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High-battery drain? Instability? Uninstall third-party software. Also: wear your watch correctly.

Otto-Destruct
over 5 years ago

There seem to be a lot of reports of high battery drain and instability lately.

The FIRST thing Garmin support is going to ask you: "Do you have third-party apps installed?" This means watch-faces, widgets, datafields, whatever. REMOVE THEM.

Respect to the diligent devs like Hiking Jim (Hike2 app) and TheCodeDude (Barcode Wallet app) but no third-party app is going to have the same level of testing as stock Garmin software - it just can't. Firmware updates are more likely to break third-party software so even if something is working fine "for now," it may not tomorrow.

Disclosure: I do use "Barcode Wallet" and have had no issues with it. (it's "static", unlike a watch-face). 

______________________________

UN-related to battery drain: wear your watch correctly. I see a lot of photos of people wearing them right at their wrist. It's supposed to be about two-inches up your arm, well away from the bony protrusion in your wrist, per this entry in the manual: https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/forerunner945/EN-US/GUID-F2E7E0A9-FB44-4297-BF4D-D0C31C400C45.html

Wearing your watch too close to your wrist will screw up HR and HRV readings which in turn bork the metrics for all sorts of things like Stress, and Body Battery which is driven by HRV stress. Further, it may also mess with sleep tracking as the watch measures wrist-actography.

If you're wearing a chest-strap HRM, watch position during an activity isn't as important as optical-HR will be disabled. (you can even stuff your watch in a pocket - ultra-runners will do this, and plug their watch into a USB powerbank to charge)

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Good luck wearing your watch so high on your hand. It's highly uncomfortable and if you're wearing a sleave over it good luck checking the time. 

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    No where in the documentation you posted does it state "two inches." It says, "Wear the device above your wrist bone." You're just taking the picture way to literally. Unless you have very skinny forearms, at two inches you won't even be able to latch the strap. I know I can't... I tried.

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Come on. The battery drain changes with new software.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to Zenginerd
    Zenginerd said:
    You're just taking the picture way to literally.

    Maybe not. The manual does say two fingers lengths above the wrist bones. I have average size fingers and was very surprised when I just measured my length at 1 3/4 inches, so 2 inches isn't unreasonable. 

    support.garmin.com/.../

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Former Member
    I just measured my length at 1 3/4 inches, so 2 inches isn't unreasonable. 

    FWIW, I wear my watch with the centre of the OHR sensor about 2 inches from the base of my hand. That coincides with "about two finger widths" from bony protrusion in my wrist.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago in reply to Otto-Destruct

    I wasn't measuring to the center of the watch where the sensor is, but to the edge of the watch. So, I'm actually slightly over two inches. 

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to JacekZet
    JacekZet said:
    Come on. The battery drain changes with new software.

    To be precise "Come on. The battery drain is perceived to change with new software."

    Every time we see the same posts within minutes of a new software, beta or public release, being posted. Are we really to believe that this happens every time?

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Oh I dunno, I think there is something to the new FW being more "costly" on battery.  I was pleased with FW 3.3 because I finally started getting 9+ days out of a charge at about .4% per hour rate average.  Now so far with 3.9 I am up to .7%+ per hour and only a projected 5-6 days of use.  

    Nothing has changed with regard to any of the third-party stuff I use.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to badbri

    Did you add the new hydration widget?  I read in another thread where the user had a higher battery usage after the update and then removed that widget and things went back to normal.  I wonder if the widget's reminder notifications might have something to do with it?

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Dr Phil

    Of course not. It was just an answer for the suggestion that battery drain is due to wearing watch in not very proper position or having third party apps Wink.