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GC 4.7 /FR935 FW8.00/9.10 vs iOS 11.4 : battery drain i can't fix :(

hi all, i tried to dialog about this on the GC iOS forum, but didn't get any traction or resolution so i thought i'd look for a few more data points here. are any of you connecting your watches to an iPhone via bluetooth. have you experienced any bad battery drain issues recently.

here's my situation:
up until around June 1 (when i believe GC4.7.1 was released or at least installed onto my phone), i was happy with how my watch and phone behaved (running FW8.0.0 and iOS11.3.1). i have background refresh turned off, location services only when GC app is being used, and i am guessing, GC used about 5-10% of my battery capacity over the course of a full day (15-16 hours off of the charger).

since then, my battery consumption has escalated (with initially no change in FW for the 935 nor change in iOS), with notably my "Usage" and "Standby" times on my iPhone being identical showing that something is constantly running in the background and not going to sleep, and the usage counter for GC shows that it is the culprit.

i can confirm that the watch and GC are the culprit by disconnecting the watch from the phone, using the "disable connection" via the shortcut menu on the 935 (and leaving bluetooth on my phone on for other devices).

i've tried to fix the problem without success by:
- restarting my phone
- restarting my watch
- removing the 935 from GC and reinstallting it
- removing GC and reinstalling it on my phone
- updating to the latest FW for the 935 (9.10)
- updating my iPhone 7 to the latest iOS (11.4)

the workaround is to just keep my watch disconnected from the phone except for an occasional sync, but that removes notifications from going to my phone (i just use it for calls only, but also to read the occasional text (no notifications except a counter on the watch face)).

thanks for any insights and help.

0 derek87 over 7 years ago

I feel your pain. Not this specific issue but in general with "updates" wreaking havoc. I am running iOS 11.4 on iPhone 8 plus, GCM 4.7.0.14 with no updates available via the app store. I have bluetooth connected 24/7 to my 935 running fw9.10 and am not experiencing the issue you describe.

I know you did a hard reboot of both devices. Have you tried removing GCM from the iPhone and reinstall? Remove and re-add FR935 from GCM?

thanks for your commiseration. i did hard reboot both deices, removed and reinstalled GCM and readied FR935 after removing it form my bluetooth list.

may have to try the factory reset next given that some of you are having success. just hope there is a convenient way to back up data (ie, VO2max, activity load stuff)

0 derek87 over 7 years ago

and update from here...

SIGH... last night, i took the plunge and restore the watch to factory settings and backed up the few files i could via suggestions from Garmin. the restore went fine, but daily activity stuff (steps, stairs, etc.) got all wonky on me and didn't tabulate in GC beyond when i did the reset.

but i can accept that (thankfully VO2 max stuff did get passed along properly)...unfortunately, still have the same problem regardless of watch face and so i'm at a loss. i do not want to mess with my phone and do a whole restore from default (wipe out settings, etc.), so i guess i'm in limbo land hoping for a fix down the road.

btw, i also noticed the whole inter syncing between GC and the watch reared its ugly head again last night. after a bunch of creations and deletions, i at least have a working alarm set again although i'm not sure i trust the consistency and syncing between the watch and GC.

0 Dr Phil over 7 years ago

Maybe the problem lies with your phone then. But, did you try it before adding back any watchfaces? Seems like you might not have given enough time to tell. Look at it this way; If it was a widespread problem, there would be more than the occasional post about it. I would be surprised if there is a “fix down the road” any time soon.

Have you contacted Garmin Support?

0 derek87 over 7 years ago

Maybe the problem lies with your phone then. But, did you try it before adding back any watchfaces? Seems like you might not have given enough time to tell. Look at it this way; If it was a widespread problem, there would be more than the occasional post about it. I would be surprised if there is a “fix down the road” any time soon.

Have you contacted Garmin Support?

hi Phil, i contacted Garmin Support a couple weeks ago but got no response (beyond the "we will get back to you in 1-3 days")

you are right...it could potentially be my phone, but i do know something got triggered the same time i last updated GC (this was with FW8.00 running, and FW9.10 did nothing to fix it).

also, i have tried it with the standard watch faces but i still get the same drain, but as you point out, i did not do this test before adding on the other watch faces (which i have reliably used over a year before this problem cropped up).

anyway, thanks for hearing about my woes. you are right: i'm not sure i can magically hope anything will be fixed with iOS12 or a future GC version so i may need to do more work myself on figuring this out...

ps. there are a few others on the GC-iOS forum reporting similar issues not just on the FR935, but on other devices running the latest iOS (11.4) and have encountered the problem after recently updating GC)...

0 Ollypsilon over 7 years ago

I suspect it's GCM or latest iOS. But can't distinct between them as both were close in terms of date of when I updated. As phone battery drains, FR935 battery life is still the same and GCM background activity percentage is high according to iOS battery usage info I tend to GCM doing something strange.

0 derek87 over 7 years ago

I suspect it's GCM or latest iOS. But can't distinct between them as both were close in terms of date of when I updated. As phone battery drains, FR935 battery life is still the same and GCM background activity percentage is high according to iOS battery usage info I tend to GCM doing something strange.

i strongly suspect its the latest GCM because if i have the timeline right, i updated to 11.4 without any problems, and then when i went to the new GC(4.7), that's when the problem came up. of course, it could be something new in 11.4 that is interacting with GC in some odd way.

and yes, my watch battery is fine. (which is awesome with me charging at most once a week and having gotten away with a 2 week charge cycle when i was injured and unable to work out)

i used a chat session yesterday with Garmin and they opened up a ticket. i've submitted to the app diagnostics and logs so hopefully that will help them get to the bottom of this problem.

misery loves company (i'm glad i'm not the only one), but it's puzzling that a few people are fine running the latest iOS and GC on their iPhones. i would find it hard to believe that its iPhone model related since mine is an iPhone 7, and i know others have reported the problem on iPhone 8 models.

i hope somehow this gets worked out. i go back and forth between turning off the bluetooth connection to save battery, but then missing the call notifications and quick glance to see that i have messages waiting, only to turn it back on and see my battery level plummet...

0 Aberhangie over 7 years ago

I have a very similar issue with my android Sony Xperia. Since the "true up" update my Bluetooth load on my phone now takes more that 50% of the phone battery capacity. Uninstall connect and the problem goes, reinstall it and it comes back within the day. Having to turn off Bluetooth to get through day. It was perfect until this latest update.

0 derek87 over 7 years ago

I have a very similar issue with my android Sony Xperia. Since the "true up" update my Bluetooth load on my phone now takes more that 50% of the phone battery capacity. Uninstall connect and the problem goes, reinstall it and it comes back within the day. Having to turn off Bluetooth to get through day. It was perfect until this latest update.

thanks for sharing. just for kicks (i only own one Garmin device), i'm turned off True Up and see if somehow that is the miracle fix.

alas, disabling True Up didn't fix the problem

0 derek87 over 7 years ago

So...following up with some failed fixes, but actually found a small one that works for my uses today...

First, the bad news/failed attempts:
- i wiped the watch completely clean, and didn't install anything, nor t load in any of my old files and the same iPhone battery drain occurs. (iPhone 7)
- apple updated iOS 11.4.1, and that update didn't help my problem.

Kludgy fix (beyond just shutting down connection between phone and watch):
- if i force quit Garmin Connect on the iPhone (double-clicking home button and swiping away GC... can't recall what that is on the iPhone X, but most of you should know what i mean if you own and X), my problem is solved. and i still can get notifications on my phone (phone calls show up (i have other notifications turned off), and text messages can still be read with the Notification widget text messages for the few occasions that i desire to)

for my minimal notification scenarios, this works very well for me.

the only downside is that watch faces (Connect IQ) dont' show a notification counter, and also any "bluetooth indicator" appears off on the watch face.

hope this makes sense. this is a modest success for me, and my uses. i don't really need a full fledged smart watch. my primary needs is having a "caller ID" to identify whether i'm getting a spam call or it's my wife (so i know whether i really need to pull my phone from my pocket), and occasionally, i can read texts from my wrist.