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Vivoactive 3 suddenly experiencing severe battery drain

RedSally
over 2 years ago

My 2.5 year old Vivoactive 3 is usually great with battery life, lasting several days even with activities being recorded. Usual battery life is around 10% drain per day without activities. Several times in the last year or so I've experienced a sudden battery drain which has always been fixed by restoring factory settings. About 3 days ago this issue resurfaced but I have not been able to fix it using my usual methods. All settings have been adjusted to where I usually have them - 10% brightness, short backlight timing etc etc, but I'm at a loss as to why it has so suddenly started draining a full battery in 6-12 hours.

In looking through other forum posts I've at least managed to fix the GPS sensor issue I've had for the last few months, but unfortunately it hasn't magically fixed my battery issue. It's dropped 2% while typing this.

I really like my watch and don't like having to buy new tech when it's been working so well. Please advise what I can do to fix it Garmin!

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    Same here with the sudden increase in battery drain starting about 2 weeks ago. I thought it was a new update, but it seems the latest update was 8+ months ago. I've tried all the fixes here (I have no IQ store apps/watchfaces, power cycle, soft reset, hard reset, update via USB/file). Nothing has changed the issue. I even replaced the battery (not easy!). I've also tried turning off Bluetooth and the wrist heart rate sensor. Nothing stops the rapid battery drain! I see there is a replacement watch offer from Garmin here in Germany but that's ~€100 w/shipping. I'd rather buy a new watch and at this point, it won't be a Garmin unfortunately.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Bigfork

    Found something odd. Early on in my battery investigation, I did see that the GPS software version was 0.0. Connecting it via a USB cable and updating it with the update file transfer to the "REMOTESW" folder, fixes the GPS software version. But, if I then do a hard reset (15s power button), it goes back to the GPS software 0.0. Is that in any way related? With GPS version 0.0 or 2.50, I have the same battery drain issue. FYI, after a normal power cycle, the GPS SW version was back to 2.50 Confused

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Bigfork

    Found something odd. Early on in my battery investigation, I did see that the GPS software version was 0.0. Connecting it via a USB cable and updating it with the update file transfer to the "REMOTESW" folder, fixes the GPS software version. But, if I then do a hard reset (15s power button), it goes back to the GPS software 0.0. Is that in any way related? With GPS version 0.0 or 2.50, I have the same battery drain issue. FYI, after a normal power cycle, the GPS SW version was back to 2.50 Confused

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Bigfork

    Update: Garmin Germany offered to replace it for free with a recertified unit after returning this one under an RMA. Happy Garmin customer Smiley

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    Same thing with my 3 year old Garmin Vivoactive 3: about 1 week ago, the watch did not connect with my smartphone anymore. Unpaired + paired again, and since then the battery drains in less than a day. I followed all instructions to minimize battery drain, and finally did a factory reset, to no avail. I have a strong impression it's the BT connection that works differently, trying to connect constantly. If this doesn't get resolved by FW update, the watch has basically become useless. Software versions: SW 8.10, GPS 2.50, TSC 2.10, Sensor 6.60, WHR 20.03.31, CIQ 3.1.9

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    I would suggest to everyone on this thread that still has a problem to reach out to support. Someone else told me to do that even though I was past the warranty period and Garmin replaced my watch with a refurbished one and it works great again!  Garmin is the best!

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Bigfork

    I noticed the GPS version 0.0 after firmware updates, but you are right, also after doing the 15s-button-press-reset. Usually after starting an activity using GPS it will show the correct GPS version again.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 5064789

    I'm not sure it's the Bluetooth. You can turn off the Bluetooth, and on mine at least, the battery drain was the same. Could be the BT is searching or doing something when you have the phone connection disabled, but my guess is the GPS is somehow active or some other mode is staying active 100% of the time.

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    I too have just started getting massive battery drain - won't even last the day.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 3345695

    As mentioned above, contact Garmin via their website/chat to customer support. Reference this thread if you like but make sure you've tried all the solutions listed (factory reset/manual firmware update, etc.) first. Mine got replaced with a refurb unit (looked brand new) even though it was 4 years old.