Hero 7 Black Battery discharges overnight [ New ]

[sanieldous]

Hi everyone,

I have a problem concerning my ~6 months old (but the battery made less than 30 load cycles) GoPro Hero 7 Black. In the last weeks it happened quite often that I charged the camera at the evening fully and when I wanted to use it in the next morning it was fully discharged (It was not possible to start the camera at all.). When I plugged in power it shows 1-3% charge. The camera was shut down and disconnected from power during the night.

To exclude some popular user issues I tried the following (without fixing it):
- I installed the latest firmeware (1.9)

- I did a factory reset after the update

- I disabled voice control, WiFi and GPS

My setup:

- I use the original GoPro battery that was delivered with the camera. (unfortunately I do not have a second battery to test with)

- I use the original GoPro USB to USB-C cable to charge the camera. 

- I usally use a power supply that outputs 5 V at 1.5 A. (but the issue also occurs when the camera is charged via PC)

- I use the SanDisk Extreme 64 GB

I hope I did not forget any important detail. In the last week the issue happend in ~50% of the nights. This is especially sad as I could not use the camera in half of my winter vaction. :(

Did anyone experienced the same or similar issue? And are there any suggestions how to fix it?

[sanieldous · Accepted solution]

I contacted the support and showed them this post. They suggested to do a manual camera update using the SD-card (https://gopro.com/en/us/update/hero7-black). I will do a manual update and test it again. I will post the results here soon.

[irishmanpdx]

Not a fix, but a work around.

Charge you battery to 100%.

Remove it from the camera and then put it back in the camera.  DO NOT POWER ON THE CAMERA.

Your battery should stay fully charged.

[sanieldous]

Thank you for your idea. This works around at least the discharging overnight but when I use the camera at the morning and the again in the afternoon the discharging seems to happen too. And it is not possible to open the battery box at any time.

[vindav09]

I have the Hero7 for more than a year and I'm very disappointed with it.

I have the same battery issue. The Hero7 has been replaced, GoPro even sent me a new battery but it didn't change anything. I install a 100% loaded battery in the morning, use it for less than 2 minutes and switch it off. When I switch it on again 30 minutes later the battery will be empty and the camera will be very hot.

It doesn't do it all the time, but when it does it it's when I really need to record. It's like playing poker. And when the battery doesn't drain, the camera freezes and the only way to switch it off or to continue to use it is to remove the battery. It's very annoying when the camera is on a gimbal, I'm obliged to remove the camera from the gimbal, remove the battery and reinstall it.

And of course, voice control is off, GPS, Wifi,... all the functions they advertised are off to save the battery.

But it seems I'm not the only one to have this problem and I don't think GoPro knows how to solve it.

But one thing is sure, my next camera won't be a GoPro which is a bit sad because I've had the Hero2, then the Hero3 and 4 and I never had a problem with them. The Hero7 is just a catastrophe!

Yesterday I started to use it and it made me so mad that I ended to record with my phone.

[enc3ladus]

Hi

try other SD card - I do not trust SanDisk - recommend Samsung - I ve got 128GB.

My batteries on 1.7FW (both I have Samsung (extra battery for GP6 ) and this oryginall which they gave in box ) loosing ~2% per day. All features off. I put it out if I am not gonna use GP.

The same  "magic" is already reported on GP8 - I think is a "chip" problem.

[sanieldous · Accepted solution]

I contacted the support and showed them this post. They suggested to do a manual camera update using the SD-card (https://gopro.com/en/us/update/hero7-black). I will do a manual update and test it again. I will post the results here soon.

[vindav09]

I haven't tried the Samsung card.
I've used 128 Gb from SanDisk, Lexar, Transcend and even Sony and it was the same problem.

All features are also Off but been obliged to remove the battery every time I switch the camera off is a bit boring, especially when it's installed on a gimbal.

I also read that the Hero8 has the same problem. I'm now looking to replace my Hero7 Black, maybe with the DJI version or another brand, I'm not 100% sure yet. But it won't be from GoPro:(

[vindav09]

They told me the same things last year and it didn't change anything. You can do it, it won't harm your camera but it won't solve the problem.

[sanieldous]

In my case doing the manual update seems to fix the problem. The problem did not occur anymore since I did the manual update (downloading from GoPros Website and place on SD card...).

[vindav09]

I did it 2 times at the beginning of last year and it didn't change anything. GoPro replaced the camera, new manual updates and still the problems 

[jayr3438]

Hi @vindav09,

Have you tried disabling your wireless connection and voice command before turning off the camera?

-Jay

[vindav09]

I did, everything is disabled, no GPS, no voice command, no wireless, I got the camera in January 2019, I tried everything which can be possible. I switch off the camera, switch it on 1 hour later, sometimes less, it could be 20 minutes and the battery is dead. It's very annoying.
To "solve" this problem I have always 3 batteries full loaded and when I switch on the camera I remove the battery but it's very boring.

[jayr3438]

Not really sure why it's happening @vindav09

It would be best to report that camera to GoPro's customer support.

The replacement camera provided by GoPro works most of the time since they tested it out before sending it out. 

-Jay

[disconnect]

wont solve anything. All cameras are the same as the problem is the type of the chip, or/and the quality of the firmware, which is surely very low, probably because gopro employ bad programmers.

I've newer thought that gopro will have ANY problems, due to it's 10x price than my chineese camera, but gopro have even more problems!

I'll never recommend gopro products to anyone, i'll recommend to avoid them, as this isn't worth the money. Even without these problem, gopro have awful softwares, including firmware, desktop and mobile applications.

[vindav09]

@jayr3438 , I reported it to Gopro 2 months after purchasing my Hero7 Black. They replaced it but nothing changed. I contacted GoPro again, they asked me to do some tests, update manually, try with another SD card, but it was all the time the same. They sent me a new battery thinking the one I had was defect but I knew it wasn't that because I already bought a second battery. 
I contacted them again end of last year but this time I never got any answer or help.

@disconnect , which model would you recommend. I'm tired of my Hero7, too many problems and now very often the display freezes during the recording.
I've been looking to the DJI Osmo Action but this time I want to be sure I won't have so many troubles. 
I started with GoPro with the Hero2, then Hero3 and Hero4, so I have lots of accessories and I would prefer a camera compatible with GoPro to be able to continue to use them again.

[disconnect]

Dont know, but even if have the same defects (i dont know) sjcam for example has half price. The only difference are brackets for the camera itself, other parts are just the same for nearly every camera, as all take gopro acessories as an example.

[jayr3438]

Hi @vindav09,

I would suggest to contact them again to follow up. 

Probably they will just send a replacement camera since you already did all possible troubleshooting steps and test.

-Jay

[vindav09]

Hi @jayr3438 

I just contacted the Support Team again. After a long chat, they decided to proceed to the exchange of the camera and of the battery.
Let's hope the new camera works well.

I will keep you informed!

[vindav09]

My Hero7 has been exchanged for the second time. GoPro also sent me a new battery under warranty. 

So far, so good, the battery didn't drain while the camera was switched off. I don't think there was a problem with the battery, I tried with one of my "old" batteries and it's still working fine.

I hope the problem is solved. Thanks to the Support Team who reacted very fast.

[powellie]

My GoPro 8 done exactly the same thing, until I turned off the voice command function

[aragon1006]

Hi @powellie

Please perform a short record time test - https://tinyurl.com/v3wj22l
Should you get a run time significantly shorter than the expected battery life, despite using a recommended SD card and the camera being updated to the latest firmware, let our Support team know. You may reach them through https://gopro.com/help/ContactUs 

Thanks!

Ej