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Issues with Charging/Charger?

My vivoactive 3 music has been working flawless since I've had it. Over the weekend I left it to charge and realized that the battery full drained and did not charge.

After more inspection, it seems the charger was "woobly" in connection with the battery connection, which means it wasn't making proper connection. When I pressed down on the charger, the contact seems to be more secure and the watch proceeded to charge. When I released pressure, it stopped charging.

It seems that there might be something wrong with either the charger itself (easy fix) or the connection on the watch (not sure about fix?). I went ahead and ordered a different charger from amazon, but was wondering if anyone had any experience with this kind of issue, and can pinpoint where exact the problem is? I've already inspected both contacts on the watch and the charger, and have cleaned them. There was no lint or dirt or anything preventing the charging. It seems the charger is not making a tight enough connection with the watch.

Thanks

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0 3633373 over 3 years ago

First time to this forum to see if others have had the same problem - mine has gradually got harder and harder to charge until today when it won't connect no matter what i do... it seems I'm not alone. Guess I 'll have to log a ticket with Garmin.

0 Steph B over 3 years ago in reply to 3633373

I have had a problem in the past and it turned out it was the cable! Changing to a new cable solved the problem.

The cable attachment to the watch port is weaker than the port itself.

0 Former Member over 3 years ago

after 40 mins on hold with garmin Australia today didnt really help i too have been unable to charge the watch for about 4 months now use my wife cable nope sons cable nope mine nope have to sit and hold it in and it might charge if im lucky

waiting for a garmin sale and ill buy a new one i think as I'm not holing my breath on garmin helping or fixing my issue

0 1256884 over 3 years ago in reply to Former Member

I too am having this exact same issue and it's incredibly frustrating! No matter the cord I use it will only sometimes charge, and that's if I'm lucky and get the right position - I have cleaned the watch too. Extremely annoying. Appears they may have been designed to have this issue after the warranty to ensure they keep getting money.

0 Former Member over 3 years ago in reply to 1256884

it has to have something to do with the bits on the back of the watch as mine are gold and look like there is a dint in the middle but my wife and sons are silver and look perfect

0 3633373 over 3 years ago in reply to Webstertiums

Turned out mine was also out of warranty and so it would require a paid repair to this design fault...

My new Fitbit works just great!

0 Former Member over 3 years ago in reply to 3633373

contacted garmin 3 days ago they asked to restore the watch has been done and now getting worse battery life out of the took 1 hour to get itnto start to charge the 100% lasted about 8 hours with no use garmin said not to ring they will contact through emails but they don't reply at all really starting to get over this ***

0 5256714 over 3 years ago

The charging cable has 4 spring loaded pins to contact the 4 charging posts in the watch. The spring action is designed to maintain contact to the posts so a snug fit is not necessary to charge. Occasionally a pin in the charger cable will stick. I brush the posts clean and then use a pin to push down and break the offending pin free. I brush clean again and even use wd-40 to prevent future sticking. It seems to work well.

0 5256714 over 3 years ago

The charging cable has 4 spring loaded pins to contact the 4 posts on the watch. The spring action is designed to keep contact even when the charger fit is not snug. Occasionally, a pin will stick and not contact the post in the watch. In this case, i use a toothbrush to clean the pins, use a safety pin to push down on the charger pin and break it free. I then brush it again and even use wd-40 to prevent reccurrence. It seem to work.

0 1040876 over 3 years ago

So glad I found this post. My watch is experiencing the exact same thing. I also have the vivoactive 3 music. Had 46% charge last night but had half marathon scheduled today, checked it was charging last night. Went to get it this morning and it was on 2% so had to fiddle with the cable and within 20 minutes was back to 42% just enough to see me round. I have to get the cable to make contact ‘just so’ or it won’t work. What’s the guarantee on the garmin?