Problem with gesture - stuck in low power mode

I think I'm having the same issue. 245 bought about a month ago. Absolutely love the watch and was starting to use the gesture to trigger the back-light after sunset. I ended up turning that off as it was triggering the light while driving at night, prob. not an issue for some but annoying enough for me to turn it off all together. Also, the gesture-triggered back-light feature seems to still work perfectly during activity and probably around 50-75% of the time in "normal" operation.

I started noticing the issue of seemingly being stuck in low-power mode when I started using the "minimal Vertical 2" face by Sciokaz (best I've seen so far of the free ones! and has the awesome feature of showing only the time when in low-power and showing details that update like HR and seconds on gesture. This feature is SO cool I think as it's a great balance between those real-time stats and battery saving. Who cares what your HR is reading when you're not looking at the watch right!?  BTW Seems the same with/without phone connected. I was probably always having this issue but didn't notice until I started using the above-mentioned watch face as it makes the low-high power transition obvious and you're stuck having to press buttons to get it to kick out of low-power mode.

Also before anyone else suggests it, yes I checked my sleep times in my profile the first time I noticed this issue and I indeed had my times set wrong. FYI the gesture-on will not work during designated sleep time or if do not disturb mode is turned on on the watch. So I thought I fixed the issue when I corrected the sleep times as it started working for a bit but it's super inconsistent/intermittent now. Still love the watch (first one I've ever worn all day and not just for running) but I'll miss this feature if I can't get it working properly. And I may have to switch to a different watch face :-(

Good luck and happy trails!

Of course I also checked my sleep time and DND mode. The problem is propably in Garmin Connect app. For now, when I use a GC and close it on the phone, next go into menu on the watch and exit, it will work as it should. I wrote to Garmin support, they answer to me. I wrote the description of the problem and still wait. Hope they will repair it. This problem is with every CIQ watchface which is using gestures to enter high power mode and back to low power.

Thanks for the details on the workaround. Works like a charm. Hopefully this will be addressed in the next fw update.

I think it's a bug in "minimal Vertical 2" WF. I've never experienced this problem in "Crystal" WF, and I installed now minimal vertical 2 and it doesn't come out of low-power mode.