Run mode background light always on in the early morning?

System> Backlight> During Activity> Look for settings that are After Sunset (the After Sunset settings last until the next sunrise).

Also, reduce the timeout.

Each 10% of backlight intensity consumes about 1.5% battery per hour. So a 1 hour run at 100% intensity would burn 15% battery (plus whatever you are using for GPS, music, etc).

Thanks, mcalista! System > Backlight > During Activty options are: Keys and Alerts (On), Gesture (On), Timeout (8 seconds), Brightness (10%). I see the option After Sunset for Keys and Alerts but what none of these explain why the light is always on when I start my run before sunrise... so still a mystery!

Same here, the backlight just doesn't turn off while running. It has always been like that, although settings are as above. Now it has again starting to be dark after the summer when running, and noticed the issue again yesterday evening.

Seem like the pre-dawn run backlight behavior changed with version 7.80, maybe now too sensitive to movement, or picking up the wrong kind of movement. Previously backlight would stay off while running, and only come on about a quarter to a half second after I moved my arm to look at the the watch. Now it comes on "whenever" and frequently. It does go off after timeout, but does not stay off. Still comes on after I move my arm, but also - and often - during normal arm swing. That part is new.

As for battery drain, I haven't tried to measure but considering its significantly increased "on" time it must be using more than before.

I experience the same thing. Today I tested it a little longer and it seems to me that watch is too sensitive to movement. I forced myself to not make arm movements during running and backlight turned off after 8 seconds. When  only I made even slight movement to look at the watch face backlight turned on as it should be, but it stayed on until I didn't move my arm for 8 seconds.

I contacted Garmin through their chat but they asked to reset watch to factory defaults (which I don't want to do at the moment) and if that doesn't help I should replace it.

Thanks for the new insight BartekS and BillCQ. So it seems that the light goes on much more easily than with earlier software versions, but I would add that this only seems to happen before sunrise. So there are two things coming into the equation here! Garmin-Dan can maybe bring this up to the software team? The issue is definitely draining the battery of early birds... Thanks!

aida_rodrigo - I would like to precise that it happens after Sunset till Sunrise (not just before sunrise). I usally run in the evening - something like 9pm.

THANK YOU for posting this!   I actually have a UPS return label for my watch that I am now just going to throw away.  Garmin was going to replace the watch for me.  Now that I know it's a software bug..  but yes.  Same here.  Watch is just continually lit up during morning runs.  I did a trail run a few weeks ago that started at 7 am, and I had to turn the backlight off because it would have killed the watch (full marathon, and I'm hella slow on trails).  Also, maybe related, it started marking my REM sleep as being "awake"; my sleep rating is perpetually in the toilet because my watch is thinking I'm awake half the night.   It does seem they made things a bit too sensitive...   anyone running the 8.02 beta and can see if this has been fixed?  

Same behavior with 8.02 beta, tested it on a short oh-dark thirty run this morning.

I upgraded my Forerunner's firmware to 8.02 and this behavior still exists.

I also think that I would like this gesture feature be more customizable. Like:

• Choose gesture sensitiveness for arm movement (low, middle and high sensitivity)
• Add option to turn off backlight on gesture down (without timeout). It would work like: Gesture up (backlight on) -> Gesture down (immediate backlight off, no waiting 8, 15, 30 or 60 seconds)