unterhausen

I have seen complaints about this problem online, and the solution seems to be to get a new watch. But it doesn't always seem to do it. Is it possible it just isn't canceling the gps after the ride is done? Can you turn off the gps?
It's a vivoactive 3 if that matters.

Seattle Forrest

Should be GPS is only on while recording an outdoor activity, and a few other times like when you calibrate the altimeter.

The watch has a decent battery % left when you finish the ride, but then it burns that down really quickly when it should just be doing watch things? Is that right?

For science, what happens if you power the watch down at the end of the ride (or maybe after it syncs?) and then turn it back on?

Seattle Forrest

For some reason this forum's software won't let me say what the other place you might find good info about this is. Hopefully you can find it from this clue:

r/Garmin/

unterhausen

yes, that site is in the censor because we got tons of spam from there.

You are right about the symptoms. It can have a decent charge after a ride, but not that long later I will have a low battery. I think they have significantly reduced the capacity of my battery by doing this, which is a nice example of moral hazard.
I had read that people think that shutting down the watch should fix it, but I think it has to be done after every ride because I have reset it in the last couple of days. I'll try it.

Seattle Forrest

Do you know when the last time the software updated was? I wonder if it's when this started. It's not always obvious when it updates overnight though.

Polaris OBark

Any chance it is set to auto-detect walking or running?

Seattle Forrest

​​​​​​That's unfortunate. The reason I bring them up is that r/Garmin has 100,000 members; 450 are online at this moment. Seem to be mostly watch people. If you wind up needing to cast a wider net to find a useful answer that's a good place to look.

Polaris OBark

Well played.

unterhausen

No, I just looked yesterday. It's a bit weird those settings are on the web.

The battery has gone a lot further since I reset the watch. I update firmware all the time, because I charge the watch with my computer. Now I'm almost positive there is a bug that leaves the gps on after you quit an activity. I'm not sure how to check that though.

I did check that sub, apparently there is an app that will track battery usage which I'll have to check out.

Koyote

OT, but I must ask: how does this exemplify moral hazard? I'm not seeing it.

Seattle Forrest

It sounds like exactly what you said. Hopefully there will be an update coming soon to fix it.

I had a Garmin watch die on me a couple years after the warranty expired, they replaced it. In my case they said they normally send factory renewed (which means brand new screen and battery) ones but don't have any in my SKU so they just sent me a new in box one. Every now and then I read about them replacing a watch for something like what you're describing, even when it's probably a software bug. I think you would have good luck with that avenue if you called them.

unterhausen

I'll try that. Maybe the on/off button on the gps is stuck inside the watch

himespau 

I've had mine (I think it's the same model) burn through battery when I've walked into work and it decided to autostart an activity without me realizing it. 3 hours later, I look down at my watch and it says I've gone 7-8 miles (due to GPS accuracy going back and forth) while taking no steps and my battery is super low.

njkayaker

Try the actual Garmin forums.

unterhausen

Google always sends you to garmin first, but the results there were somewhat disappointing.

So it has been 5 days and I finally decided to charge the watch which was at 32%. Pretty big improvement over 5 hours. I have the heart rate sensor on, so if I really wanted to charge it less often I could turn that off. I guess I'm just not using it for bike rides any more. Or resetting it each time, but I would have to get faster at doing that.