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Battery Draining Faster- HR Sensor's LED is Constantly ON

Haruki
1 month ago

Hi everyone,

After six months of excellent performance, my Forerunner 255's battery suddenly started draining much faster. While investigating, I read online about someone with a similar issue caused by their heart rate sensor's green LED is constantly on, and not flickering as it should be. I checked mine and found the same problem.

I’ve tried the following steps to fix it:

Checking the setting regarding heart rate, Pulse Ox etc.
Performing basic troubleshooting steps.
Doing a factory reset.
Unfortunately, none of these have worked, and the battery life remains much shorter than before.

Has anyone else experienced this? Any advice or solutions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

  • 0 1 month ago

    It was an issue 1-2 firmware ago.  I THINK i have a similar issue at times now but cant confirm yet.

    The fix before was to go into the activity menu, start an activity (run etc) but dont START, just go to the initial screen where you want for a GPS lock.

    Then back out of that menu and the LED goes off.

  • 0 1 month ago

    What is your watch’s software version? I’ve been experiencing the same issue since updating my watch to version 21.20 last week. It seems this version has a battery drain problem. Yesterday morning, the battery was at 41%. After a GPS activity lasting about 1 hour and 30 minutes, it dropped to 27% by night. This morning, my watch was at 25% (a 2% drop overnight), and after a 38-minute GPS activity, it dropped another 5%, going from 25% to 20%. Before the latest software update, the battery life was significantly better.

  • 0 1 month ago in reply to RDW

    For me it started in the last few weeks. I usually update as soon as I can. 

    I know about the fix with the activity menu, it does seem to help, but only for short term. The problem returns after some time, I'd say minutes/hours even without charging.

    I have the latest software version, 21.20

  • 0 1 month ago in reply to 6217221

    I have 21.20 as well. Check your LED light, I'm certain it's the cause in my case.

  • 0 1 month ago

    Hi!

    It was me who posted the original always-on sensor LED and the possible solutions that were working (based only on my understanding of how it works).

    After that post of mine, many have reported it. The "trick" I posted worked for some people, but not for others.

    In fact, after posterior a firmware update, it stopped working for me as well, and it kept draining battery...

    As of today (some firmware updates after that), it seems to have resolved by itself (maybe someone at Garmin did "something", but they are not going to address directly that there was a failure...)

    I'm sorry that it is still happening, and I just can wish you patience with it (I know, it is desperating, I event sent my watch to Garmin's service, which they returned untouched...).

  • 0 1 month ago

    My watch has flickering LEDs most of the time, but sometimes solid on even when I am not in an activity. I think it is related to stress measurements. I do not have battery  consumption issues.

  • 0 1 month ago in reply to 3046961

    Thanks for your reply.

    The whole thing is upsetting and disappointing, I would have guessed things like that would be solved easily with a brand like Garmin. This bug is out there for months!

    I hope anyone up there will address this...

  • 0 1 month ago in reply to Haruki

    Battery consumption issues have been present for many years in most or all of the watches from Garmin. The thing is that it never seems to affect everyone. It typically happen to only some unfortunate Garmin owners. It is usually not related to specific firmware versions, but rather the process of rolling out new firmware. Something goes wrong during installation. 

  • 0 25 days ago in reply to 3046961

    Hi

    i sm currently having this problem. Battery draining very fast. I missed the tricks you posted. 
    Could you please help me with them to try?

    Thanks.