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VA4 Lock and DND Flaws

Former Member over 5 years ago

I recently upgraded to a Vivoactive 4 after happily using a Vivoactive 1 for 5 years. Although it looks nice, I'm not yet convinced it was a good use of money, and I'm wondering if I'm missing something (though reading through the forums I doubt it).

Basically, I'd like a way to quickly put my watch into sleep mode at night, such that:

The light does not easily come on by itself
If I want to see the time I don't first have to look at a glaring white screen of a padlock (even 1 second of bright white light is painful at 3am!)
When the alarm goes off I don't have to first unlock it to dismiss/snooze

Longer rant/suggestions....

All the above were easily managed on the VA1 - a swipe and 2 presses set it to sleep - locking the device and setting Do Not Disturb, disabling the touchscreen, while easily allowing you to switch the light on (and off) to check the time, snoozing/dismissing alarms with the 2 physical buttons, and basically never having the screen face light up in the night.

It's massively frustrating that despite producing a watch with 2 physical buttons, the software seems the same as the VA3. The software on VA4 seems even less functional than the VA1!!

It seems like this would be an easy fix on the VA4, and greatly improve functionality:

Change DND to effectively be a "sleep" mode.
When activated, it locks the watch, disables the touchscreen
Pressing one button turns the backlight on (either with a small padlock briefly, or without one - I mean, people will know if they've locked their watch right?!)
Ideally pressing again turns the light off
Long pressing unlocks/turns off DND
When an alarm goes off, one button is snooze, one is dismiss.

Sorry for the rant, I just am absolutely shocked that they had something which worked really well, and for nearly twice the price have produced something with worse functionality!

It's difficult to imagine keeping the VA4 as long as I did the VA1, or getting another Garmin watch, if they don't bother making the software more functional, on what afterall is meant to be an all day every day watch...

0 RunnerM over 5 years ago

I don't know if this will solve your problem if you lock the watch, but some people set the brightness control as the shortcut item. That way they can set the brightness to "off" most of the time and then swipe right once and activate the brightness when needed. Of course in the dark you are flying blind until you can get brightness activated and it would not work in a locked screen situation.

0 1906207 over 5 years ago

Can't agree more with you

prior to VA4 I had cheap wrist band from Huawei which costed me fraction of what I spent for VA4. Now I am also shocked that some features which were matter of course for my cheap wrist band are either missing in VA4.or are not as functional as I was used to

I chose Garmin and spent quite a lot money for it because of promised battery life and because I believed I am buing premium stuff compared to cheaper products from china. None of this is true!

0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to RunnerM

Thanks - I did almost try this, but unfortunately it wasn't really practical for me as I do like to be able to check the time in the night. Also, having a small light on my wrist is handy so I don't have to switch bedroom lights on and wake my wife! Again, having the lower phyiscal button act as a light on/off would even be a simple improvement (which the VA1 had!) - a single press of it doesn't do anything that I've discovered yet...

0 ianmiles over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member

I'm one of those people who has the brightness control as the shortcut ...

Once set up, I have the backlight off at night.

If I need to read the time, just swipe the screen L-->R, then tap in the upper half to turn on light by one step, then swipe R-->L to see time (Alt method is to short press lower button to go back from brightness to time).

It's pretty easy to do with minimal practice. Give it a go!

0 Former Member over 5 years ago

My bricked Vivoactive 4 was definitely my last Garmin.

0 RunnerM over 5 years ago

I would prefer a double screen tap to a button press to activate the backlight. Something that is not used anywhere else. I want to be able to turn the backlight off, and turn it on quickly, only when I need it. I could do that with the VA1.

0 Wesley Blanco over 5 years ago

double tap to lock and unlock would be great

0 Maddi02 over 3 years ago

is this still a problem? Im planning on buying a vivo4s for my wife and this issue would be an absolute dealbreaker.

0 zigford over 3 years ago in reply to Maddi02

Everything described here seems fair.

But it’s never been an issue for me. For me when I’m asleep, either my arm movements don’t cause the backlight to come on, or the light doesn’t disturb mine or my wife’s sleep.

I understand how it could be an issue for some and it seems an oversight or easy feature Garmin could add, but have not yet.

I have used the backlight shortcut trick from time to time, but it’s more for battery life saving.

0 Bryan w over 3 years ago

Honestly you seem to be confusing DND with Lock Mode. DND prevents the light from coming on, notifications from waking you up, and helps conserve battery.

DND has nothing to do with Lock Mode, which is used to lock the screens and buttons so that you don't press them accidentally.

I would NOT recommend putting your watch in Lock Mode while you sleep at all. It sounds like that is your real issue. There's really no reason to lock the screen or buttons while you sleep. I have never once accidentally pushed a button or swiped the screen while I'm sleeping. On occasion I have accidentally turned on the backlight, but the only time I even notice is if I have the top of my wrist right in front of my eyes AND I accidentally touched the screen, which is next to impossible.

I wouldn't use Lock Mode for anything other that very rough activities or if the watch will get wet like when you're swimming or showering. But even then, I still have never accidentally pressed anything on the watch in any meaningful way. I think you're far too worried about accidentally doing something on the watch (which was a regular concern with the Vivoactive3 but not the Vivoactive4).