Garmin

Garmin smartwatches unusable after update? Major battery issues reported

Sat, 02 May 2026 · By Endurance Wire

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.