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Forerunner 55 Battery Drain Issue

I've had two instances where a fully charged Forerunner 55 showed excessive battery drain. I fully charged the device in the evening, wore it overnight, and the battery was down by 30-40% the following day. This was with no tracked activities. I've had previous Forerunner series watches that automatically went into activity mode when removed from the charger. I suspect something like that is happening here but unseen in the background. In other words, I suspect that the GPS hardware is getting turned on, causing the unexpected battery drain. I seem to be able to avoid the problem by pressing the Start/Stop button, followed by the Back button after removing the watch from the charger. Has anyone else seen this or similar behavior? Any other ideas about the issue or a solution? Thanks.

0 9876434 over 2 years ago in reply to PhysicsRunner

This seemed like such a good fix. After seeing your post I switched Move IQ off, synced it with my Forerunner 55 and switched off the bluetooth again last night and this morning it had still dropped another 30% +. Sadly this did not work for me.

0 PhysicsRunner over 2 years ago

This may have been solved. After multiple instances of the problem, I had an online chat with Garmin support. At their request, I connected the watch to a computer where you can access the watch as a disk drive. I was instructed to:

"Open the Garmin folder. Delete the Activity, Monitor, New Files, and RemoteSW folders. This will delete the history on the unit, so make sure to sync prior, but will save the other setting so you do not have to go through the initial setup. Next disconnect the unit and allow it to boot as normal. Fully charge the unit and then use as normal to test the battery."

I still think the problem may relate to the GPS hardware being on at times when it is not supposed to be on. So I wasn't convinced that this would solve the problem and I made one additional change. I arranged my favorite activities so that the first one on the list is a non-GPS activity. Since the watch is geared toward running, Run is normally at the top of the list and that's a GPS activity. If something is triggering the first activity on the list, even if unseen, that could account for the battery drain. I do some of my runs indoors anyway so I just moved Indoor Track to the top of the list.

These were both done almost two weeks ago and I haven't had the problem since. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that one of these actually fixed the problem.

0 6943667 over 2 years ago in reply to PhysicsRunner

Hi guys how are you? Anymore updates about this problem? I just bought an 55 and I am having the same issue, even if the latest software version

0 9876434 over 2 years ago in reply to 6943667

Hi, sorry to hear from a fellow sufferer. I haven't taken my second 55 (!) back to the retailer yet but I did come up with a fix. I was having to charge every 18 to 40 hours but stumbled onto the fact that if I synced the 55 with my computer right after my run it stopped the battery drain. Myself and another user were having the worst of it and we were doing indoor activities. I have now gotten weeks out of a single charge (other than a few minutes plugged into the computer to sync), more than the advertised battery life. See this thread for the chat and other solutions. Good luck with it! https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/running-multisport/f/forerunner-55-series/269405/forerunner-55-showed-excessive-battery-drain-i-fully-charged-the-device-in-the-evening-wore-it-overnight-and-the-battery-was-down-by-30-40-the-following-day-this-was-with-no-tracked-activities-or-bluetooth

0 6943667 over 2 years ago in reply to 9876434

THANKS FOR ALL ! I bought the 55 in Brazil and I am having the same issue. I will try PhysicsRunner's suggestion and then see what happens. I am really pissed off with garmin.

0 Vladimir over 2 years ago in reply to PhysicsRunner

I am thinking about purchasing this watch model. The discharge problem worries me. What are the results with the solution of this problem?

0 6943667 over 2 years ago in reply to Vladimir

Hi Vladimir, how are you? We have no solutions yet but syncing the watch after the activity corrected the problem, as mentioned by 9876434.

0 6943667 over 2 years ago in reply to Vladimir

unfortunately you have to do it regularly (as soon as you notice some battery drain issue)

0 Vladimir over 2 years ago in reply to 6943667

Sadly!

0 Vladimir over 2 years ago in reply to Vladimir

Does the method with deleting folders work as suggested by PhysicsRunner?