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6.20 SW Battery Drain

Reuben
over 3 years ago

My 10 month old Vivoactive 4 is draining battery like crazy - any pointers or help to fix this?

  • Current software version: 6.20

Issues I've noticed so far

  • Battery draining at around 1% every 5 minutes
  • Crashes every night - have to do a restart every morning to turn the watch on (and seeing around 20% battery left)
  • Crashes while attempting to connect to Wi-Fi, check for updates

What I've tried so far (none of this seem to help)

  • Did a full factory reset by deleting data
  • Did a full recharge - shutdown - wait for 5-10 minutes - power up again
  • Tried to do a update, but each time it crashes after attempting to connect to the Wi-Fi

Need some help with this.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to 4175353

    Completely agree. It's a software issue that they're not willing to admit.

    I've spoken to watch face developers. It's a Garmin issue. Watch face developers have no control over "high power mode" or breaking out of it. Garmin need to fix it. Having no backlight on isn't a good solution.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to James2

    Have you tried a simple reboot?  Press and hiold the upper button until the watch turns itself off, then turn it back on.

    -Long time CIQ watch developer.....

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to jim_m_58

    I've tried literally everything, on and off for a period of months.
    Turning off and on, resetting, resetting and deleting data. I've tried a brand new watch. 

    I experience the same issues. The watch face I'd love to use again is SHN TXD. I contacted the developer who was kind enough to explain what's happening - the watch gets stuck in "high power mode". I never had this issue before 5.80 - and it's only fixed by turning the backlight off - which to me shows something is clearly not right?

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to James2

    Have you tried the 6.33 beta FW?

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to jim_m_58

    Hello, could you let me know how to load the 6.33 beta FW version?

  • 0 over 3 years ago
    For all those who have been following this and have responded to this - my apologies for not having updated this thread. I was running my tests on the replacement unit I received so that I can post the updates here.

    Here are the update so far
    - Checked with Garmin (service center) about my issue and they asked me to send over the device for inspection
    - Just around the same time, I also started facing issues with the touch screen
    The device inspection resulted in the Garmin team confirming the device as defective and offered to provide a replacement as it was still under warranty.

    Received a replacement model within a week and here are my observations so far.

    - Replacement unit was in 5.80 SW version, which got updated to 6.30 version
    - The device crashes are totally fixed now. I think the crashes was due to some defect in the earlier unit
    - Now talking about battery life, here are my observations

    First test -
    - All stock apps with no custom watch faces
    - Display brightness at 10%
    - SPO2 monitoring set to work only during the night
    - Automatic activity detection
    Battery Life: 2.5 days (30-35% battery being used up in 24 hrs)
    (Comparison - my old unit, with the same settings used to give me about 4-4.5 days of use with the same settings)

    Second test -
    - All stock apps
    - Home-Fit Thrill watch face from Garmin
    - Display brightness at 10%
    - SPO2 monitoring set off
    - Manual SPO2 monitoring to once a day
    - Automatic activity detection
    Battery Life: 4.5 days (20-25% battery being used up in 24 hrs)
    (Comparison - my old unit, with the same settings used to give me about 4.5-5 days of use with the same settings)

    Recent update -
    Since yesterday, the battery is draining at 50-55% per day
    Watch settings
    - All stock apps
    - Home-Fit Thrill watch face from Garmin (this is not a third part watch face)
    - Display brightness at 10%
    - SPO2 monitoring set off
    - Automatic activity detection

    I feel there is something wrong with the firmware which Garmin is not admitting. The battery life is just bad even with stock apps and stock watch faces or even with watch faces that are Garmin made.

    Note: Based on my interaction with the Service Center folks - when I asked them if this particular model had issues (had asked this question few times) - they neither confirmed or denied to my question.

    For all prospective buyers -
    There is something wrong with the 6.2 FW version of Vivoactive 4 watch. Battery life is horribly bad with this version of the firmware. If you are considering this watch please be aware of this behavior.

    Garmin's lack of interest in fixing this or acknowledging the issue, while trying to put the blame on to third party apps or watch faces seems to be misleading. I'm not sure if this is part of a planned obsolescence or the team is simply not interested about this.

    PS: I'll be posting my updates till this issue is fixed or till I get a proper response on this.
  • +1 over 3 years ago

    All-  I do see some reports of a rapid battery drain for VA4 without any Connect IQ content installed.  So that I may assist in this matter further, please reply with the following information:

    1. Do we, if necessary, have your permission to email you for additional information?
    2. Do we, if necessary, have your permission to view/access your Garmin Connect account?
    3. In what country do you live?
    4. Please confirm that you have updated your VA4 to either 6.20 or 6.30 firmware.

    My investigation for you MAY result in you needing to contact your local Garmin Support Team for assistance.  So, to expedite this process, you may choose to reach out to them instead of replying here with the above requested information.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to Garmin-Kevin
    Please find the details below
    Do we, if necessary, have your permission to email you for additional information? - Yes
    Do we, if necessary, have your permission to view/access your Garmin Connect account? - Yes
    In what country do you live? - India
    Please confirm that you have updated your VA4 to either 6.20 or 6.30 firmware. - Yes, I'm currently in version 6.20
    Tried running the update on the device, but got a response that - no update was found.

    My investigation for you MAY result in you needing to contact your local Garmin Support Team for assistance.  So, to expedite this process, you may choose to reach out to them instead of replying here with the above requested information. - Already done that and the communication with the local Garmin Support Team resulted in them sending a new device as there were touch screen issues in addition to the battery issue.
    Please note that the issue that I'm referring to - in the last message, is on a brand new device that was sent in as a replacement (due to the touch screen issue).

    Note: Also noted this today evening - during a walk activity (auto started) the distance covered seems to start from 30+kms. Ended this activity after few mins and tried it again and it started again from 33.33kms. Did a restart and started a walk activity for the 3rd time at which it worked. Wanted to keep my activities clean so deleted this from my profile. Just thought that I should mention this as I found this strange.

    Thanks
  • +1 over 3 years ago

    All-

    Please make sure that you have updated your watch to the latest software version.  You can do this with Garmin Express.

    How Do I Install Garmin Express?