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Vivoactive 3 battery drain still not fixed---30 hrs on basic fu cation v6.3

Former Member over 5 years ago

Vivoactive 3 updated to v 6.3. Battery drain unacceptable. It used to last 5-6 days. With all the latest software dates it now lasts 30 hrs....no changes made to my settings. All notifications turned off, sync turned off, wrist monitor HR set to smart, all other sensors off, all 3rd party software deleted, backlight set to 20% only on touch. I do not use it ever for getting calls, messages, weather, music control, etc. From full charge 30 hrs ago I am now down to 16%. My product is 16 months old since new and I have always used it in such a way that I rarely use the GPS function, never notifications, low backlight setting on button push and I would get the 5-7 days Garmin claimed. I only charged it when less than 10%. Surely not a battery failure since this problem suddenly occurred with software update. Please fix it and restore my watch Garmin. Let me go back to the earlier software version. My wife's Fitbit is looking mighty tempting if you can't support a product that can only last 36 hrs between charges. I'm guessing if I turned on notifications and took a jog with GPS it would last only 3-4 hours from 100% charge.

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0 Former Member over 5 years ago

I "think" that development are now seriously looking into it - but who really knows? There's also a 6.40 update which appears to have a slight improvement for battery drain. On 6.30 I was getting around 1.35%/hr drain - now I have a slight improvement to about 1.1%/hr drain. That's still less that 4 days usage, but at least it's better than the 6.20 and 6.30.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

Just to be clear: BT OFF, Backlight timeout short on 20%; Activity tracking OFF, All notifications OFF, All 3rd party software and 3 rd part widgets DELETED from watch:; Sensors or accessories OFF.....Everything Garmin suggests to save battery life has been done with the exception of the Wrist HR setting, which is on SMART as it has always been and I am still getting approximately 1.5 days before charging. I have spent lots of money on Garmin products over the years including expensive Aviation products for my airplane, marine products for my boat, multiple automotive GPS. This is the first fitness tracker I have purchased from Garmin and I have been satisfied until whatever software update they recently rolled out have killed it's functional use. I'm surprised at some of the responses I have heard people saying about Garmin blaming it on a hardware issue. Historically I have experienced them always standing by all my aviation products, marine products with good customer service. If they don't fix this issue or replace the product I will think second about Garmin before purchasing. Hopefully with an open ticket their engineers or techs will permanently resolve this issue because they know the competition is stiff. I am extremely disappointed, however, because my watch is really not useful to me anymore in its present state of severely limited function.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

I feel that you shouldn't have switch everything "off" to get the correct battery life.

I am one of those who support has told me to get a replacement under warranty. On the forum last night it was indicated (by Garmin) that this should not as been flagged as a replacement. However, I have yet to receive anything official from support.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

Upgraded yesterday to 6.4 and then deleted every widget except elliptical, walk indoors, bike indoors. Not using GPS function in any mode and did not do any activit. Using the default garmin watchface, ALL notifications/vibrate/ external sensor mode AND BT OFF. HR wrist sensor on SMART mode. Charged it for 45 min longer than100% indicator mark from my desktop USB. Backlight 20% on short timeout. IT has been exactly 20 hours and I am indicating 46% battery remaining. Clearly the problem has not been fixed even with 6.4 upgrade. I upgraded through the Garmin Express application on my desktop this time vs the phone app.

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

I agree, it's not been fixed. I do appear to have a slight improvement though, but that could be coincidental of course.