display backlight is on (despite the settings) it is the backlight. If Battery Saver makes no significant change, the battery may be at its end of life.

  • 0 2 months ago

    I had a similar experience. Normal battery life 30 days. This month 20 days... But I don't know when it started but I force stopped all Garmin apps yesterday on the android phone and cleared the cache. Since then, normal battery behaviour. IQ store Update on android 6 days ago and connect 08. February. 

  • 0 2 months ago

    Unfortunately even with BT off, HR off, and battery saver I still lose 2% battery every hour. While 2 days of battery is an improvement, it being in dumb watch mode for 2 days is a far cry from its performance last month where it could operate at normal capacity for over a week with using GPS.

    Is there a recommendation for how to contact Support for a quote, or just goto the general website like https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?contactOverride=true&productID=775421&tab=topics and click the contact button?

  • +1 1 month ago

    Hello all,

    Something hardware based must have been wrong because my HR sensor stopped working. Thankfully Garmin support did a fantastic job and shipped off a replacement (it was out of warranty, so I did have to pay a fee) the day that happened and I'm happy to report my new to me watch is working as my old one did a month ago.

    Thank you to trux and garmin support for the help.