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Anyone running latest FW(21.00) and GPS getting decent battery life? Can people verify FW is "roll-backable" if upgrade causes problems?

hopefully subject is clear.

i have been "stuck" on FW13.30 for a long time now because it has been stable (it seems all of the first year bugs were worked out) and i didn't see any new added features that were important to me. my battery life with no GPS is still projected to be roughly 16 hours in smart watch mode using a variety of 3rd party faces with 1hz HR and seconds (JBlack, for eg). GPS activities, still clock in at 4-5% per hour. i would say i have only about a 5% degradation in battery life after more than 4 years.

yet, i am seeing that a number of watch face updates and apps require a newer firmware. i'm wary of breaking a perfectlly working watch just to get a few more bells and whistles, yet if some of you have had no issues with the latest FW and GPS versions, i might be inclined to give it at try.

i have been led to believe based on posts long ago, that with a bit of work, it is possible to rollback firmware if i save my current one, but i would also like to receive confirmation that this is true?

thanks!

  • If it ain't broken don't fix it.

    (easy for me to say, I don't use third party watch faces or apps)

    Second, there is the watch firmware and the gps firmware. You could rollback the watch firmware, but it's a bit of a hassle. You cannot rollback gps firmware. 

    (I'm on the latest watchfirmware and gps firmware. During gps workout I have about 10% battery usage per hour. This could be because of batterydegradation (although that would be quite a lot for not that many charge cycles) or it could be because of gps firmware (not unlikely given garmins reputation of buggy software). In my recollection, after gps firmware 2.50 battery usage changes significantly for my during gps activities.

  • thanks for the good reality check. i probably should leave it be. i may end up giving this watch to a friend if i upgrade to the 945lte, in which case i'll have to warn him of the potential choice of having the latest and greatest or letting if function well as is. 

    BTW, typo above...when i was injured, i could project 16 *days* of smart watch use (about 6.2%/day for the JBlack watch face)

    thanks for the reminder about there being multiple firmwares to consider.

  • one more follow-up question: i spoke with Garmin chat, and according to the rep (Luke), it's not possible to upgrade only the FW for the watch. i find the surprising since on Garmin Express there seems to be the option to selectively upgrade different things but maybe GE will ultimately force the GPS to be consistent with the watch FW?