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Vivoactive 4s - Troubleshooting the watch (battery draining)

burn0ut
over 4 years ago

Hi all,

Since a while, I see many people have issues with their VA4(s) with the battery of the watch draining too fast.
Like many of you, I performed almost every suggestion I could find on this forum (and the internet) for trying to fix this issue.

The watch is running all latest firmware(s), I reverted to stock settings and stock watch faces. Turned logic energy consuming features off (bluetooth, heavy watch faces). But I can't get the watch lower then a 1.366%/h on a full battery load. I average in between 2 to 3 days for 1 battery load, which is not acceptable. (else I would have bought the Venue)
I have the feeling there is a software component or driver using energy for tasks that are not needed, or tasks that are never finished. (busy waiting / busy checking forever)
Maybe it's worth to mention I use this watch in combination with an iOS device.

A next step for me is leveling up the troubleshooting on the watch. I want to understand which component / software / driver is using power on a constant pace and causing the watch to drain so fast.
Are there any guides, tips or tricks I can use to perform this kind of troubleshooting? Is there any way I can get involved in helping troubleshooting this problem or joining a beta program?

I'm curious if multiple people also see this pattern.

Appreciate the help!

Kind regards,
Burn

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 2673416

    Mine did the same thing and I called customer service and they had me send mine back and the replaced it with a refurbished one that is working great! I was on the verge of giving up, but the great customer service interaction I had had kept me as a Garmin customer. 

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 2722699

    oh that's reassuring thanks. I wrote to them about my issue a week ago and still no response....

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 2673416

    I did not have any success until I actually called and got someone live on the phone. 

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Jianwe_Liu

    Just some updates after a few days. Below are the tips to make my watch battery drain roughly 10% per day

    1. Turn off background LED light. When it's dark i know it's evening

    2. Use factory watch face. Some fancy 3rd party has lots of data fields which may require constant connection with cell phone.

    3. Disable bluetooth. Only turn it on when I need to sync with cell phone.

    4. Disable Heart Rate Monitoring (and pulse Oxygen for sure). Only turn it on when running.

    5. Remove notification and unnecessary widgets like calendar.

    Yes, i'm pretty much turning this into a watch. But I can still use it as a activity tracker. I know my resting heart rate very well so I don't really need the 7x24 HRM. When I am running I can always turn on HRM. Cellphon is always with me, so I don't really need the "smart" features on watch that much.

    Right now, my VA4s is running at 63%. I took it off the charger 4 days ago.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Jianwe_Liu

    ... then dump your watch and go back to your trusty $15 Walmart watch that's still running on the original battery from 5 years back. You don't use the functionality anyway Smiley

  • +1 over 3 years ago

    I’m sorry to hear of the battery drain issues that you’re experiencing.  Let’s start by power cycling (turning off and then back on) your watch.  If the battery drain persists and if you have any Connect IQ (CIQ) Content, especially watch faces, you may need to delete that content until the independent developer is able to update their app/watch face to function correctly (without causing a battery drain) with the new firmware version on your watch.  You can use any of the 3 FAQs below to uninstall the CIQ content.

    How to Uninstall Connect IQ App Content Using the Connect IQ App

    How to Uninstall Connect IQ Content Using Garmin Express

    How to Uninstall Connect IQ Content Using the Garmin Connect App

     

    If you would like to submit feedback to the developer of the CIQ content, you can do so by clicking the link below and searching for the download page of the CIQ content.  In the bottom right corner of that page, you will find the option to contact the developer.

    https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/

    If you have not already reached out to your local Garmin support team, we highly recommend doing that as well:

    Support.garmin.com

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Garmin-AmberD

    I have done every step for this and it made the battery drain even worse? It's been off charge for 3 hours, no backlight, stock watch face, and has gone from losing. 1.5% hour to over 2%? Not using it for excessive or different notifications, why have a watch that can't be connected and needs charging, may as well but an Apple watch or a Samsung watch 4? What else can I do before returning it and leaving Garmin for another ecosystem?

  • 0 over 3 years ago

    I'm truly thinking about returning mine. I charged it yesterday, about 8pm maybe (100%). Today morning 9am it as at 77% without any use. Screen brightness at minimum, no bluetooth. only reading  pulse oximeter on sleep

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to JxSeraph

    I ended up calling customer service and they replaced mine when explained the issue and everything that I had already tried.