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Significant battery drain for Vivoactive 3 after 7.70 firmware update

I am not sure when exactly my Vivoactive 3 updated to version 7.70. But it was sometime recently. And for the last few days I am noticing that the battery life of my Vivoactive 3 has gone down significantly! I am only getting about 1 day of battery life on a full charge, sometimes even less than 24 hours!

My watch is more than 2.5 years old and when I measured my battery life a month or two ago, I was easily getting more than 5 days on a full charge with heart rate measurement on. And I believe I was getting around 5 days on a full charge even a few weeks ago. But this week I am suddenly noticing less than a day of battery! I am very upset with this sudden and massive decrease in battery life. Looking at the forums here, it seems like many people are experiencing poor battery life with the latest update. I am very disappointed with Garmin for this poor quality update and I really hope they fix it so that my watch is usable again! It is such a great device and I am upset that bad software updates may be causing such massive problems! Please fix it!

  • Hi, also for me downgrading and upgrading did not the job. I contacted Garmin support and they offered me to buy a refurbished ... For me all normal resets and downgrades and all-functions off did not work.

    However, did some further research: On a Russian Garmin page I saw one option what you should try when there is battery drain:

    Maybe there is a sync-process hanging in Garmin connect, you should try and delete this possibly crippled sync-process: Connect watch to PC/open Garmin Express go to Garmin connect user page. Look for dot at the watch symbol (right/up on the page besides user symbol). If there is a dot, (double)click on watch symbol and delete process then sync with watch. Then soft reset and fully charge the watch ... worth a try, I am currently monitoring. Cutout from translated russian support page below:

  • Add me to the list of battery drain issues since new update. Wink

  • +1 on this issue. Went searching for why my Vivoactive 3 battery is plummeting and found this thread. Hope a fix comes SOON.

  • I'm sitll on 7.60 and have had my batteries last less than 24 hours. Used to be at least 5-7 days, and suddenly dropped to 3 days from late last year, and now ,just less than a day. Is Garmin forcing us to upgrade to a new watch? 

  • By the way so many people complaint about an immediate drop in battery performance during past couple of years (the first topic was 4 years ago https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/healthandwellness/f/vivoactive-3-3-music/134585/6-hrs-battery) and the only solution Garmin offers is refurbished watches for the price higher then the second-hand market, I believe this is an engineered obsolescence (I will go to Coros it they fail to offer a workable solution) or they use various hardware versions and Garmin engineers are too stupid to produce a firmware that works good for all versions. Or they just used faulty electronic components and avoid spreading the guarantee. Anyway this situation looks bad and Garmin's inability to offer a solution to its customers during several years makes them think.

  • I had a bad experience with a refurbished Vivomove watch, prior to upgrading to the Vivoactive 3. A quarter of the move bar was permanently marked. Stupid me presumed it was because no movement was detected when i received the watch. Good thing it was still under warranty. now this crap. I'm already thinking of moving to a different brand. Shame as I'm a level 4 in the fitness challenge. If anything, its the ecosystem and the app that makes me reluctant to move on all this while. But After two bad experiences, I highly doubt I'd get a third Garmin watch 

  • i know that feel. it is so frustrating not to be able to wear the piece you want because it turn off 

  • Same story.... in 3 years time, a few times battery issues after firmware updates. Last year a refurbisch replacement due to battery drain and altimeter issues (no extra costs) and happy with my 5 day battery life. After firmware update 7.70 back to  less then 20hr battery life.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 2 years ago in reply to litetaker

    I disagree. Not about the software being hard bit (I am in software too and know the challenges), but this issue has been going on for ages. My watch is 2 years old and suffering the same issues described here since the start of the year. I have seen posts where people have had new watches with the problem and others who have sent their watch for exchange only to have it update the next day to the new firmware and break. Surely, they can roll back the firmware to a previous version by simply retagging the 7.4 code as 7.8 and pushing it out? Sure the version control peeps will freak out, but not my problem.

    I also don't believe that it is only a small subset of devices. As I said, I have been following this issue on various threads (lurking) for months. How many other silent sufferers are there out there? How many have tried all the advice and moved to another brand? My watch, which I used every day, has been sitting on the bench blank screen for months now as I can't use it if it only lasts 8 hours and drains to nothing in minutes under GPS.

    And Garmin have not even announced that there is an issue! It's all give us your info and try this thing or that and blah blah blah. Just be honest and people might wait. As it is, I will have to bin this unit and go over to another brand. I mean, how long do we have to wait? No idea!

    It's a shame because the watches are great, the phone apps are great, the experience is great. User support. Not so much (no offence Amber).

    Be sure, this is not an inconvenience. It's a show stopper. The watch is unusable and a brick. And Garmin's response is defensive and self preserving.

  • I've already placed an order for  the Huawei GT2 Pro. Should be getting it in a day or two more. I'd rather not wait to see if Garmin ever fixes this issue. After months of waiting, it's time to move on. Life's too short for stuff like this.