Recent Garmin Smartwatch Update Accompanied by Reports of Battery Drain Issues

Update 9.16 Enhancements and Installation Method

Last week, Garmin offered up Beta 9.15 to the Vivoactive 5 series, an update that introduced several new features and bug fixes to its recent smartwatches. Subsequently, the company has released Beta 9.16, which can be downloaded on a Vivoactive 5 directly rather than sideloaded and then installed. For reference, Garmin advises manually triggering the update in the following way:

To download this update on the Vivoactive 5, go to: Main menu > Settings > System > Software Update

Like Beta 8.25 before it, Beta 9.16 appears to carry over its predecessor’s changelog. Consequently, Garmin’s forum post describes the latter adding a jump rope activity, as well as support for new male audio prompts. Likewise, the Beta 9.16 changelog includes identical bug fixes focusing on battery drain, unwanted music playback and a golf activity-related issue.

Beta 9.16 Persisting Issues and Community Feedback

Nonetheless, complaints remain in Garmin’s Community Discussion channel of high battery drain remaining, even after updating to Beta 9.16. Presumably, the company’s new beta build contains more changes than Garmin is letting on, with it being unlikely that it would simply repackage Beta 9.15 as Beta 9.16. Please see Garmin’s forum post for more details.

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Alex Alderson – Senior Tech Writer – 9338 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2018

Prior to writing and translating for Notebookcheck, I worked for various companies including Apple and Neowin. I have a BA in International History and Politics from the University of Leeds, which I have since converted to a Law Degree. Happy to chat on Twitter or Notebookchat.