More FW rev 13.22 Battery Weirdness

In my case it's all OFF except spo2/pulse... Found that need to restart the watch every few days to fix that, but it's not very good

Please +1 the bug report on the Beta forum: https://forums.garmin.com/beta-program/forerunner-955-series/public-beta-bug-reports/i/bug-reports---beta-14-08/elevated-battery-usage-in-the-smartwatch-mode Let's make sure that Garmin acknowledges this regression which has a wide impact on many users.

Update: even if i turn off and on the watch everyday I still have some days where it consume 9%/24h other where it drain like 40-50%/24h... Staying at home, bluetooth off, only pulse during day and spo2 during night...
I can't do a week staying at home with no GPS activity...

So after installing 14.08, I experienced one evening (this past Saturday (1/14/2023)) where my battery level went from 26% to 20%, in about 6 hours. I performed a soft power down and rebooted a few minutes later then re-charged the watch to 100%. Today, 1/20, I am currently at 49%. This includes 50 min/day GPS + external HRM activity (around 4% battery drain) and about 0.2 to 0.25% battery drain in smartwatch mode (See initial post for complete settings). That is what I was seeing with beta 13.15.  I'll feel better if the issue does not show up in another week or so.

Hopefully, whatever Garmin changed from 13.15 to 13.21 doesn't happen again. Or at least they have another RC test round before they release the FW. Unfortunately, the Beta team will only root cause/fix issues discovered in the beta and not official releases. For that, you would have to reach out to the customer support team.

I have now been injured at home for two weeks, that means no gps activities. I am still on 13.23 on my 955 solar.

Settings I use in smartwatch mode: stock watch face, no phone notifications, no SPO2. 

Battery usage (measured by the Battery Widget by dsapptech):

• 0.367%/hour or
• 8,82%/day, resulting in
• 11.3 days per charge.

That is almost 25% less than the 15 days Garmin promises in the watch specs. I have seen now spike in battery drain in the last two weeks, just a steady decrease. The numbers were much better before 13.22, however I did not write them down. Of course, the battery widget app might use a lot of battery, but I doubt that.

I am dissappointed and somehow, the lack of reaction here by Garmin adds to that dissappointment in the same way that the many other bugs do (Skiing app broken, mapping problems in the beginning...).

Why did I buy a top-of-the-line watch again? Certainly not to babysit the firmware versions, care about beta programme or anything like that. Surprise: I actually wanted top of the line performance.

Okay a follow up from my post two days ago. I have finished one complete week without having to reboot the watch. Started at 100% charge last Saturday (1/14/2023 and today (1/22/2023) the 955 is currently at 37%!.

This is with almost 7days/week of 50 minutes of GPS + paired HRM tracking at about 4% each activity. Along with approximately 4-5%/day smart watch mode (1% of this is during sleep mode). 

So as far as beta 14.08, I believe, for me anyway, this issue has been fixed... Here is to hoping they don't break it again with the next full release.

You have noticed a new FW has been released that probably fixes the problem?

Sorry, I should have been clear. I was referring to 14.13. In my previous post I was referring to beta 14.08 appearing to fix the issue.

Unfortunately, Beta 14.12 and Release 14.13 are "broken" again.

I'm starting to get the feeling that this issue is not nearly as important as it should be. It "appears that new features and time are king and battery life is not a consideration.

I've owned the VA series since the VA-H and A couple of the Venue's and haven't seen this much inconsistency in battery life. Disappointed...

Okay so after all the debug advice here was tried (several times over several versions/betas) I did the thing I hated to do the most... But I took one in the name of science. On Sunday, I factory reset my device and removed the GC app from my phone and unpaired the 955 from my phone. I then reinstalled the GC app and powered on the watch. Reported version of SW on the watch is still 14.13

Once again, no 3rd party apps, default watch face, and turned-on sleep modes during my bed time. I set my BL brightness to 5% and 4 seconds for it to turn off. Disabled gesture (for the BL) during the day.

Yesterday's results: 1% battery drain in sleep mode (6.5 hours), 1% every 5 hours in smart watch mode, and 4% for a 45 minute, HRM and GPS activity (walking). Entire day battery drain 8%. Approximately 12.5 days battery life with this discharge/activity rate. Awesome!  

So far for today, 3% battery drain in sleep mode (same 6.5 hours), 1% every 2 hours in Smartwatch mode, No activities yet. But I imagine it would still be 4% (based on previous performance) for the same activity as yesterday. Approximately 8 days battery life WITHOUT any activity. Adding current activities back into the equation, it will be closer to 5-6 days. And that is what I am getting from my VA3!