Venu 2 Plus : Battery Drain Issue!

Good morning Garmin-Kevin,

Here's an update on the battery drain. (BTW, I didn't get an email from you yesterday, was it sent?)

2 Feb

• 751am: Fully charged, then power cycled
• 440pm: 85%
• used "Strength" (no GPS) for 40mins
• 748pm: 78%, put to DND mode for the night

3 Feb

• 7am: 55%
• "Health Snapshot" — again, as during the previous battery draining phase, Pulse Ox DID NOT RECORD (there is obviously a connection between when the batt is draining quickly and this sensor)
• 9am: 51%

The watch has returned to a 2 day charge cycle, with 45% loss daily (despite no GPS use).  Compared with 11% loss from 27-28 Jan (with 1hr, 20 min GPS).

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Settings:
    •    Gesture mode: timeout "Low"

    •    Display Brightness: Low (with auto adjustment)

    •    SpO2 tracking, turned off evening of 25 Jan
    •    since turning it to "On Demand" the O2 isn't being recorded when I do a Health Snapshot nor when I do a specific SpO2 reading

    •    MoveIQ: On

    •    Watchface: one of the stock watch faces (with 3 data points on left and a rotating second line around the edge but otherwise no animation)

    •    didn't use music

    •    Bluetooth: always connect to my phone

    •    Data Recording: Smart

    •    Firmware: updated automatically to v7.40 on 28 Jan

af-toronto let's start by having you remove the "MinuteCast" widget and the "Phoenix V2" watch face from the watch using one of the 3 uninstall methods below:

How to Uninstall Connect IQ App Content Using the Connect IQ App

How to Uninstall Connect IQ Content Using Garmin Express

How to Uninstall Connect IQ Content Using the Garmin Connect App

Please retest the battery life with no Connect IQ content installed on the watch.  If, after a couple of days, you are still experiencing a rapid battery drain, please reply here and I will reach out to you via email for more information.

Thanks for the reply Garmin-Kevin.

I'll give it a try, though I do wonder why those would be the culprit when they weren't added recently and the Phoenix watchface isn't being used.

Why would everything seemingly be fine from 27 Jan to 1 Feb, and then without any changes to my settings whatsoever, suddenly be draining after?

But I'll try.

I'll report back in a day or two.

af-toronto hard to say exactly what prompted this change in battery life right now.  As for the CIQ watch faces, they can cause a battery drain due to an update to the watch face, whether that be one that notifies you it was installed, or one that was completed by the developer on the back end.  Other times, the battery drain may be caused by the watch face from NOT being updated by the developer after one of the many different software versions on the watch (main firmware, wrist heart rate sensor sw, GPS sw, ANT/BLE sw, etc.) being updated by Garmin.

I'll look for a response from you on Monday about how the battery responded without any CIQ content on the watch.  If the battery drain continues, please leave the watch free of all CIQ content and I will request some more information from you to submit to our Engineering team.

Good morning Garmin-Kevin,

Just a quick update for now. The problem doesn't appear to have been resolved.

3 Feb:

• 713p: Removed watch from Connect, removed from Bluetooth, Reset (Delete Data and Reset Settings), removed from Express
• 721p: restored, plugged into Garmin Express to reconnect to that as well, and charged to full (while plugged into Express)
  - using the stock watch face I was using before, but didn’t download anything new. Brightness set to low/auto. Auto activity: Off. Move IQ: On. Firmware: v7.40
• 837p:    100%, power cycle
• 840p:    DND mode
• 1102p:    97%
  

4 Feb

• 7am:        83%, DND off
  - Health Snapshot: again Pulse Ox NOT RECORDED
• 846a:    79%
  
  

I've only restored it, no downloads, no GPS use, no music, Pulse Ox set to "on demand" (though when I did a Health Snapshot this morning it again didn't record), DND mode from 840pm last night til 7am this morning—and batt dropped 17%.

[Update]

SW: 6.12

After the third watch reset, I believe my Venu 2 plus is back to normal

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18Z9QRWfCZPHNCA7AfcB53gnffTU-BMXaVuH6_HCTp-w/edit?usp=sharing

This is my usage and battery drain over last 7 days. There was only one adnormal drain on Tue 1st February 16:41. 

Other setups:

.

Always on:Off

I was wondering how your's was doing. Glad to hear it's running normally. Keep up your log though as mine was fine for a few days before crashing again (strange as I had made no changes and it happened on the same charge as when it was working fine).

I just reset mine for the first time last night using the method I was given. But no luck. It's still draining fast.

I really hope this can get resolved...

I also experienced battery drain and strange drops in battery percentage and decided to monitor it.

 After full reset and update to firmware 7.40:

Thursday 27 Jan. 17:00 100%

Monday 31 Jan. 9:55 0%

Dropped fast from 80 to 50% and during the last night from 20 to 0%.

Lasted 3.5 days

• With 1 hour 40 minutes GPS during biking.
• Gesture Mode
• Auto Brightness max. (brightness settings don't do anything in my case; know issue that's in beta test and hopefully resolved in new software)
• Gesture mode – timeout short
• Bluetooth on
• MoveIQ on
• Standard watchface
• No SpO2 meassuring
• Occasional use of the voice assistant (maybe 2 times a day)
• Notifications for WhatsApp, Agenda and a few other apps. Around 30-40 a day?

More detailed check for the next 'session':

Monday 31 Jan.

• 13:15 100%.

Tuesday 1 Feb.

• 11:23 96%
• 11:51 95%
• 16.14 94%
• 22.14 92%

Wednesday 2 Feb.

• 8:06 90%
• 9:15 89%
• 12:05 88%
• 18:45 86%
• 23:11 84%

Thursday 3 Feb.

• 8:15 83%
• 9:16 82%
• 14:03 80%
• 18:26 79%
• 22:53 77%

Friday 4 Feb.

• 9:11 75%
• 11:00 74%
• 13:19 73%
• 23:50 70%

Saturday 5 Feb.

• 07:21 68%
• 10:10 64%
• 12:12 60%
• 14:31 55%
• 20:13 44%
• 22:10 39%
• 22:46 38%

Sunday 6 Feb.

• 8:18 17%
• 14:45 0%

Started dropping unevenly fast on Saturday and again two big drops, from 38 to 17 and from 17 to 0%.

Lasted 6 days.

• No GPS activities
• Auto Brightness medium (brightness settings don't do anything in my case; know issue that's in beta test and hopefully resolved in new software)
• Other settings same as previous run

The sudden drops in percentage are extremely annoying (and unacceptable), because I don't know if the watch will make it through a day/night. As for the battery drain: the second measured session wat better, although without any GPS activities.

I'm still having big doubts about returning it. The brightness issues will hopefully be fixed, but I have no idea if the battery issues can all be fixed through firmware updates. 

UPDATE (7Feb)

After a period of high battery drain I reset the watch to full factory settings on 3 Feb. This did not solve the problem. I again reset the watch on 5 Feb before recharging, and then reset it again after charging, and it is again draining normally. I would like to say that the issue is resolved, but this is not the first time it cycled temporarily to normal operations—so I will wait and see. DETAILS BELOW.

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I have thus far experienced four periods of battery drain: (2 of high, 2 of normal drain)

Period 1: High Drain
— Date: From time of purchase on 22 Jan to 27 Jan
— Number of charge cycles: 2.5

Period 2: Normal Drain
— Date: 27 Jan to 1 Feb
— Number of charge cycles: 0.75

Period 3: High Drain
— Date: 1 Feb to 5 Feb
— Number of charge cycles: 2

Period 4: Normal Drain
— Date: 5 Feb to present
— Number of charge cycles: still on that same charge

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Log from 3 Feb to present (previous logs noted in earlier messages):

—3 Feb—

7am        55%
- Health Snapshot: again Pulse Ox NOT RECORDED (there is obviously a connection between when the batt is draining quickly and this sensor)

901a:    51% 
643p:    32%

713p: Removed watch from Connect, removed from Bluetooth, Reset (Delete Data and Reset Settings), removed from Express
721p: restored, plugged into Garmin Express to reconnect to that as well, and charged to full (while plugged into Express)
- switched stock watch face to what I was using before, but didn’t download anything new. Brightness set to low/auto. Auto activity: Off. Move IQ: On. Firmware: v7.40
837p:    100%, power cycle
840p:    DND mode

1102p:    97%


—4 Feb—

7am:        83%, DND off.
- Health Snapshot: again Pulse Ox NOT RECORDED
- walk (but not recorded/no gps)
846a:    79%
1019a:    77%
1133a:    74%
123p:    71%
340p:    66%
- walk, not recorded/no gps
529p:    63%
- Strength WO: 55min (total time)
- turned off watch
654p:    57%
742p:    55%
813p:    54%, DND mode
1107p:    50%
145a    :    45%


—5 Feb—

- Health Snapshot (Pulse Ox RECORDED—good sign?)
752a:    33%, DND off
856a:    31%; went to wifi in Connect, removed my network; “Auto Update Apps” off;
914a:    30%
- walk, not recorded/no gps
1006a:    28%
- Strength WO: 69mins
1135a:    23%

1207:    Remove from Express, Connect, Bluetooth, Restarted cell, Reset (Delete Data and Reset Settings)
- charged watch via Express
- also removed from Connect online
126p:    100%; I unplug from Express and reset it again.
131p:    watch reconnected to Connect, returned to my usual stock watch face, brightness to low
——> NOTE that I reset it twice here, once before, once after charging. I reset using the same method I used on 3 Feb (the method provided by Kevin over chat, listed in a previous message on this thread.

135p:    98%
- walk (but not recorded/no gps)
354p:    98%
5p (approx): DND mode
615p:    98%
902p:    97%
1136p:    96%


—6 Feb—

- Health Snapshot
806a:    95%; DND off
228p    :    93%
851p:    88%; DND on


—7 Feb—

- Health Snapshot; DND off
727a:    85%
- walk (but not recorded/no gps)
832a:    85%
925a:    84%