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Battery drain after update 7.50

3555946
over 4 years ago

Seems like I should start a new post since nobody answered. So my VA3 automatically updates to latest 7.50 and the watch can't barely hold a charge more than 2 days vs previous SW 7.40 which hold a 4+ days on a single charge with daily run + GPS for 1 hour. 

Tried to factory reset the watch using only minimal digital watchface with no second hand (royal) and only installed battery widget. Even changed the phone with new Bluetooth 5.1 enabled doesn't solve the problem. As seen below it drains 3% per hour which is unacceptable. With only 1 year usage, is it time to ditch garmin?

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Garmin-AmberD

    I'm having this same problem, I charged my watch to 100% 21 hours ago and now it's at 7%. I had cleaned the contacts and charged through a computer. 

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 4 years ago

    I have two Vivoactive 3 watches. One white and one Black. Both a couple of years old.

    The black one began suffering from poor battery life and I stopped using it, and switched over to using the white one.

    The white one had been in a box since purchase and not really touch or used.

    I replaced the battery in the black one myself, and expected that to resolve the battery life issue, but alas it has not.

    Even with a brand new battery, the black vivoactive 3 drains about 5-7% per hour it seems like.

    I've removed all widgets, watch faces, reset to defaults several times, hooked into a computer to update with Garmin Express, and via phone, nothing I have tried seems to have made a difference so far.

    Throughout all of this, my white vivoactive 3 is running great, took off of charger at 6:00AM this morning, and it is 1:32PM now, with 95% battery.

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 4 years ago in reply to Former Member



    i have just noticed that my activities are being labelled with VA3, software 7.40 despite the upgrade. 

    could the upgrade have failed to install properly, hence the battery drain? Can i reinstall?

  • 0 over 4 years ago

    I got a refurb from Garmin after 7.4 basically bricked my watch, and it lasted 5 days, even with me doing a run a day.

    The new time zone update has done something to the battery life as now it only lasts about 2.5 days and that's the only thing that's changed on the watch.  I charged it before I went to bed, left it at 100% for a good half hour because we know that can be a false positive, and 10 hours later it's at 86%.  2 weeks ago it would have been still at 94 or so.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Garmin-AmberD

    So can the team shed light on why so many VA3 and VA4 users very suddenly are having the same issue?  It can’t be a coincidence.   Please help us 

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 4 years ago in reply to Garmin-AmberD

    I have made some discoveries. So although my VAs says in the Systems settings that it is software version 7.50, it think that there was a problem with the installation.

    My activitites are being labelled with VA3 7.40.00. Also I have seen Webupdater, a Garmin software that allows to reinstall the firmware. When run, it is seeing my VA3 as having 7.40.00, and RE-install fails.

    Could this be related?

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 4 years ago in reply to Former Member

    Actually after several attempts, I have managed to reinstall. In fact, now I again have 7.40.

    Will report on battery use later on tomorrow.

  • 0 over 4 years ago in reply to Former Member

    Would you kindly share the steps on how to downgrade? Does web updater works on PC as well? Thanks in advanced

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 4 years ago in reply to 3555946

    In my case, i think 7.5 was not completely installed. So webupdater thought it was 7.4. 

    however, even after 7.4, i still have massive battery drain. And i cannot update to 7.5 now. 

    i dont know what else to do. 

  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 4 years ago in reply to Former Member

    I have replaced the battery in mine, which appeared not to work originally. But then followed the advice posted earlier in this thread, by connecting to the PC and deleting most of the files from the GARMIN directory on the watch. Having completed a number of discharge/recharge cycles, it is now nearly back to normal. The new battery is not a Garmin original part, so it appears to lose 10% in the first hour, but then drains at a steady rate and will last 6-7 days.