Garmin Instinct Solar - Battery Drain after 17.0 update

I have the Garmin Instinct Solar Camo, after the most recent update, my battery life has been significantly diminished. Dropping over 25 % in a day from Fully charged, all Bluetooth connection has been disabled, all backlights have been dimmed down and other power-saving optimizations have been taken. I have done a factory reset, which has not helped either

Does any else have this issue or know how to rectify this.

Thank you

Top Replies

kucara over 1 year ago +2

I have the same problem ...I don't know what to do i already tried everything.

Garmin instinct solar is my 5th garmin device and i can say that i am not going to buy garmin again..
trux over 1 year ago in reply to PatrickCorsar +1

PatrickCorsar said:
I don't want to don the tin foil hat but it seems a bit coincidental with the release of the Instinct Solar 2 but then again it could just be a bug in the latest software update...…
nolaglasschic over 1 year ago +1

I am having the same problems as well

All Replies

0 trux over 1 year ago

Try the soft reset of the watch - hold the Light button until it shuts down, and then restart it.

0 kucara over 1 year ago

I have the same problem ...I don't know what to do i already tried everything.

Garmin instinct solar is my 5th garmin device and i can say that i am not going to buy garmin again..

0 PatrickCorsar over 1 year ago

As Trux says I have tried a soft reset as per this previous forum:

https://forums.garmin.com/outdoor-recreation/outdoor-recreation/f/instinct-solar/261924/instinct-solar---excessive-battery-drain-since-garmin-update-on-4-24-2021

The above does not solve the problem.

I have contacted Garmin and credit to them they ask me to send it to most likely be replaced but I have only had it for around 9 months (maybe why?).

I am reluctant to send it though as I will be without a watch for potentially 3 weeks and I am not sure it will fix the problem as it seems like the latest software update.

For me, it seems to occur after using a GPS activity. My best bet, as the watch lasts around three days from 100%, is it ends up in the "max battery GPS mode" (as stated in link below) or some pseudo GPS mode as it lasts around 3 days. When the watch runs out of battery and I don't use any GPS (sort of a flaw with a GPS watch!), it runs down as it should in the "smartwatch mode". I thought that manually putting it into the "battery saver watch mode" would pull it back to the normal operation because the watch's last stand is to do this before it dies but that also doesn't work. Once in this mode, it drains just as quick also despite saying it has 50+ days.

https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-A298EB1C-21D9-430F-8D06-A2CC74E5D5E9/EN-US/GUID-BCA44331-7CAC-4734-9222-6066B05C32AB.html

I don't want to don the tin foil hat but it seems a bit coincidental with the release of the Instinct Solar 2 but then again it could just be a bug in the latest software update...

Does anyone else have any ideas or see a similar pattern?

0 PatrickCorsar over 1 year ago in reply to kucara

Have you contacted Garmin customer support?

0 trux over 1 year ago in reply to PatrickCorsar

PatrickCorsar said:
I don't want to don the tin foil hat but it seems a bit coincidental with the release of the Instinct Solar 2 but then again it could just be a bug in the latest software update...

I do not think there is a problem directly in the new firmware. There would be many more complaints here. Most users do not see any change in battery life (myself including).

But I do suspect there is indeed some problem in the firmware upgrade process, because we see similar occasional complaints about sudden increase of power consumption after a firmware upgrade practically after each new firmware release. And it was the same already at the old Instinct as I see it at Instinct 2 too. Additionally, I am seeing similar threads on forums for other Garmin models too. So to me it looks like that the process of the firmware upgrade can indeed accidentally cause such troubles. I may be wrong, but that's my impression after seeing the same complaints here on the forum for several years.

The soft reset sometimes fixes it, sometimes not. Sometimes the master reset helps, in other cases a new firmware update (esp. one including also the sensor hub software) may bring it back. But there are also cases where you have to request a replacement device.

0 paulstrobel over 1 year ago

Same issues on my end. I used to be able to do a couple solid weeks of hiking (w/ GPS), now I can barely do 3 days. I chatted w/ support and they offered to send me a refurbished watch for $140, but I'd need to send my watch in first. Amazon is selling refurbished ones for that amount already.

0 5051155 over 1 year ago

I've got the same problem. during the first 3-4 hours the battery drops from 100% to 84%.

0 nolaglasschic over 1 year ago

I am having the same problems as well

0 thoob over 1 year ago

Same problem here after update to 17.0.

0 5151583 over 1 year ago in reply to thoob

same issue here, tried the factory reset but after the update the battery works just 2 dys or so with everithing off...any answer from garmin?!?