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Battery drains fast

8765792
over 4 years ago

Since the latest update I am having to charge my watch twice a day. It is currently 13months old. I was using it connected to phone and to monitor my heart rate all day, and it would last 2 days. Including monitoring my training twice a day.

Since the update I have had to turn off Bluetooth and HR monitor and it still only lasts half the day. I have changed the display and alot of the settings to increase battery, but it hasn't helped.

Yesterday I did exercise on the morning, but my watch on charge starts at around 0900, at lunch time my watch was at 100% so put it back on and by 1530 it was down to 35% using it just as a watch. 

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 2214132

    I resolved my issue with my vivoactive 3 by charging it via USB plugged into a laptop instead of a wall plug charger, and it went back to the normal discharge rate. Lasts about 3-4 days now on watch mode.

    This fix has lasted and worked for a year or so now. Just got this notification hence thought to update here in case it helped anyone else. 

    All the best, good luck. 

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    Have the same problem my vivoactive has gone from 5-4 days to around 14 hour over the night. That's not okey.

    Probably I'm going to look in to it.

    Was thinking of switching to a 4 but know I don't know any more.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 3937992

    Hi there! Can I have you do the following steps and if it does not improve can you tag me and we can work together to get this resolved. 

    • Plug the device into the computer and sync with Garmin Express
    • Once it's finished, unplug the device and an update may go through.
    • Please reset the device to defaults
    • This will start the watch from new. Please go to watch settings, system then reset to defaults.
    • Clean the contacts with rubbing alcohol
    • Please charge fully through the computer

    Once these steps are completed, please test the device over the next 48 hours and report back how the battery has held up. We will then reevaluate from there.

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    OMG I am not the only one, I used to love my Vivoactive 3, battery was excellent, could even go out for short run (about 3-4 miles) on 10% battery and it would still have juice left. 

    Now, it did not survive 4 hour GPS walk tracking, then recently wen out for 90 minute run and battery from 98% ran down to something like 14%...it has never done that Flushed 

    I charge mine so often now, never had to. Now i am worried it wont record all my long run when I am out. 

    Also, as soon as I unplug the watch from the charge within a minute my watch has gone from 100% to 94% wtf? I have no smart notifications on, light only comes on when i am doing activity. BrightnessPensiveetting is on less than 30% i do everything I can to save battery life, but now it's unbearable, is it forcing us to upgrade like Apple has done with their phones? PensivePensive 

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Pukinuk

    HI there! Can you follow these steps and keep me updated if there is any improvement.  

    • Plug the device into the computer and sync with Garmin Express
    • Once it's finished, unplug the device and an update may go through.
    • Please reset the device to defaults
    • This will start the watch from new. Please go to watch settings, system then reset to defaults.
    • Clean the contacts with rubbing alcohol
    • Please charge fully through the computer

    Once these steps are completed, please test the device over the next 48 hours and report back how the battery has held up. We will then reevaluate from there.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Garmin-AmberD

    Thank you, I did that it seemed that update from pc sorted it. Will keep an eye on this. 

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Pukinuk

    Great, thank you for the feedback. Reach out if you notice any issues from here. 

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Garmin-AmberD


    Followed these steps and monitored for 48hours with similar results, watch drains at exactly 5% per hour (8-9% first hour) with no GPS usage.
    As I mentioned above I am still getting similar GPS/Activity battery life (about 5-6hours) which I was getting before the watch started to drain fast during normal usage so wouldn't this be odd if it was a failed battery?

    What are the next steps to try and resolve this issue?

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Sciber

    Similar here with my wife's Vivoactive Music 3.  Was 'fine' up until a day or so ago and now it won't hold a charge overnight basically.  

    Reset and is on the latest firmware.  

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    I'm in the same boat. Bought watch on June 2020 and was getting five days battery life. Now I'm down to below two. The watch is dumbed down too reduce battery usage. No notifications, etc. Still didn't help. I've reset watch, removed watch from phone, etc. No hot I. Watch is on 7.4 software. I'm not enjoying this watch at all and will be having a good think about buying Garmin in future too be honest