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Watch turns on by itself and battery drains

Former Member
Former Member over 6 years ago
I only use my watch for tracking my runs, and not activity tracking, so I turn it off after every run to conserve the battery. I will typically leave the watch face up on my kitchen counter after I've turned it off. After longer periods (5-10+ days) of no use, I've come back many times to a watch that is either completely dead, or is turned on and almost dead. Previously the watch was fully charged and I'm 100% certain the watch was turned off by holding the power button and selecting "Yes" to power down.

Am I missing something here? What is going on? Has anyone else experienced this issue?

Also, I've had another issue where a run from months ago always shows at the top of my History on the watch (resetting the watch seemed to fix this, at least for now).
  • 0 over 6 years ago
    Last I checked in here, the watch is not intended to function as a "turn it on 1 day a week for an hour and have the battery last for 3 months" type of deal. It is meant to be always on (or at least on when you're awake), like a regular watch. Turning the screen off is mostly just a facade (maybe to hide the colors from view at fancy dinners?), it still seems to drain roughly the same amount battery in the long run as just leaving it on.

    Plug it in when not in use. That is the way to have it always fully charged.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 6 years ago
    Last I checked in here, the watch is not intended to function as a "turn it on 1 day a week for an hour and have the battery last for 3 months" type of deal. It is meant to be always on (or at least on when you're awake), like a regular watch. Turning the screen off is mostly just a facade (maybe to hide the colors from view at fancy dinners?), it still seems to drain roughly the same amount battery in the long run as just leaving it on.

    Plug it in when not in use. That is the way to have it always fully charged.


    I'm not talking about leaving it alone for 3 months, or expecting the battery to last for 3 months. I run with the GPS and step tracking turned on, which uses a good amount of battery, so even with having the watch turned on for only 30-60 minutes a day for a week, I would expect it to need to be recharged by the end of the week. With the watch powered off, and no activity for a week, I would expect the watch to have most of it's battery life still. That is not the case. I sometimes will find that the watch has turned back on and is dying.

    I very much doubt that the watch battery is designed to drain at the same rate when powered off and sitting on a kitchen counter. If you have a source for your claims, please show me.
  • 0 over 6 years ago
    I remember something from a year or more ago that people were having a problem with the watch draining faster when shut off. Pretty sure Garmin acknowledged it too. I would have thought there would have been a fix by now however. I never turn mine off - wear 24/7 and I get 7 days with 5 half hour GPS runs (all notifications, tracking, HR turned on). Maybe just try leaving it on turned on for the week and see what happens.

    Max
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 6 years ago
    I remember something from a year or more ago that people were having a problem with the watch draining faster when shut off. Pretty sure Garmin acknowledged it too. I would have thought there would have been a fix by now however. I never turn mine off - wear 24/7 and I get 7 days with 5 half hour GPS runs (all notifications, tracking, HR turned on). Maybe just try leaving it on turned on for the week and see what happens.

    Max


    Thanks, I did a search and found several threads from January 2016 when this issue seems to have first occurred. It looks like by early/mid-2016 it was resolved in a firmware update (possibly v4.10). I should have the latest firmware so hopefully this bug did not resurface. I'll try leaving it turned on like you mentioned and see how long the battery lasts vs. it being turned off.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago

    I’ve had the same issue as well with my Forerunner 630. It’ll turn on by itself with a drained battery. Not sure why, and I know the firmware is up-to-date. It can be quite frustrating when I go to use it for a run. Are you still having the issue?

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    I'm having the same issue.  My 910 turns on by itself.  The ant stick is not plugged in, the software isn't running.  Looks like a firmware bug.