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16.19 Backlight Bug

Aslam
over 1 year ago

The dreaded backlight is back! 

My Backlight settings During Activity are as follows: Keys>Off, Alerts>Off, Gesture>Off, Timeout>None, Brightness>50%

During an activity, without me pressing the Light button, I have been noticing that the backlight is on and staying on, unnecessarily causing huge battery gain.

In sunlight, it's easy to miss that the backlight is erroneously on, unnecessarily decreasing battery life.

This has been fixed in the past, but subsequent updates keeps breaking it. Why?

These battery draining bugs defeats one of the main reasons for buying a Garmin.

  • 0 over 1 year ago

    - 

    If you don't want the backlight to stay on, you will need to change the Timeout setting from "No Timeout", to a specific amount of time. If it's set on No Timeout, then the backlight will stay on! 

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Garmin-Sierra

    I've had this conversation before :(

    Why is the backlight coming on in the first place? Without me pressing me the light button and having Keys, Alerts and Gesture set to Off?

    I need the backlight constant on (no timeout) for evening runs, after I activate the backlight using the light button. 

    Basically, the timeout setting cannot be used, because of the bug (which was previously reported and fixed but keeps coming back) that erroneously turns on the backlight during workouts, even when the settings state otherwise?

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Aslam

    Is your Timeout setting still on "No Timeout" during activities? Can you by chance share the related forum link where this bug was mentioned? 

    Can you also verify what you are wanting for your timeout settings? If you have "No Timeout" set for "During Activity", the backlight will come on and stay on when the device is on the activity screen searching for GPS. There is no separate Backlight setting for daytime and nighttime. 

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Garmin-Sierra

    Thank you for your assistance.

    My issue is not with the timeout setting. My issue is with the other settings being ignored.

    Why is the backlight coming on in the first place when Keys, Alerts and Gesture is set to Off?

    Alerts is specifically set to off, both for general and during activity usage, but I think that is the trigger for erroneously switching the backlight on.

    I am not accidently pressing the light button, in fact, even when I do not press any buttons during an activity, it still comes on at 50%, before and after sunset.

    Here are some links of the same/similar issues of backlight settings not being respected:

    https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/running-multisport/f/forerunner-255-series/334207/bug-15-19---backlight-brightness-during-sleep-ignored

    https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/running-multisport/f/forerunner-255-series/322561/14-13-bug-backlight-settings-not-respected-during-activity

    https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/running-multisport/f/forerunner-255-series/312020/strange-behaviour-of-the-backlight

    https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/running-multisport/f/forerunner-955-series/316159/garmin-955-random-backlight

    Here are my settings again:

    During Activity - Keys Off, Alerts Off, Gesture Off, Timeout None, Bright 50%

    General Use - Keys After Sunset, Alerts Off, Gesture Off, Timeout 15 sec, Bright 10%

    During Sleep - Keys Off, Timeout 15 sec, Bright 10%

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Aslam

    Thank you for further explaining and sharing those links. I changed my settings to reflect yours, but I was unable to reproduce what you're describing. My backlight did not unexpectedly turn on. In order to further investigate, may I have permission to reach out via email? 

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Garmin-Sierra

    Yes, you may. 

    A couple of other instances when it erroneously comes on:

    1. During the morning report. I do wake up at least an hour after sunrise.
    2. The pulse ox widget, when you start (take) a reading.
    3. The last activity widget, once you load an activity.
    4. Once you save an activity, the activity summary screen.

    2 and 3 are easy to replicate. 1 requires the morning report.

    Point 4. When I tried to replicate it with a fake 30 second activity, the backlight does not come on. But when I did a proper 30 minute strength activity, it did come on.

    During an activity, I am not sure of the exact trigger, but I suspect it's Alerts, such as the 5km with Average Pace Alert when you are doing an Indoor Bike ride.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Garmin-Sierra

    There's a lot of wiggle room in "unexpectedly"...  From reading the thread, I think Aslam is desiring/expecting a possible setup where the backlight only changes state when LIGHT is pressed. Never turning on nor off because of any other button press nor asynchronous event from the software?

    But my impression is that the watch is designed assuming that many different events may "helpfully" activate the backlight. I haven't experimented with all the options lately, but had similar frustrations when I first got my FR255, that all the complexity of the options and behaviors were not really coherent outside of one or two presumed scenarios.

    I settled with disabling "gesture", enabling "keys", and also setting a relatively short timeout. This is because I optimized for usually looking at it in decent ambient light and don't mind pressing LIGHT to see it when out in the dark. I really don't want it randomly flashing on my wrist all the time in the dark. Luckily, I don't really need to glance at it easily in the dark.

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Aslam

    Thank you for those examples, . Like  said, it does sound like most of these instances are by design. I was unable to reproduce number 3, and will need to test number 4. If you would like any of these to be changed, you will need to submit those requests on our Share Ideas page. I will still send an email so you can send a video of the main bug you were initially speaking of. Thank you!

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to 6125703

    Yeah, else what is the use of having a backlight setting for Alerts. Is the Morning Report not an Alert?

    I also do not get why it's okay to respect the backlight Keys settings when you go into the pulse ox/last activity widget, but then when you take a reading/select an activity, it comes on. What's the purpose of the Keys setting?

  • 0 over 1 year ago in reply to Garmin-Sierra

    Thank you for your assistance. I will respond to your email later today.