Vivoactive 4s - Troubleshooting the watch (battery draining)

Hello.

I am coming from Vivoactive HR, the first generation. It is rated at slightly lower battery life than 4S, so I was hoping to get the same or slightly better performance. The original Vivoactive HR would go for 6-8 days with 3-4 hours of GPS time or about 10 days without GPS use. With 4S, the full charge ran out in 4.5 days with only 40 min of GPS use. And I am not using pulse oximeter at all. I also removed backlight gesture and reduced backlight brightness one level down from default. At first I thought I got it figured out as the charge stayed 100% for 6 hours. But then it went to zero in 4.5 days. I notice that the HR green light stays twinkling at all times. Vivoactive HR didn't have that. It would come on from time to time. Not sure if this is the intended change.

As far as apps, etc., I've removed most stock watch faces and added two, with more data. I also removed some apps I don't use and added one.

I am tracking the battery level from time to time, at least for one full discharge now. Will go through another one and then try with pulse oximeter.

I also came from Vivoactive HR to the 4S. I think the 4S has a smaller battery than the Vivoactive 4. My impression is that the standby battery time is slightly shorter for VA4S than VAHR, but I think it is slightly better for one long GPS session.

Take a look at your sensors and headsets, if the watch is constantly searching for them. If so, you switch them off when you don't use them. I also get longer battery time by having bluetooth off, and syncing manually by wifi.

I only have HR sensor on. I don't have headsets. Bluetooth is on, like it was on VHR. IMO, it's pointless having a smartwatch and disabling all the smarts (like text messages, phone, weather, etc.)

VHR says Up to 8 days in smartwatch mode (with heart rate). Up to 13 hr. in GPS mode

V4: Smartwatch mode: Up to 8 days GPS mode without music: Up to 18 hours

V4s: Smartwatch mode: Up to 7 days GPS mode without music: Up to 15 hours

So yes, perhaps a bit shorter in regular mode (and GPS mode matters more), but not 30-40% shorter.

Is the green flickering light supposed to do that continuously (while HR sensor is on auto)? Or is my unit defective, perhaps?

The heart rate sensor lights only go black if I take the watch off.

Just checked, my device was searching for the three headsets it is paired with.  I never use it for music, pairing it was just one of those first day set up things I did. Did you notice a significant change in battery life?  I hope I do!  My BT is always on for notifications, etc. 

Garmin-AmberD

I had posted last week about sudden onset battery drain issues with my Garmin (it is 1year and 2 months old. Someone had suggested it was related to a recent firmware update. I did resets and then a complete delete to factory settings and restart without success.  I found the above recommendation from you while searching for other fixes for my Garmin Vivoactive4s battery drain issue and did the sync, reset, updates, charging last night.  However, now the battery drained from 100% to 10% in less than 4 hours this morning.  Can you assist me in other potential fixes?  

Hi i have tried to follow these steps but my Vivoactive 4S is still dead when plugged into a laptop...what else can i do?

The 3 big battery killers are

1. Heart rate monitor or pulse oxegyn

2. Blue tooth

3. Back light

IMHO, if you have already factory reset /turned off all these and still suffer battery life, I don't know what else to do.