Garmin smartwatches unusable after update? Major battery issues reported

We want to start with a disclosure that is often applicable but still very important. We do not have the Garmin Instinct 2 on hand ourselves, so this report is based on secondhand information. That also means it is unclear how widespread the problem really is. In general, it can be assumed that users with issues are more likely to speak up than users whose smartwatch is working properly.

There is an extensive post in Garmin's support forum about what appears to be a massively reduced battery life on the Garmin Instinct 2, and the thread has been open for four months. In extreme cases, the smartwatch is said to last days rather than weeks. There are also users in this thread who say they have no battery life issues, but based on what we have seen, these do not appear to be entirely isolated cases. The thread as a whole is worth reading, partly because it helps narrow down the problem, though not in a completely specific way. As it seems, the increased power draw is associated with a firmware update. However, the update itself does not appear to be the reason for the reduced battery life.

Disabling the Bluetooth connection apparently prevents the increased power draw from occurring. According to at least one user report, completely disabling the Bluetooth connection is not required, but it appears to be the fastest fix. Even so, this limits the smartwatch's usefulness, as notifications can no longer be displayed, for example, and LiveTrack is no longer possible.