How to Improve the tactix 7 Pro Series Battery Life

If you are charging your watch more frequently than expected, it could be due to the amount of usage or settings being used. Below is a list of functions that could cause the battery to drain faster than anticipated, for instructions on enabling or disabling these, refer to your owner's manual. 

Using Power Manager to Improve Battery Life

Functions That Use Additional Battery

NOTE: It is important that before you address some of the functions that affect battery life, that you first make sure your watch is up to date: How to Install Software and Map Updates to My tactix 7 Series Watch.

• Backlight: Can be the biggest contributor to battery drain. How bright the backlight is set and how often it comes on can drain battery more quickly or less quickly. Having backlight set at 100% will drain a lot of battery while the backlight is on. The manual backlight setting uses the least energy, and some settings, like when the backlight comes on from a gesture, will drain more battery.
• GPS: Can potentially contribute to large battery drain, which is why GPS tracking is only activated during activities or navigation. If "All Systems + Multi-Band" is enabled, this will drain battery even faster.
• Wi-Fi: The watch will download updates and upload step and other activity data through Wi-Fi. When it is always active, it is continually searching for, and maintaining connections. The Wi-Fi on the watch will connect through any open Wi-Fi source, including many restaurants.
• Bluetooth: The drain created by Bluetooth is dependent on how many notifications come to the watch from the phone, and how often the watch syncs with the phone. Occasional text notifications and use of other connected features will drain far less battery than continually receiving texts, answering the phone, running a music player, or getting weather updates.
• Vibration: Alerts that cause vibration or make sound use additional battery. Turning them off can extend the battery life of the watch. 
• Widgets and Connect IQ downloads: The difference between Apps and Widgets is that widgets are always on. Some widgets update data when you select them, like weather. Altimeter, Barometer, and Compass (ABC sensors) are always active. Connect IQ downloaded watch faces, apps, widgets, and data fields may draw more power depending on how many things they do or whether they use GPS positioning or not.
• Music Syncing: Syncing music over Wi-Fi will cause the watch to experience notable battery drain. It is recommended, when syncing music, to charge the watch. 
• Pulse OX: Using All-Day Acclimation mode with the pulse oximeter will contribute to high battery drain. To conserve battery life, it is recommended to set the acclimation mode to Manual. The watch will only analyze your oxygen saturation when you view the pulse oximeter widget.
• Solar Input: Since the Power Glass solar charging lens extends battery life by converting sunlight into battery power, the amount of sunlight the watch is exposed to improves the overall battery life of the watch.

Some of the functions are redundant, for example; steps and activities are uploaded both through Wi-Fi and the Bluetooth connection to the Garmin Connect app. If using the Garmin Connect app continuously, it may be a good idea to turn off the Auto Upload setting to help conserve battery power. The Storm Alert function of the Barometer when a smartphone updates local weather is another redundant battery drain.

If the battery drain still continues after making some settings changes, try returning the watch to factory defaults and seeing how long the battery lasts on a full charge without pairing it to the smartphone again. If the battery lasts like it used to, then the battery drain would be the result of the choice of customized settings on the watch, or Bluetooth connected features.