6.90 battery drain is twice as fast

Having read some other forums, it appears as though a lot of us are having the same problem. 

I have to charge mine at least twice per day now. 

that's means - the VA3 is useless as a smartwatch :/

(for me - the best result is 30% baterryy per day /* - it is - INHO - double as should be)
*/ possible if I turn off BT and do not use GPS

Same here! Dramatic battery drain, definitely twice as fast empty as ever before!

Yo tambien he notado el consumo excecivo de bateria desde la ultima actualizacion

charged mine up last night on 6.90 , lost 10% in about 11 hours , just sat there on the side, no gps on

Fgrizz

My VA3 was 100% at 06:00 AM and shut down at 7:00 PM no GPS no music just watch and notifications 

before this update My watch would last for days this is kinda frustrating  

not so bad - yesterday 10% per one hour   :-o   (no gps, only BT on + notyfications)  

I've now spoken with Garmin Support twice since this issue began.  Both agents have been very nice and helpful.  First person I spoke with acknowledged they are aware of this problem.  She said they did a major code roll with 6.90 and many 3rd party Connect IQ watch faces are not compatible with the new update, one symptom of this is excessive battery drain.  She asked me to do a number of tests which I have done over the past week.  Including:

• Remove the only CIQ item (a watch face) in the watch 
• Drain the battery to the point the watch shuts off due to lack of power
• Charge to 100% using a computer (not a wall plug USB charger).  I guess wanting a different power source, current, and charge rate
• See if the battery drain continues - it does, though not quite as bad, only about 2x the previous acceptable rate
• I did find the CIQ watch face I am using did an update on 9/24/19 to adapt to SDK 3.0.  I reinstalled this new version.  Battery drain remained at the same level as without the CIQ watch face
• I've done some test measurements over time with Bluetooth on and off, faster drain with it on of course

I just called Garmin Support to report on all the tests.  They acknowledge a problem with 6.90 update.  They find it is happening on some devices and not others.  They are looking at what might have happened in firmware version 6.90 and hope to have a resolution soon.  In the mean time, the resolution they are using is replacing the unit.  If the unit is new enough (mine is) they will provide a new device.  If it is past some threshold age (I did not ask what) they provide a refurbished unit..

Let's see if the new unit performs better than the current one.  I will take a few days of testing on the unit before I send back to current one to ensure the new one does indeed perform better in battery life.

I also pointed out to the phone agent that Garmin needs to look at this forum, the number of people who are experiencing this and expressing how mad they are.  This is very negative press for them because if we are screaming here on the forum, imagine what is being said to friends and in the public, nevermind on more commonly used social media outlets (twitter, Facebook, etc..).  This is a bad black eye for Garmin and they are not improving that.  He said they are aware of the forum content.  

I have no way of knowing if this is actually being understood and fixed.  Just want to advise what I have learned.

If you are experiencing battery drain issues, especially due to the 6.90 update, call Garmin support.  

Same issue with mine VA3, before 6.90 I can get almost 7 days but now barely 2 days. Very disappointed, I bought VA3 just 5 months ago... 

Mine started to have the same issue 3 days ago